Lejla began the conversation on Sunday, after they washed the balcony and moved the wet chairs aside. She asked Vedran whether two people had to be everything to each other. Still holding a cloth, he said she certainly did not have to be his plumber. She laughed too loudly. She had rehearsed the question for weeks, hoping it would sound less serious if spoken between ordinary chores.
They had been together eleven years. They did not want children, their work went well, and intimacy had become a quiet language of habits. Lejla did not want to lose that life. At the same time, she had been seeing Nermin, an acquaintance from a photography course, for three months. She did not say that. Instead, she suggested considering a marriage in which they could have other relationships, with a clear agreement and honesty.
Vedran did not answer immediately. A week later he asked what such an agreement would mean if someone fell in love. Lejla said she could not know in advance. He asked whether she already had somebody in mind. That gave her a chance to tell the truth. Instead, she assured him they were only discussing possibilities. Eventually he agreed to consider it, provided neither started anything until both were certain.
The following Friday, Nermin called while they prepared dinner together. Lejla turned on the speaker because her hands were wet, expecting a conversation about an exhibition. Nermin asked whether their apartment would be available again at the same time as last month. There was no second sentence to be misunderstood. Vedran set down the knife and stared for a long time at the finely chopped pepper in front of him.
Lejla tried explaining that this was exactly why she had started the conversation. She heard her words becoming worse as she spoke them. Vedran said their future agreement could not travel backward. The affair was not the only thing that hurt him. For weeks she had led him to consider something his own decision when she had already shaped it without him. He went to sleep in the living room, and the pepper remained on the board until morning.
Over the following months, they tried several conversations with a counselor's help. Lejla ended things with Nermin. Vedran nevertheless did not want to continue the marriage. When he came for his belongings the last time, they carried the chairs onto the balcony together. One caught in the doorframe, and they both remembered at once how to turn it. Lejla held on to that brief, useless harmony. Nothing they had learned about each other was enough to persuade him to stay.