Читать книгу The bride of the silver dragon - Dmitry Nazarov - Страница 15

I should have guessed that A’Lta wouldn’t just leave it all behind. In some things, she has always been, to put it mildly, very impulsive and self-willed. It is a pity that not in those that honor women and do not let a man get bored. Right, I can say, to some extent, they also arranged a gypsy with an exit, but this can hardly be called the most pleasant devilry that does not allow the fire of passion to go out in a relationship.

Fire of passion.

I am stomping on the threshold of the cafe, listening to my inner feelings, because if I had entered a minute ago, our dialogue with A’Lta would have been very short and in very raised tones. And no matter how angry this whole situation made me, it would be too unreasonable to arrange a quarrel with the bride in front of a couple of dozen influential Lunarians, having an already shattered rating behind them. Even if the dark side of my soul asks for just that.

After waiting another minute, I still go inside, although I still don’t know what I will say to A’Lta. In any case, it is unlikely that the conversation will end in peace, but it would be nice to get out of it with the least losses. And somehow prevent my fiancée from using the damn photos.

A picture of a swollen, like a rotten fish, scandal flashes before the mind’s eye against the background of Margot’s condemning gaze and her silent: “After all, you promised me, Snag.”

I always keep my promises. That is why I rarely promise any very specific things. And already twice lately I’ve been flying hard on this. The first time – with a medical center, the fate of which is now even more questionable than before. And the second – just about, if I can’t get A’Lta to abandon his idiotic idea to ruin the life of my “next lover”. They tell the truth that there is nothing harder than pulling out a splinter and convincing a jealous woman.

She is sitting at a table in the very center and is already energetically typing something on the phone.

If this is what I think…

It’s good that A’Lta has never been attentive, and when she is “wedged”, she does not look around at all. Once, when we got stuck in the elevator, she got so excited that she didn’t notice that she was already writing a letter to various authorities in the car.

Now she doesn’t notice me in the same way, and only after a couple of seconds she realizes that she is poking her fingers into the void, and not at the phone, which I pull out of her hands with one precise movement.

– What are you doing here? she asks, but makes no attempt to get the device back.

– How predictable, – I throw back, studying the “canvas” of the revealing letter with attached photographs. The sender’s address will be learned by mail, whose name is suspiciously similar to the name of a well-known leading scandalous news chronicle. – You made at least two grammatical and three punctuation mistakes. If this letter got to the addressee, then the next after the scandalous video about our romance with Margo would be an equally scandalous video about the purchased diplomas of the daughters of influential Lunarians.

– Give it back, – she demands, holding out her hand regally. He clenched his fingers impatiently. For the queen, only a beautiful crown is missing, three meters high, so that it even breaks through the roof. – I warned you, K’raig! – I told you to get rid of her, but as always you just ignored my words!

– It’s only been a week, – I remind you just in case, although this information is absolutely not important for A’Lta anyway. Since Her Majesty had decided that Margot should disappear, then it had to happen within a day, and not a second later. – Do you ever turn on your head before you do something?

She nervously balls up the napkin and tries to throw it in my face, but I easily deflect the blow. And I manage to move the napkin holder away before A’Lta grabs the next one.

Luna, from the stupid antics of this woman, even my over-patience begins to fail.

– What did you say to her? Did you threaten too?

I can only imagine what Margo is thinking right now. And, most importantly, what efforts it took for her to control herself – with her by no means angelic character – since my bride is sitting clean and tidy, and not doused from head to toe with hot coffee with a cap of cream on her head.

– That I’ll wipe it off the face of the earth, – A’Lta answers maliciously on purpose. “And that I am well aware of the methods by which such persons as she achieve their goals. Through the beds of other men!

It seems to me that Margarita Sheremetyeva, even if you do not know her personally, definitely does not give the impression of such a woman. I would even say that she is more like one of those right feminists whose contribution to the development of the women’s movement and the struggle for equality even I, an inveterate supporter of the patriarchy, admire.

Which once again confirms the “blindness” of my bride.

– And you said all this to her? – I still have a hope that A’Lta did not have the intelligence to execute the most terrible scenario. – Eclipse and Shadow, tell her you didn’t dump all that shit on her.

A’Lta freezes, startled by my sudden oath. I really rarely use them, especially in the company of women. But now I’m almost losing my nerve.

– Said? – I repeat my question in a slightly raised tone.

– She said, – A’Lta sticks out his chin. And this dirty…

– Stop. Right now. – I feel a sharp surge of anger, one has to imagine what hard-hitting epithets A’Lta was going to reward Margot with.

Well, the next time I meet her, I will also apologize to her for accusing her of unjustified hostility towards the moons. Maybe not all of us deserve it, but most certainly.

– You still have the audacity to defend her like this, out in the open? – My fiancee expresses such disgust, as if she caught Margo and me in a bunk. So to speak, right in the process of irrefutable evidence. – You, I see, forgot to whom you owe your high flight?!

– Exclusively to his iron ass, diligence and ability to cut off everything unnecessary in time. But not your father.

He will be very happy to hear it! she threatens. – And after I grind you and your corrupt girl into powder, we’ll see who crawls to whom on their knees to ask for forgiveness.

There is a line after which even for me – pragmatics and “things always come first” – the red signal “STOP” cuts in. Life has taught that all important decisions should be made only with a cool head and without emotions. When my cold head prevented me from breaking off relations with A’Lta on the day of her visit to my office, I thought that I had done the right thing, and that our official break could be postponed. And for the sake of Margarita’s safety, and for the success of my election campaign.

Now, when I look at the vicious shrew in front of me, I don’t understand at all why I didn’t break up with her even when she deliberately inflated my casual affair to the size of a grandiose scandal. Why didn’t I send her to hell when she brought those pictures and decided to blackmail me like some beardless kid.

She already knew then that she would still find a way to see Margo. And even if I were an exemplary groom, A’Lta would still not leave Margarita alone.

I take off the ring and silently toss it into A’Lta’s coffee.

– What are you doing? She tries foolishly to fish it out with a flat stirring spoon, dropping it back again and again. “K’raig, you’re not really going to – ”

I’m breaking off our fake engagement. Although it would be more correct to say – I am ending our cooperation.

But I didn’t agree! She’s freaking out because the ring keeps slipping into the cup over and over again and she has no choice but to give up on this stupid idea.

I would say that all this is somewhere even symbolic.

Luckily, I don’t need your consent.

– No, – A’Lta stubbornly refuses and tries to hold me by clinging to the hem of my jacket as I get up to pay for her coffee and leave. – If you do this, I swear by the moon – you will never become a senator! I will trample you both – you and your slut, veto all your many years of work – and not a single influential lunar will ever shake hands with you again in his life!

I look down at her twisted face and, oddly enough, feel neither anger nor annoyance. Only pity. Although this is strange, because I am absolutely sure that she will carry out the threat. At least he’ll try. And it may well become the nail that will be driven into the coffin of my never-established political career.

But I also know for sure that I won’t let her hurt Margot.

Even if it means sacrificing your senatorial ambitions to do so.

Damn it, I think I’m in love!