THOA/Chapter 40

Saltikov and Pavlya were standing by the porch and smoking. They had just taken home Nemezida who was so drunk that she couldn't even dress herself. The four guys including the Negodyaev brothers had wasted a whole hour trying to get her arms in the sleeves of her fur coat and her feet in her boots with no success - Nemezida wouldn't leave and there was no way to get her out.

"N-n-no! I want a picture taken! With Sanya!" she сried out slurring her words and kicking her legs. Her boots put on her feet by Pavlya and Saltikov with great difficulty flew different directions and landed in two different corners of the anteroom.

"Oh, shoot!" whined Saltikov in a tipsy voice, "Sweetie, I beg you! Be my good girl..."

"N-n-no! Step back, Satan!" Nemezida pushed away his сraggy face with prominent cheekbones, "I wanna picture with Sanya! Here you go, my sweet darling Sanya... Let me kiss-ss ya..."

"I told you not to give her any more cocktails," Pavlya grumbled quietly in Saltikov's ear, "What an idiot you are!"

"Oh, I know," Saltikov exclaimed and adressed Nemezida in the familiar tone he always used talking to girls:

"Okay, lady, put your boots on and get going! Guess where to? To the Christmas tree on the main city square!"

"Yoo-hoo! Let's get going!" Nemezida cried with inspiration,"We are going to sing songs and dance around the Christmas tree!"

She let them get her dressed, and the guys led her by the arms. She was so drunk that she couldn't walk on her own. She kept stumbling and singing out load:

"Lone black raven,

I'm not yours..."

"See you don't drop her on the ground!" Dima Negodyaev called them out.

"No worries!" Saltikov replied, "We are gonna keep her safe and sound, are we, sweetie?"

"Oh, yeah!"

By the christmas tree on the main city square there was a little crowd of some random young men surrounding a drunken old man with an accordion. Saltikov immediately stepped in.

"Now, Maestro, give us a song!"

The accordionist started to play. Saltikov grabbed Nemezida with one hand and some random guy with the other so in a minute a crazy dance circle was running around the christmas tree. The circle of young people ran faster and faster until finally one of the random guys tripped and fell, and, following him, the rest of the dancers hit the ground.

"Johnnie on a rock, guys!"

"That was damn cool, wasn't it," Saltikov said laughing when he and Pavlya had already taken home the dead drunk Nemezida.

"By the way, how did you like Olive?" asked Pavlya.

"Olive? Oh, well..." Saltikov took a deep drag on his cigarette and chuckled, "A regular plain Jane. There's something about her, though," he murmured as he put out his cigarette.

"Oh, yes, definitely. Her face looks plain and ordinary indeed, but there's something in her eyes that sets her apart from the rest. And her accent--"

"The Moscow accent, yeah."

Saltikov's cell phone vibrated. It was a text.

"Oops, Pavlya! Talk of the devil..."

"is it Olive messaging?"

"Yes! "Where are you? I'm coming" Shoot, it's the last thing we need right now! What do I answer?"

"Tell her you've gone to bed".

"Okay, I will... That's it, done. She's certainly got a screw loose - it's 3 a.m.!"

"Bedtime, indeed," Pavlya gave a yawn.

"Just another smoke and we'll go."

Having received Saltikov's answer Olive halted in the middle of the road. She suddenly felt ill at ease. She recalled Daniel, his kisses, his eyes and she got ashamed of herself. Just look at her, running in the middle of the night like some stupid slut. Came to see one guy, then went to another... "He might have run to Nickey from me as well," flitted through her mind. No, Daniel could never do that, she thought. However selfish or standoffish he played he just couldn't do anything like that just like he couldn't steal or kill...

"How dare I, so wretched inside, think ill of him?" she thought, "How dare I, dating one man, go running to another in the middle of the night? My sweet darling, I'm so sorry... I love you, you and nobody else!"