This is how the most ordinary girl fooled the rich man
… The appearance of Tanya Gorokhova was as ordinary as her first name and last name: her face was round, her nose was bulbous, her hair was blond to her shoulders. In a word, you will pass — you will not turn back.
Tanka also could not boast of a figure: short, stocky, with a problematic zone of riding breeches and a conditionally pronounced waist. But among all our fellow students, she stood out with unshakable optimism.
The smile did not leave her round face, and next to the first beauties of the course, she felt absolutely confident. It never occurred to her that against their background she looks, let’s say, not quite advantageous.
Mind and ingenuity, unlike her appearance, her nature did not bypass, therefore, in the classroom, the simple Tanya easily overshadowed all our mannered beauties.
She chose Artem Silvanovsky as an object of adoration almost from the first day of her studies at the institute. It was hard not to notice this guy — tall, well-built, with a fashionable haircut and a special squint in his eyes.
The secret of the latter was simple: Artyom was short-sighted, but did not wear glasses, but he gained additional glasses in the eyes of numerous fans. He knew his own worth, he accepted signs of attention from girls with imposing indulgence,
including from Gorokhova, who was in love with him. Perhaps no one expressed his feelings as sincerely and ingenuously as she did. Her life was generally devoid of secrets and halftones,
she lived with an “open visor” and did not consider it necessary to hide her attitude towards the handsome Artem.
We all wondered: what is she counting on, surrounding with such adoration a guy who, in a nightmare, will not dream of reciprocating her?
Everyone thought so, but not Tanka. Once, looking at her record book with only fives, she said: “Everything is fine, but the surname is rustic, disrupts harmony. That’s when I will be Silvanovskaya, only the birth certificate and the school certificate will remain on the old surname.
Everyone who heard this burst out laughing. “Do you really think that you have a chance to become Artyom’s wife?” — Snezhana, the most spectacular student of our course, asked mockingly. «Why not? Tanya was genuinely surprised. “Hands, legs and head are in place, not crooked,
not lame — why shouldn’t he marry me?” “So you think your chances are equal to mine?” Snezhana laughed. Tanya looked at her very seriously: “No, I don’t think so. I am sure that my chances are much higher than yours.
Because Artem is a smart guy and understands that no one will ever love him the way I do.” “A girl can leave the village, but the village will never leave the girl,” Snezhana concluded, rolling her eyes, and at that moment everyone agreed with her.
Tanya was wrong about Artyom’s ability to appreciate true feelings. He was seriously carried away by the arrogant beauty Snezhana, and in the middle of the second year they got married.
Gorokhova, having learned about this, sobbed for three days, and then, having calmed down, reassessed the situation: “It does not mean anything. Artem simply dragged on the period of growing up. He will understand everything and leave her, and she will have only his last name in memory.
The most interesting thing is that this is exactly what happened. Only Artyom did not leave his wife, but she herself left him. In her last year, Snezhana unexpectedly started an affair with the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and moved in with him (by the way, keeping the name of her retired husband).
Apparently, the family life of this beautiful couple was not initially cloudless, because Artem took his wife’s departure without drama. “Well, what did I say? Tanya exulted. Now he will understand everything!
But again he did not understand anything and fell into the arms of the sultry brunette Marina, who was distinguished by an undisguised passion for collecting admirers. They came to the graduation party at the restaurant together, and by the end of the evening,
drunk Marina announced publicly that she and Artem had decided to get married and leave for the capital. Tanya was crying again, but here our sympathies were already on her side. Only a complete idiot could imagine Marina as a wife:
it is clear that she will never stop in her desire for a variety of personal lives. “You will give birth to a son to me,” Artyom thought, squeezing his potential wife in his arms. «Necessarily!» Marina smiled. Those who knew her well could easily read in this smile: “Wait, you fool!”
They really got married and left for Moscow, cutting off almost all contacts with friends and classmates. From time to time there were rumors that they were living poorly, Artem was not getting along with his career, and Marina was not working anywhere and was “looking for herself”.
Her husband did not wait for her son, but once he was “rewarded” with a common sexual infection and made a strong-willed decision to divorce.
Tanya, annoyed by the short-sightedness of her lover, returned after graduation to her native regional center and, out of desperation, responded to the advances of her classmate Petya, who worked as a tower crane operator.
And even decided from hopelessness «to get married.» Peter adored his wife, did not suffer from bad habits, earned good money — and everything was in the house. Tanya quickly became pregnant, but in the fourth month she had a miscarriage.
After leaving the hospital, she immediately filed for divorce. In response to her husband’s bewildered question about what she lacks, she said honestly:
“You can’t sleep with one, but think about another. Apparently, fate itself did not allow me to give birth to you, otherwise we would have toiled together all our lives.
… We met a quarter of a century after graduation from the institute. An initiative group of former members of the student council decided to gather all the graduates of the faculty, scattered across different cities, for the anniversary evening.
25 years is a solid period by the standards of human life, many have changed beyond recognition. However, Artem Silvanovsky retained the same youthful appearance, except that he became gray as a harrier and finally decided to wear glasses.
But next to him (what a surprise!) Was Tanya Gorokhova, a little plump, but still beaming with a good-natured smile. She looked at Artyom with such loving eyes that we all experienced the effect of deja vu — God, everything is like in our student years!
According to the idea of the initiators of the anniversary, each of the classmates at the table had to briefly tell about themselves and their achievements over the past quarter of a century.
Many did not hesitate to brag about their successes — careers, connections, tangible assets. When the turn came to Artyom, who was sitting next to Tanka, he stood up with a full glass, holding his companion by the shoulder with his other hand.
“My main achievement in life is my wife, Tatyana Silvanovskaya,” he stunned those present, confident that these two, like everyone else, met today in a restaurant. We have been together for fifteen years.
This woman not only brought me back to life after two failed marriages — she showed me that love can work wonders. The fact that I am here today, with you, alive and even relatively healthy, is only her merit. And now I propose to drink for my Tanya, which means for love!
Tanya blinked her reddened eyes and touched his hand, squeezing her shoulder. And then, sniffling, she rushed into the ladies’ room to freshen up the leaking mascara.
In her place, Artyom’s first wife, Snezhana, immediately plopped down. Apparently, she waged an incessant and not entirely successful struggle for youth: there was too much jewelry and makeup, and too little charm of a woman of elegant age.
“Silvanovsky, well, you give! she exclaimed in surprise. — Tanya did get you and your last name! Where did you find her after so many years?
