ALLA (to Yakov, nodding delicately): Alla, I'm glad to meet you.

YAKOV (to Valentin, openly envious): Yes…, buddy, I'm jealous! I'm jealous and I don't hide it!

ALLA (smiling): Thanks. (Takes a short pause) Well…, I understand that you need to talk. I'll run around for now (he points with his hand, addressing his husband) to that boutique over there, okay, honey?

VALENTIN (Alle): Of course, honey. Come by, I'll be there soon.

Alla kisses her husband and elegantly leaves the stage, exchanging farewell nods with Yakov.

Both men follow the chiseled figure of Alla with coveted glances.

YAKOV (openly envious):

Yakov turns

to Valentin to say something, but his thoughts are still there… somewhere in the area of Alla's lower back. He turns again in the direction of the departed Alla, looking for something there, carefully watching her silhouette that has long disappeared from the stage.

YAKOV (openly envious): Dddaaaa…

VALENTIN (complacently, turning his friend's head in his direction with his hand): Uh-huh …

YAKOV (openly envious): Listen… how? How do you manage to find such beauties? How did you persuade her to marry you? In the sense.. you, of course, are a prominent man, but she… she…

VALENTIN (optimistically): You're right, my friend, I'm not an oligarch. And I don't have anything special… well, except maybe a couple of tens of millions in accounts, a decent house and three Mercedes cars.

YAKOV (openly envious, indignant): Hah! Well, there! And you say there is nothing like that…

VALENTIN (seriously): But listen, all this came to me only after I met Alla. It was she who made me what I have become. Before that, I was a loser and a sucker… Well, like those … (stops himself, does not seek to offend a friend, tries to steer the situation) like those men who are always dissatisfied with everything, always fussing about something, and there is not much use in this. Something like that.

YAKOV (resigned): Come on… Of course, I'm no different from those men. I have never done anything so grandiose in my life. I worked like everyone else…, I always dreamed of something, I tried to succeed in my swamp, but… I realized too late that the only way to succeed in the swamp is to get stuck in it more strongly. And so it turned out. My years raced by a high-speed car along the highway of life. Leaving somewhere there all the brightest, most interesting and expensive.

VALENTIN (seriously): Yes, wait a minute to bury yourself. Yashka, what are you doing? I remember you as an interesting, intelligent guy with a sparkle in his eyes!

YAKOV (doomed): My eyes sparkled, Valentine, a long time ago.

VALENTIN (seriously): But wait, because the coolest girl in the course jumped out for you! Not for me, mind you, even though I was the ringleader, but for you! Isn't that saying something?

YAKOV (doomed): This suggests that I probably still represented something at that time, but now I don't even remember what it was. I am already a lost person in every sense of the word. In a couple of months, it will be fifteen years since Susanna and I are married.

VALENTIN (kindly): Oh! Congratulations!

YAKOV (sadly): Thank you, but… Somehow, this date does not add joy and optimism to me. You've seen how we are with her… My son is thirteen, an adult already. Then at school, then with friends-girlfriends. He doesn't come home, almost. But… It is understandable.

Valentin looks sadly at his friend, looks around, notices a bench – invites him to sit down with a gesture.

VALENTIN (kindly):

YAKOV (looks at his watch, shakes his head in resignation): Come on, I'm already late anyway.

They sit down on a bench.

VALENTIN (kindly): And where are you late? Something important?

YAKOV (sadly): Yes, it's my mother's birthday today. Here, my wife and I were going to look at the celebration, (she points to the package in her hand) we bought a gift and something for the table. Well… as you saw, it didn't come to a joint campaign.

VALENTIN (kindly): Yash, don't get upset. In this state, a holiday is not a holiday and life is not life. Tell me better, what happened with Susanna there? Why has family life brought you to such a state? After all, everything should be completely different? What's wrong? Where is the error?

YAKOV (sadly): Yes, if I knew where the mistake was, Valya, I would have corrected it a long time ago. And so… I'm afraid that my family equation is not at all with one variable. And it has not been possible for me to solve it for a long time.

VALENTIN (seriously): Wait a minute. But if everything is so bad, if everything is not a joy – so why not get a divorce?

YAKOV (sadly): Oh, Val. I hadn't thought of that. What a divorce. We have a son, and it makes sense to disperse. Who needs us now? When we were young-then there were still chances to build something with someone, and now… and it's wrong – divorce. No, I didn't think about it.