Song By Unreality

Chapter 14

"Would you betray yourself and your interests for the sake of the convenience of a loved one?"

"A difficult question... Fortunately, I wasn't faced with such a choice. But for the sake of the well-being of my beloved, I am ready for a lot."

(from Rina's interview with 'Megapolis' magazine)

When Nikolai woke up, at first he didn't understand where and why he was, or what day or hour he was at. He looked for his phone to find out the time, and when he couldn't find it, he remembered that he had left it in the kitchen. Others followed this memory and lined up in a clear, albeit surreal picture. For some reason, not everything that happened to Nikolai during the day seemed to be the tip of unreality, but the fact that he was lying almost naked in the bed of a famous singer. If journalists had suddenly flooded in here, they would have drawn the appropriate conclusions.

It's a good thing that before the trip he dropped by home and took a change of underwear with him in case he didn't come back by night. And while the little-known paramedic, who carefully hid kindness and responsiveness behind a stern look and an angry tone, treated and bandaged his wounds, another woman and her granddaughter were running small errands. It seems that the little girl brought his bag from the car so that he changed into dry underwear.

Nikolai carefully sat up and sat down. The 'patched' wounds responded with pain, fortunately, thanks to the muted analgesic. He swung his legs off the bed and sat for a while, listening to himself. The weakness was felt, and Nikolai didn't dare to bend down for the bag pushed under the bed to take a clean T-shirt. So he just wrapped himself in a blanket and went in search of Rina.

He found her not in the kitchen, which was filled with appetising aromas, but in the bathroom. Rina was rinsing something in the washbasin and, busy with business, didn't notice his presence. And for some reason Nikolai didn't immediately call out to her.

She picked up her black hair and pinned it in a careless knot at the back of her head, but one strand escaped from her hairstyle and fell on her neck. And Nikolai, who was watching Rina, suddenly wanted to remove a curl - just to fleetingly touch the matte-white skin. This desire turned out to be so strong that he hurriedly took his eyes away from her neck, glanced lower and realized that he admired the weightless fragility of Rina: a narrow back, sharp shoulder blades and a waist so thin that it seemed it could be wrapped in two palms. A wide blue T-shirt didn't hide the elegance of the girl, but on the contrary, emphasized. And tight tight jeans, on the contrary, outlined all the exciting curves so clearly that Nikolai involuntarily sighed noisily. Rina heard him and looked around. They looked at each other for a couple of seconds, confused in awkward silence, like in a spider's web, and then Rina asked:

"Why did you wake up?"

She moved away a little, opening the washbasin, and Nikolai was surprised to find that Rina was washing his T-shirt.

"Couldn't miss... such a sight," he grinned, nodding at the sink. "It's not every day that a famous singer washes your clothes."

Rina sighed and looked back at the T-shirt.

"Stains don't wash off."

"Don't worry. I have a spare one."

"Thank God," she said, and wiped her forehead with a wet hand with a soapy wrist. "Your jeans and sneakers are in the yard. When they dry, I'll bring them," Rina muttered deliberately grumpily, carefully averting her gaze, and then, catching herself, rinsed and wiped her hands.

"Are you hungry? I've made soup," she offered with the same nonchalance.

The situation was really awkward, and not even because they were unfamiliar, but because Rina was clearly afraid of questions.