If

- I wish you a Happy New Year! – The red velvet clasp comfortably lay in Polina’s hand. "Only without pathos!" - She pleaded silently, hesitated for a moment and opened a case. There was a neat pendant on a fine chain inside.

- It is silver. - She breathed in relief.

- No, it is white gold. - Her companion smiled indulgently.

- Victor, you know that expensive gifts require special thanks but I would not want to ... - Polina's lips trembled although she liked the gift.

- That's not all, my dear Polina, - Victor pressed the call button on the table and continued to look at a embarrassed woman, enigmatically smiling. She was so charming when she tried to defend her feminist views. Ordinary women bored him long ago; everything was known in advance. Here was an intrigue. He enjoyed winning this lonely arrogant woman. Although he had no doubt about the result of the match: he was self-confident as ever.

The door to the private room in a prestigious restaurant, where man and woman were sitting together for an exquisitely laid table, silently opened and the waiter came in. He approached to the woman from the left side, slightly bent and moved on the table from the tray a crystal pot. It had a form of a concave grape leaf. The waiter put a silver stand with tongs next to a pot. Then he asked by look the owner of the table, if he would like anything else. When saw a negative movement of the head, he withdrew silently.

Polina looked with interest at the dishes content. It was filled with a clear liquid; a big clamshell lay at the bottom reflecting candles fire.
- I hope it's not an oyster? - The woman asked doubtfully. She did not eat oysters by principle because eating of living creatures was unthinkable for her. Victor had been notified about her eating habits.

- No. This is a pearl shellfish. Inside there is a jewel that will fulfill your heart's desire.

- A pearl that fulfills desires? - Polina asked. She was intrigued and fascinated. Victor was so cute. If he is not so self-confident and so obviously lenient toward women, she might even get excited about him for some time.

Before letting her to open a shell by tongs, Victor told her about the procedure of making wishes.

Pearl could be one of five colors. When make a wish she has to guess also a color. If she asks for wisdom, the color has to be white, cream will bring success, peach ensures health, golden, naturally, guarantees wealth, and at last love was supposed to be lavender. Most pearls were white, so to ask wisdom was the easiest wish to get fulfilled. The rarest pearl is dark. The one that brings love. Anyway, Victor decided not to scare Polina by low probability to find a love pearl. So he did not tell about it. Besides, he was not sure what she will conjecture. May be she wants wealth?

Polina really hesitated in choosing a desire. All of them were very tempting. "If the color will be this one, then I ..." - she resolutely took tongs. After taking the shell from a pot, she wrapped it in a linen napkin and kept the treasure in a hand, smiling to herself. Victor enjoyed the game of emotions on her face. "If she guessed the color correctly then I ..." - he found that it was for the first time when he seriously thought about Polina. It seemed he was fascinated by that game!

The shell compressed by tongs easily opened its shutters.
A large pearl bead was lying in folds of mucous mantle. There was no doubt about a color. Victor looked at Polina with interest but she just shook her eyelashes. The man took out a pearl from its cozy bed, opened the pendant’s zipper and placed the ball inside. He got up, walked over to the woman and places on her neck a chaplet. Polina squeezed a pendant by fingers and felt a slight heat coming from it. However, maybe, it was just her imagination.
- It's very romantic, dear Victor, - she said finally. The man bent down to a seated woman and touched her lips by a light kiss.

After that they drank champagne and talked about anything, but everyone thought of its own. Finally, Polina apologized and went into the ladies' room. She was pleased to note there that the gift gracefully looked on her tender neck; a faint blush and shining eyes made her beautiful. "Be careful, girl, in such way you can fall in love!" - She shook head to her happy reflection in a mirror.  The reflection rang gentle bells of joyful laugh.

Polina powdered face, refreshed lipstick on her lips and decided to view quickly a list of incoming calls in her iPhone. She turned off sound for dinner with Victor, as it is required by etiquette, but those rules did not prohibit checking the phone when you visit the ladies' room. She found nothing urgent and important in a list and smiled to sms received from her niece Veronica. At that next week a girl will have her tenth birthday so she warned her favorite aunt beforehand, that she would choose a gift herself. And now she sent a message: "Auntie, be sure to present me this! - There was a link to the online auction site eBay. - Rita (Veronica's school friend) has is already and I now cannot live without it!" Yeah, if Veronica’s friend has something that she really likes, than Auntie simply obliged to bestow her niece. Polina clicked on the link in the message, being sure that in the restaurant of such level free wi-fi internet access should be.

- Everything is OK? - Victor asked when she returned to the table.

- Everything is just great. - Polina smiled.

She took a glass of champagne and made a couple of sips. With even more interest than before she looked at a man sat opposite. Cute, successful, gallant. Not young, but the their age difference was acceptable for her. He courted by standards: flowers by courier to her home, going to the theater, today, January 2 romantic evening for two in the restaurant. Just like always, except the gift that completely broke the usual scheme. "What could it mean?" - Polina pined from the desire to understand the motive of Victor’s act. However, for today there was enough emotions and she asked Victor to take her home. In the taxi they sat huddled and Victor gently squeezed her hand, lightly playing with her fingers. When they were standing at the entrance to her building, he kissed her on the lips and she felt a pleasant languor in the body and completely ensured that that man fitted her. Victor got into a taxi and drove to his home.

A lonely woman climbed into her cozy, empty apartment. In the bathroom she carefully removed from the neck a chain, admired for some time a twinkling brown pearl. She guessed the color correctly; it was a rare pearl of love. In the bedroom Polina lay on the wide bed without taking an evening dress off. On her iPhone she re-opened a message from Veronica and clicked on the link to the desired gift. Lot number XXXX "The Pearl of Desire." In the photo of the lot a twin of a gift she received flaunted: a pendant with a pearl on a thin twisted chain. The price is 20 euro. Well, at least, Veronica will surely get the desired gift. And even in a beautiful velvet case.

On the way home Victor continued to soar in the clouds of love dreams. Well, those woman was worth of such costs. How her eyes shone, how charmingly she embarrassed taking a gift. A Pearl of Desire. What a great idea! He saw an advertisement of cheap jewelry on one of the websites. Of course, he could not give Polina a gift for 20 euro. He had the other status and Polina was not a woman for cheap gifts. He ordered a white gold replica of the chain and pendant in solid jewelry workshop on Park Avenue. The shellfish with valuable pearl (definitely brown) was ordered in Japan at the famous farm on cultivation of pearls. It arrived in a special container filled with water from the Sea of Japan on the Lufthansa airplane by category vip-service. The restaurant was already a little expense. The total was 3540 euro. "If she would agree to marry me," - suddenly thought Victor, - "I will order a yellow diamond for a pendant".

If - Victor felt a sweet ache inside from that word. There was a hint of a happy future and a maneuver for a possible retreat also. Well, life goes on. Even if you are 59. The gray-haired man in the backseat of a taxi straightened shoulders: only 59! And no one "if"!