At three that Saturday afternoon Leah went to see the cheaper room.
It was above a row of shops, with a steep staircase and a narrow kitchen shared by three people. One of them was away. The other two were busy with things of their own. Nobody looked thrilled at the idea of her arrival, and nobody looked troubled by it either.
The bedroom had one wall that would not take a nail and a view of the bins behind the shops. There was space for a bed, a wardrobe and a little table where she could sort her paints if she covered it properly.
Leah stood beside the window and did the sums again.
She could afford it. Not easily. She would have to finish the work she had been putting off and stop buying things because Owen liked seeing her in them. She would have to carry her painting box up those stairs.
She said she wanted the room.
Afterwards she walked to Anna and Daniel's house to collect the last boxes. Mira had come back from photographing the old house and could keep the borrowed car until that evening. She had offered to meet Leah there at four, then made it clear she needed to return it and get ready to go dancing.
Leah had said that was fine. It was fine.
Daniel opened the door wearing the shirt from Friday. It was clean but badly creased. He stepped aside.
‘They're in the hall,’ he said. ‘I checked the garage was dry before I brought them through.’
The boxes contained the things she had not wanted to face at the flat: framed pictures, books, a lamp, the good paper she kept for sketches. She opened the top one. Nothing had shifted much.
‘Thank you.’
Daniel nodded. There were fewer chairs in the sitting room now. The flowers were still beside her father's photograph.
‘How was the rest of the gathering?’ she asked.
‘People left slowly. Your mum stayed until three. I took her gardening things to the door with her.’
Leah looked towards the kitchen. The coat was no longer on its hook. Her mother's boots would be gone from beneath the greenhouse bench too.
‘She was upset,’ Daniel said.
‘I know.’
He did not ask Leah to do anything about it.
‘Are you all right staying here?’ she asked.
Daniel looked around the hall. ‘I don't know yet. I'm staying. That's enough for now.’
Leah touched the edge of the first box. ‘I've found a room. I can move in on Tuesday.’
‘Good.’
It was a small answer. She could see it cost him something to give it without an offer attached.
‘I ended it with Owen,’ she said. ‘After I left here.’
He looked at her face, then down at her hand.
‘I'm sorry.’
‘So am I.’
The two of them stood among her boxes. She could still remember the feel of his fingers round hers. Nothing about returning the ring had turned Daniel into a person she did not want to touch.
‘I did want to kiss you,’ she said.
‘I know.’
‘I don't want to leave pretending you imagined it.’
He leaned against the doorframe, keeping the space between them.
‘I wanted it too.’
She nodded. There was no need to make the attraction disgraceful to make leaving possible.
‘I'm not waiting for you here,’ Daniel said. ‘I need to say that. I was waiting for Anna to change her mind. Then I liked the idea of you staying. I don't want to spend every day turning the spare room into a question.’
Leah looked up the stairs.
‘That's good,’ she said, although part of her disliked losing the option.
‘I'll put my drawings in it. I used to have a table near the window before it became a bedroom.’
She smiled. She could imagine him absorbed there, annoyed with a bird that would not sit still.
‘You should keep the page with seven birds.’
‘I will.’
Mira's car stopped outside. Daniel straightened and picked up the first box. Leah took the second. They carried them down the path together.
Mira opened the boot and began moving her camera bag.
‘This is the last trip in a car I don't own,’ she said. ‘After this, all objects must become lighter.’
‘I'll tell them,’ Leah said.
Daniel fitted his box into the space Mira made. Leah put hers beside it. There was nothing left inside the house that belonged to her.
She shook Daniel's hand before getting in. It felt strange after nearly kissing him, and simple after everything else. He held it firmly, then let go.
‘Good luck with the room,’ he said.
‘Good luck with yours.’
Mira drove away. Leah looked back once. Daniel was walking towards his front door with his hands empty.
At Mira's, they stacked the boxes beside the wall. Leah sent a message confirming the room and the Tuesday move. Then she picked up her painting box and opened it on the little table by the sofa.
She had a job to finish, and a place to put the money it would earn.