From what Dino had heard, Jasmina had nothing good to say about him. She thought he talked too fast, that his family visited too often, and that sharing a flat with him was a bad idea. His girlfriend Ivona reported all of this, usually when the conversation turned to moving in. Dino tried to be polite to Jasmina, but every meeting made him feel like a candidate the panel had already rejected.
At a birthday lunch they sat beside each other. Ivona went to fetch more plates. Dino looked at Jasmina and asked exactly what he needed to change for her to trust him. She thought he meant the incorrect cake order. When he mentioned the flat, she put down her fork. She had not even known they were looking for a flat together. Ivona had told her that living separately suited them perfectly.
They did not continue in front of everyone. After lunch they went onto the steps and compared just a few statements. There were enough. Jasmina had never asked Ivona to end the relationship or commented on Dino's family. Quite the opposite, she had asked why Ivona's friends no longer came to dinner. Ivona told them Dino wanted peace after work. Dino thought they did not want to sit at his table.
When they approached her, Ivona immediately began crying. She said she had only been buying time. She was afraid of living together, but found it easier to repeat someone else's supposed opinion than express her own. The unannounced visits from his family bothered her too. Sometimes she wanted an evening without his stories. Jasmina listened until she heard: 'You know I could always tell you anything.' Then she stood. 'You could. That's why I didn't deserve this.'
Dino and Ivona did not separate immediately. Their first conversation without the invented Jasmina lasted twenty minutes and was much more uncomfortable than any before it. They cancelled the flat viewing. Dino did not know whether he believed her when she said she wanted to stay together. Ivona realised how convenient it had been to have a friend who delivered the ugliest part of every argument for her.
Weeks later she wrote Jasmina a long message, then shortened it to an apology and an invitation. The answer came the next day. Her friend still did not want coffee. Ivona was sitting with her phone when Dino asked what had happened. 'I hurt her,' she said. For the first time she did not put anyone between the subject and the verb.