It was just exactly after May Day holidays. The amount of work, as it always happens after the weekend, is off scale. We worked on the eighth of May and the ninth. On the other hand, they paid us for it. Public holidays ended where commerce began. I had already cursed everything, when suddenly at the end of the week, namely on Friday, one of my work colleagues approached me and asked with a grin:

- How do you like a week?

“And you wouldn’t go to ... Forest ...” I said through clenched teeth, watching several fresh emails from the customer, filled with anger from burning deadlines.

“Ugh, if not intelligently,” a colleague answered with a mock offense.

- Say what came? - I continued not very friendly, swearing to myself, but politely responding to another angry letter.

- Misha, are you free today?

- You're not my type, Andrew.

- I'll survive it somehow. Maybe "go to the beer"?

I thought - Friday was convenient enough to go and have a beer and relax.

- Who goes? - I asked.

- Yes, almost the whole team. Man ten, I guess.

- Swept. Enter me on the list. And yes ... Wait - dial a wife, can join us. She also had that week there.

And as if reading my mind a phone call rang out - my wife called.

- Yes, honey. What is required?

- Listen, this is not a week, but some kind of northern fur animal.

- Yeah. Maybe we go to beer today?

- What is there ... We have a "release" here, damn it. It is necessary to put the product to the client, and no one wants to remain on duty. Everyone turned the arrows on me - someone had a sick child, someone had relatives arrived. And so on.

- Well so, let's do it remotely from home, business something.

- Yeah, right, - evil wife answered the phone. - This is, their mother, against the rules. Have to stay the night.

- And your Vasya, who constantly took beer, pizza and while away with the laptop, wasted the night shift, distorting his one-eyed friend, where is he?

- But his child was just sick. So I will be at five in the morning, wicked and sleepy. Therefore, do not drink much, I will need you as a man in bed.

- Lada.

Having disconnected, I nodded to Andryukha:

- No, I'm going alone.

- Well.

One plus in such working weeks - you do not notice how they fly by day after day. And this time, before I could finish the task, several colleagues already leaned over me.

- Yeah, this young man.

- No, well, you see - it also works!

- God, what a shame.

Here I could not stand it and exploded:

- What the hell do you all need here? !!

They silently showed on the wall clock. Hours showed that the working day already half an hour as ended.

I spread my hands - to blame! Picking up a backpack, I hurried after my colleagues to the exit. We work, to put it mildly, in the ass of the city, so we called several taxi cars in advance, which took us to a beer pub.

Good beer was my weakness, but I was usually quickly “taken out” from him. Today, somehow, because of nerves, or because of something else, beer stubbornly did not take me. There were already four half-liter glasses in me, and the state was “not in one eye”. I tried to make eyes at the waitresses in branded dresses, but they only smiled sweetly and passed by.

Every hour everything became just more boring - comrades were already “lukewarm”, but I was in no way. Here colleagues zagaldeli:

- And let's go to the strip club go! Or karaoke! Oh, right - I know a great place where there is one and the other!

I looked at them and waved his hand:

- I beg your pardon, gentlemen, but for today I am leaving you.

There were indignant voices:

- Misha, are you swelling at all? Is mommy calling home? Is it time for a little one to sleep?

“Let's go to the well ...” I began, and stopped short, in view of the fact that there were other visitors around us, who were slightly silent when our booth began. - In short, I am going home, and you are where I sent you.

Leaving with a supply of money for drunk and eaten on the table, I picked up a backpack and moved to the exit.

- Goodbye, - the administrator said goodbye at the exit.

“All the best,” I replied on duty.

The house could be reached on foot, but it would take about forty minutes or even an hour. And I expected to have time before the closing of the grocery store, which was near our house - I wanted to take another beer and sit at home in silence. Watch a movie or play something.

So I called one of the old proven taxi services and within five minutes after me a small black Ford drove up. I waved to the driver and sat in the front passenger seat. The taxi driver’s face seemed familiar to me, but ... But where did I see him?

It was almost dark outside, drizzling a little rain, and we were slowly dragging in traffic.

“And the devil pulled me to take a taxi,” I nibbled at myself. And indeed, the cork was barely moving, and time was running out.

- And we, by chance, are not familiar? - asked a smiling taxi driver.

I turned and then it dawned on me:

- Kolya! Your mother! And I think, who do you remind me of?

- I fucking sit and think - when will it come to you that I am I, - Nick laughed.

- What are you doing here? - I did not let up, still not really recovering from the shock. The fact is that with this comrade we almost all childhood went to visit each other, drank and ate together. By the way, they drank everything. Often it was possible to decant a liter or two of homemade wine in the basement, and I immediately ran to Kolya to visit. He always had something from food, because his mother was a cook by profession and vocation.

“I married a local, got a child,” continued Kolya. - Now here is the “tax” to pay the mortgage.

- Oh well, mind you! - I was surprised. - You - and settled down?

- Well, who told you such nonsense? - surprised Kohl.

Kohl since the early grades was a famous "heart". There were legends about his love exploits, and he himself loved to boast a bit of his “former”.

“I settled down a bit, as old age takes its toll,” my comrade laughed, “but did not refuse to have sex once more.” Unless, became a little more choosy. Fortunately, the work of a taxi driver allows you to "see everything".

“Listen,” I said, “but let's taps on a beer and sit in my house?”

- At home - it is unlikely, but in the car - yes. I was just driving home, so I grabbed the last order. But to be honest, I was in shock when I saw you.

“Don't tell me,” I agreed.

- You can drink half a liter, but then I run home - my wife is already waiting. Maybe you will visit us?

- Yes, my wife works today at night - at five in the morning you will need to meet.

“As you like,” said Kolya, finally driving out onto the free lane and pushing the gas pedal to the floor.

We had time to go to the store ten minutes before closing time - there were almost no people, so after five minutes the beer was bought and packaged.

Kohl pereparkoval car almost next to the store, to make it easier to go then, drowned out the engine and the usual movement opened a bottle of beer with a lighter. The ringing of two glass bottles marked our meeting.

- And how did you get here? - went to counter-offensive Kohl.

- Yes, turned up work with a good salary, that got over. Then he moved his wife. Now we are interrupted in a rented apartment, although we have been thinking about a mortgage.

“Well, that is,” muttered Kolya thoughtfully, taking a sip of beer. - I’m thinking where to find the money for apartment renovation, because in a couple of months the house where we bought the apartment will be completed. Then surrender to operation. And voila - it's time to do the repair. And then there's the mortgage. In short, ass. Now we also live in a rented apartment, but with friends. Almost for nothing. True, the neighbors are some kind of kapets. That wall is hollowed, they swear, the dog howls! Twenty times I went to them for disassembly, and they all, they say, we repair!

- And you something ...