"Book under another name," Ines suggested. She did not have a secret lover. She had a husband with whom her longest conversation in recent months had concerned a broken washing machine. She wanted a dinner where they would not behave like two people accidentally assigned to the same apartment.
Mladen chose a small restaurant in the next town. They arrived separately. She wore a jacket she had never worn to work, and he stood to greet her as though seeing her for the first time. The waiter led them to a table behind tall plants with a professional indifference that made them both laugh.
At first, the game was easy. They invented names and occupations. Ines said she translated letters for people unable to admit what they wanted. Mladen claimed to sell watches that ran slow only when their owners were happy. They had not enjoyed themselves like that in a long time. Then she asked how many women he had taken to similar dinners before her.
He gave a larger number than the truth. Even he did not know why. Perhaps he wanted to seem more interesting as the man he was now pretending to be. Ines grew quiet. She asked whether all those women had known he considered them episodes. Mladen protested that she was questioning him like a wife, although tonight they were supposedly something else.
"What's the point of a game if you use it to boast about things that would otherwise hurt me?" She took the ring she had hidden in her bag before arriving and put it back on her finger. She was not threatening to leave. She simply wanted to stop listening to a performance in which other people's lives served as proof of his worth.
He admitted exaggerating. In reality, he had had several relationships, one ended badly by message, and enough shame that he rarely spoke of it. Ines told him how she had once stayed with people because she felt embarrassed disappointing them. The dinner lost its theatrical sparkle but became more interesting.
When the waiter asked about dessert, Mladen looked at Ines instead of ordering her usual cake. She chose something different. Afterward, they walked through the empty square and agreed not to use jealousy as a way to wake up each other's attention. They did not need to invent competition to admit that something was missing.
On the way home, they reached their cars and paused, awkward as though after a first date. Ines invited him back to her place for coffee. Mladen said he would like that but had an early start at work. They both laughed. He followed her to the apartment they shared, this time feeling that he had truly been invited.