I’ll have to stay with my mother for the next month,» Tatyana told her husband. «You understand that she will need help after her surgery.»
«Okay,» Yuri agreed somewhat easily.
«Nastya won’t be able to come to you all the time, she has her own family and job, so you’ll have to manage the household by yourself for a while,» Tatyana continued. «I’ll prepare some food and make some semi-prepared dishes before I leave.»
«Alright,» Yuri continued to surprise her with his calmness.
His reaction was the cause of her worries because normally her husband would have made a fuss and demanded attention for himself. But now he seemed almost relieved about her departure. This aroused unpleasant suspicions in Tatyana, and for her own peace of mind, she decided to install mini cameras in the living room and kitchen, the ads for which she had often seen online.
«Oh, mom, you and your ideas,» her daughter laughed. «You and dad have been married for nearly thirty years, and you suspect him of something?»
«While I’m taking care of your grandmother, I don’t want any surprises. Something doesn’t feel right,» Tatyana honestly replied.
Her daughter just laughed, considering her mother eccentric and not taking the situation seriously. Tatyana left, calling her husband daily to check on things. He talked about his current chores and tried to end the conversation quickly. The first few days after arriving, Tatyana was too busy with her mother to monitor constantly, but then she decided to review the recordings from the cameras, and she did not like what she saw.
«Last night, Natalia visited Yuri,» Tatyana angrily told a friend over the phone. «They chatted nicely, and she clearly wasn’t planning on leaving.»
«Is that the divorcee who lives below you?» her friend Lyudmila tried to recall. «Well yes, she’s a good-looking lady, about ten years younger than you, but that’s no reason to wind yourself up. Maybe she stopped by to see you but just missed you.»
«We’re not friends for her to come over, and besides, she knew I was leaving. I saw her in the elevator when I was heading to the station,» Tatyana protested.
«Don’t get worked up and don’t start a scandal over nothing,» her friend advised. «If Yuri finds out about the cameras, he clearly won’t like it.»
Tatyana listened to her friend’s advice and tried to calm herself. She focused on her mother’s health and pushed away negative thoughts. But they stubbornly returned, and a few days later she called her friend again to vent.
«Can you believe it, yesterday Natashka came over again, with pancakes and jam,» she told her friend. «Then they spent the whole evening drinking tea in the kitchen and chatting nicely.»
«Nothing terrible has happened yet; maybe she really just wanted to treat him,» Lyudmila doubted. «But you can’t leave the situation unmonitored now.»
«The thing is, Yuri doesn’t eat flour and sweets because he keeps in shape, but there he was, gobbling it all down,» Tatyana worried. «He never eats my pancakes, but there he was eating hers!»
Now Tatyana was really unsettled and wanted to return home as soon as possible. In a fit of jealousy, she even thought about talking to her daughter to ask her to keep an eye on her father. Then she decided not to involve Nastya and for now not to tell her anything.
«I’m going crazy here, but I can’t return home for another two weeks,» she told her friend through tears, sharing another story. «Yesterday my husband, who thinks flowers are a stupid and silly waste of money, brought home a huge bouquet.»
«Maybe he wanted to surprise your daughter?» her friend half-believed this theory.
«That’s definitely not it; I spoke with Nastya, and they’ve only been communicating by phone all this time,» Tatyana continued. «It didn’t end there; then he dressed up, poured half a bottle of cologne on himself, and left in an unknown direction.»
Lyudmila advised Tatyana to keep quiet and continue not to mention the cameras in the apartment. The woman decided to casually ask her husband how he was spending his free time.
«I scroll through social media, watch TV, or just walk in the park near the house,» Yuri stumbled after the question.
«Do you walk alone?» Tanya decided to clarify.
«With ticks, stray dogs, and local marginals,» Yuri even took offense. «Anyway, why such questions? Everything is as usual, and I don’t understand your interest in this topic.»
After talking to her husband, Tatyana started looking for the neighbor on social networks. She found Natalia’s page and saw that yesterday was her birthday. The neighbor was posing against a backdrop of flowers and boxes of gifts, and among the general mass of «brooms,» Tatyana saw the bouquet bought by her husband. It hurt her deeply; her husband hadn’t given her flowers for years, calling it foolish. But here he was, giving such a beautiful bouquet to another woman. Apparently, it had only been foolish to give flowers during their 30-year marriage…
She hadn’t fully processed this information when she received new reasons for worry.
«Can you believe it, yesterday Yuri watched a TV series with the neighbor at our house,» she indignantly told her friend.
«Strange, of course, but in fact, they weren’t caught red-handed,» Lyudmila reasoned. «Maybe Yuri is lonely without you, and the neighbor is alone too, and they are just supporting each other as friends.»
«Yeah, right, Yuri hates TV series and always laughed at me about it,» Tatyana reasoned. «And here they are, spending the evening nicely, like a couple.»
Lyudmila ran out of arguments and possibilities to support her friend. Tatyana was supposed to stay with her mother for another ten days, but her mother decided to send her home earlier.
«I feel fine now,» her mother Klavdia Petrovna convinced her. «There’s no need for you to sit here, you clearly want to go home.»
«It’s all right, I don’t want to leave you alone, and my vacation isn’t over yet,» Tatyana said, not too confidently.
«I see you can’t find peace,» the woman sighed. «Go home, everything will be alright.»
Tatyana didn’t warn anyone about her return. She cleaned the apartment and prepared dinner before her husband returned from work. When Yuri came back in the evening, he reacted strangely to his wife’s appearance. Tatyana couldn’t understand his confusion, which then turned into some kind of relief. She was busy with household chores in the kitchen, and hearing the doorbell, she went to open it, guessing who it might be.
«Oh, you’re already back?» Natalia was clearly not prepared for such a meeting. «I just stopped by to ask if everything’s okay with your internet because mine is gone.»
«I’m back home and I’m not planning on leaving again,» Tanya struggled to contain herself. «We have internet and please don’t bother us at such a late hour.»
«Are you busy, huh?» the neighbor blinked excessively. «I didn’t mean to disturb, just stopped by to ask as a friend.»
«I thought so,» Tatyana continued through clenched teeth. «But let me remind you, we’re not an information center, a cinema, or a place of pilgrimage, so no need to keep running here anymore.»
Natalia dashed home, deciding that Yuri had told his wife about her visits. The lonely woman had so diligently courted the attractive neighbor, and he just couldn’t make up his mind to get closer. And just as she thought the «fortress» was about to fall, his wife appeared and spoiled everything.
Natalia was furious, and Yuri indeed felt some relief after his wife’s return. Neighbor Natalia constantly hinted at the possibility of a relationship, flirted, and behaved provocatively. He hadn’t taken decisive steps himself, but also hadn’t pushed her away, leaving room for fantasies.
Tatyana didn’t know about her husband and the neighbor’s doubts, but she was sure she wouldn’t leave him alone anymore and would give the neighbor a dressing down if necessary. She didn’t want to think that her husband, with whom she had been through so much, could betray her. It was easier to blame the brazen Natasha, avoiding her in the courtyard just in case. Because she couldn’t reveal the truth about the hidden cameras, in case they might be needed in the future.
