At eight, I was on the steps with two wrapped portions of chips and nobody to share them with.
The rain had stopped. Callum's trainers were dry, and I'd put on lipstick that I was now wiping off on a chip fork.
I watched people come along the promenade. Each blue jacket made me lift my head. None of them was his.
When my phone rang, I picked it up so quickly that I dropped the fork.
It was an alarm I'd set to remind myself to send the Eastmere hotel a copy of my work reference. I'd already sent it that morning. I turned the alarm off and looked at Callum's messages.
Nothing new.
I wrote, I'm here. Where are you?
Then I balanced the second parcel of chips on my knee, unwrapped my own and started eating.
I didn't want to have the conversation with him hungry. That was what I told myself. The chips were getting cold anyway.
There were things Ruby could have misunderstood. Callum might have warned her to keep away because he'd known we'd find this difficult. I had kissed him in front of her and then knocked on her door to ask why she was back. I hadn't exactly made myself look calm.
But the doorway wasn't a misunderstanding I could imagine away. He had a small room. If he stood in front of the door, there wouldn't be space to pass.
At twenty past, I put my unfinished chips down and called him.
It rang out.
I stood up. A gust of wind lifted the loose chip paper, and I caught it under my heel. Two chips fell on the step. A gull landed instantly.
“You're welcome,” I told it.
I was going to take the food back to the hotel. I even put both parcels in the carrier bag. Then I saw him coming from the town, moving fast with his jacket open.
My phone lit as I picked it up: 20:40.
He reached for the bag.
“I'm sorry.”
“I've been waiting forty minutes.”
“I know.”
“Where were you?”
He bent with his hands on his thighs for a second, catching his breath.
“Held up. Then I couldn't find my phone.”
“You have it.”
“I've found it now.”
He took it out of his pocket, as if that helped.
I pulled the food away when he tried to take it again.
“I bought you dinner.”
“I can see.” He straightened. “Thank you. I said I'm sorry.”
“Don't say it like I'm being difficult.”
His face changed. He looked at the cold parcels, then at me.
“You're right.”
He reached for my hand instead of the bag.
“Come and sit down. I'll eat every one.”
“They're awful now.”
“Then I'll suffer.”
I nearly smiled. I hated how close I came to smiling.
We sat two steps above where I'd been waiting. He opened his food, speared three chips at once and ate them without complaint.
I set my bag between my feet.
“I spoke to Ruby.”
He stopped chewing.
“About what?”
“What you told her about me.”
He swallowed and put the fork down.
“What does she say I told her?”
“That I'm jealous. That I'll make things up. That she should keep away from me.”
“I said she shouldn't get involved in our relationship.”
“Did you say the rest?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Lena, you weren't happy about her before she even came back. I didn't want a fight.”
“So you told her I'm a liar?”
“No.”
“Then why did she use the same words you used about her?”
“Because you've told her what I said.”
I looked at him.
“Did you?” he asked.
“Yes. But—”
“There you are.”
He picked the fork up again. I caught his sleeve.
“She says you wouldn't let her out of your room.”
He turned his head towards me.
“That's what she's saying now?”
“Did you stand in front of the door?”
“We were arguing. I wanted to finish talking.”
“And she wanted to go.”
“So she went.”
I let go of his sleeve.
He set the food beside him and reached for me. His palm rested on my knee, warm through my skirt.
“I'm here with you,” he said. “That's what I want. I don't want to go back over every row I've ever had with Ruby.”
“It wasn't every row.”
“No. But it'll be another one tomorrow.”
My phone was in my hand. I turned it face down on my lap. He leaned his shoulder against mine, and I stayed still.
For a minute, we watched a little boy dragging a bucket along the sand below us. Water slopped out with every step. His father trailed after him carrying a spade and one abandoned shoe.
Callum started to say something, then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen and didn't answer.
“Who is it?”
“Mara.”
“Why's she calling you?”
The call stopped. He turned the phone over in his hand.
“Ruby's saying money's gone from her room.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“How do you know?”
“Mara rang earlier.”
I shifted away from his shoulder.
“Before you got here?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I wanted five minutes where it wasn't about Ruby.”
His phone rang again. He silenced it.
The time on its screen was nine o'clock.
“What money?” I asked.
“A hundred and eighty pounds. In a tin, apparently.”
“That's a lot.”
“I know.” He put the phone between us. “She wants Mara to think I took it.”
I remembered Ruby telling me about her savings at the kitchen table. The toast going cold while she tried to explain why she needed a room.
“Why would Mara think that?”
“Someone saw a jacket. A blue one. That's all.” He pulled at the front of his own jacket. “Half the town's got one of these.”
“Did you go into her room?”
“No.”
He answered quickly, meeting my eyes.
“I told Mara I was with you,” he said. “Because I was coming to meet you. If she asks, just say we were together.”
“You weren't here.”
“I am now.”
“What time does she want?”
He looked out at the sea.
“Eight till half past.”
The wind moved the empty corner of his chip paper. He flattened it with his hand.
“Callum.”
“It's nothing, Lena. She's making trouble because I wouldn't get back with her. I shouldn't have to prove where I was every minute.”
“Then tell Mara where you were.”
“I've told her.”
“You've told her you were here.”
He didn't answer.
I picked up my phone. My missed call to him was there, made at twenty past eight. I turned the screen towards him.
“I was ringing you.”
“You could have got the time wrong.”
“I didn't.”
“You were sitting here thinking about what Ruby said. It probably felt longer than it was.”
I stood up.
He caught the chip parcel before it slid off the step.
“Where are you going?”
“Back.”
“Sit down. Please.”
I stayed standing. He looked up at me, his face bare in the light from the promenade.
“I'd do it for you,” he said.
“I'm not asking you to.”
“I'm asking you to believe me.”
“You got here at twenty to nine. If Mara asks, that's what I'll tell her.”
He put the food down slowly.
“You'd rather take Ruby's side?”
“I don't know who took her money.”
“But you won't help me.”
I wanted to sit beside him again. I wanted him to move his hand away from the chips and hold mine, and say we'd missed a nice evening but there would be others.
“I won't say you were here when you weren't.”
I picked up the carrier bag.
He stayed on the step while I walked away. At the top, I looked back once. He was staring at his phone, with the remaining cold chips beside him.