Revenge: New Year's Serve

Petya pulled me aside while the others were exchanging glances. His face showed extreme awkwardness. He started explaining, picking at the snow with his boot, that Ilya asked him to deliver a message. When I asked what the message was about, Petya said that Ilya wouldn’t be coming because he’d gone to Sochi, into the mountains. When I asked who he’d gone with, Petya finally admitted it was Natalia Skvortsova—adding that their relationship had been going on for a long time. Ilya was afraid to tell me about it and wanted to do it at a more appropriate time after the holidays.

I asked Petya how one can make such a message “beautiful.”