Igor was head over heels in love. Beautiful, stylish, and university-educated, Vika had completely bewitched him. He would have laid all the treasures in the world at her feet, but for now, he had nothing except a job as a design engineer and a monthly salary of sixty thousand rubles.
Instead of taking her to luxurious restaurants, he took her to barbecue joints and shawarma stands. Instead of diamonds, he gave her funny key chains and small bouquets bought from elderly women near the entrance to the subway.
Vika condescendingly accepted his courtship without promising him anything in return, but she did not push him away either. After all, Igor was a decent man: kind, attentive, caring—and he looked at her in a way no one had ever looked at her before. Besides, he was handsome, had an athletic build, and she was not embarrassed to be seen with him in public.
When she woke up in the morning, Vika even admired him as Igor came out of the shower and flexed his biceps.
“If only he were as rich as he is handsome,” Vika often thought dreamily.
After a year of this kind of relationship, Igor finally dared to propose to her.
“Igor darling, don’t you think you’re rushing things?” she asked, raising one eyebrow in surprise.
“Well, of course I can wait a little longer,” he said awkwardly. “But what would that change?”
“I need to think about it,” Vika replied coyly, and Igor waited patiently.
One day, when he was taking Vika to a café, a brand-new foreign car suddenly braked sharply in front of them.
“Igor, aren’t you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” called a man from inside the car. He bore a vague resemblance to Igor. “Your mother would be delighted to meet her too!”
Vika immediately assessed both the car and the driver’s clothes, mentally calculating how much everything must have cost in rubles.
The total was impressive.
“Oh, hi, Dad!” Igor greeted his father happily and put an arm around his girlfriend. “Let me introduce you. This is Vika. Vika, this is my father, Eduard Petrovich.”
“Why don’t you come over to our house? Your mother will cook something delicious, and we can get properly acquainted.”
“All right, Dad.” Igor looked at Vika, and she immediately nodded.
“Of course we’ll come!”
As soon as his father’s car disappeared from sight, Vika bombarded Igor with questions.
“Is that your family’s car? How much does something like that cost? Did he buy it on credit? Do you have a driver’s license?”
“My father bought it recently. He traded in his old car for this one. I don’t know exactly how much it cost because I never asked, but it was more than a million rubles. I don’t think he took out a loan. He owns a business and earns good money. My mother does too. They can afford it,” Igor answered her questions one by one. “I have a license as well, but I haven’t earned enough for a car yet.”
“Why don’t your parents buy you one if they’re so wealthy?” his girlfriend asked with a smirk.
“I want to achieve everything on my own, without their help,” Igor explained, failing to notice how Vika’s eyes had lit up while she was examining his father’s car.
“I really want to meet your parents!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands like a little girl.
Igor found it so adorable that he immediately called his mother to tell her that he would soon be visiting with his girlfriend.
“Darling, I think I’m finally ready to start a family,” Vika announced after thinking it over. “I accept!”
“Accept what?” Igor asked, not understanding at first.
“Your marriage proposal, silly!” She flicked him playfully on the nose and laughed brightly and carelessly.
That evening, Eduard Petrovich told his wife that he had seen their son with a girl.
“She’s not a simple young lady, I can tell you that,” he said thoughtfully. “She’s beautiful, stylish, polished. You can tell she thinks highly of herself.”
“But does she love Igor?” Alla Fyodorovna asked.
That question concerned her far more than the girl’s clothes or makeup.
“Well, I’m no expert,” her husband said with a shrug. “When they come to meet us, you can judge for yourself.”
Igor’s father was right about Vika. She had moved to the big city from a small provincial town, where she and her parents had lived from paycheck to paycheck.
Deciding that she did not want such a life for herself, Vika had miraculously managed to escape her parents’ home and, with equal luck, gain admission to university.
She watched the female students from the capital closely, noticing how they behaved, what they talked about, what they wore, and how they lived. She had worked hard to become like them.
Vika had decided that a diamond like herself deserved an appropriate setting in the form of a wealthy husband—or wealthy parents-in-law, at the very least.
After meeting Igor and discovering who his parents were, she thought she had finally drawn a winning lottery ticket.
Vika eagerly awaited her meeting with her future parents-in-law and reminded her fiancé about it every day.
“Igor, when are we finally going to meet them?”
“Just a few more days. My parents are finishing their renovations. It wouldn’t be right to disturb them now,” he assured her.
At last, the final piece of parquet flooring was laid in his parents’ house, and Igor took Vika to meet them.
Eduard Petrovich welcomed the girl warmly, while Alla Fyodorovna regarded her cautiously. After all, this was the first time in twenty-five years that their son had brought a girlfriend home.
“Mom, Dad, Vika and I have decided to get married,” Igor announced the moment they stepped through the door.
“What? Just like that?” Alla Fyodorovna exclaimed, throwing up her hands.
“Actually, we’ve already been together for a year,” Vika interjected.
“Oh, well, that changes everything,” her future mother-in-law remarked ironically.
Vika did not seem to notice the sarcasm.
“Of course it does!”
“And when is the wedding?” Igor’s mother asked.
“Oh, I only accepted his proposal a week ago, so we haven’t even submitted the application yet. But we’ll take care of that soon, won’t we, Igor darling?”
Vika pressed herself against her fiancé and looked ingratiatingly into his eyes.
“Of course,” Igor confirmed. He had remained silent until then.
“What a large and beautiful house you have!” Vika exclaimed, changing the subject to the renovations as she inspected the interior. “It must have cost an enormous amount of money! Igor is so lucky to have parents like you!”
“Where are you planning to live after the wedding?” Alla Fyodorovna asked logically. “At your place, Viktoria?”
“Of course not!” the prospective daughter-in-law objected. “I rent a one-room apartment. There’s barely enough room for one person, let alone two. And once we have children, we’ll be packed in like sardines. Besides, providing housing is the husband’s responsibility. I assume you won’t leave your son’s family without a home?”
Alla Fyodorovna and Eduard Petrovich exchanged puzzled glances.
Ignoring their astonished expressions, Vika continued.
“You’ll also need to help Igor with a car. It doesn’t have to be exactly like yours. It could be a less expensive model or a few years older. We’ll need to maintain Igor’s social status. After all, he isn’t some ordinary laborer.”
“Vika, I’m an ordinary design engineer, remember?” Igor tried to joke. “What kind of status could I possibly have? I’m just a worker with a compass and protractor!”
Vika did not appreciate the joke.
“Igor darling, don’t be so modest! You deserve better! You are going to provide the young family with an apartment, aren’t you?” she asked, turning toward her fiancé’s speechless parents. “For the first few years, we’ll agree to a two-bedroom apartment in the city center. Once we have a child, though, we’ll need a larger place.”
“Forgive me, Vika,” Alla Fyodorovna finally managed to speak, “but would you marry Igor if he didn’t have parents like us?”
“But he does have parents like you!” the shameless girl replied without hesitation.
Igor stared at Vika, feeling as though everything happening around him was part of a ridiculous dream.
Surely he would wake up soon, and none of this would have happened.
Instead, he and Vika would be together in her tiny apartment, eating Chinese takeout from the restaurant on the ground floor—food he had bought with money he had earned himself.
Igor had always wanted to build, design, and invent things. He had never wanted to become anything other than what he was now.
Of course, sixty thousand rubles was not a particularly large salary for a young man, but he had only been working for a short time. He had already been offered a promotion and a salary increase.
Igor had never wanted to depend on his parents, even though they could easily have provided him with everything he needed.
“Vika, let’s discuss this later,” Igor suggested, trying to smooth over the awkwardness of the conversation.
Then he turned to his mother.
“Mom, Dad promised you would cook something delicious. What smells so heavenly?”
“It’s your favorite pear pie,” she replied.
“Oh, I love pear pie!” Vika exclaimed happily. “After the wedding, we can visit you often if the food is always this good.”
“Don’t you intend to cook after you get married, Vika?” Igor’s father finally asked, unable to remain silent any longer.
“I’m not a cook,” Vika snorted. “I can order food for delivery.”
Ignoring her fiancé’s bewildered parents, Vika continued examining the furnishings.
Her gaze settled on several photographs showing Igor’s entire family posing in front of a Chinese pagoda.
“By the way, where are you planning to send us for our honeymoon?” she asked.
Vika’s audacity was increasing by the minute.
“Well, we have several options,” Alla Fyodorovna replied, barely restraining herself from throwing the insolent girl out of the house. “You could go to our country cottage, or you could visit Igor’s grandmother in the village. The scenery there is wonderful, and the air is very fresh. After the wedding, you could live in my cousin’s apartment. It’s a three-bedroom apartment in the city center.”
Seeing the way her son’s girlfriend’s eyes lit up, Alla Fyodorovna continued.
“My cousin is paralyzed and needs a caregiver. You could look after her, and eventually the apartment would become yours.”
Vika’s expression immediately changed.
She had not expected this kind of trick from Igor’s relatives. She had assumed they would guarantee the young couple a comfortable and carefree life.
“I’m not a caregiver!” Vika hissed through clenched teeth.
“Then you’ll have to earn the money for your home yourselves. And for the car, the wedding, and everything else. Igor’s father and I are not a charity.”
“Excuse me, but I have to leave,” Vika said, pressing her lips together angrily. “I just remembered that I have something to do.”
Before Igor could react, his fiancée shot out of the house like a bullet.
He rushed after her.
“Vika, wait!” he called as he caught up with her. “It’s actually a good option.”
“What?” she exploded. “Emptying your aunt’s bedpan? I’m not a nurse! You can spend your vacation in your village by yourself—with some other naïve little fool! I thought I had drawn a winning lottery ticket, but your relatives are nothing but misers!”
“Stop it!” Igor said through clenched teeth. “I have no intention of living off them. I’m going to achieve everything on my own. If you aren’t prepared to wait, I won’t force you. But I will not allow you to insult my mother and father!”
“Then you’re free!” his girlfriend shrieked. “You’ll come crawling back to me!”
She turned sharply on her heels and hurried away, hoping Igor would run after her.
But she never heard footsteps behind her.
Six months later, Igor and Vika ran into each other at a shopping mall.
Igor was walking beside a young woman, while Vika was accompanied by an elderly sugar daddy.
When she saw Igor, Vika quickly looked away and clung more tightly to her companion’s arm.
Each of them had made a choice.
One had chosen love.
The other had chosen wealth.
