The team lacked a fourth member. Sanela arrived at the cafe to return a friend's book and ended up at a table with a pencil and responsibility for literature. The man opposite was Ognjen, a cook. He said he would handle food, sport, and things heard once and remembered for no reason. Sanela decided she liked that description of his knowledge.
The first rounds went well. She knew an old poem's author; he named a river nobody else could place on the map. When a question asked where a dish originated, Sanela was certain. Ognjen suggested a different answer. She said she had read it in a book. He said he had cooked it with a woman from that region. They chose her answer and lost a point.
Sanela expected him to gloat. Ognjen merely drew a little pot beside the wrong word. That amused her more than she wanted. After the quiz she apologized for her tone, not for failing to know everything. He admitted too often believing practical experience answered every question himself. Once he had claimed he could repair a bicycle simply because he could dismantle a mixer.
Over the following weeks they sat together. Ognjen brought odd kitchen facts; Sanela recommended books that did not feel like homework. One evening their team won dinner for four. Their friends immediately had other commitments. Sanela suspected matchmaking, but Ognjen showed a message about one friend's genuine work shift and said they could simply save the other two meals for later.
At dinner they discovered conversation took longer without questions on paper. Sanela had recently divorced and did not want every meeting to become an assessment of a future husband. Ognjen had lived alone for years and did not know how to say silence did not bother him. They ordered the disputed dish. It was not particularly good, giving them their first subject of immediate agreement.
Rain began as they left. They stood beneath an awning, and Ognjen asked whether he could kiss her. Sanela said that question did not require consulting a book. The following Thursday they lost again, this time over his wrong film answer. She drew a little screen beside the word and pushed the paper toward him. They laughed loudly enough for the host to warn them. The winning team did not notice them, and that evening they lacked nothing.