The Smell of Betrayal by Valeria Yatskevich

After many cloudy days
of the early spring the sun finally appeared at the sky and Richard decided to enjoy its bright rays. He was sitting on the bench at the quay looking how strangers quickly passed by him. Passer-by did not have time to look at the tired sun, did not have enough courage to stop for a minute and look at the world they lived in. They all ran fast because they afraid that if they stopped the world would fall on them and swallow them up.
A man  in old-fashioned hat passed by Richard. Then couple students walked away talking loud about their lectures. An old woman tried to go fast but the burden of  life did not allow her to do it. Richard looked at the strangers without interest, he looked at them just because they were there.
Suddenly someone caught his attention. A young woman was passing by Richard holding a cup of the hot drink. Her gestures were energetic and sharp . But not them caught man’s attention. The strong smell of her drink, the sweet scent of the caramel conjured memories in  Richard’s mind.
He had come home from the work early that day. Melanie, his wife, had said that she had some important news for him. Richard had been nervous. He had known Melanie as the person who had never played on words.
When Richard had opened the door he had felt the overwhelming odour of Melanie’s sickeningly sweet perfumes. She had always used too much perfumes, its permeated  every place at their flat. The heady scent of caramel was so rich that sometimes Richard had felt that he could taste it on his lips.
She was sitting on the blue coach deeply in her thoughts. When she had noticed Richard she had flinched. She had asked him to listen to her carefully and not to interrupt her. Her lips covered by scarlet lipstick were trembling when she had said that she had been pregnant.
Richard had wanted to hug her, to hug the whole world. He had felt himself enormously happy. He had begun to talk something but Melanie had interrupted him with loud voice : “It is not your child!”. Silence.
“I am not sorry. I couldn’t help falling for  temptation. We should break up.  You are boring and self-concentrate. I don’t develop myself with you and it wears me out.  I am leaving you. Don’t resist on talking about it. It will have no sense ” . Melanie had stood up and left the flat while baffled Richard was sitting motionless.
She had broken his world and left him alone on its ruins. Suddenly Richard had understood why she always had used so much perfumes. The scent of it had hidden  the smell  of the another man. “Or maybe, she just smell of that man ”, had suggested Richard. And when that thought had appeared in his confused mind, the man had felt how that suffocating savour intruded in his lungs and how the vomiting came up under the throat.
The smell of woman’s drink had gone. But Richard’s feeling did not and he still felt that disgusting scent. He stood up and quickly walked away because he couldn’t allow the world to  fall on him and swallow him up.