Katya had always known that beauty was her main trump card. Her mother had been saying it ever since her daughter learned to walk in high heels without tripping over her own feet. “Katenka, you need to make a good match. You’ve got everything for it—looks and charm.” Then she would turn to her elder daughter Lena and sigh: “And you, dear, will have to achieve everything on your own. But at least you’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”
Lena was never offended by those words. She understood her mother. There hadn’t been a man in their family for ten years, not since their father left for a younger colleague. Their mother worked in the accounting department of a small firm, barely made ends meet, and dreamed that at least one of her daughters would secure a comfortable future. Katya was her hope, and Lena her insurance.
In the evenings Katya would whirl before the mirror in new dresses she’d bought with her last money, while Lena sat over her textbooks. She was finishing university, studying philology, and dreamed of working as an editor at a publishing house. Their mother would shake her head: “And how much do you think you’ll earn at that?” But Lena stubbornly kept at it.
Katya went to parties almost every weekend. She knew all the trendy crowd in the city, showed up at the most expensive clubs and cafés—though someone else always had to pick up the tab. “An investment in the future,” she joked whenever Lena cautiously asked what her sister lived on.
And one day, the plan seemed to work.
His name was Denis, and he entered Katya’s life as if he’d stepped out of a glossy magazine. Tall, broad-shouldered, with intelligent gray eyes and a confident smile. They met at a party at mutual friends’, and he immediately picked her out of the crowd. He came up first, started a conversation, asked her to dance. Then he walked her home and asked for her number.
“Mom, I think I’ve found him,” Katya whispered into the phone to her friend the next day. “He’s so… special. He’s got a nice car, and he dresses stylishly.”
Denis turned out to be an attentive suitor. He brought flowers, took her to the movies and cozy cafés, and knew how to pay compliments so they sounded sincere. Katya was over the moon. After a month she decided it was time to introduce him to the family.
“Lena, just behave yourself, okay?” she warned her sister the morning Denis was to come for dinner. “Don’t start in with your clever talk, all right?”
Lena looked up from the notes she was rewriting for an exam.
“What, are you afraid he’ll fall in love with me?” she smirked.
“Not funny,” Katya took offense. “I just don’t want you scaring him off with your… uh… intellectual conversations.”
“Fine, I’ll try to speak in monosyllables and bat my eyelashes.”
Denis showed up at exactly seven with a bouquet for their mother and a box of chocolates. He was dressed simply—jeans, a shirt, a leather jacket—but everything fit him perfectly. Their mother immediately appreciated his manners: he helped set the table, praised her cooking, and asked about her work.
Lena watched him over her cup of tea. There was something… unusual about him. Not insincere, exactly, but a mismatch between how he looked and spoke and the image of a successful young man he seemed to be projecting.
“Denis, what do you do?” their mother asked once they’d finished the main courses.
“I’m an auto mechanic,” he replied calmly, and Lena noticed Katya’s face twitch.
“An auto mechanic?” the younger sister repeated, a note of disappointment creeping into her voice.
“Yeah, at a garage on Sadovaya. It’s a good job; I like it.” Denis smiled. “Though I hope to start my own business someday. I’ve got a few plans.”
Lena saw Katya’s mood shift. Her sister tried to smile and keep the conversation going, but something in her eyes had cracked. A mechanic. Hands in motor oil. Not the prince she’d been waiting for.
After dinner, when Denis left, Katya locked herself in her room. And the next day she began picking up his calls less often and with less enthusiasm.
“What’s with you?” Lena asked when her sister once again declined his call.
“Nothing. I just… we’re not right for each other,” Katya said, not looking up.
“Because he’s a mechanic?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Katya flared. “We’re just different people, okay? We have different views on life.”
But Lena understood. She saw their mother nod approvingly when Katya spoke of “differences in life stances.” A mechanic didn’t fit the standards of a good catch.
Two weeks later Katya broke it off for good. He didn’t call anymore, didn’t write, as if he’d vanished into thin air.
Lena ran into him by chance a month and a half later in a bookstore. She was choosing a birthday present for a friend when she spotted a familiar figure in the classics section.
“Denis?”
He turned, and his face lit up with a smile.
“Lena! Hi. How are you?”
“Fine. What are you reading?”
He showed her a book—The Master and Margarita.
“Rereading it. I love Bulgakov.”
They started talking. It turned out they had a lot in common—favorite authors, films, views on life. Denis turned out to be nothing like the person Lena had imagined. Smart, well-read, with a subtle sense of humor.
“Want to grab a coffee?” he suggested when they left the store.
Lena hesitated for a second. But coffee isn’t a date. Just a friendly chat.
Coffee turned into a three-hour conversation in a small café on a quiet side street. They discussed books, movies, dreams. Denis said he worked as a mechanic not because life had forced him to, but not because he had no choice, either.
“You see, I want to understand the business from the inside,” he explained, stirring sugar into his cup with a spoon. “My father has worked in this field all his life—started as a simple mechanic. Now he owns a small network of service stations around the city. He says that before becoming a manager, you have to work with your hands, understand how the process works and what people’s problems are.”
“And then?”
“And then he plans to hand the business over to me. But not just like that—only when he’s sure I really know the trade.”
Lena looked at him with new interest. So he wasn’t just a mechanic. He was a future business owner learning his trade from the ground up.
“Does Katya know about this?”
Denis shook his head.
“No. And I didn’t tell her. If a person cares more about status than about the person himself, what’s there to talk about?”
From that day on they started seeing each other. Not often—once a week, sometimes less. Lena was preparing for finals and writing her thesis, and Denis had his job. But each meeting left them with a sense of celebration.
They walked through the old neighborhoods of the city, discovered new cozy spots, went to the theater and exhibitions. Denis turned out to be a surprisingly sensitive appreciator of art. And he listened to Lena—really listened—when she talked about her plans, her dream of working at a publishing house, the books she wanted to read.
“You know,” he said one evening as they sat on a bench in the park, “with you I feel like myself. I don’t have to play a role or meet someone else’s expectations.”
Lena realized she was falling in love. And it seemed to be mutual.
At home she told neither her mother nor Katya about her meetings with Denis. It was personal, intimate. Besides, Katya was already seeing a new guy—a bank manager who fit her idea of a promising fiancé much better.
Everything changed in the spring, when Lena defended her thesis and graduated with honors.
“Congratulations,” Denis said, handing her a bouquet of white roses. “Now you’re free for new achievements.”
“Thanks. How are things at work?”
“Great. Next week my father is officially moving me to headquarters. I’ll be learning the financial side of the business and personnel management.”
“So you’ll be a big boss soon?”
“Looks like it.” He paused, then took her hand. “Lena, would you like to move in with me?”
Lena’s heart gave a little jump.
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. I’m renting a studio, but soon my father promised to help with a better place. I’m thirty—it’s time to get my life settled. And I want to settle it with you.”
Lena looked at him and knew this was the moment of choice. She could say no, go on living with her mother and sister, look for a job, build a career on her own. Or she could take a risk and step into the unknown.
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
A month later they were already living together in a spacious three-room apartment in a new building. The apartment was a gift from Denis’s father—it was the best engagement present.
“I bought it once upon a time to park some money, but now it’s yours,” he said, a solid man in his fifties with kind eyes. “Live and be happy.”
Lena could hardly believe what was happening. A modern kitchen with an island, a roomy living room, a study where she could work, a large bedroom overlooking a park. It was the apartment of her dreams.
Denis officially became the deputy director of the service-station network. His salary now matched the position. Lena got a job as an editor at a small but promising publishing house. Life was coming together.
They settled in, bought furniture, made plans. For the first time in her life, Lena felt truly happy.
And then Katya showed up.
She arrived on a Saturday evening when Lena and Denis were watching a movie on the huge TV in the living room. Lena opened the door and saw her sister with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.
“You… you live here?” Katya asked, stepping over the threshold.
“Yes. Come in.”
Katya walked into the living room, looking around. Parquet, designer furniture, paintings on the walls, a huge window with a view of the city.
“Hi, Katya,” Denis rose from the sofa.
Katya looked at him, then at Lena, then around the room again. Her face showed complete bewilderment.
“Wait, he’s a penniless mechanic—where did all this come from?” her sister asked in astonishment, taking in the new three-room apartment that her ex had bought me.
Lena and Denis exchanged glances.
“Sit down, we’ll explain,” Lena suggested.
Katya sank into an armchair, not taking her eyes off Denis.
“I’m not a penniless mechanic,” he said calmly. “I worked as a mechanic to learn the family business. My father owns a network of service stations, and I’ll soon be the CEO.”
“So…” Katya was slowly grasping the scope of what had happened. “So you’re rich? And you’ve always been rich?”
“Not rich. Comfortable. And yes, my family has always been well-off.”
“But you said you were a mechanic!”
“I was a mechanic. I worked in the shop for half a year. A real mechanic, with a real mechanic’s wage. My father believes a manager should know his business from A to Z.”
Katya was silent. Lena saw emotions flicker in her eyes: surprise, comprehension, anger, regret.
“Did you know?” Katya finally asked her sister.
“I found out later. When we were already seeing each other.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Why would I? You were already with Maxim.”
Katya stood and went to the window. She stood there for a while, looking at the city lights.
“So I dumped him…” she said quietly. “I dumped him because he was a mechanic. And he…” She turned around. “Lena, I’m such an idiot!”
“Katya…”
“No, really! I’m such an idiot!” her voice broke. “He was perfect! Smart, handsome, kind. And rich, as it turns out. And I… I tossed him out like something useless!”
“Katya, calm down,” Denis stood up. “It’s all for the best. If you hadn’t left then, I wouldn’t have met Lena. And Lena is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“But I didn’t know!” Katya sobbed. “If I had known…”
“If what?” Lena asked. “You’d have dated him for his money?”
“Yes!” Katya blurted out, then fell silent, realizing what she’d said.
Silence fell.
“You see, Katya,” Denis said at last, “that’s exactly why I didn’t talk about my family back then. I wanted a girl to love me, not my bank account. Lena did. And you… you walked away at the first sign that I didn’t meet your standards for a wealthy fiancé.”
“I’m not like that!” Katya protested.
“You are,” Lena said quietly. “Katya, you just said yourself that if you’d known about his money, you wouldn’t have left. Which means money matters more to you than everything else.”
“And what’s wrong with that? Is it so bad to want a well-off husband?”
“It’s bad if you’re willing to be with someone you don’t like for it.”
“But I did like him!”
“You liked him when you thought he was rich. You stopped liking him when you found out he was a mechanic. And now you like him again because it turns out he’s rich after all.”
Katya stood in the middle of the living room, and Lena could see her sister’s familiar world collapsing. A world where beauty was a ticket to a comfortable life, where you had to hunt for a rich husband, and love was a luxury girls without a dowry couldn’t afford.
“Mom always said…” Katya began.
“Mom said what she thought was right,” Lena cut in. “But that doesn’t mean it really is right.”
Denis came over to Lena and put his arm around her shoulders.
“You know what I love most about your sister?” he said to Katya. “She never asked me about money. Not once. Even after we moved in together, she insisted we split the grocery bill. She works, she’s building a career, she has plans and dreams. She isn’t looking for someone to keep her. She’s looking for a partner to build a life with.”
“So what, I’m worse than her?” Katya flared up.
“Not worse. Different.” Denis shrugged. “But I need a girl like Lena.”
Katya shouted a bit more, cried, blamed everyone and everything for her misfortunes. Then she calmed down, apologized, and left.
“I feel sorry for her,” Lena said when the door closed behind Katya.
“Why?”
“She’s spent her whole life playing the wrong game. Mom drilled into her that the main thing is to make a good match. And she doesn’t even know what she wants from life herself.”
“It’s not too late to figure it out.”
“Yes, but will she? Or will she keep looking for a prince to solve all her problems?”
Denis hugged Lena tighter.
“I don’t know. But I do know I’m lucky. You chose me not for money or status. You chose me for who I am.”
“And I know you didn’t choose me for my looks,” Lena laughed. “But for my sharp tongue and my habit of butting in with my clever talk.”
“Exactly,” Denis agreed and kissed her.
A year later they got married. Katya came to the wedding with a new boyfriend—this time a doctor who, as she explained to their mother, “is very promising, planning to open a private clinic.” Their mother was pleased.
Lena looked at her sister and wondered: what if this one doesn’t live up to expectations either? How many more princes will she have to sort through before Katya realizes that happiness can’t be bought? That real relationships are built not on calculation, but on mutual understanding, respect, and love?
But it was Lena’s wedding day, and she didn’t want to dwell on sad thoughts. Denis was beside her—he loved her for who she was. Ahead lay a life together, full of plans and hopes. And everything else… everything else could wait.
They danced their first dance, and Lena was happy. Truly happy, without looking back at other people’s opinions and expectations. And that was better than any fairy-tale prince.
