After a quick glance around to see who it was, Cindy crossed her arms and turned her back toward Abner.

"Cindy, please!" Abner exclaimed.

"I have nothing to say to you," Cindy said shortly.

"Please listen to me, Cindy!" Abner repeated. "I made a mistake! I'm sorry!"

Jan nudged Ilya and pointed with her head, and the three of them walked away to give Abner and Cindy some privacy. Cindy tried to walk with them, but Abner followed her.

"Cindy," Ilya said to his sister-in-law. "I think you should hear what he has to say."

Cindy scowled but did as he'd told her. Ilya, Jan, and Chelsea went to a few more exhibits and then the gift shop on the way out. While they were there, they came upon Abner and Cindy and noticed that they were holding hands.

"Well, it look as if you work things out," Ilya said happily.

"I apologized for hurting her before, and she agreed to give me a second chance," Abner replied.

"I am glad," said Ilya. "We are about to go to lunch if you would like to join us."

"Sure!" said Abner.

Ilya, Jan, and Chelsea rode together in Ilya's car, and Abner drove Cindy in his own car. They all sat together in a booth at McDonald's. Jan asked for a high chair for Chelsea.

"Your little girl is so cute," Abner told Ilya and Jan. "How old is she?"

"Nineteen months," Jan told him.

"Are you and Hayward still tight?" Abner asked Ilya.

"Tight?"

"Are you guys still good friends?"

"I do not see as much of him as I used to, but yes, we are still good friends. He has little girl now, too. Her name is Shanika."

"That's great!" said Abner. "I'd love to touch base with him again."

"Touch base?"

"I'd love to see him again," Abner explained.

"Marcia's marrying Paddy this summer," Jan told Abner.

"Wow! I had no idea they were even dating," he replied.

"She's converting to Catholicism for him," Jan added.

"I guess it must be real love, then," said Abner.

After lunch, Ilya and Jan went back home so that Chelsea could take her nap, and Cindy left with Abner. "I think it is so nice that Cindy give Abner another chance," Ilya said to his wife on the way home.

"I just hope he doesn't hurt her again," Jan replied.

"I think he learn his lesson, just like Marcia did," said Ilya.

Cindy didn't come home until almost midnight that night. "You and Abner must have really hit it off," Jan said to her younger sister the following morning. Cindy only smiled mysteriously.


The rest of spring break passed quickly. Ilya and Jan took Chelsea to the beach and to the park, and then school resumed. With a tremendous amount of help from Ilya, Jan managed to struggle through the rest of trigonometry. When she received her report card for the term, she was relieved to see that she'd earned a C plus in the class.

"It would have been nice to have gotten an A," she said to Ilya. "But I guess that would have been too much to ask for."

"C plus is good grade," her husband replied. "You work hard, study hard. I am proud of you."

Jan smiled and blushed, and Ilya kissed her forehead.

Ilya graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering that May. The ceremony took place on a Saturday morning. Mike, Carol, Alice, Greg and Nora, Peter, Paddy and Marcia, Abner and Cindy, and, of course, Jan and Chelsea, all came to watch him graduate. Jan's heart swelled with pride as she watched her husband march out onto the field in his cap and gown with his fellow students.

The first ones called up to receive their degrees were those who were graduating summa cum laude, then magna cum laude, then cum laude, then all the other students. As Ilya was graduating summa cum laude, he was one of the first to be called. The ceremony itself didn't last that long, and when it was over, all the graduates threw their caps into the air. Ilya watched curiously, then followed suit. After that, the graduates were released to mingle with family and friends.

"I'm so proud of you!" Jan exclaimed as she hugged her husband tightly.

"Thank you, sweet Jan," Ilya replied. "To hear you say that mean more to me than anything else."

Mike, Carol, and most of the other family members took photos of Ilya and Jan standing together, and then it was time to leave.

"Time for that special lunch I promised you," Jan told her husband. She took him out to his favorite restaurant, where he ordered his favorite meal, steak and a baked potato with sour cream and a side salad. Jan herself had seafood.

"If I never eat another fish, that will be fine with me," Ilya chuckled. Jan recalled his telling her that he'd eaten fish on an almost daily basis as a child.

Chelsea's meal was free, and in addition, Ilya and Jan shared bits of their own food with her, except that Ilya didn't give her any steak, as he was afraid she'd choke on it. Ilya ate every bite of his meal, but Jan and Chelsea both had leftovers, so Jan asked for a doggy bag.

That night, Chelsea was asleep in her crib and Ilya was sitting up in bed thinking when Jan emerged from her shower wearing the nightgown she knew her husband liked best. "Now for your most special present of all," she said in as sultry a voice as she could manage.

"I cannot wait." Ilya grinned.

She slipped her nightgown off, then slowly removed Ilya's clothing piece by piece, kissing every inch of newly exposed flesh as she did so. Soon they were both completely naked, and Jan proceeded to make love to her husband as she never had before. Unused to his wife taking the lead, Ilya was surprised and delighted.

"That was nicest present of all," he told her when it was over.

"Well, I'm very glad you like it," she murmured. They both laughed.