Ruby was holding a bowl against the sitting-room wall when the bell rang.
‘That's either him or the landlord,’ Mae said. ‘Put it down in case it's the landlord.’
Ruby set the bowl on the table. Mae had persuaded her that the pieces needed more space between them, which was easy to arrange at home and impossible on a six-foot stall. They had been moving the same six bowls round for half an hour.
‘You answer,’ Ruby said. ‘I'll get the other ones.’
Mae got up from the sofa. Ruby went to the cupboard and heard the front door open.
Then nothing.
She paused with two bowls in her hands. Nobody said hello. There was no polite little explanation about who Jonah was or why he had come.
‘Mae?’
Ruby went back through the sitting room.
Mae stood with her hand on the door. Jonah was on the other side, holding a narrow piece of wood under one arm. His smile had gone.
‘You,’ Mae said.
Jonah looked past her and saw Ruby.
‘What's happening?’ Ruby asked.
Mae took a step back. ‘You know him?’
‘He's Jonah. From the hall.’
‘I know his name.’
Ruby's arms began to ache. She put the bowls down on the hall floor.
‘How do you know each other?’
‘We barely do,’ Jonah said.
Mae laughed once, a sharp sound that didn't fit in the small hall. ‘That's convenient.’
‘I've met you once.’
‘And that was plenty, wasn't it?’
Ruby looked from one to the other. Mae's face had changed more than his. The colour had gone out of her mouth, and the hand on the door was shaking.
‘Come in,’ Ruby said to Jonah. ‘We can't do this in the doorway.’
Mae moved aside. Jonah came in, but stopped short of the sitting room. He held the wooden support upright beside his leg.
‘He ruined my life,’ Mae said.
Ruby's first thought was that they must have been together. Her second was of Mae crying into the phone nine months ago, saying she couldn't get anyone at the agency to answer her.
‘Is this the client complaint?’ she asked.
Mae nodded. The movement was so small Ruby nearly missed it.
‘Your sister?’ Mae said to Jonah. ‘Is she still making you fight her battles?’
‘Don't.’
Ruby stepped between them, partly because the bowls were by her feet and someone was going to kick them.
‘Tell me what happened.’
Jonah looked at Mae. ‘She posted something private about my sister.’
‘Without her name,’ Mae said.
‘She recognised herself.’
‘What was it?’ Ruby asked.
Mae rubbed her fingers along the edge of the door. ‘Something she told me at a fitting. I was trying to explain what styling can do for people. I wasn't making fun of her.’
‘What did she tell you?’
‘She'd had a miscarriage.’
Ruby glanced at Jonah. His jaw was tight. He didn't add anything.
‘And you put that online?’
‘I took it down when she asked.’
‘You shouldn't have put it there,’ Jonah said.
‘So you put my name there instead.’ Mae faced Ruby. ‘Full name. Told everyone I'd sold a woman's grief.’
Ruby looked at him. ‘Did you?’
‘I posted that, yes.’
‘Did she sell it?’
‘No. That was wrong.’
Mae made a helpless little gesture towards Ruby, as if the admission should settle what she was meant to do.
‘He took it down. By then people had copied it. The agency stopped booking me. Clients cancelled. I told you.’
She had told Ruby about the cancellations, the lost money, the email she'd kept rewriting and couldn't send. Ruby had known Mae was ashamed. She hadn't known what of.
Jonah set the support against the wall. ‘I didn't know you two were friends.’
‘Does that make a difference?’ Ruby asked.
‘To turning up here, yes. To what I said, no.’
The sound of the door drifting shut made all three of them turn. Mae caught it before it latched, then held it open again.
Ruby saw the movement. So did Jonah.
‘I should go,’ he said.
She wasn't ready to say he should. She wasn't ready to ask him to stay.
‘I need a minute.’
‘All right.’
He pointed down at the wood. ‘It's just to try. If the bowls slide, don't use it.’
The ordinary advice sounded strange. Ruby had imagined showing him her pieces, the good cupboard and perhaps the bad one. She had imagined Mae teasing her after he'd gone. Now she couldn't quite look him in the face.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
He nodded. At the door he stopped, evidently about to say something else, then left.
Ruby waited until his footsteps faded on the stairs. Mae shut the door and leaned her back against it.
‘Did you date him?’ Ruby asked.
Mae's eyes lifted. ‘No.’
‘Anything like that?’
‘Nothing like that. I didn't know him until he came to collect Tessa. Then I knew him because my phone wouldn't stop.’
Ruby rubbed both hands over her face. She could still feel the cold wind from their walk on her cheeks.
‘Why didn't you tell me what the complaint was?’
‘Because you already looked at me like I couldn't keep my life together. I didn't want you looking at me like I'd deserved it.’
‘I didn't think that.’
‘I know. I didn't want it to change.’
Ruby bent to pick up the bowls. Her hands weren't as steady as they had been when the bell rang. Mae reached for one and Ruby let her take it.
They carried them to the sitting room. Everything was still arranged in hopeful rows. The music had stopped at the end of the playlist.
Mae put her bowl down with excessive care.
‘I was excited for you,’ she said. ‘I didn't know it was him.’
Ruby looked at the red dish, the one Jonah had noticed. She couldn't seem to move it.
‘I know.’
Mae sat on the edge of the sofa. Ruby sat beside her, leaving a little space. After a while Mae's shoulder began to shake, and Ruby closed it.