Hello, Privet! #1: Hello/Привет

Chapter 19

KOLYA

When I arrive at the Japanese restaurant that Anton chooses for dinner, I am looking for him, but I guess I am early so I sit at the bar to wait for him. Lucky for me, there is this cute girl at the bar in a little black dress drinking a martini.

"Hi," I say to her. "Your eyeglasses are cute."

When she looks at me, she doesn't say anything. A stuck-up chick, huh? Challenge accepted.

"Can I buy you another drink?" I ask her.

"No, thank you," she says, pointing to her drink. "I already have one."

Oh, she's going to make me work hard, this one. She thinks she's too good for me. I sit closer to her and she moves her legs away quickly. I grin at her. She's feisty. I call to the bartender and say to him, "She'll have another one. And a caipirinha for me."

When the drinks arrive, I ask her, "So...what do you do?"

She takes some time to answer, "I'm a writer."

"Oh? What do you write about?"

"The human condition, that sort of thing."

"Beauty and brains...I like it," I tell her, smiling.

She looks away. "Hmm."

The brunette is responding to me now, at least.

"You know what else I like about you?" I ask her.

"I'm afraid you're about to tell me," she says dryly, drinking her martini. This girl can drink, and she's smart, I can tell. But even smart girls like compliments.

"Your legs—shit—they are—magnificent. I mean it."

She doesn't say anything.

"No, actually, I like your whole body," I continue. "It looks very...flexible. You look like you can do things...like acrobatics and gymnastics, you know what I mean?"

She sits up straighter at that, then turns to me slowly. "Excuse me—what did you just say?"

ANTON

I leave the devochka in the restaurant while I go to the bathroom. She is wearing a dress today, not her outfit with the shorts and those colorful boots with decorations that she borrowed from the American Indians.

When I come out, I see Kolya's curly hair immediately. He is at the bar flirting with some girl. This is going to be interesting. I have seen Kolya in action. He is entertaining and funny with the girls. I walk closer, enough to hear them, and I hide there behind some plants, listening.

Kolya is asking her, "You know what else I like about you?"

"I'm afraid you're about to tell me..."

"Your legs—shit—they are magnificent. I mean it," Kolya says. "No, actually, I like your whole body. It looks very...flexible."

Who is Kolya talking to? Bljakhamukha—it is her. The devochka. Kolya is a dolboyeb sometimes. He does not even know it.

But Kolya, that pizduk, he is still talking.

"You look like you can do things...like acrobatics and gymnastics, you know what I mean?"

I feel sorry for Kolya, I do. This is only making the devochka angry which means things will be very bad for Kolya in the next few minutes. I should know.