Mom, don’t drink from that glass! The new dad PUT SOMETHING IN IT. Mary was in shock hearing these words from her daughter and decided to SWITCH the glasses. What she saw made her hair STAND ON END…..

«Perfect,» Victor brightened. «I know a great place nearby, in the old mansion of merchant Vanderbilt. They make amazing coffee and cake, like in the old days, remember?» «I remember,» Mary smiled.

«Angel food cake?» «Exactly.» Victor beamed as if they had just discovered an important detail uniting them. The cafe turned out to be cozy, with heavy velvet curtains and copper lamps styled antique.

Mary involuntarily recalled how in childhood her mom took her to a similar place on special holidays, and they were given cloth napkins, and the waitresses wore lace aprons. «Tell me about yourself,» Victor asked when they were brought coffee and two angel food cakes on elegant porcelain plates with blue rims. «What’s there to tell,» Mary shrugged.

I’ve been working in school for over twenty years, English language and literature. Husband died three years ago in a car accident. Daughter Sophie, 10 years…

Ordinary life. «There are no ordinary lives in this world,» Victor objected seriously. «Each is unique in its own way.

I’m a widower too, my wife died five years ago from cancer. We had no children. I work in a construction company, manage projects.»

They talked for almost an hour, and Mary was surprised at how easy it was with this essentially stranger. Victor told interesting stories. About work, travels, books he’d read lately.

No falseness, no desire to impress. Just a conversation between two adults. When it was time to go, Victor asked for her phone number.

«If you’ll allow, I’d like to invite you to the theater next weekend. They’re doing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in the staging by a famous director, they’ve restored the 70s production.» Mary hesitated, but only for a moment.

With pleasure, she replied, and dictated the number. The whole way to the music school, Mary thought about the strange meeting. Victor seemed reliable, intelligent, one of those now called «old school.»

He listened attentively, didn’t interrupt, asked questions, genuinely interested in the answers. And he smelled of good cologne, and his suit fit perfectly, which is rare these days. Sophie noticed the change in her mother’s mood as soon as she entered the music school hallway.

«Mom, why do you have flowers?» she asked, putting her music notebook in her backpack. «A friend gave them,» Mary replied, feeling herself blush again like a schoolgirl. «A friend?» Sophie drawled suspiciously.

«What kind of friend?» «I’ll tell you everything, but not here,» Mary smiled, hugging her daughter by the shoulders. «Let’s go home, I’ll make your favorite pancakes, and then we’ll talk.» At home, mixing the batter for pancakes, Mary retold her daughter the story with the gloves, trying not to embellish but also not downplay her interest in the new acquaintance.

«So, you like him?» Sophie asked directly, sitting at the kitchen table and watching her mother. «He seemed.» «Interesting,» Mary replied cautiously.

«But it was just one meeting, and I don’t know him at all yet. And you’ll go to the theater with him?» «Yes, next Saturday. If you don’t mind, of course.»

Sophie thought, biting her lower lip. «Just like Alex when solving a tough problem.» «I don’t mind,» she finally said…

«But let him come to our house first, I want to see him.» Mary couldn’t help laughing at such seriousness. «Okay, dear.

I’ll invite him over for tea before the theater, and you can meet him.» Sophie nodded as if sealing an important deal, and Mary suddenly thought that perhaps something new, unusual, but maybe good, was entering their life. And this thought, instead of scaring her, warmed her from inside, like a sip of hot tea on a cold winter day.

«And where did you live before, Victor?» Sophie looked at the guest with a direct, scrutinizing gaze, holding a teacup like a shield. Mary inwardly winced at such interrogation, but Victor seemed not at all embarrassed. In Miami. Then moved to New York for work, and then here when I was invited to lead the construction of a new residential complex.

And why do you move all the time?» Sophie persisted. «Sophie.» Mary gave her daughter a warning look.

«It’s fine,» Victor raised his hand conciliatorily. «Good question. You see, Sophie, there’s a saying.

A bad workman always blames his tools. So I didn’t want to be a bad workman and kept looking for a place where I could fully realize myself. In Miami the market for specialists was too big, in New York.

Too tough competition, and here. Here I found the golden mean.» Besides, he glanced at Mary, sometimes fate brings unexpected gifts.

Sophie frowned but asked no more questions, silently finishing her tea. Victor shifted the conversation to the girl’s school matters, asked about the music she was studying, and to Mary’s surprise, the ice soon melted completely. When it was time to get ready for the theater, Sophie even looked slightly disappointed…