“Your mother wants a fur coat for her anniversary, and you told her I would take out a loan to buy it?! Are you out of your mind?! I’m walking around in a down jacket that’s five years old, and we’re supposed to dress your mother in furs?!”

“Your mother wants a fur coat for her anniversary, and you told her I’d take out a loan to buy it?! Are you out of your mind?! I’m walking around in a down jacket that’s five years old, and we’re supposed to dress your mother in furs?! Let your father buy it for her, or […]

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“Your third cousin with three children and a dog is going to live with us for a month while they fix the roof in their village?!”

“Katya, please don’t start, okay? Please. Put on a simpler face. People have come a long way, they’re tired, they’ve suffered enough,” Sergey blocked his wife’s path in the hallway, spreading his arms like a goalkeeper trying to catch a ball. His face carried that familiar mixture of guilty fawning and aggressive attack that always […]

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“Your brother wrecked someone else’s car, and they could’ve put him on the hook for mounting debt! Yes, I gave them the money we’d been saving for vacation!”

“Pasha, did you look at the tickets for the morning flight? There are only three promotional seats left. If we don’t buy them now, we’ll either have to fly with a layover or overpay by fifteen thousand,” Olya said, standing in the kitchen doorway and wiping her wet hands on a dish towel. “I sent […]

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