Reunited After 25 Years 16: Good News

A couple of weeks passed. One evening when Andrea went to visit Anton, she saw that he was bursting with excitement.

"Andrea! Guess what! I have it!" He laughed and picked her up and spun her around.

"You have what, Anton?"

"My green card! I finally have it! See?" He showed her the document. "I didn't tell you over the phone because I wanted to surprise you!"

"Oh, Anton, that's wonderful!" She hugged him tightly, and he kissed her lips.

"Now I will never have to leave you again," he said happily.

"We should do something special to celebrate," Andrea suggested.

"I will take you to the nicest restaurant in Gloucester," Anton told her.

They went to dinner, dancing, and then back to the motel, where they made love all night. Anton seemed to have the vigor of a man twenty years younger.

They spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the beach together, playing in the water, riding the waves, and lying on the shore soaking up the sun.

"The cooler weather will be here soon," Andrea said. "We may as well enjoy the warm weather while we can."

"It's nice that when the weather is cooler, I will still be here," Anton replied.

"I'm so glad I don't have to dread saying good-bye to you anymore," Andrea said. His response was to hold her tight and kiss her passionately.

Monday evening he called her after dinner.

"I have been looking for a job," he told her. "It's very hard. I must apply to many places."

"I'm sure you'll find something soon," Andrea encouraged him.

Cooler weather did come to Gloucester. Denny and Darya both began attending the local university. Darya's English was much improved, so she only had to sign up for a couple of remedial classes. Andrea didn't mention it, but secretly she wondered whether Darya was meeting other young women in her classes and becoming attracted to them. She knew that Denny had no idea that Darya was bisexual and that it would have to stay that way.

One evening several weeks later, Anton called Andrea with happy news.

"Guess what!" he exclaimed. "I have a job!"

"That's great!" Andrea said. "What kind of job?"

"An automobile company hired me to install navigational devices," Anton told her. "I told them about my experience on the Soviet submarine. They were very impressed. The said that I am just the man for the job."

"Oh, Anton, that's wonderful!" Andrea exclaimed. "When do you start?"

"Next Monday. Now that I have a job, the next steps will be to buy a house and a car. After that...who knows?"

And where do I fit in with all these plans? Andrea wanted to ask. She knew that Anton loved her, but so far he'd said nothing at all about the future of their relationship. If he was planning to buy a house, that must mean that he wasn't planning to move in with her. Not that she'd asked him to; in truth, she wasn't sure which of them should be the first to bring the subject up, since Anton was the first man she'd been seriously involved with since Dennis had died. In the end she decided that it would be best to just take things day by day and see how they developed.

When Anton called Andrea very late one night, she could tell from his voice that something was seriously wrong.

"I am at the hospital with Darya," he told her. "She had pain in her side, and it just got worse and worse. Finally she couldn't take it anymore so I brought her here to the emergency room. They think it is her appendix."

"I'll be there right away," Andrea said.