The waiter asked whether to bring four glasses or three. Nermina said two, showing the reservation on her phone. An unfamiliar woman already sat at the window table beside a small gift bag. She insisted the reservation was hers. Both said the same surname and laughed at an odd coincidence that lasted only a few seconds.

Nermina was waiting for her husband Sasa to celebrate eighteen years of marriage. The other woman, Vanja, was waiting for Sasa to celebrate one year together. He was in his car behind the restaurant, messaging Vanja to persuade her to change venues because there was supposedly no table available. The owner, an acquaintance of his, had mistakenly combined two reservations entered under the same name.

Vanja understood first. She asked Nermina whether they were still married. Nermina looked at her ring as though seeing it through someone else's eyes. She said yes. Vanja took a watch from the gift bag and put it back in its box. She did not cry. She looked offended in a way Nermina suddenly understood completely.

Sasa entered after neither woman replied. He paused at the door, judged the distance to the exit, and approached anyway. Nermina asked him to sit. Vanja told him to remain standing because the chair obstructed the waiter. The women were not allies in a grand plan, but at that moment both knew equally clearly that they would not ease the scene for him by arguing with each other.

He said the marriage had not worked for a long time. Nermina asked when he had told her. He said things with Vanja had not been so serious. Vanja raised the watch box and asked how serious the apartment they had viewed on Saturday was. Someone at the next table lifted a phone. Nermina asked the waiter to move them to a small separate room. She did not want to become strangers' evening entertainment.

Sasa suggested everyone go home. Nermina said home plainly meant different things to each of them. She took his key to their shared car, which was registered to her, and went to her sister's. Vanja stayed to order dinner because she had not eaten all day. Sasa sat at another table where nobody had invited him.

The story still spread among acquaintances. Nermina refused to repeat details, and Vanja returned the watch. After several weeks they exchanged one message about things Sasa had tried to describe differently. They did not become friends. They were two women who no longer had to share the same lie, and that was enough for each to continue her own way.