Doors are always open

Second door. Chapter two. Night at the hotel.

Chiro was like a cloud. Brown eyes glowing with a soft light and a childish smile enveloped the girl in a pink mist, embrace her in a warm blanket, rocked her. Gentle hands delicately touching the wrist, the shoulder, but, nevertheless, the musician did not allow himself anything vulgar for the entire long time of their journey to the capital. Maybe he was well brought up, or maybe he was afraid of the paparazzi or pictures of bystanders who, despite dark glasses and a baseball cap pulled over his forehead, recognized him from time to time.

Chiro's cheerful chatter did not tire. Alice later could not remember what, in fact, they were talking about on the way to the city. In Sofia, they did not go straight to the hotel, but for a long time wandered around the old part of the city, admiring the architecture, came in into a cafe to drink coffee and have a snack, and from the outside they might have looked like an ordinary couple in love. Finally, Chiro dragged her to the hotel.

Why did she choose Chiro over Vesco? No, not because one chef and the other is a celebrity. And because Vesco needed just those very constant serious relationships, a real love story that ends with a wedding, the device of a family nest, the birth of children, conflicts, divorce, the division of property and children. All this Alice had been in excess and go to the next round was no strength no desire.

But a fleeting casual affair with a handsome young, and, as Alice hoped, a really tireless guy, is very handy. After almost two months in the hospital, three weeks of anxious waiting for new documents, lack of money, search for temporary work, Alice needed a relax. She needed this casual, non-binding adventure.

"And what about George?" - Alice asked herself, and then she herself answered – «To hell with George!». Let Alice be a dishonest woman, but she is tired alone in a foreign country. Alice needs to relax and have fun. To the hotel, so to the hotel. At least, with this guy she does not get stuck in a long and painful personal relationships.

At the hotel, Chiro whispered about something with the administrator and, winking at Alice, went with her to the elevator. The elevator went through all the floors and stopped only on the roof. There was quiet and empty and only the autumn wind roamed everywhere like a sovereign master. Alice walked to the very edge of the roof, enclosed by a cast-iron lattice fence. Leaning comfortably on the railing, she gazed in thought at the lights of the capital, the flashing headlights on the avenues, the beautiful illumination of the cathedral. For a while they both stood in silence, admiring the night city in which they had just wandered. Then Chiro was distracted by some noise behind his back, but Alice did not turn around. The gentleman's set of champagne and light snacks did not interest her. She could hear Chiro clinking glasses, talking about something with the waiter, placing the plates.

So, another week. Another week in this quiet pleasant European country, which almost swallowed her up, and she will finally be in Moscow, and then at home in Krasnoyarsk. Interestingly, George is glad that she survived or not very much? The voice on the phone when he spoke to Alice was dry, as usual, nothing wavered in it. She did not hear a single warm note. She wonder if the situation were the opposite? Would she be glad that her semi-ex spouse had risen from the dead, where faulty equipment and careless doctors had sent him by mistake? Alice wasn't sure of that, so it's probably not worth taking offense at George either.

Then they drank champagne on the roof, Chiro told Alice how one day during a concert they all three managed to forget the words of the song and sang a single line for three minutes, choking with laughter and at the same time dying of shame. Alice laughed. But after twenty minutes she was thoroughly chilled: the wind on the roof was cold and angry. To slightly warmed she stood up again and moved closer to the edge, peering now is not in flickering and flashing lights at the bottom and at the gloomy night sky. The moon and stars were gone. "Well, at least he won't tell me today where which constellation is located," - a sarcastic thought flashed through her head. This romantic cliché was extremely tiresome. Well, how can you see something in the sky when someone point his finger at it? In the planetarium at least the pointer is normal. However, Alice probably suffered from topographic cretinism: neither on her own, nor with the help of gentle gentlemen, she could not see a single constellation in the sky, but in order to get rid of annoying pesky explanations, she always pretended to see everything.