Nedžada baked orange cake on Fridays because early in their marriage Samir said he had never tasted anything like it. She remembered the sentence as praise. Twenty two years later she knew the recipe without weighing and bought orange peel even when she would rather end the week in bed with a book. Samir ate a thin slice, neatly wrapped the rest, and took it to work. He said it particularly suited morning coffee there, when nobody interrupted him.
One Friday he forgot the box. Nedžada had a free morning and brought it to his office. His colleagues welcomed her like a long awaited cook. One woman said Samir had saved their floor from bad biscuits for years, although he personally could not stand orange in desserts. The sentence was spoken so cheerfully that Nedžada needed several seconds to decide what expression belonged on her face. Then she put down the box and asked them nevertheless to save one piece for her husband, purely out of professional respect.
That evening Samir returned with an empty box and a smile he could not sustain. He admitted never liking the cake but loving how happy making it seemed to make her. Nedžada replied that for the past ten years she had mostly enjoyed the moment she removed it from the oven and washed the bowl. Both fell silent, then began calculating how many oranges had passed through the kitchen because of a sentence that had never been precise enough. Samir miscalculated, and she corrected him from habit.
It was not merely a funny story. Nedžada felt hurt that her time had been spent for years proving affection in a form it did not need. Samir said the truth had grown harder every year. She asked whether there was anything else he gave colleagues to avoid hurting her. He mentioned a scarf that scratched, then immediately regretted opening that subject too. Nedžada told him to find something he genuinely liked for dinner while she read at least fifty pages without getting up.
The following Friday she baked nothing. Three worried messages arrived from the office floor, along with an offer to pool money for oranges. Nedžada sent the recipe. Samir bought ice cream in two flavors and checked which she truly wanted. Afterward they ate from separate bowls, laughing at a colleague who asked whether the oven should be heated before or after mixing. Nedžada did not answer immediately. The cake had finally gone where it was sincerely wanted, together with the work required to make it.