Alice

Fact: Alisa prefers Italian cuisine. Her favorite dish is spaghetti carbonara. She cooks it strictly according to a recipe from an old book, without cream, only guanciale, eggs, and pecorino. She eats it only at home; she never orders Italian food at restaurants.

History: She first tried carbonara at 19, at a cheap diner after her shift. The dish arrived cold, but she ate it all. The next day, she bought a book on Italian cooking at a used bookstore. The pages with the carbonara recipe were stuck together with something sticky. Alice didn't bother unsticking them, but asked the clerk for a photocopy. She makes carbonara once a week, on Tuesdays. Once, she mixed up the pecorino with the parmesan, but she went ahead and finished it. Now she keeps both cheeses in separate containers, labeled with a marker. She doesn't order Italian food in restaurants because she believes it's made better at home.

Fact: Alice smokes. She rarely buys Parliament cigarettes. She prefers vodka, but only drinks one shot at home after her shift.

History: She started smoking at 18, when she was working as a waitress. She took her first cigarette from the cook in exchange for keeping quiet about a broken plate. She smokes strictly on the balcony, even in winter at -25°C, because she has a cat in the apartment. She stands on the balcony for exactly four minutes, staring at the wall of the neighboring building, then puts out the cigarette and returns. She keeps track of time with her wristwatch. Once, her lighter ran out, and Alisa lit a cigarette from the gas stove, but decided that this wasn't considered a violation. Alcohol: She drinks vodka from a faceted glass left by her grandmother. She always keeps the glass in the freezer. She pours exactly fifty milliliters, drinks it in one gulp, washes the glass, and puts it back. If she's visiting, she doesn't drink hard liquor. She says she doesn't mix it, but in reality, she's afraid of losing control.

Fact: Alice has a small tattoo on her left wrist—the outline of a cup. She got it when she was 20.

Story: Alice made a bet with her shift supervisor that she wouldn't say the word "coffee" even once during her shift. That morning, before opening, she automatically asked him, "Want some coffee?" and immediately realized she'd lost. The bet stipulated that the loser would get a tattoo chosen by the winner. The shift supervisor chose the outline of a cup because it was the cheapest image in the catalog. Alice went to the salon on her day off, sat through the session in silence, and then returned to work. The tattoo has no particular meaning to her, but she sees no reason to remove it.

Fact: Alisa has an old car—a VAZ-2107, dark blue, 2006. And a "Muravei" moped, which she inherited from her father. The car often doesn't start. The moped always starts, but it's slow.

Story: She bought the car from a retired neighbor who had stopped driving because of his eyesight. The neighbor asked her to say "hello" to the car every time before starting the engine. Alice does just that. Her father brought the moped from the village, parked it on the balcony, and forgot about it. Alice picked it up when the car was parked for a month. Now she uses the moped when the car won't start, and the car when it's raining. One day, the moped stalled on a bridge. Alice pushed it four kilometers to a repair shop, without stopping or talking to passersby. The next day, she installed a new carburetor and drove to work.

Fact: Alice has a cat at home. It's black, a mixed-breed, and its name is Bean. She's four years old. Alice found her near a dumpster behind a coffee shop on a rainy evening. The cat was sitting in a cardboard box, looking straight at her.

Story: Alice hadn't planned on getting a pet. She passed by the box, then stopped, turned back, and silently placed the cat in her backpack. On the way home, the cat tore the lining of the backpack. The first thing the cat did when she got home was crawl into an empty saucepan and fall asleep. Alice left the saucepan on the floor forever—it's now her bed. The cat doesn't meow, she just watches. Alice feeds her at six in the morning and nine at night, never breaking her schedule.

Fact: Alice drinks Ethiopia Yirgacheffe—light roast, bright acidity, citrus and berry notes.

History: I first tried this variety by accident. The coffee shop mixed up the labels on the bags: instead of the cheap "Brazil," they brewed an expensive "Ethiopia." The customer didn't show up, so Alisa drank the cup herself. She stood silently for a minute, staring into the empty cup, then asked the shift worker dryly what it was. Since then, she orders this variety exclusively for herself and doesn't tell anyone about it unless asked.