The earbud was in his right ear, concealed by his collar and the hand supporting his head. Across the table, Mirela described a conversation with the owner of the shop where she worked. She had to decide whether to accept a new shift or find another job. Ado looked directly at her and occasionally nodded. On the phone beneath the table, the match entered its final minutes, and the commentator sounded as though his rent depended on the result.
Mirela said she was frightened. Ado replied, 'There's still time.' The sentence might have passed if he had not simultaneously slapped the table and laughed. A goal. He only saw her face after pulling out the earbud. First he said he had merely checked the score. Then that he had listened for only a few minutes. Mirela asked which part of her account he had started at. He could name none.
She rose and took her plate into the kitchen. Ado followed, explaining how important the match was. She said she knew. He had shown her the date the previous week. He could have said he wanted to watch and talk afterwards. Instead he offered the face of someone listening while something else ran behind it all along. Now she lacked the energy to tell the same story again, to him or anyone.
He tried repeating fragments he had caught. Shop, shifts, owner. They sounded like words from somebody else's quiz. Mirela asked him to stop proving minimal presence. She left him in the kitchen and went for a walk. The match finished while he sat at the table. He checked the result later, without the pleasure he had anticipated all afternoon.
The following day he admitted he had not feared her forbidding him. She had never forbidden matches. He had felt awkward saying he wanted something in the middle of her bad day, so he chose a deception that then seemed smaller than openly refusing. Mirela did not immediately accept the apology. She had already considered the job decision with her sister. She did not want to manufacture another opportunity simply to make him feel useful.
He watched the next important match with friends. Mirela went to the cinema. When they met at home afterwards, he asked about the film and left his phone on a shelf. She did not tell him everything. She began with a scene that had made her laugh. This time he waited until she finished before saying anything about a goal.