When the decorator asked which colour they wanted, Jasna said the same as before. Behind her, her husband made a face. She saw him in the mirror, the one they should have taken down before work began. 'You don't like this colour?' she asked. Vlatko looked at the walls like a man being asked to identify a suspect. He said he had always considered beige a sad colour. Jasna opened her mouth. For twenty years she had thought it was his favourite.
The decorator went to fetch protective sheeting, leaving them among the displaced armchairs. They had first painted while Jasna was pregnant. Vlatko had said beige was a safe choice. She heard that he liked it. He saw her nod and concluded he had found what she wanted. Every subsequent repainting confirmed a decision neither had made with particular enthusiasm.
Now they sat on the floor with a catalogue. Jasna wanted green, not the gentle kind shops called sage, but one that made Vlatko lean closer to check its number. He wanted dark blue. They had time for an argument because the decorator called to say he had a flat tyre. Instead, they listed what else they supposedly did for each other. Vlatko disliked Sunday bean stew. Jasna disliked walking after dinner. Both kept going to the same seaside hotel because each thought the other feared change.
By afternoon they felt like marital impostors. Then they found things there was no confusion about. Both liked an open window while rain fell, the old kitchen radio, and friends who did not announce visits seven days ahead. They did not have to reconsider every year. Jasna marked the green, and Vlatko fetched a blue cushion to see how they would look together.
When the wall was finished, neither immediately spoke. The colour was much more assertive than in the catalogue. The decorator left them looking at it and went to wash his roller. Vlatko said he felt they had walked into the inside of a green pepper. Jasna laughed so loudly the decorator returned to the doorway.
They did not paint over it. They bought another blue cushion and began making pancakes on Saturdays because both suggested it without a prior agreement. Vlatko went out alone for his evening walk. Jasna waved from their green room, then returned to the book she no longer had to put down at its most interesting page.