As it happened they didn't have far to go. It was about a twenty-minute walk. Nina was disappointed that they got there so quickly. But glad they lived so close. They stood outside the door indecisively. He lifted his hand to ring the bell and gave Nina a meaningful look. She stood her ground, because the torch told her not to budge and not to get in a flap. Nobody opened the door.
«Want to see what my place is like?»
«Mm. What a lot of books.»
They took off their coats, and Nina perched decorously on the edge of the sofa.
«Well then?» He slapped his knee. «How about a little farewell drink?» Nina didn't like his changed manner. He was now quick and business-like. And wouldn't look at her. «There should be some fruit in the kitchen.» He began to pour them some red wine.
Nina went off to the kitchen and found a wicker basket with apples and oranges on a clean wooden table. She touched the blinds. Were they made of straw? At that moment a key turned in the lock and in came a pretty woman with a pretty girl. Unable to brake, Nina found herself moving towards them along the corridor. The woman took off her boots casually, blew a curl from her forehead, neatly removed the fruit from Nina's hands, who was now totally at a loss, and barked:
«Out you go, the pair of you. Quick march.» The command was as loud and clear as on a parade ground.
Outside he slapped his forehead and roared with laughter. Then looked at Nina and laughed even louder at the sight of her affronted, puzzled face.
«My wife,» he announced, with a puzzling air of pride, «makes up her mind about anything in twenty seconds flat. And has never been known to change it. She switches straight from question to answer, bypassing the two stages of thought and feeling, of which she in her sniper-like fashion has no need.»
«Thanks for the explanation. I'm still coming round, but I do understand,» Nina mumbled, making him chortle again.
«Don't sulk. Instead, oh, wisest of women, tell me what we're to do now.»
«Have lunch,» Nina sighed. «What else can we do if we've been thrown out?»
«Correct, top marks. I've got a concert this evening, to which I now officially invite you. Oh, by the way.» He fell about laughing again, as if a bubble had burst inside him and he couldn't restrain himself. Nina waited patiently. «I quite forgot to thank you for seeing me home.» This upset her, but he still seemed to find it all enormously funny. «So that was the plan. I'm terribly grateful to you for seeing me home. I really am. It was a brilliant idea.»
«What's all the laughing about,» Nina retorted. «You've just been thrown out.»
«That's my punishment,» he brushed it aside. «From on high. Still we won't waste any time, will we?»
Nina was beginning to see him in a new light. It occurred to her that the smutty stories were about him and not his friends. Her suspicions grew stronger when she saw him in evening dress. What a fine-looking man he was! She was hardly aware of the music, but sat worrying all the time until she had worked herself up into a state of unrelieved anxiety. All of the many doors in the theatre let in draughts, and she had nothing to keep her warm. At the end he brought over an important-looking man in evening dress, with a handlebar moustache like the one on the statue in front of the Conservatory, and said: «Nina, this is my friend, Jamil Ismailovich. He's our conductor.»
«That's all we need,» Nina blurted out, realising at once that she had put her foot in it, because the statue pursed his lips and his companion giggled delightedly. She attempted a diplomatic apology, but what actually emerged was, «Goodbye, Shamil Basayevich, do come round some time.» After which they both had mild hysterics, and the statue immediately forgave her faux pas, gasping «What a woman! What a woman!» Generally speaking it was a case of what her absent husband would have called «every one a winner», but these laid-back concert people, thank the dear Lord, did not seem to attach the same importance to it, so she had come out unscathed.
On Sunday, while Nina was sleeping peacefully, he left a note saying he had to go home. Letting himself in with his key, he found a stranger in jeans and a thick sweater sprawled out in an armchair with a score and beating time with a hairy hand. His wife was wearing a light sleeveless negligee, her long slender legs bare, and also reading a score but on the sofa. The apartment was quiet, strict and sterile. The clock ticked away relentlessly.
«I've come to get my things.»
«Feel free.»
«And the computer.»
«Go ahead,» she leaned forward, turning slightly, and pulled the plug out of the socket without looking.
«You cut a fine figure.»
«You too.»
«Like a beanpole.»
«Hog.» She yawned and put her hand to her mouth. «Fornicator.»
«I called you one name. You called me two.»
«But you hit out first and I hit back. You should always hit back harder.»
The young man in jeans looked up and gazed unseeingly in their direction. He was obviously listening to something deep down inside him.
«Do you follow me, Felix?»
«Yes, so far.»
«What's he doing here, this Felix?»
«Ask yourself.»
«But I've only been gone a week. You're quick off the mark.»
«Didn't you know? Felix, what do you value most in people?»
«Speed.»
«There you are. You're upset, but he's happy. It takes all sorts.»
«That's a fascist slogan.»
«I'm glad you've got the message.»
«But I've only been gone a week.»
«I find this conversation somewhat tedious,» said his wife with another quick yawn. «Let's have a bite to eat, then get down to work.»
She and the unusually tall Felix got up quickly and went into the kitchen. Nobody seemed interested in him.
«So it's just as well I've been putting it about then,» he shouted vengefully into the kitchen. There was no reply.
Downstairs in the entrance he was greeted by an agitated Nina, flushed with emotion. He put a hand on her shoulder, still indignant.
«She's got herself this Felix.»
«Maybe she had him before,» said Nina, suspiciously.
«Oh, no,» he objected. «That's impossible.»
«We were told at a lecture that you can catch hepatitis through a condom.»
«What did you say? Catch hepatitis through a condom? Where do you hear lectures like that?» He smiled unexpectedly. «At the Women's Lonely Hearts Club? I bet the lecture was called 'How to restrain your partner from casual sex.' Note that my mood improves quickly as soon as I see you. In just a week, fancy that?»
«But you and me did…»
He again brushed her aside scornfully.
«That's you and I. She never changes her mind.»
This almost made her cry.
«But I like her. She's so angry, and good-looking, and slim. I'd like to be like that.»
He waved his hands like a drowning man. «For God's sake! No, it's not really anger. She's just made like that. It's a question of temperament. You are one type, she's another.»
«Which is best?»
«It's all relative,» he sniggered.
«The worse you treat a man, the more he values you!»
He got the giggles again.
«How strict we are today! Dear, oh, dear.» He kissed Nina on the cheek. She melted somewhat, but did not give in, still upset by his trip home.
«Have we got anything to eat?»
«No,» Nina continued to rebel. «Only apricot preserves.»
«Apricot preserves!» He stared at her in rapture.