Katerina was cutting the cake with such force, it seemed like it had done something to offend her. The knife crunched through the sponge, crumbs scattering onto the tablecloth, while Svetlana reached out again and again to catch them before they hit the floor. Misha was turning twenty-seven. He sat at the head of the […]
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«One hundred sixty-eight thousand,» my husband said, pushing the contract aside with his finger like it was just a breadcrumb. «For the year. All because he missed three points.» I placed the cheesecakes in front of him and sat across the table. The contract found its way back to the center of the table. «Eighty-four […]
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Artem was trying for the third time to get his silk tie in order, standing in front of the narrow hallway mirror. His fingers were visibly shaking with irritation and nerves. The reflection showed a man who wanted to hide from the world even before stepping out of his own apartment. The tie refused to […]
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«Olechka, hello. Did you sell your summer house or just evacuate?» My neighbor, Nadezhda Mikhailovna, sounded crisply military over the phone. «Why do you ask? Pasha and I are just in the city,» I replied, wedging the phone between my shoulder and ear as I continued browsing hoses in the hardware store. «Then congrats on […]
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He placed the pen next to the folder before I even sat down at the table. It was blue, with a gold band—clearly not ours, not from our apartment. «It’s nothing big,» Artyom said as he slid the folder across the table to me. «Just a formality. My mom found a lawyer, everything’s by the […]
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Marina noticed this new line by accident. Not because she wasn’t paying attention, but because for ten years in a row, the contract had always looked the same. She had gotten used to just skimming through it and signing her name. But this time, her finger stopped at page four. Section 7.2: ‘The contract is […]
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Alla froze with her fork halfway to her mouth. I watched her over the rim of my cup, a warm, almost intoxicating calm spreading inside me. Everything was just right. My mother-in-law was pouring tea into the fancy cups, my father-in-law was telling our guest about the country house, and the guest—a well-groomed guy in […]
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On the fourth day of his mom’s visit, Andriy realized something important: an omelet can stick even to the frying pan that Oksana treated like a family heirloom and washed with a special soft sponge. It was seven in the morning. Outside the window hung a gray October darkness, drizzle traced down the glass, and […]
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“Well, happy birthday. Valya, what are you, a little girl that I’d bring you flowers? At our age, what are we even celebrating? It’s ridiculous.” “Where do you think you’re going? I didn’t say you could leave!” Mykola shouted so loudly that someone on the second floor pulled back their curtain to look. He sat […]
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The scissors fell for the second time, and this time Iryna didn’t bother to pick them up. She froze in the middle of the salon: one hand gripping the back of the chair, the other covering her face. Lying on the floor among dark tufts of someone else’s hair were her shining scissors—the ones she’d […]
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