Читать книгу Vera the Mistress - Валентина Басан - Страница 10

Oleg was always mentally weak and very dependent. As a child, he was afraid of upsetting his mother and grandmother, upsetting the class teacher at school, upsetting the headman and dean at the Institute, and later angering his wife. Oleg was soft, weak-willed, and very driven. He tried to choose girls who were softer and much younger, and the older he got, the younger his companions were. Next to the modest and quiet gray mice, he was a macho, handsome man who was sure of himself one hundred percent. Only once in his life he had made a mistake and committed himself to a woman much stronger, brighter, and more confident, ArinaZlatykh. She was a star. Ara always was a star.

Having settled down to work for the firm of ArinaPetrovnaZlatykh, Oleg lost sleep and peace. He had visions; he could not eat, drink, or live. And when he was completely in a loop, Arina went down to the floor of programmers and invited him for coffee. Meetings with Ara were an obsession, a mystique. He was drowning in black eyes, not even understanding sometimes their meetings were in a dream or in reality.

ArinaPetrovna always and everywhere moved with a strange man, her deputy. Suleiman Kaysarov was the shadow of the boss, her adviser, and her right hand. In the huge ZlatykhCorporation, which occupied several floors of an elite office building, everyone knew Suleiman and was afraid not only of his words but also of his look. If he approached someone's office or called them, they knew that things were bad, that the employee had cheated or stolen important data to sell to competitors in the IT industry. Everyone in the firm knew that for a huge salary, bonuses, and official employment, only two qualities are required: loyalty and professionalism.

Oleg was the only person who was left alone with Arina without her deputy. They could talk for hours about technology, upcoming exhibitions, and programs. Gradually, the fear of the domineering beauty began to give way to other feelings. The guy now came to her every morning with a report, they drank coffee and could not talk enough.

Oleg and Arina were standing at passport control in Sheremetyevo. The direct flight from Moscow to New York was delayed for two hours due to heavy snowfall, so they slowly stood in line for the standard procedure of checking documents, received stamps in the passport that they were leaving the country, showed open visas and slowly entered the Duty-Free zone. Unbeknownst to them, they held hands and wandered from boutique to boutique in anticipation of the flight. The working trip abroad coincided so well with Valentine's day that Arina opened a visa for Oleg without even asking, and added him to the list of speakers from Moscow. The guy was excited, it was the first time he was flying abroad with a girl. Or not a girl? Boss? And the apartment in the hotel? Joint? He would like to share it. He felt that he had fallen in love with his boss like a boy, even though he had never kissed her before and had never dared to ask her out.