Our honeymoon had come to an end. The contract was signed, and my husband was on his way to the pre-season camp in Utah. He was the \ufb01rst one to go. I was waiting for my visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrei loved and still loves to come anywhere in advance. Therefore, he went to Utah early. He had tickets for September 11th… In fact, it was 2001. I hope everyone remembers this date? 911 took place and detained Andrei for another couple of days in Moscow. Thank God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’ve been together for over 17 years, and I never stop doing one thing. I am always \ufb01ghting for an extra day with my husband. Our personal time with him is a luxury. A real luxury, considering the schedule of his constant \ufb02ights and travels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s how, due to 911, I managed to snatch a couple more days. We lived on Berezhkovskaya, opposite the Viking, a \ufb02oating restaurant. It was our temporary dominion there. My father’s house was literally 700 meters away, on the Shevchenko embankment, house #5. The embankments are my youth. I used to adore walking to Neskuchny Garden and back. We enjoyed our last days in Moscow. Then he \ufb02ew away. He romantically called me from the plane. By the way, I don’t know if you can still do this? Calling from an airplane? There used to be a remote control, into which the credit card would be inserted, and then you could talk for $5 a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his lifelong emotional restraint, throughout our life together, Andrei performed memorable romantic acts. Once, when we just started dating, we were driving from dinner at a cafe in his car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember \u2014 he had this gangster Audi. So, passing by the Belorussky railway station, he stopped at the \ufb02ower market. Initially, I did not understand why we stopped. He opened the hatch, and tulips fell through it. It seemed like he bought all the tulips they had at the market. The whole back seat was littered with them, and so was I. At \ufb01rst, I caught them, and then suddenly I thought that I could die from suffocation due to all the \ufb02owers, and I started crying. Joking. I cried out of joy, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stayed in Moscow, got a visa, and went to a routine appointment with Lebedeva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMasha, what are you doing?! You can\u2019t \ufb02y, you\u2019re facing a threat of miscarriage!!! Urgently go home, rest, and lie down!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She prescribed me a bunch of medicine, from which my heart used to beat often. Either from fear, or, indeed, from all the pills. The fear of losing a child is probably the worst fear for a woman. It\u2019s impossible to describe. So, I went to bed, there was nothing else I could do. I just swallowed the pills in handfuls and laid there. At some point, I got up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and started packing my suitcases. My excited husband called me from Salt Lake. He had already started looking for a place for us to live at, and, despite his young age, he was skilled at it. Andrei understood my taste, our possibilities, and he managed to \ufb01nd a pleasant townhouse in a canyon at the foot of the mountain. He was waiting for my approval, but I had not yet \ufb02own. I sincerely explained to him that the doctor said that I should only lie down and rest. Andrei, for a second, felt scared that I would not come at all. Here is what slipped from his tongue, when he met me at the Salt Lake City airport: \u201cI thought you weren’t coming.\u201d He hugged me so tightly, as if he was afraid that I would run away somewhere. However, there was nowhere to retreat. Ahead of us were 4 years in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have moved to our townhouse. We purchased some furniture and even a couple of paintings. For coziness. It is surprising that most of them are still preserved. It is also surprising that they\u2019ve been preserved merely because they\u2019ve been hanging at my friend\u2019s place for the last few years. If they weren\u2019t there, the \ufb01re would not have spared any of them. These artworks are not very valuable in terms of \u201cinvestment in art\u201d, yet they\u2019re still worthy and rare. Moreover, two paintings were a part of three. Thus, it was a triptych. For a long time, I was looking for the third painting and somehow managed to \ufb01nd it. I’ve always been fascinated by art. As a girl, I used to attend an art history class at the Pushkin Museum, and I still learn and study art. Although now I\u2019m mostly focusing on contemporary art. For many years, I have been collecting artworks, and our \ufb01rst paintings were made by an Israeli artist, Tarkaya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author: Masha Lopatova<\/p>\n\n\n\n