The Lovers - стр. 34

“I’ll take the next one,” she replied to his unspoken question.

“Will we see each other again? Tomorrow?” he asked as the tram shut its doors and was swallowed by the damp darkness.

“I’m going home tomorrow for a week.”

“And then?”

“Then I have a placement until the end of July.”

“Where?” Again Konstantin Konstantinovich became nervous and made no attempt to hide this.

“Here.”

“Great!” He grinned in relief. “How wonderful that you are a perfect student! Otherwise, they would have sent you to the back of beyond for a month and a half.”

A few single drops suddenly fell from the blackness and immediately turned into a total downpour. Konstantin Konstantinovich opened his jacket and covered Dina with one half, just like a mother hen covers her chick.

“Stop it… I’m in a cloak. There!” Dina nodded towards a shop on the other side of the street.

They ran under the store’s overhang.

Dina began to wipe her face with a white batiste handkerchief, which immediately became soaked. Konstantin Konstantinovich also took out a handkerchief, which was large, checkered, and had unusual colors not seen at the shops, and wiped his wet cheeks and forehead. He suddenly took Dina’s chin in his hand and said, “Shhh, don’t move. You have a drop of water on your earlobe, like a diamond earring.”

Dina froze, staring at Konstantin Konstantinovich. He moved his gaze from the sparkling drop to Dina’s eyes and also froze. Then he carefully wiped away the drop, let Dina go and began folding up his handkerchief in fierce concentration.

Dina leaned against the dark glass window and watched the rain as it flashed in the light of the streetlamp.

Konstantin Konstantinovich, continuing to carefully fold up his handkerchief, spoke quietly. “I really wanted to kiss you.”

Dina didn’t reply at once. “So what stopped you?”

“For the first time, I was stopped by something that I’ve never experienced before.”

“What was it?”

“Well…” He kept turning the piece of fabric over and over in his hands. “Fear? No. Concern.”

“What were you concerned about?”

“I was afraid to offend you… to incur your displeasure.”

“Funny.”

“Indeed. Before today, I was sure that I knew female nature as well as I know my own five fingers. I was certain that I knew when and what women want. I always knew how I should act.” He smiled wryly. “I would never think to question whether I should kiss a woman or not. I knew that a woman must be kissed at every convenient… and even inconvenient opportunity.” He suddenly became serious and asked worriedly: “What if I had done it? Would you have…”