heat, thereby smoothing the involuntary tactlessness on her part. I smiled gratefully and squeezed her fingers back - everything, they say, is normal, we will break through somehow. But to myself, I thought: no, no wonder I looked out for it at the bus stop all these weeks ...

- Have you lived together for a long time? - quietly asked the girl.

- Three years ... Okay, let's not. - I with effort took away my hand, although I didn’t want to do that so much. - Well, are you dating someone?

How I wanted her answer to be negative! As I hoped for it! ... Julia looked at me embarrassed, then turned to the window and after some deliberation said:

- Well ... no matter how ...

- How to understand it? - I asked almost cheerfully, although at that moment I was not in the mood for fun - it was just that the wording of a young girl seemed very funny.

“Well ... there is one acquaintance,” said Julia with pauses in her voice. - We communicate with him. Sometimes we spend time together ... Sometimes we kiss.

- This is what is called “meeting”, - I was involuntarily surprised by the girlish naivety, although my heart ached unpleasantly. The girl is somehow strange, almost looked at me frowningly, and turned away again.

- Yes, what is there to "meet", - she said through time. - “To meet” is when everything is serious, really. And here...

I grunted:

- Yeah, strange you, girls, have concepts, to be honest ... Do you like him?

- Nuuu ... - somehow uncertainly stretched the girl. - He's funny, funny. Strong. It's interesting with him ...

- Well, it’s still clear, Yule ...

The girl looked away from the window and looked at me searchingly.

- I see ... But for me, for example, nothing is clear.

I shrugged:

- Strange. What then can be not clear if you even kiss with him?

- So what if we kiss? - with barely perceptible irritation said Julia. “Does this mean anything?” We won, girls, in our group with each other, we kiss each other ten times a day - so now we are lesbians, or what?

- Yul, you're so funny - I could not resist. - Kissing a girl at a meeting and a guy, walking with him is still different things. How old are you that you talk like that, huh?

“Not small, don't be afraid,” snapped the girl. - Do not take me as a naive fool, I do not like it. - From the language I was already ready to break something like "So do not behave in such a way that they think you are so," but I restrained myself. And the girl continued: - I just like to kiss. Especially with good people. It is cool and nice. And improves mood. But for me it is not always good ... And then - a kiss does not mean anything.

- What, really, really nothing?

The girl did not answer, finished her tea and ... Then something happened that I could not expect: Julia gracefully slid off the chair, came up to me, leaned slightly and gently kissed my lips. Then, looking up and looking directly into the eyes with eyes lit up with strange lights inside them, she said quietly: “See? Well, nothing means ... “After that, she laughed merrily and jumped out of the cafe.

I spent her figure with a stunned look, and only when she disappeared into the winter darkness, I looked at my watch and jumped up with a bullet: my minibus was about to arrive. Having cursed, I jumped out of the cafe, and in time: Yulin, the silhouette was already hiding in a car pulling up. I quickly ran across the road and managed to jump into the minibus at the very last moment, putting my foot in the closing door. Grasping the rail, the first thing he looked at the salon, trying to see the girl, but in the dark and the usual crush it turned out to be almost impossible ...

* * *

I saw him jump into a minibus. I even imagined this look with which he was looking for me. It is good that she was crammed, as usual, and he did not see me - I was not going to explain anything to him, even if I knew what to say. It is good that I am small and thin - I crawl into any window.Other girls cry for the fact that their guys do not notice - the chest, they say, is small, then something else - and I - everything is just right. Never complained about her appearance and form. And it’s good that even educated guys live in the village - one of them, my friend, gave me a place in this stampede, and I was able to merge with the darkness and get lost among the passengers. Everything was fine, except for one ...

Why did I kiss him? What did I want to prove? Little fool ...

Here he stands, slightly stooping, pinned down to the door of the minibus, three rows away from me, trying to attach his work bag so that it would not interfere with anyone, and at the same time he manages to glance from time to time around the salon and nearby people. But I was lucky - I hid well. How funny he is after all ... and cute. In vain that he ... yes, under thirty, probably. I wonder how men manage to be both serious and funny at the same time?

And I wonder, does he ever smile? We saw him only three times, and I did not remember that he ever smiled. He always has a very serious face - probably, such faces happen to people who have not believed in anything for a long time. Well, I understand that - parting with my wife is experienced differently. It seems to me that I can compare - after all, with living parents, I am also alone. But he would be very smile. Especially in combination with this gesture, when he stretched me a cup of tea - then, in November ...

The memory of this incident made my head spin up so much that I closed my eyes. No, no, no fantasies, no such nonsense like love at first sight and so on, no fainting from emotion - but this ... humanity ... when everyone gets used to being for himself, and you can’t do it any other way ... After all, one will inevitably remember a person who is trying to warm you up at a time when he himself needs warmth.

Interestingly, I asked myself, and my Valerik could do that?

Hmm ... But really interesting. Well, yes, he is some ... rude. For the word in your pocket does not climb. But some crazy. With him and in the pool fun to jump. And generally fun ... But could he behave like this with an unfamiliar girl? ... Or - just with an unfamiliar helpless person?

I could not answer this question for myself, even when I was groping along the icy road to my mother's house. And, having already eaten, having exchanged a few words with the mother and her new husband and going to bed, she suddenly thought: it is interesting, but what did Sergey’s wife have to live with him? ..

And as soon as I realized that I was seriously thinking about this, I immediately tried to fall asleep and throw all these thoughts out of my head. Enough! Little romance! I, and so, in my opinion, climbed the wrong place ...

* * *

Only after this incident, I suddenly realized that I had never met Julia in the morning shuttle bus. In principle, this was not surprising: a half-asleep brain, although it tries to process what it has seen, it certainly does not realize it. But I suddenly wanted to know - when does she come back from her mother?

Why, why? - damn it, but I just wanted to see her! And the more often, the better - I could already admit to myself.

However, Julia disappeared again - and again appeared exactly two weeks later.

Like the last time, when I saw a familiar silhouette, I involuntarily quickened my step ... and, only having come closer, I realized that there was an unplanned character in the picture. Broad shoulders, short-haired, of medium height ... during the time of my informal youth they were called “bulls”. As they are now called, especially girls, I did not know, and I didn’t particularly like to possess this knowledge.

This very “bull” - the character stood with his back to me, hugging Yulia in a businesslike way. She literally sank under his hands. Whether she liked it or not, I could not see her face, and, in fact, I did not try. Trying not to look at them, I walked sideways to the opposite edge of the stop and stood up so that I could look out for the minibus while not letting them out of sight. According to the rules of good tone, I do not ... Read more →