Gábor couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment his wife started to annoy him. He had taken her as his wife because „it was time.” His mother told him over and over again: he was about to turn thirty, he was still single, the time to give him grandchildren was running out, and she kept complaining about it.
Éva, his colleague, had barely started working. An ordinary girl: not ugly, but not attractive enough to attract attention either. A simple young woman. You’d sit down and talk to her, and within a few minutes, you’d already forgotten her. It was then that Gábor began to seriously consider that maybe his mother was right: it was time to get married.
Besides, he was tired of the mess in his house. He couldn’t stand picking up socks everywhere, not finding anything clean, and facing a sink always full of dishes. He wanted to come home from work and sit down in a tidy home. That’s when he realized it was time to „pick up the stones,” or at least the socks.
When he set his mind to something, he meant it. He could spend half a day cleaning, leaving the apartment sparkling clean. At night, he didn’t go out anymore: he preferred to sit in front of the television, cup of tea in hand, enjoying an impeccable home. It wasn’t selfish, he thought: he didn’t just want someone who cleaned, but also someone who cooked something better than industrial dumplings or frozen ravioli.
That was his second motive. He was ready to love. He loved all women in theory. His mother, however, used to warn him: „Son, one day women will kill you. Together they’ll bury you!” And he would laugh, boasting about having made many happy, while his mother responded by hitting him with the dishcloth.
He approached marriage practically: he mentally reviewed all his acquaintances. There were many more beautiful women, yes, but none seemed suitable for a wife. Then he thought about his coworkers, even the married ones, convinced that he could seduce anyone if he wanted. But he didn’t. In the end, he confessed to his mother that he’d checked them all: none of them were suitable. Outraged, she called him a charlatan.
„Mom, really,” he insisted. „Would you look for a wife with your heart or your head?”
„With your heart, son, how else?”
„That’s the problem. If I follow my heart, when I wake up my brain screams at me: ‘We don’t need someone like that!'”
His mother just laughed and encouraged him to be patient. He, meanwhile, joked about getting married as soon as he found someone who made pancakes as good as his.
One afternoon, on his way home from work, he decided to walk through the park. It was the height of St. Martin’s autumn: red, yellow, and brown leaves; bright sunshine; cobwebs floating in the air. Gábor was whistling cheerfully until he recognized Éva, sitting on a bench reading. He didn’t think of her as a wife or a lover; he was just curious. He approached.
She barely looked up, greeted him, and returned to her book. Her indifference left him speechless: no woman had ever treated him like that. That „little gray mouse,” with such a simple gesture, ruined his evening.
From then on, he couldn’t get her out of his head. He watched her in the office, with her loose dresses, glasses that hid her beautiful eyes, and an air of wanting to go unnoticed. Was she hiding on purpose? Why?
One day, they bumped into each other in the park. Éva’s glasses fell, and when he handed them back to her, he discovered deep-set green eyes surrounded by long eyelashes. They talked, laughed, and Gábor realized that this woman was not only beautiful, but also intelligent.
He began to approach her with flowers, coffee, and pleasantries, until one day, exasperated, Éva asked him in front of everyone:
„What do you want from me, Gábor? To sleep with me? Fine. But after that, leave me alone.”
He was paralyzed. What he wanted wasn’t a body, but a life with her. And when Éva showed up the next day, displaying her true beauty, everyone in the office understood that the little mouse was actually a storm.
Shortly after, thanks to her mother’s complicity, Éva ended up at his house sharing pancakes. A month later, they were handing out their marriage papers.
At the wedding, Éva was clear:
„Gábor, I will love you and forgive you for many things. But if you cheat on me even once, you will lose me forever.”
He accepted, convinced he could keep it.
But four years later, despite his wife’s perfection, he fell prey to the temptation of Katà, a light and flirtatious companion. One night, while Éva was fast asleep, Gábor went to her house. The next morning, he thought he had received the best news of his life: they were going to be parents. But when he returned, he found a note and two videos on her phone. One showed his infidelity, secretly recorded; the other showed Éva saying goodbye: „The only thing I don’t forgive is betrayal. Don’t look for me.”
Gábor’s world crumbled. He searched for her in vain for months, begged his in-laws, waited in front of her house, until he finally discovered she had given birth.
To twins. He rushed to the hospital and found her holding the children.
Only then, devastated and repentant, did he realize what he had lost. And when Éva rested her head on his shoulder, the grandparents knew that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance to start over.
Because, in the end, all ends well if it truly ends well. 💔👶