«I’ve got it!» Gladness and gratitude shone in her expressive eyes, and Vlad smiled.
«Oh, if even Nina understood,» the professor sneered. «I think, missy, you’re taking the wrong course. Your last project was awful. I’m simply amazed, why do you study here? You’ll never be a good engineer. You’re just wasting the government’s money.»
The girl burst into tears, and, sobbing, she ran away.
Forgetting everything, Vlad rushed after Nina, and saw her in the corridor, standing by a window. Pressing her forehead to the windowpane, she cried violently.
He neared her, and, as tender as he could, said, «Don’t mind him. But anyway, if it’s so difficult for you to study here, why don’t you change your major?»
Resolutely wiping her eyes, the girl looked straight into his face.
«Because I love you,» she answered very casually. «And this is the only place where I can see you.»
Her naive frank declaration confounded Vlad, and he gaped at her. Shrugging her shoulders, Nina slowly walked away.
«Wait!» Vlad called her over. Nina stopped and looked back.
A very tempting idea came to Vlad. At that time in Moscow it was almost impossible to rent a room, and the government gave the students dwellings in the campus free of charge, but it was like a barracks. The students had to live with at least six people in the same room.
Vlad knew that the girl was living with her mother in an apartment. Nina even had a separate chamber.
Vlad quickly weighed the pros and cons. «It would be great to live in your very own room… Calm, silence, all the conditions for peaceful studying. She’s a nice, kind, and caring person. She loves me. She will be a perfect wife. If I’m wrong about her, I can divorce her any time,» he thought, and lied aloud addressing her: «All those months I was watching you, and I just waited for the right moment to ask you. Would you marry me?»
Her huge eyes became even bigger. Gazing at him like a wounded gazelle, she came close.
«Really?» She trustfully reached out for him, and Vlad felt guilty about his lie.
But he honestly liked Nina. He wanted to cheer her up, and her emotional love impressed him. So, he nodded, and opened his arms.
Nina hugged Vlad, and when she did it, and he sensed her pressing to him, something turned over in his soul.
He could not understand what had happened, but all his mercenary thoughts about her room were gone at once. For him she was the only person on the Earth from now on, and he knew he would not hesitate to sacrifice his own life and the whole world for her. He would go through fire and water for only one of her tears or for her smile.