Filip knew all Bojan's passwords from their university days, but he did not need one this time. Bojan handed him the phone himself. In the draft were six awkward sentences for Lana, the woman he had gone cycling with on weekends for the last two months. He wanted to invite her to dinner without helmets or sportswear.
"You're good with words," he said.
Filip truly was. He worked as an editor and could improve any sentence. He was also in love with Lana. He had never told her, instead expecting her to recognize one day how carefully he listened. Bojan's openness struck him as crude and unfairly effective.
He deleted the simple invitation. In its place, he wrote a long message about fear of commitment, needing space and how it would be best to remain friends. He showed Bojan only the beginning, which he had left unchanged. "I've sent you a polished version," he said, returning the phone after the message had already gone.
He expected Lana to be offended and Bojan to withdraw. Instead, she called him that evening. She asked why Bojan's message used the same expressions Filip used in every discussion. Then she said she had already spoken to Bojan. Confused by her reply, he had immediately called and read her his original draft from a notebook.
Filip tried calling it a misunderstanding. Lana let him speak until the explanation wore itself out completely. Then she asked only, "Did you change his meaning because you like me?"
His admission was quieter than he had imagined. It brought no relief. Lana said she did not want to see him until she could trust an ordinary sentence he spoke. The next day, Bojan came for the books he had lent him. They did not argue. That hurt Filip more than the shouting he had expected.
A month later, he sent them separate apologies, without explaining how lonely he had been and without asking for replies. Bojan wrote that it would take time. Lana did not answer.
When they met at a city cycling event in spring, Bojan and Lana arrived together. Filip greeted them and stayed with another group. Before setting off, he adjusted his own helmet. For the first time, he was not trying to edit someone else's conversation.