I cancelled Saturday for the third time while Zoran was already buying cinema tickets. My daughter had asked me to watch the baby so that she and her husband could go out alone. I did not mention having plans. I had become a grandmother four months earlier and still welcomed every call, even when I spent a long time afterwards staring at the dress I had intended to wear. I told Zoran something had come up. He did not ask what.

On Sunday I sent him a photograph of my grandson. He replied that the baby had my eyebrows. Then he asked whether there was a day when we could be certain of seeing each other. I felt offended before I recognized the question. I said babies could not choose when they needed someone. He said he understood, but the parents had been at a restaurant on Saturday. I had no answer for a man who merely repeated a fact.

Zoran did not ask me to choose between him and my family. He asked me not to promise an evening I already considered somebody else's. After our conversation I opened my calendar. None of the plans written there belonged to me. There were other people's shifts, appointments, and nights out. I was proud to help. Meanwhile I was becoming angry with them over arrangements I volunteered, often before anybody asked.

I told my daughter I was not free the following Saturday. She asked whether I was going somewhere special. I could have invented an appointment or important work, something more serious than dinner with a man. I said I was going out with Zoran. She paused, then said she would ask the other grandmother. I had prepared so thoroughly for disappointment that her ordinary answer almost annoyed me. I had to admit how often I assumed other people's needs before hearing them.

At dinner I left my phone facing up. Zoran did not comment. He described trying to return the wrong light bulb without a receipt. I laughed so much I forgot to check the screen. Later I mentioned my grandson and immediately apologized. He said he wanted to hear about him too. He had not come to meet a different Ljubica, one without a family, just the one who had also made it to dinner.

I came home after midnight. There were no missed calls. At my door Zoran kissed me briefly, then again when I caught his sleeve. The next day I watched my grandson and told him his grandmother had enjoyed Saturday. He listened solemnly, with his entire fist in his mouth. This time I sent nobody a photograph. Zoran already knew where I was and when we would see each other again.