Nina was often late without a good excuse. At the last moment she always found a message to answer or a plant to water. Saša waited outside cinemas, in the car, and at family lunches. She was not pleased about it, but apologizing had become as firm a habit as being late. When she finally began arriving early, she felt proud.
The change began one Tuesday. The wall clock said it was time to leave, but at the station she discovered she still had twenty minutes. She thought she had overestimated the walk. The same thing happened the next day. Saša praised her new punctuality, and she joked that perhaps she had grown up. He laughed, knowing that the previous weekend he had moved every clock in their apartment forward.
He could not change her phone, so he began giving her earlier times as well. Dinner at eight became dinner at half past seven. He explained what he was doing to friends in advance. Most found it amusing. Nina avoided looking at her phone while getting ready, specifically to prevent losing time on messages, so his little performance lasted almost a month.
She discovered it at a friend's birthday, when their hostess was still in the shower as they arrived. From the bathroom, the friend called that Saša had overdone Nina's special schedule this time. Nina stood in the hall with a cake in her hands. Saša quietly told her not to spoil the evening. Suddenly she realized other people knew something about her daily life that she herself did not know.
At home she took down the wall clock and moved its hands to the correct time. Saša listed all the occasions when she had left him waiting. He was right about every one of them. That did not help her forget how, for weeks, people had patted her on the back for a success they had staged themselves. She asked what he would change next without her knowledge if he decided it would help her.
For the first time, Saša had no witty answer. Nina said that in future he could leave without her if she was not ready at the agreed time. She was not asking him to keep saving her a place forever. The following Friday he went out alone, angry that she was still drying her hair. She arrived later and sat at the other end of the table, where a place remained available.
They looked at each other several times during the evening. Neither knew whether they had solved a small problem or opened a much larger one. As they left for home, Nina asked him to wait while she fetched her coat. Saša looked at his watch, then at her. He stayed by the door, this time because he had chosen to.