Autumn Rhapsody

Oleg was, for Marina, more like her mother’s son than a husband by the time he reached forty—despite a marriage that lasted twenty years and an almost grown daughter, Masha. And Marina valued duty above all and always did as she should—maybe because she was a very good lawyer.
Their family fortress collapsed in a single day. Oleg fell in love. And from then on Marina began doing everything wrong. She changed jobs, changed her image, and even brought in a lover—ten years younger. Yet only now Marina felt how wonderfully beautiful this fleeting, busy life could be…

Natashka burst into the door in her usual way—like someone had shoved her out of the hallway. Plopping down in her place in the corner, she twirled around on her chair, scattering through the office a particular smell—one that can’t be compared with anything—of a just-smoked cigarette. Maybe it was two cigarettes. Maybe even three. They stand there, in the far recess of the hallway, for a long time, letting out all the office gossip-news together with the smoke. If there’s lots of news, one cigarette won’t do. This morning, apparently, there was plenty of it. That’s the kind of “odor” Natashka brought with her.