Maja could estimate the price of a watch before a customer rested his hand on the counter. Ines remembered who had been rude to the cleaner last time. They sold handbags neither could afford without several months' pay, and spent every break debating which way of judging people was more useful.
When the owner of a restaurant chain began taking Maja out, Ines told her to be careful. His name was Viktor. He always reserved the best table and rarely asked when Maja's shift ended. He simply sent a car. Maja said love did not have to involve splitting electricity bills to be real.
Ines was dating Davor, a delivery driver. She loved his laugh and the fact that he never put on airs. But when she was offered a job managing a new branch, he began teasing her about her business vocabulary. He said he would now have to make appointments with his own girlfriend. She laughed until it stopped being funny.
Both women brought their partners to the store's annual dinner. Viktor was late, and Davor was annoyed that Ines had been invited to sit at the management table. On her phone, Maja saw a photograph Viktor had just posted from an event across town. Beside him stood a woman introduced as his fiancée.
When he arrived, Maja took him into the hallway. He said the engagement was a long-standing family obligation and that she knew how much their special closeness meant to him. Maja did not raise her voice. She returned the key to the apartment he had given her and asked him to stop sending cars.
Inside, Davor was telling everyone that Ines could not even organize their refrigerator at home. An uncomfortable laugh went around the table. Ines interrupted him. "You can be nervous. That doesn't mean you can humiliate me in front of my colleagues." Davor tried to call it a joke. She stood up and went for her coat.
The friends met in the cloakroom. Maja waited to hear that she had been warned. Ines expected a lecture about how a modest man was no guarantee of kindness either. Neither said any of it. They went out for a late bowl of soup and shared a taxi.
Davor later offered a sincere apology, but Ines asked for time. Maja stayed single and accepted the additional training she had previously turned down because of Viktor's trips. Behind the counter, they still assessed their customers. They simply stopped expecting either a watch or a pair of modest shoes to tell them everything about a person.