The Highest Shelf in His Kitchen

The cups stood on the highest shelf. Leona reached them without thinking, then felt her body automatically bend as though she should become slightly shorter before Vedran. It was their first weekend together. She was taller than him by enough for people to notice and often consider it their business to comment. On their previous two dates she had worn flat shoes even though those were the shoes that rubbed.

Vedran entered carrying bread and said he had finally found someone who could reach his ambitions. Leona laughed, then stopped. It was not a cruel joke. She was simply tired of spaces in which her body required explanation. She asked why he kept the cups so high. He said a former flatmate had put them there and he had never bothered rearranging things. He fetched a small stool from the pantry.

She sat while he made coffee. At work they called her the team's pillar, relatives asked whether she would ever find a sufficiently tall man, and her former partner always chose the higher side of the pavement. Vedran was not responsible for all those people. Yet his first morning joke had accidentally opened a door through which they all entered. She told him that without a list of accusations, holding her cup in both hands.

Vedran admitted he joked before others did. If he mentioned the difference first, he thought nobody could use it against him. Leona asked whether they could skip rehearsing for an imaginary audience this morning. He looked around the empty kitchen and said he could try. Then he burned the toast. Both had much less sensitive comments about that, and breakfast became louder and simpler.

In the afternoon they went to the market. Leona wore shoes that suited her, with a small heel she did not need to justify. A seller called out that Vedran had chosen well; at least nothing would be left on top of his wardrobe. Vedran did not laugh from habit. He asked the price of tomatoes. Leona continued choosing, grateful he had turned the remark into neither a joke nor a grand defence.

Back home they moved the cups to a lower shelf. On top went a cake tin he used once a year. Leona asked whether he needed anything else reached. He said he needed her bag from the chair where he wanted to sit. She handed it over. They spent the afternoon each at their own height, without any special programme built around it.