The ferry crossed the river in nine minutes. Ena timed it on her first working day while translating instructions for a small tourism cooperative. She was thirty-eight and had a whole summer between two major assignments. Captain Luka carried an old radio with a taped antenna. He spoke briefly except when someone used the wrong name for a knot in a rope.

Ena was supposed to stay three weeks, long enough to translate signs and train two seasonal workers. She stayed a fourth because she liked working in a cabin that smelled of wood and coffee. Luka showed her where the water changed color before rain. She showed him how to explain to foreign visitors that the ferry did not leave early simply because they had arrived first.

They kissed behind the chair storeroom after a village music evening. Ena laughed because Luka had carefully returned her pencil beforehand. He did not want her thinking he had kept it as a reason to meet again. Afterward they ate breakfast together almost every morning, but he never asked about November, when she was due to leave for six months of work in Brussels.

One day she found her backpack moved into his cabin. Luka said her things would stay dry there. Inside was the ticket she had already bought. She had not hidden it. He saw it and became excessively polite, like someone addressing a passenger near the end of a journey. That afternoon Ena crossed the river without entering the cabin for the first time.

She waited after his shift and asked whether he intended to spend the next two months saying goodbye. Luka admitted he did not know how to love someone who had a departure ticket. She replied that she did not know either, but would rather try than be written off beforehand. They agreed on one call a week and a first visit without promises of moving that neither could keep.

In Brussels Ena worked longer hours than expected. She missed one call and cut another short for a meeting. Luka did not send angry messages, but finally said their agreement mattered to him. She apologized and changed the time. When he visited, she did not show him only the sights. She showed him the laundry, the grocery shop, and the little table where she spent her evenings.

In spring she returned to the ferry with a new contract allowing her to work from home. It was not the result of one kiss or a reward for his waiting. It was an option they had considered together. Luka placed her backpack on a dry bench and asked whether she wanted coffee. They crossed to the other bank in nine minutes, this time saving no words for the return.