Lejla was drawing up the delivery schedule when she spotted her husband's number among the customers. Two lunches, three times a week, to an address she did not know. His company supposedly had a canteen. First she thought of another woman, then grew angry with herself for already imagining her tablecloth. She did not send a driver to investigate. She called Adnan and asked whether she could deliver his order herself, since she was passing nearby.
He told her to cancel it; the meeting had been moved. Lejla parked outside the building but remained in the car. She sent a message saying she was waiting outside the entrance for a conversation. Ten minutes later he appeared in the shirt she had ironed that morning. He carried a plastic container with half of yesterday's lunch. He sat beside her and admitted he saved the second meal for the following day, because an order for two disguised the address better.
He had lost his job five months earlier. He rented a room in a shared office, left punctually every morning, and sent applications. At first he thought he would secure another contract before she noticed. Then he began spending the savings intended to replace the delivery vehicle. He said the company was late paying wages. Because of that, Lejla took extra shifts while he described invented meetings every evening.
The office contained an unwatered plant, an old laptop, and a suit on a hanger. Lejla felt pity, then feared it would swallow her anger. She asked how much money remained. Adnan showed her the account balance, for once without rounding it off. She did not ask why he had failed to be brave. She said she had a right to know what life she woke into each morning and why her own plans were moving farther away.
He ended the rental and messaged his sister to say he needed help finding work. Lejla declined his suggestion that he immediately join her business. She did not want to become both his wife and the supervisor of his return to other people. They agreed to review their shared expenses and speak with a counselor. For several evenings they ate separately, not because they lacked food, but because they needed more space than the table provided.
When he found temporary work in a warehouse, Adnan brought home a real contract with lower pay than before. Lejla read it and asked when he started. The next day, she entered a single lunch in the delivery schedule, at the new address. She did not draw a heart on the lid as she once had. She wrote his name. For now, she wanted everything she sent to reach the man who really was where he said he would be.