The Lovers - стр. 35
“I wouldn’t have run away,” said Dina. “And I wouldn’t have slapped you.”
Konstantin Konstantinovich chuckled and shook his head. After a brief pause, he asked, and she could hear the nervousness in his voice, “Can I try again?” He turned to Dina.
“Not anymore,” she replied calmly. “I don’t like men that I have to manage: You can do this, you can’t do that… Here comes my tram!” She turned up her collar and got ready to dash to the stop.
Konstantin Konstantinovich took her elbow and turned her to face him. “But we haven’t said goodbye or planned our next date.”
Dina said, a little sternly, “I’ll be late.”
“I’ll take you back in a taxi!” he suggested.
“The last thing I need is to appear at the dorms in a taxi, together with you!” Dina grinned.
“True,” Konstantin Konstantinovich laughed. “So when will we see each other again?”
“When I come back in a week. If you don’t change your mind by then.”
“Where and when?” He chose to ignore Dina’s last remark. “Can I call you? Tell me your number.” Konstantin Konstantinovich fumbled around in his breast pockets in search of a pen.
“We don’t have a telephone at home.”
“Good grief!” He looked at Dina in bafflement. “Does that still happen? Could you…”
“Don’t fret. I’ll come back and we can meet up again.”
“What date will that be?”
“The third.”
“The third!” Konstantin Konstantinovich exclaimed ruefully. “And what if it is the second? Or the fourth? Is it really possible? No telephone! Well, can you call me when you come back?” He started searching for a pen again.
Dina took a notebook and pen from her handbag and Konstantin Konstantinovich wrote his number on the open page.
A tram rumbled in the distance.
“Goodbye, Konstantin Konstantinovich,” said Dina and held out her hand.
He shook it and said, looking deep into her eyes, “Until next time, Dina. I will be waiting for your call.”
The room was dimly lit as the ceiling light was off, and only the table lamp stood on the table, with a newspaper covering the lampshade. Rimma was asleep, facing the wall and with the blanket pulled up over her head. Vera and Valya sat at the table with the books and notebooks spread out in front of them.
Both turned to Dina as one when she entered the room.
“Hi,” whispered Dina.
“Hi,” they answered in unison.
Dina changed clothes, took her toothbrush and toothpaste out of the bedside table drawer, and stepped out.
Vera pointedly tapped the glass of the alarm clock with her nail. The clock was showing five minutes past midnight.
Dina came back. She changed into a short silk robe, sat down on the bed and took from the bedside table a pharmacy jar containing a thick white cream, which she spread thickly over the face and hands. She leaned back onto her pillow and closed her eyes.