Lina made a mask from newspaper because she forgot to buy a proper one. Its edge scratched her cheek, and through the right eyehole she could see only half the man she was talking to. He wore a plain black mask and claimed he had come solely for potato pie. The neighborhood party took place in the building's courtyard beneath lights that worked only when someone struck the extension cable.
They discussed bad films, empty Sundays, and how every family group had one person sending photographs of coffee without explanation. Lina invited him to dance. He did not dance well, but he listened to the rhythm and apologized only once when he stepped on her foot. She liked that more than excessive skill.
At midnight they removed their masks. He was Dario from the second entrance, the man she had argued with that morning about removing an old bench. Lina wanted bicycle parking. Dario said his mother and three other older neighbors used the bench. Their conversation had ended with her saying the entire courtyard could not be a museum of other people's habits.
Now that sentence sounded much harsher. Dario recognized her first and burst out laughing, then stopped when he saw her embarrassment. He said he still thought she was wrong. Lina replied that she still had nowhere to leave her bicycle. They stood holding their masks, surprised that attraction had not erased the morning's dispute.
They did not kiss. They went to the bench and sat, moving plates someone had left. Dario pointed out where the hedge could be shortened. Lina explained why that corner flooded in the rain. They talked until they found a less tidy but possible arrangement: a rack beside the wall, with two flowerpots moved. They would have to ask everyone else too, because the courtyard did not belong to their new mood.
A week later they installed the rack with the residents' agreement. Dario came without his mother, Lina without prepared arguments. Afterward they sat on the saved bench with dirty hands, eating rolls from a bag. She asked whether he wanted to go to the cinema that evening. He agreed, provided she chose a film they would not both hate. She could not promise. When he kissed her, the newspaper mask had already gone into recycling, but both remembered how little it took to see each other incorrectly.