Maja met Aleksandar as a gallery was closing. He asked for her number while she waited for her coat, awkwardly and sincerely enough for her to like him. Seven months later they sat with his friends in a restaurant when one toasted the best bet Aleksandar had ever won. Maja raised her glass, not yet understanding that she was the noun everyone else was trying to avoid. The laughter stopped before she asked anything.
Outside, Aleksandar explained that his friends had teased him that he would never gather the courage to approach the woman in the red coat. They had wagered dinner. Maja said the initial encouragement was not itself what hurt. She asked how he had reported back afterward and how often their meeting had been retold as a successfully completed challenge. Aleksandar answered too quickly that she should not give weight to male foolishness, as though the label could diminish what had just happened in front of her.
The next day he brought flowers and said he had truly fallen in love. Maja believed he had fallen in love. She did not know whether he understood that this erased none of the pleasure with which he had initially presented her attention as a trophy. She said she needed time. He asked whether she would discard seven months over one dinner. She replied that she did not want him using seven months to pressure her into immediately becoming someone whom nothing bothered.
Aleksandar spoke with his friends without her. He did not ask everyone to send matching apologies. He said the story would no longer be repeated, then admitted how much he himself had enjoyed their approval. Later he told Maja only his own responsibility, without offering other people's messages as proof. They met in a park. For the first time he did not try ending the discussion with a statement about how much he loved her. He listened to what that restaurant table had changed in her memory of their beginning.
They did not immediately resume the relationship. For several weeks Maja went out alone, restoring the red coat's ordinary meaning as clothing that kept her warm. When she called again, they arranged one coffee without promises. Aleksandar arrived early and waited with no gift. He asked whether he could sit opposite her, and she said yes. At the evening's end each paid separately. Nobody owed anyone a victory, which finally allowed the conversation to begin again.