After the last group left, Denis removed the shirt promising unforgettable fun and put on a plain one without a single word. Maja was switching off colored lights in the next room. They ran activities for adults celebrating birthdays, gathering colleagues, or simply wanting to compete in silly games. Their job was to keep nobody on the sidelines. They often went home with no energy left to be company for anyone themselves.
Denis invited her to dinner after they survived a group that turned every game into an argument about the rules. Maja accepted but spent the day wondering who she should be without a whistle and scorecards. He knew her as someone who invented jokes in a second. He did not know how often she could think of nothing to say on the bus, even when she met a good friend.
The restaurant he chose had entertainment. As soon as they sat down, the host invited them to identify songs. Both automatically smiled, raised their hands, and answered more loudly than everyone else. After the third round Maja looked at her almost untouched plate. Denis was already figuring out how to include a shy couple at the next table. On their date they were doing their jobs, only without pay or a break.
Maja put down her card. She said she could not be entertaining that evening. For a moment Denis looked as though he had missed an important signal, then admitted he could not either. They paid for dinner they had barely eaten and went out to a kiosk. They bought two simple sandwiches. Sitting on a low wall far from the loudspeakers, they chewed for a long time without talking. For the first time that evening Maja felt herself relax.
Denis told her that at home he assembled small wooden models and showed nobody because they were not particularly good. She said she liked watching long videos of trains, without commentary or music. They did not try to make these habits more interesting than they were. Gradually they asked questions whose answers did not have to make anyone laugh. When he brushed a crumb from her sleeve, the ordinary movement felt more intimate than all his public embraces.
On Monday they were loud, quick, and full of ideas again. Colleagues noticed them leaving together after work but could not imagine their evenings. Sometimes they cooked; sometimes they fell asleep with a train traveling through rain on the screen. When Denis did make a joke, Maja laughed because she found it funny. Nobody kept score or checked whether the evening had fulfilled the promise of unforgettable fun.