– Katya, here’s the thing… – Alexey was nervously fidgeting in his chair while sitting at the table. – You know that I’m leaving on a business trip tomorrow?
– I know, – Ekaterina became wary. Lyosha seemed somehow worried. Katya also began to get nervous. – Did something happen? Were you asked to stay on the business trip for a long time?
– No, it’s not about work at all. I wanted to ask you for a favor.
– About a favor? – Katya was surprised. – Well, ask.
— The parents are leaving for another city for three days. Their friends are celebrating their wedding anniversary. They are celebrating in style…
– AND?
– And we need to look after Arseny. It’s a long trip. Mom doesn’t want to take the child with her, – having said this, Alexey looked pleadingly at his wife. Previously, he himself sat with his son when his parents went somewhere, but this time he did not have such an opportunity.
“I don’t even know,” Katya said, puzzled. “Senya and I hardly ever communicated. Do you think an eight-year-old child would want to stay at home with a strange aunt?”
“Hmm, I don’t think he’ll be against it,” Lesha answered uncertainly.
– What should I do with him? I don’t know how to handle children at all, you know that, – Katya got worried.
– Don’t worry, – Lesha waved his hand, – Senya is not a little child anymore. He is quite an independent guy. If you don’t know how to entertain him, just turn on a movie or cartoons.
Despite the fact that Alexey was sure that Katya would not have any problems with his son, his wife was still afraid to be left alone with a child she barely knew.
Ekaterina and Lesha got married six months ago. It was the man’s second marriage. The first time, Alexey went to the registry office when he was very young. His first wife, Maria, was also a young and stupid girl at the time. She got pregnant, got married in a hurry, and after the baby was born, she realized that she was not ready to become a mother. As a result, Masha left her husband and newborn child, and then left in an unknown direction. Alexey has not heard anything about her since then.
At first, it was difficult for the man to cope with little Senya alone. Alexey studied by correspondence and did not want to drop out of college.
When Lesha received his diploma, he immediately went to look for a job. Up until that point, his parents had been helping him quite well: his father had a business, and his mother was a housewife. But now he had a specialty, and he did not want to live off his relatives.
However, Alexey was unable to build a career and raise his son at the same time. As a result, he left the child with his parents and began to earn money himself.
Lyudmila Markovna and Boris Evgenievich were not against looking after their grandson. Arseny was already two years old then. Grandmother stayed at home with him while grandfather and father worked. Several years passed like this.
– Son, it’s time for you to get married. We need to find a new mother for Senya, – Lyudmila Markovna kept repeating the same thing.
– Yeah, I’ll definitely get married… Someday, – Alexey waved it off. After his first unsuccessful marriage, he was in no hurry to build a new relationship. But when Arseny turned seven, Alexey met Katya. He fell in love with her so much that he proposed to her almost immediately.
Ekaterina knew Lyosha’s story. She knew his son, but she wasn’t particularly drawn to him. The woman didn’t have a good relationship with her mother-in-law, so Katya avoided communicating with their family in every possible way.
When Alexey asked his wife to babysit Senya for three days, Ekaterina was very worried at first, but was forced to agree. Lesha’s further career advancement depended on this business trip, so she met him halfway.
– Arseniy is allergic to nuts. Keep that in mind! – Lyudmila Markovna said sternly when she brought her grandson to her daughter-in-law. – In general, he is not a problematic guy. He sits on his phone all day and doesn’t bother anyone.
“Okay. Everything will be fine, don’t worry,” Katya answered, glancing towards the boy, who was staring at his phone screen.
After saying goodbye to her mother-in-law, Ekaterina began to feel awkward in the presence of a strange child in the house, but then she relaxed. Senya did not even pay attention to her. He sat in the living room and played his games all the time.
At first, the woman was happy that Arseniy was having fun on his own and was not causing her any particular problems. But as the evening approached, the stepmother began to get annoyed with what was happening.
“Listen, maybe we should play something?” Katya suddenly suggested. She thought it was wrong for a child to sit on the phone all day.
– Into what? – Senya asked, tearing his eyes away from the screen for the first time. He looked at his stepmother with such surprise, as if he had never been offered such a proposal before.
– Some board games. We have a lot of them, – said Katya and took boxes out of the chest of drawers.
“Come on,” the boy answered enthusiastically, putting the phone aside.
Ekaterina was also surprised that Senya agreed to play games with her so quickly. In the end, they had a fun time.
— What are we going to do tomorrow? Maybe we’ll go to the store in the morning? Buy some groceries and then bake a pizza together?
– Oh, come on. I love pizza! Grandma sometimes buys it for me, but she doesn’t bake it herself, – Senya was delighted.
– And we will bake it!
The next day, Ekaterina got up early, made pancakes and woke Arseny up. They had breakfast together, then went to the store and spent the whole day in the kitchen. Katya no longer felt awkward in front of Senya. And the boy himself became more sociable and open.
These three days that the stepmother spent with her stepson seemed pleasant to Ekaterina. She could not even imagine that it would be so easy for her to communicate with Lyosha’s son.
At the right time, Arseniy’s grandparents came for him.
“Okay, Katya, bye,” the boy said sadly, hugging his stepmother.
– Bye, Sen. Come visit, okay?
– Necessarily!
Having closed the door, Ekaterina breathed a sigh of relief. On the one hand, the woman was glad that she had kept her promise and had babysat Alexey’s son. Now neither her in-laws nor her husband would think that she was a lousy stepmother. But on the other hand, Katya felt sad. After Senya left, the apartment became empty, quiet and uncomfortable…
Exactly one day later Lesha returned home.
– Well, how are you here? Tell me, what did you do with Senya? Didn’t he wear you out too much?
– Tied him up? – Ekaterina burst out laughing. – It was more like I tied him up. Oh, Lyosha, you have such a wonderful child! He is a very interesting and smart boy. You are definitely lucky with your son.
These words touched Alexey to the depths of his soul. The man wanted to thank his wife, but at that moment music started playing on his phone.
“Mom is calling. She probably wants to thank you,” Lesha smiled tenderly and, answering the call, turned the volume up to maximum. Alexey hadn’t expected at all that his mother wasn’t going to praise her daughter-in-law.
– Lyoshenka, you can’t even imagine how much I regretted leaving Senya to this Katya! – Lyudmila Markovna started shouting right away.
– What happened, Mom? – Alexey looked at his stunned wife, but did not turn off the speakerphone.
– Your wife doesn’t know how to handle children at all! – the woman continued to complain. – It’s as if Arseniy has been replaced! Now he doesn’t play on his phone, but follows us around and asks to play board games with him. Can you imagine? And he decided that he wants to be a chef. He made a mess all over the kitchen trying to bake pizza!
“Mom, but…” Lesha began to make excuses, but his mother did not let him speak.
— What “but”? Why was it necessary to fool the child’s head?! Tell me why?! So that grandpa and I would suffer later? No, I will never leave Senya with her again! How could you spoil a child like that in three days?!
– Okay, Mom. We’ll talk later, – Lesha answered rudely. – I just arrived, and now I’m having lunch.
– Have lunch, have lunch, son. Just tell this Katya that she’s a lousy mother! – blurted out Lyudmila Markovna and hung up.
Ekaterina, who had been standing nearby all this time and listening to her mother-in-law’s swearing, was shocked. She thought that she and Senya had a good time, but it turned out that he couldn’t be torn away from his phone.
“Hmm,” the woman said sadly. She looked at her husband and waited for his reaction.
– Don’t pay attention. Mom helped me a lot with Senya, I’m very grateful to her… but unfortunately, everyone wants to live the way they like. – Lyosha said, looking down shyly.
The man felt awkward in front of his wife, but he did not say anything nasty about his mother. After all, his parents had looked after his child for many years. Alexey was grateful to them for this, although he understood that the methods of communication with the child should have been a little different.
Noticing that Lesha had become despondent after Lyudmila Markovna’s call, Ekaterina approached her husband and made him an unusual offer.
– What if we take Senya to our place? He is your son after all. The boy should grow up next to his dad. And we will relieve the grandparents of the burden. He is not a baby anymore, I think we can handle it.
“Do you really want this?” Lesha asked in surprise. He had thought about this question before, but for some reason he thought that neither Senya nor Katya would agree to live under the same roof. And now his wife herself insisted on it.
“I’m not against it at all,” the woman smiled kindly. “Arseny and I got along well. I think he’ll agree to this proposal.”
Ekaterina was right. When Lyosha suggested that his son move into their apartment, he happily began packing his things. The boy, who had been deprived of maternal love since childhood, finally felt the warmth of his father and stepmother.
From that moment on, Arseniy, Alexey and Katya became a family. The woman loved her husband’s son as if he were her own. But she never found a common language with her mother-in-law. After her grandson moved out, Lyudmila Markovna became even more angry with her daughter-in-law. She believed that there was no need to take the child away from them, because she and her husband raised him well.
“Mom, you can invite Senya to visit you whenever you want,” said Lyosha. “But it’s still better for him to live with us. And you and your father, finally live for yourselves.”
Lyudmila Markovna shrugged her shoulders and listened to her son’s advice. Now she had time to miss her grandson, and when he came to visit, she herself suggested that he play or do something fun and interesting.
