" Honestly, " I grinned.

It turns out that someone has had a vested interest in me all my life. This one, at least, honestly confesses, without any love and friendship.

" Tell me, did you translate the letter? You know, from Chinese?"

" Yes, it was hard, really. I don't know the language very well. I taught myself. I took a few lessons at the center."

" That's a lot more than me or any other manager. And it's my first contract with them. No specialists. I only got this case because no one wanted it."

" Well, I'm glad I helped you."

" So, uh."

Julia moved closer to me and smiled. I moved a little away from her in surprise.

" Help me…" Julia purred in her Garfield voice.

" How? " I was surprised.

" The Chinese have a tasty project. A new tracker for training. We will represent their program in Russia. Well, there's adaptation, launch. The bonuses from this endeavor will be so… I'll tell Ms.Adams that we're working together, you as a translator, and we'll split the bonus between the two of us."

" If we split the bonuses, they won't be so tasty. Not for you. Why would you do that?"

" All right, the whole truth, so the whole truth… Our boss Natalia is going to America to visit her children. They studied there and stayed there after they got married. So she's going there for two months. I saw a signed vacation request on Galina's desk. We'll take over the project, get it off the ground. Andrew will officially put me in charge…"

" And when Natalia leaves, you'll take over. And in the long run, the position will be yours for good."

" There! You got it right away!"

" What if Andrew hands it over to another manager?"

" Who? Everyone in the department is busy. If only Dimitri. But Andrew doesn't like him. He would have fired him if Dimitri hadn't married the daughter of his father's friend," Julia snorted."

" Dimitri? " I whispered in a strangled voice. " Who's that?"

" Oh-oh! He's a goose! He came to work " very modestly. Now he thinks he's his father-in-law's successor. He doesn't want to work, he only gets a salary. And that's what's strange. He always has money. He even bought an apartment!

I made an expressive frown. He got the money for the apartment from a fool in love. It was a pity that it happened and I was the one."

" I'd hate to see him," I mumbled.

I suddenly had the idea that it would be better if he saw me when I had already established myself as a specialist. Then he wouldn't be able to get me fired.

" And I don't have to! He doesn't look at Andrew, " Julia snorted.

" You know, I agree. I too do not want to always sit in the waiting room. But to move to the department of translators."

We looked at each other and smiled smugly. Ramilya was right, we should have gotten out of our shells a long time ago.

After sitting in the Orange, discussing all the nuances of future work, I was fifteen minutes late for lunch. I had to run back. All the way I prayed that Andrew had not yet returned. I was lucky, instead of the boss in the waiting room I found a girl unknown to me. A blonde with bright scarlet lips, false eyelashes, in a perfectly fitting beige dress-flats and open light coat, frowned unhappily and swayed on stilettos.

" Good afternoon," I greeted her cautiously.

The blonde gave me an attentive look, and it was clear that we didn't like each other. Nevertheless, I smiled as friendly as I could. First of all, I didn't know who she was, and secondly, I was really late.

" Where is Andrew ? " she asked coldly.

She looked as if she was overpowering herself by talking to me. As if I am dirty, ragged and on the porch, not a secretary in the reception.