On the hotel terrace, Tarik set down the keys to an expensive car with the emblem clearly visible. The car belonged to a guest he had just driven from the airport. Tarik was a driver, but the woman at the next table could not know that. She had a French book and the air of someone whose coffee nobody was allowed to hurry.
"Are you waiting for someone?" she asked after hearing him sigh for the third time over his dark phone.
He said he was resting between meetings. She introduced herself as Mila and explained that she had come to sell a family apartment. She was tired of property, travel and people asking about her money. Tarik nodded with the understanding of a man who had spent the morning calculating whether he could afford the registration on his old car.
They talked for almost an hour. Mila claimed to value simplicity above all. Tarik therefore kept quiet about liking her watch and talked about hiking, which he had not done for three years. She spoke of France without once opening the book. Both were funnier when they forgot what they were pretending to be. That happened while they argued about putting sugar in coffee.
They parted without surnames. Mila said she might stay a few more days. Tarik promised to show her the city if his schedule opened up. As soon as she turned the corner, he called the dispatcher and apologized for being late.
The next morning, he arrived to collect another guest. At reception, he found Mila in uniform, wearing a badge that read Milena. She looked up at the sound of his voice. They stared across the counter long enough for a colleague to ask whether there was a problem with the reservation.
"With the service description," she said.
Tarik began explaining the keys, then abandoned the attempt and told the truth. Milena admitted borrowing the book from the hotel lounge. The apartment she was selling belonged to her aunt; her role was answering interested buyers. After a difficult shift yesterday, she had wanted an hour as someone nobody judged by a uniform.
He invited her for coffee. She declined that day because she was working late, but gave him her number. On Saturday, they sat in a bakery opposite the bus station. Tarik placed his own car keys on the table, their plastic casing cracked. Milena opened a book in Bosnian. They both took sugar.