Are you seriously deciding to kick me out of the house right now? Right before New Year’s, Ksyusha?!» Slava couldn’t believe what his wife had just told him. «And how much longer should I wait for you to change? For you to find a job? For you to become the man I married?» she responded to him with a question.
«How many times do I have to tell you that I’m trying, looking for a job! I understand that it’s hard for you to support us both and pay the mortgage! But why kick me out now? Where will I go?» he asked in despair. «I absolutely don’t care about that, Slav!» Ksenia responded.
«How can you not care?!» he yelled at his wife. «This apartment is as much mine as it is yours! That means I’m not going anywhere! Whether I have a job or not, it doesn’t matter.» «What are you talking about?» Ksyusha smiled at this outburst. «Did you ever pay the mortgage? Did you give me even a ruble for it? I don’t recall that! So you might as well start packing your things!»
«No!» Slava firmly told his wife.
«Fine! No, then no! Then I’ll pack your stuff myself and throw it out onto the balcony! Let the passersby and neighbors pick it up, they can give it to the homeless, maybe… Although you’ll probably end up there soon yourself!»
«Enough with that talk, Ksyusha! I’m not going anywhere! This is my home! You are my wife! And it’s almost New Year’s! So don’t do this to me here!» he complained.
«That’s exactly the point! You see?» his wife smiled again. «I don’t want to drag old problems into the New Year! You! If I’m working alone, then I’ll only support myself! Not you!»
«Actually, you should, since we are married! Or else I’ll just sue you for this!» he remembered how his friend, who also hadn’t worked for over a year and then his wife kicked him out, and he won the lawsuit later, with his wife paying him half of her savings.
«Go ahead! It’ll be less trouble for me!» Ksenia calmly replied.
And Slava just didn’t know what to do or how to be. Why did his wife, the woman he had been married to for three years, respond so calmly and even indifferently to his words? He got the impression that she just didn’t care about him anymore, about her beloved husband.
But the problem was that out of those three years of marriage, Slava worked only for the first one and a half years, and for the next one and a half years, he stayed at home, trying to find himself a managerial job because he was tired of being an ordinary employee. He wanted to become an important person.
But monitoring job postings gave nothing. Slava sent his resume to all the companies that had suitable vacancies, but he was called back only by five or six companies, and he was invited for an interview only twice.
And he no longer even thought about simple work, regardless of what his wife thought…
Slava resigned from his job exactly a month after the couple got approved for a mortgage, and they began moving into their new apartment. At first, it was all a pretext for him to handle the repairs and the move while Ksenia worked, but then, when everything at home was ready, with Ksenia’s father doing most of the repairs, Slava told his wife that he was not planning to return to his old job or look for something similar. He wanted to become a boss of something right away, an office, a store, anything, just so he wouldn’t have to serve someone else, dealing with hateful clients or customers.
While Slava initially looked for the job he really wanted, and then just pretended to be looking, Ksenia worked like a curse at her job, took on two more part-time jobs on weekends to support their family and pay off the mortgage. It was very hard for her, and she told her husband about it many times. At first, she talked, then there were scandals, but neither helped. Slava simply enjoyed domestic life, hardly thinking about his wife’s condition at the moment.
Then, three months ago, Ksenia suddenly stopped bringing up the topic with her husband at all. She developed some indifference to him and to everything associated with Slava. But Slava began to be troubled by this.
He noticed that his wife was taking fewer side jobs on weekends, but nevertheless, she was almost never home, always dressed up and going somewhere on those days. And today she even declared that Slava should go wherever he wanted from this house. That he shouldn’t be here for New Year’s. And naturally, he thought of the worst, that his beloved wife had someone else…
«Ksyush! I don’t understand what’s happening! Why are you telling me all this so calmly? Why are you kicking me out? Why…»
«Because you’ve long ceased to be a man in my eyes! Need more explanations or will you figure out the rest with your one brain cell?» she replied.
And now Ksenia raised her voice a bit at Slava. She was just fed up with her husband’s hysteria.
«Of course, I need them! Naturally!» he demanded indignantly. «How have you stopped seeing a man in me?!»
«Very simple! You now look more like a disgusting parasite, sitting on my neck, watching movies all day, and going out to drink beer with friends on Fridays! And at the expense of the same friends! You know, I’m curious, aren’t you embarrassed to act like that before men? Hasn’t anyone told you that you’re being cheeky coming to the bar every Friday without money? No?»
«Why would they say anything like that to me, it’s not your women’s gatherings, it’s a man’s sol…»
«I don’t care what it is, Slav! Don’t even try to argue here anymore!» she didn’t let him finish. «But I’ll repeat: in my eyes, you’re just a parasite, and there can be no common future for us anymore! That’s it! I’m fed up with it to the point of impossibility! So start packing your things before I do it!»
But Slava did nothing. Offended by Ksenia, he went back to the living room, collapsed on the couch, and turned on the TV at full volume.
But his wife was not bothered by it; she calmly did housework with the sound of some movie in the background.
And the next day was just another Friday…
And since Slava didn’t do what his wife told him to do last night, Ksenia, coming home from work a bit earlier, waited for her husband to go to the bar with his friends as usual, and immediately called her father to come and change the locks on the apartment. Meanwhile, she started packing her husband’s things.
When everything was ready, the lock changed, and the belongings packed, Ksenia wanted, as she promised, to throw it all off the balcony, but her father dissuaded her, suggesting they take Slava’s things to his parents instead. It seemed inhumane, especially on the eve of New Year’s. And Ksyusha didn’t object if it wasn’t difficult for him.
Returning home from the bar, as always, having had plenty to drink at someone else’s expense, Slava couldn’t get into the apartment. He didn’t immediately understand that the key didn’t fit the lock and spent the night in the entrance under the door.
In the morning, when Ksenia was leaving for work, she found her husband’s half-drunk body, soundly sleeping on the doormat near the apartment. She didn’t wake him, just stepped over, closed the apartment, and went to work.
About an hour and a half later, Slava called her, shouting that he couldn’t get into the apartment, the key didn’t fit the lock, and he couldn’t understand what was going on. Well, Ksenia explained to him that he no longer lived in that apartment, all his things were now at his parents’. So he could immediately go to where his belongings were.
When Slava started to make a scene over the phone, Ksenia hung up. She didn’t need some parasite, officially still her husband, ruining her work mood.
And Slava had no choice but to walk to his parents’, because he had no money for the trip anyway.
For the next two weeks, Slava didn’t show up at home, he called his wife periodically, but she stopped answering his calls. She wrote him a message that if he wanted to say something, he could calmly write it in a message, but Slava didn’t do that. Either he forgot how to write, or it finally dawned on him that calling his wife was pointless now. But he didn’t show up any other way.
Ksenia wanted to file for divorce during these two weeks, but there was a rush at work before New Year’s, and she just couldn’t break away to do it, so she postponed her divorce to the next year. Just in time to think it all over, prepare during the New Year’s mini-vacation, she thought.
And everything seemed to settle down, her husband left her alone, she completed all the necessary tasks at work, and friends were supposed to come to celebrate New Year’s Eve with her, three married couples. But just on December 31st, when Ksenia was busy making salads for the New Year’s table, she heard the doorbell.
She immediately looked at the clock after that… Her girlfriends were supposed to come later to help with the preparations, and they would have called before coming. So who could it be?
The only thought on repeat in Ksenia’s head was: «I hope it’s not Slava…»
And yes, it wasn’t him. It was his mother…
«Who?» – having looked through the peephole and recognized her mother-in-law, asked Ksenia, she just didn’t want to open the door to her right away, until she knew what she needed.
«Ksyushenka, it’s me, Anfisa Matveyevna! I came… This… To congratulate you on the upcoming… Just passing by with Gennadiy Vitalyevich right now…»
Ksenia didn’t want to open, but she had never been on bad terms with her husband’s mother, and a sense of politeness took over.
«Hello, Anfisa Matveyevna…»
«Happy upcoming New Year, Ksyushenka!» – even before crossing the threshold of the apartment, she congratulated her daughter-in-law.
«Thank you! And to you too with the upcoming!» – Ksenia smiled at her.
Anfisa Matveyevna entered the apartment and began to take off her fur coat.
«Are you… Staying long?» – Ksenia was somewhat taken aback by these actions. – «Because I still need to go to the store soon, and then girlfriends will come to help with the preparations…»
«So you’re still going to celebrate this New Year?» – the woman was surprised.
«Well… Yes! Why wouldn’t I celebrate it?» – the daughter-in-law frowned, not understanding such a question.
But Anfisa Matveyevna didn’t manage to respond when the phone rang in Ksyusha’s kitchen, and she quickly ran for it.
The mother-in-law, without thinking long, followed her.
«Something important? Or maybe SOMEONE important?» – asked Anfisa Matveyevna her.
«No, it’s a girlfriend who sent a call so I’d quickly respond to a message… And why did you emphasize that ‘someone’?» – it didn’t immediately dawn on Ksenia, because she was responding to her friend’s message.
«Just that Slava is firmly convinced that you have someone, so I asked!»
«Me? Where from? I’ve had enough trouble with your son, so I’m not planning to look for anyone else! I don’t even have time for that, I’m working almost all the time!»
«Really?» – Anfisa Matveyevna smirked. – «In that case, I’ll tell Slavik he’s mistaken, and he should come back home!»
«And why would he suddenly do that?» – Ksenia didn’t understand such audacity from her still mother-in-law.
«Well, why not? He’s your husband! It’s your shared apartment! And it’s not right for a married man of thirty to live with his parents when he has his own apartment and a working wife!» – the woman half-smiled. – «So let him come back, and we’re not planning to support him, it’s no longer our concern, but yours, dear!»
«And why exactly should I continue to support your son? He’s your son, not mine, so I’m not planning to fuss over him anymore!»
«But he’s your husband…»
«Still is! And that’s only because I didn’t have time to file for a divorce and property division! I don’t need this unwilling to work freeloader, who fancies himself a great boss, here for free!»
«Oh no! Hold on, darling! You got married? You did! You did it yourself, no one forced you! And that means you take on all the hardships of marriage, whatever they might be! Got it? So you can forget about any divorce!»
«Yeah, right now! I forgot to ask! – Ksenia smirked.
«That’s exactly the point, you forgot! But I’m here to remind you of your marital duties! And then, my boy there is completely sagging without you!»
«Let him sag there, Anfisa Matveyevna, but he won’t live here anymore! Neither with me, nor in this apartment!» – the daughter-in-law declared categorically.
«This is his apartment too, darling! So be careful with your expressions! If you want to scoot somewhere, the door’s that way, but Slavushka…»
«Your Savushka didn’t contribute a penny to the purchase of this apartment, so let him keep sagging! The initial payment was given by my parents, and I have all the documents for this case! I paid the mortgage from my salary for all one and a half years! So don’t tell me about the sanctity of your son, alright? I know him much better than you!»
«I don’t care how you know him! It’s his apartment! And he will live here, I said!!!» – she raised her voice at Ksenia.
«Hold your purse wider! – Ksyusha responded. – And in general, please stop yelling at me in my home! If you don’t like something – deal with your boy, not with me in my home! I’m very busy, and I don’t have time for your hysterics!»
«My hysterics?! How are you even talking to me, you scum?!» – the woman yelled again, pursing her lips.
«Stop! Calm down and listen! You have three options now! First: you calmly leave and stop bothering me! Second: I kick you out like an annoying fly, with this very wet towel, and believe me, it will be very unpleasant!» – Ksenia said, glancing simultaneously at her mother-in-law as she changed her face. – «And third: I just call the police to get you out of here…»
«I’ll call you now!!! I’ll call you!!!» – the woman yelled again.
But she immediately fell silent when she saw Ksenia grab the towel she had just mentioned.
The mother-in-law realized that such humiliation was unnecessary for her now, especially before the celebration of New Year’s, and, proudly raising her head, went to gather and leave.
«The right choice!» – Ksyusha yelled after her.
Anfisa Matveyevna didn’t say another word to her daughter-in-law, she just angrily glanced at her and nothing more. When Ksenia closed the front door behind her, she let out a breath because she had been tense from the moment she only saw that woman in the peephole.
No one else came to her with any visits. When the time came, Ksenia filed all the applications for divorce and property division. Since Slava wasn’t involved in paying for the apartment or any bills at all, the apartment was awarded to Ksenia, but she still needed to pay a small percentage to her husband, since it was all done during their marriage. But Slava’s car, which had been non-operational for a year, was also acquired during their marriage, only then he was still working, and it had to be divided too. But Ksenia offered not to do this. Let the clunker remain with her ex-husband, and she wouldn’t owe him anything for her apartment. That’s where they settled.
Since Slava wasn’t present at any court session, this was done without his participation. But later he was very upset, as were his parents, that everything was divided so unfairly. That Ksyusha turned everyone even in court against their son, who had been a wonderful person until he got involved with his ex-wife.
But Ksyusha didn’t care about all these words. She no longer wanted to even hear about such former relatives. She even returned her maiden name back, to forget about Slavushka as the dark stripe of her life…
