In recent weeks the sewing machine had been covered more often than switched on. Ines assumed her customers were economising. She had a small dressmaking shop on the ground floor of the house, with a telephone in their shared hallway. When she went out for fabric, her partner Zdravko answered calls. He told her they were mostly wrong numbers. In the evenings he consoled her that perhaps it was good she could finally rest and devote herself to their home.

An old customer stopped her outside the bakery. She asked when Ines would work again, since she was sorry everything was booked until winter. Ines said she could bring her skirt tomorrow. The woman looked confused. Two weeks earlier a man's voice had told her the dressmaker was no longer taking orders. It had not sounded like a wrong number. He knew her name and said Ines intended to slow down.

Zdravko did not deny it for long. He admitted refusing several jobs because he saw she was overdoing things. Then a few more, because she seemed calmer without deadlines. Ines stood in the hallway with a bag of pastries slowly growing greasy at the bottom. She had been quieter because she was calculating how long she could pay for materials and contributions without new orders. He had declared her silence to be contentment.

She told him he could have washed dishes, taken over shopping, or asked whether she needed help. Instead he had decided which part of her life should shrink. Zdravko defended himself by saying money was no problem because he earned enough. Ines put the bag on the floor. She had opened the shop before their relationship. It contained skill, acquaintances, and satisfaction that could not fit inside his salary.

She called the customers she could remember. She did not recount the private argument to everyone. She said incorrect information had been given and she was working normally. Some had already found another dressmaker. One ordered curtains; another returned only after several months. She obtained a separate business phone. She did not give Zdravko the role of helping repair what he had damaged, however often he offered.

They stayed together, for now. That was a phrase Ines had not previously used when speaking of her home. One evening she was finishing a hem while Zdravko washed dishes in the kitchen. He did not come to the doorway to show what he was doing. She heard water, then silence, and continued sewing. She did not yet know whether it meant change. She knew the skirt would be ready in the morning.