I spent the night with a stranger I met at a resort. And when I returned to work, I FOSSILIZED when I saw there…
Elena got married at a fairly conscious age. By that time, almost all of her friends had managed to start families, and some even survived their first divorces. While the women she knew were getting their children ready for school, Elena was still trying to understand what she wanted from life, and because of this she often experienced strange inner anxiety.
At the same time, she never had a lack of male attention. Her slender figure, soft femininity and calm beauty always attracted attention. But there was one problem: the men who sought her favor did not touch her heart, and for some reason those who might have liked her passed by, as if not noticing.
She dreamed of true love — so that one day she would burst into flames and stay for life. Mom, noticing her sadness, often said: «Don’t rush, daughter. Your happiness will definitely find you. The main thing — is not to connect fate with the wrong person».
But, despite these words, Elena was increasingly haunted by the fear that her man would never appear. Or, even more painfully, it has long belonged to another woman. Every new year only increased her anxiety and the feeling that time was running out forever.
And yet one day she met a man whom she mistook for her fate, and married him. Only the fairy tale ended almost immediately after the wedding celebration. After the birth of the child, difficulties began to increase one after another. Tired of constant reproaches, lack of money and her husband’s indifference, Elena decided to divorce and returned to live with her parents.
What she experienced made her exhausted, nervous and devastated. The mother, seeing her daughter literally go out before her eyes, once firmly said: «You need to exhale. Go to the sea, change the situation, and I will stay with the baby». «You rest, light up a little, remember yourself and return to normal», — she convinced.
In the end, Elena agreed, took a vacation and went to the coast just at the time when the mild autumn heat set in. But her thoughts were still constantly at home, next to her son. She called her parents several times a day just to hear the child’s voice and make sure everything was okay.
One evening, while returning from the beach, she bought a large ripe watermelon. I could already imagine how I would cut it in the evening, how sweet juice would refresh it after a hot day. Elena carried the heavy purchase carefully, pressing her with both hands. And suddenly a noisy group of young people jumped out from around the turn.
She instinctively stepped to the side, trying to avoid a collision. But at that very second someone accidentally pushed her from behind. My hands weakened, the watermelon slipped out and crashed with a dull crash right on the sidewalk, scattering in red juicy pieces.
— Let me make amends, — spoke a low, pleasant male voice nearby.
Elena rose, shaking off the dust from her clothes. It was with this accidental collision that her fast-paced, vibrant holiday romance began…
The vacation flew by like one sunny moment. But when she went back to work, she FOSSILIZED…
—
…But when she came back to work, she FOSSILIZED.
Because in the office of the head of the department, right at the table of the strict and eternally irritated Inna Viktorovna, HE was sitting.
The same man from the resort. A stranger with a low voice who helped her after a broken watermelon. The man she spent the last five days of rest with, forgetting about pain, divorce, fatigue and the fear of trusting someone again. His smile, his touches, his whisper in a dark room overlooking the sea — all this in an instant fell upon her with renewed vigor.
But now he was completely different. Not a free vacationer in a light shirt, smelling of the sea and sun, but a collected, confident man in an expensive formal suit. He was dictating something to the secretary when Elena froze in the doorway and dropped the bag from her hands.
He raised his head.
Their views met.
The pause lasted only a few seconds, but Elena thought it had passed for an eternity. She expected everything: an awkward smile, cold indifference, ridicule or at least confusion. But Alexey — now she finally found out his name, written on the sign «The head of regional development» — slowly stood up from the table and, not paying attention to the surprised glances of the employees, went straight to her.
— Elena, — he said so calmly that they broke up only yesterday. — I was waiting for you.
— Did you… know? — she exhaled, feeling how the earth seemed to be disappearing from under her feet. — Did you know where I work?
He came closer and said hush, so that only she would hear these words:
— No. But this morning I saw your photo in a folder with personal files of employees and realized: this is not a coincidence.
Elena looked in confusion at her colleagues, who had already begun to look at the closing office door, at the secretary, diligently pretending that nothing was happening.
— I have a son, — she whispered. — And I… I’m not one of those women who throws myself into feelings for the second time without thinking about the consequences.
He carefully took her hand, as if he was afraid to make an extra movement.
— And I’m not one of those men looking for random adventures. These five days were the best thing that happened to me after the divorce. And if you allow me, I will not rush you. I’ll wait. I’ll meet your son. I will prove that I can be close not only by the sea, but also in everyday life.
She looked up at him. There was no play in his gaze, no complacency, no desire to impress. Only warmth, confidence and such sincerity that made Elena’s nose ache.
— Incredible, — she said quietly. — I didn’t even know who you really were.
— Now you know. — He smiled at the very smile that made her knees weaken at the resort. — And I’m used to correcting my mistakes to the end.
Six months later they got married. Elena’s mother, looking at her shining daughter, just smiled and shook her head: «I told you: fate will find you wherever you hide. Even near a broken watermelon».
And the former boss Inna Viktorovna could not explain why Elena’s photograph the day before her return from vacation suddenly ended up in the «folder of new employees» on the table of the new manager.
But that was a completely different story.
End.
