For six weeks, Vesna had looked at the blue dress through the dressmaker's window. It was not particularly expensive, just more expensive than anything she usually allowed herself. At the architecture firm's annual party, she wanted to arrive, for once, as a guest rather than the person checking that every bill had been paid.
Luka would be there too, a landscape architect with whom she had been exchanging messages for months about projects and, increasingly, everything else. In his last message, he said he hoped they would finally talk without drawings between them. Vesna had read it often enough that she no longer needed to open it.
On the day she was meant to collect the dress, her friend Irena called. She needed money for an urgent repair to the car she used to take her sick mother to appointments. Vesna had a little savings left, exactly the amount she owed the dressmaker. She sent the money before she could think of a reason not to.
She told the dressmaker she could sell the dress to someone else. The woman looked at her over her glasses. She already knew how rarely Vesna bought anything just for herself. She offered to let her pay the following month, but by then it was late. The party had started, the rain was heavier, and Vesna was convinced that arriving now would look like an attempt to attract attention.
She put on the dress anyway. She wanted at least to see how it looked outside the narrow fitting room. Pulling on an old coat, she went out for bread. At the corner, she met Luka, his hair wet and no umbrella in sight. He was carrying a box of cakes from the party.
"Did you escape?" she asked.
He said he had left when the conversation turned entirely to work. He had looked for her among the guests, then assumed she had not come. Vesna considered inventing another invitation. Instead, she told him about the dress, the car repair, and her own pointless fear of being late.
Luka did not turn her kindness into a speech. He suggested eating the cakes before they got wet. They took shelter in a small grocery store whose owner let them stand by the window. They drank yogurt from plastic cups and discussed why people at parties always stood near the exit.
Before they parted, he asked whether he could take her on a proper date the next day. Vesna said yes, but she would be wearing jeans. Luka raised the wet box as if making a toast. "Then I'll come without a box of cakes too."