I was looking at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a black suit that Katya had given me. I looked great in it, but I felt really uncomfortable wearing it 'cause I could barely move in it.
Then Katya came into my room
"My, how handsome!!" she came closer to me and stood right to my left, right where I couldn't see her 'cause I only have my right eye.
"What's up with you?" I said, turning to my left to look at her, but she walked around me so I couldn't see her. She was laughing. "Don't make fun of me, you piece of shit."
"But you look great," she told me. "You even look like a decent person now."
"I look like a waiter."
"Oh, come on," she said. "Waiters don't wear blazers."
"Shut up, you fucking brat," I said and turned around, but this time she didn't walked around me, so I saw her. She was wearing a black evening dress with white polka dots and she went to a stylist to get her hair and makeup done. She looked completely stunning.
"You like it?" she asked, showing me her dress. "Look: it has pockets. And here," she gave me a black handkerchief with white polka dots "so we match, and this brings abundance."
"You believe that shit?" I asked her 'cause I always thought New Year's rituals were really funking dumb.
"Magic's real; you use it."
"Yeah, but this is bullshit," I told her 'cause how was she comparing my power with these fucking rituals.
"Well, I always do them and they work really well for me," she said, pulling out her phone. "And besides, there are tons of rituals. More than one has to work. Look: there's breaking plates, wearing red or yellow underwear (red ones attract love, and you're probably wearing some, aren't you, you perv?), watching the fireworks, hanging onions, kissing, eating lentils for dinner, hiding under a table, wearing new clothes (that's why I bought you the suit), eating twelve grapes."
"Twelve?"
"Yeah," she took two packets of grapes wrapped in plastic bags out of her purse. "It's one for each chime."
"Aren't those a lot of grapes?" I asked her.
"Well, more wishes. At least one has to come true."
But anyway, we went to the hotel's penthouse 'cause we had a reservation there for the New Year's party.
We arrived, sat down in our places, and in front of us were an old couple, around 60 or 70 years old.
But the old man, that fucking asshole, was staring at my eye patch and grinning. He was probably making fun of me, that piece of shit. I wanted him to say something so I could kick the shit outta him, but he didn't have the balls and just kept looking at me.
Or maybe he didn't say anything to me 'cause he probably didn't speak English.
The old lady just smiled at me and tried not to look at my eyepatch.
At least she had some decency, not like that her fucking husband. I liked that lady.
Katya pushed me a little bit.
"Stop staring at the lady, you perv. You're wearing red underwear, don't you?"
"Shut up," I told her and pushed her back.
It didn't take the waiters long before they served us one of those fancy three- or four-course meals, where they give you a measly slice of bread that isn't even that good and charge you an arm and a leg for it.
"They didn't give us lentils," Katya lamented.
We ate and then we talked for. But I kept looking around to see if there was a cop, a traitor, an enemy or someone looking for us.
"You're just looking for someone to fuck, aren't you, you perv?" Katya told me right away. "You're even looking for that lady."
It wasn't long before the hotel's staff handed out hats, cardboard glasses, party blowers, and things like that to us.
"十!… 九!… 八!" I don't know what people started yelling, but I think they were counting down, and most of them went to the terrace to watch the fireworks. Katya took my hand and led me up there. We were so high up that we could see the whole city, with its buildings and neon signs with those strange letters I didn't understand. "二!… 一!… 明けましておめでとうございます!" At that moment, a ton of of fireworks exploded across the sky. Maybe it was 'cause we were in the penthouse of a very tall building, but I'd never seen fireworks so close up. They sounded almost like gunshots, so I looked around 'cause that was the perfect moment to shoot someone without making a sound. But no, nobody there was thinking about anything other than celebrating.
Suddenly, Katya grabbed my face and kissed me.
"Happy New Year," she said after letting me go, and I was totally blown away. I saw her, heard the fireworks, the chimes...
"And your grapes?" I asked her.
"The grapes!" she shouted, took out the bags of grapes, gave me mine and started eating hers as fast as she could.
I looked around to see if cops were coming or if someone was watching us or something, but all I saw were couples hugging, friends laughing, those two old folks holding hands. Everyone was enjoying the moment without worrying about rival gangs, cops, or any of that shit.
I clearly remember that at that moment I thought: "I hope that one day I can live like that."