be right back.
He examined himself, remembering that he was wearing a suit and went to change into his home clothes.
Massimo returned at the time when Pablo picked up the cezve from the stove, and Jorge took out cups and laid them out on the table.
They sat on different sides of a small square table, one side of which was adjacent to the wall.
After walking around the apartment for a while, Massimo looked a little more awake. This was noticeable even in his voice:
– Well, tell me. What new happened here while I was away?
Pablo and Jorge exchanged glances. Pablo began:
– What’s new? A new gas station has opened near the overpass. A Rolls-Royce was dismantled in the workshop behind our house. The Bolivian baker’s daughter, they say, got pregnant.
– Come on? – Massimo said. – Is this the one with big tits?
– Yes. The eldest.
– So, who knocked her up?
– Who knows? She lay under so many men that she probably herself doesn’t know whose wealth she is carrying.
Jorge added:
– Marcello is addicted to weed.
– Milkman?
Jorge nodded a couple of times, taking a sip of his coffee.
– Yesterday I was going to the pharmacy, and he was standing near the service entrance. I see some smoke coming out from behind him. I approached, and in his hand he had a rolled-up cigarette, like my phallus.
Laughter was heard throughout the apartment.
The laughter subsided a little.
– Shhh… – Pablo said, putting a finger to his lips.
He listened for a while, then picked up an empty glass from the tabletop, put it against the wall and put his ear to the bottom.
– What’s up there? – Jorge asked impatiently.
A satisfied smile slowly began to appear on Pablo’s face. He began to speak in intermittent phrases, continuing to listen to the sounds coming from the other side of the wall:
– Someone is fucking from the bottom of the heart. Those are the moans… Hot woman.
Jorge wanted to take the second glass and join in, but stopped after Pablo said:
– Looks like the finish line.
– Who is first? – curiosity did not let go of Jorge.
– The guy groaned. Yes, he came first.
Pablo returned to the table, asking Massimo:
– Is it always this hot there?
– Every day.
– Your neighbors are funny.
After the coffee in the cups ended, and with it the talk about the latest news, Jorge turned to Massimo:
– Listen, it’s only thanks to you that we are not behind bars, but you, on the contrary, got into such shit because of us.
Pablo continued:
– Yes. Forgive us. It’s Jorge’s and my fault. We were supposed to leave with the proceeds from the cash register, but instead we decided to also open the safe.
Pablo pulled out a package from his back pocket.
– In general, we decided not to divide everything into equal parts. The total was 1,940. Jorge and I each kept 420 for ourselves; before that, we gave a hundred to Aunt Barbara’s attending physician so that they would move the line and perform the operation a couple of months earlier. They said that it would be impossible to move the queue by more than two months and that was the maximum. And this is the rest – Pablo said, placing the remaining money in front of Massimo.
Massimo put his hand to the stack of bills and pushed them into the center of the table.
– Hey-hey! What are you doing? – Jorge almost shouted.
– In short, I didn’t even suspect that you somehow helped with my aunt. So this action of yours is more valuable to me than money.
– Yes, that goes without saying. Just take yours. You’re without funds.
After much convincing from his friends, Massimo said:
– Listen, guys, I’ll take it only on one condition. I won’t be able to help you until the probationary period expires. One year will pass and you can count on me.
Massimo said the last phrase firmly, decisively and with enthusiasm.
Pablo spoke indignantly:
– Of course. Forget it. We’ll manage somehow ourselves. We’ll hold out for a year. Just take it. The main thing is, as soon as they start to run out, you let us know, and we’ll give you more. In general, whether you say it or not, we will still throw it in at the first opportunity. We don’t abandon our own people.
– Thank you, guys. I do not forget.
Jorge replied:
– And you forget it. That’s an order!
Laughter filled the kitchen.
They left the apartment and spent the whole evening until late in a bar called «A glass of red». The owner was a stocky forty-two-year-old Cuban named Murillo, with whom Massimo had a special relationship. He often visited the establishment and took a place at the bar, where he and Murillo had heart-to-heart conversations. This has been the case since early childhood. From the age of eight Massimo was a special customer at the bar. Here Murillo constantly treated him to soda or fruit cocktail. If Massimo undertook to carry out some errand, took an order home, ran to the grocery store for another package of napkins, helped collect empty bottles from tables, Murillo paid him generously for this, fed him a hamburger or a hot dog, and in addition offered him a free choice of any drink. The bar was located half a block from Massimo’s house. In the evenings and on weekends, the establishment was always full of customers, and during the day it was a quiet and peaceful place, a time when you can sit at a table with a plate of fried chicken, potatoes and a full glass of beer or Coca-Cola. But in the evening, vodka, wine, rum, whiskey, cognac and other alcohol are consumed, so actively approaching the moment of separation of the brain from the rest of the body.
By morning Massimo had slept well and a very atypical day began for him. The first thing he decided to do was tidy up the apartment. In the absence of Aunt Barbara, chaos reigned inside on a universal scale. He washed the floors, wiped dust wherever it could accumulate, collected and took out the trash, washed the dishes, washed and put some clothes in their places. It soon dawned on him that he would never do laundry by hand in the future. This decision was fueled by the amount that Jorge and
