The Bitcoin Baby

6

The city is slowly sinking into the weekend twilight. I go to the window in the big room, slightly pull back the edge of the curtain and watch the lights on Khreshchatyk and people moving along the street as if they were having more fun than usual. It becomes cool and I go to the kitchen to put the kettle on.

Drinking tea in a big apartment, with ceilings three times my height, is great, of course, but am I thinking of going out to meet her? She's working late again.

She's the landlady of this big apartment, giving me shelter this weekend. She says it's her apartment, which I highly doubt. The ambience and mood of the apartment give it away as having multiple owners. People who live here for a day or two, or even just sleep on this big bed in the center of the room. In front of it stands an incongruous television. Why is it here? It's like a mute and blind witness to someone else's passion.

There's hardly any food in the fridge. We ate what we had this morning.

- I don't have time to cook. And I don't like cooking. - She's not making excuses, she's telling it like it is.

I don't ask questions. I don't really care if it's her apartment or if she rents it. If she rents it, where's the money coming from? It's Proresnaya, with a gorgeous view of Khreshchatyk. I even like this secrecy, understatement. Perhaps our communication via messenger has had an effect. We create a new reality, we create ourselves and each other, we play the main roles in our own movie and we don't know the plot at all. Knowing the ending now, or even guessing about it, will take away all the beauty of this movie.

At night, we finally exchange cell phones. I'm calling her.

- Baby, will you be much longer?

- I won't be long. I'll leave early tonight.

- Come on, it's your day off. Why don't we go out for dinner?

- Sure! You're hungry.

- I'll go out and find you a cozy place.

- Okay. Just shut the door, but don't forget your keys.

It's been cold outside since yesterday. I put on my hood and stand at the crossroads for a long time, choosing where to go - down to Khreshchatyk or up to the Golden Gate. Call.

- Kitty, I'm on Bessarabka. There's a fish restaurant there, shall we go there?

- Ok, I'll be there in 10 minutes.

When I came in, she was already sitting at the table with a cup of ginger tea and was reading something carefully in her smartphone.

- Good evening, Antonina! - I tried to make a stern and unfamiliar voice, which really scared her a bit.

- Oh! Hi! - She smiled and reached out to me for a kiss. - How are you?

The same way she wrote to me in every correspondence "how are you?"

- I'm fine. You left, I slept. Now I'm awake all day.

- Good for you. I ordered us a lot of food. You didn't eat anything either, did you?

- I didn't feel like it.

She smiled and leaned closer to me.

- Did you know that bitcoin is already 7000 dollars?

It was unexpected for a romantic setting. She was so close again, her thin arms, her soft skin. I could see the edges of her hair sliding down her neck, which I had covered in kisses yesterday. I looked into her big eyes and at her incredibly beautiful eyebrows... God, I wasn't thinking at all about the bitcoin exchange rate at that moment. I wasn't even thinking about food that day - I wasn't lying.

- Bitcoin is $7,000 dollars?

- Yes!

No, of course, I knew about bitcoin, about cryptocurrencies and even thought about mining, on a couple with my buddy. But somehow this topic passed me by. I didn't have much time to look into it.

I pretended to be surprised.

- Do you follow the crypto?

- I'm not just following it, I'm putting almost all my money into it.

- Have you invested a lot? - I smiled condescendingly.

- A lot, but still not enough.

- What are you saving for?

- The girls and I want to open a real girl's cafe. You know, where there are books, movies, master classes. Not even a cafe, but a club where ordinary girls can come. Who after work, who after a fight with their boyfriend, who are lonely and find girlfriends.

- So you won't let men in?

- Of course we will! - She laughed. - How can you imagine a girls' cafe without men?

"The prettier the woman, the more pronounced is her female logic," I thought. She seemed the most beautiful to me now.

- You know, now you've told me this, I like you even more. It's so great when a person has a purpose, some meaning in life.

- Are you going to support me?

- Yes.

The dishes were brought, we started the long-awaited dinner and never returned to this topic again.