We bought the prize ticket while waiting for a bus. Maja said we might win enough for the dinner we had postponed for months. She took out her wallet, but I had already handed the seller some change. I said we would split any winnings. She replied that we would certainly split the disappointment too. I folded the ticket into my coat pocket. It was one of those small agreements people never write down because they think they know each other.

The prize was not large. Enough for several dinners or a bill hanging on my refrigerator. Checking the numbers, my first thought was to call Maja. My second was that I had paid for the ticket after all. The third already resembled an explanation: her promise had not even been serious; we were only amusing ourselves. I did not call. I collected the money and placed it in a drawer, waiting for my own version of events to become natural.

A few days later Maja asked whether we were rich. I said no. That was technically true and therefore useful. She laughed, then suggested an inexpensive dinner at her place. I brought juice. Chopping onions, she explained that her hours at work had been reduced. I had not known. Now I could offer some money as help and perhaps appear generous, but that would be another theft, this time of credit for giving what already belonged to her.

I lasted until she put two plates on the table. I said the ticket had won and named the amount. Maja lowered the forks. She asked why I had not told her. I replied that I kept telling myself I had bought it. She did not argue about the change. She repeated my bus stop sentence almost exactly. I heard how simple it was before I began adding conditions that existed only when they benefited me.

I returned home for her half. Maja did not want a later transfer because she wanted no further promise. When I brought the envelope, dinner had cooled. I asked whether I could stay. She said yes, but I should expect no pleasant evening merely because I had done what I should have done immediately. We ate quietly, occasionally discussing ordinary things that now required greater effort.

The friendship continued, more slowly than before. I spent my winnings on the bill and never asked what she did with hers. Months later we waited for the same bus again. The seller offered another ticket. Maja declined. I did not press her into a shared joke that no longer sounded the same to both of us. Instead I asked whether she would have dinner with me. I clearly said that this time it was my treat.