Ruby put an old bowl on the board and walked round the table.
It looked all right. Not elegant, but all right.
Jonah watched from the doorway. ‘Now touch the front edge.’
‘I have touched it.’
‘Touch it like someone looking at the price.’
Ruby pressed the edge with two fingers. The board rocked. The bowl slid a few inches, and she caught it before it hit the floor.
She swore.
‘That's why I brought that one,’ she said.
‘Good choice.’
She put the bowl safely on the counter. Jonah came over, crouched and looked under the board.
‘The crate's twisted. And the top's too smooth.’
‘I could put a cloth over it.’
‘A cloth won't stop the rocking.’
Ruby sat on the floor opposite him. The new arrangement had looked almost finished when she'd sent the photographs. Having it fail in front of him made her want to defend it.
‘The other risers were level,’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘I know. That's not useful information.’
He looked up at her. ‘It's annoying information.’
She laughed, relieved that he hadn't made it mean more.
Jonah had been to the hall that morning. The smaller space would work. He'd decided to take it, and Bev had changed the booking to suit. Ruby was glad for him. It was hard not to sound too glad, as if he'd done it to make her life easier.
‘What are you taking?’ she asked.
‘The little mixed frames. A few samples. Less than I planned.’
‘Are you angry about that?’
‘Yes. Also glad I don't have to pack as much.’
He pointed at the crates. ‘You don't need the board this high. What if these go on their sides?’
They turned them. One made a low shelf; the other could hold the smaller dishes within its open face. The top still needed a flat surface, but it no longer balanced on two uneven corners.
For a moment the two crates resembled a poorly planned rabbit hutch.
‘No,’ Ruby said.
‘No,’ Jonah agreed.
They moved them again. Ruby began to enjoy the work.
Jonah showed her where a small strip beneath the board would stop it sliding. He had spare wood at the workshop. She could cut it to length if she wanted.
‘I do want,’ she said.
‘Then we'll take it there.’
They carried the two crates and the board down the stairs. At the street Ruby caught him smiling at the load in her arms.
‘What?’
‘You look determined.’
‘It's not a decorative expression.’
‘I noticed.’
At the workshop he gave her a pencil and a scrap strip, then let her measure. She made one mark, checked it and made another. He stayed beside her while she cut, with one hand near the bench rather than on her arm.
When the first strip was fixed underneath, Ruby slid the board against the crate. It stopped exactly where it should. She tried to move it again. It stayed.
‘Oh,’ she said.
Jonah grinned. ‘Yes.’
They added a second strip, sanded an edge that caught her sleeve and put thin rubber pads on the surface beneath the bowls. Ruby tested it with the old bowl again. Then with the green jug. That felt much braver.
The jug didn't move.
She stood back, hands on her hips. The wood was mismatched. The arrangement was lower than the borrowed risers had been. There would be fewer pieces at the back, and the tallest jug would need a different place.
It was also something she could assemble herself, twice, without a hopeful folded towel.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘You're welcome.’
Jonah wiped a little dust from her cheek with his thumb. She turned towards his hand and kissed him. The kiss lasted longer than she'd intended. Her hands were dirty; she kept them against his shoulders anyway.
When they drew apart, he glanced at the clock.
‘I have to work now.’
‘You are very inconvenient.’
‘I've been told.’
She brushed his shirt where she'd left a pale mark. It only spread the dust. He took her hand before she could try again.
‘Leave it.’
Ruby smiled and left it.
They loaded the crates onto the trolley she'd brought. Jonah held the door as she went out. She would need another hour at home to arrange the stock properly, and another session tomorrow to rewrite the price cards she and Mae had made, with larger numbers.
At the corner she looked back. He was inside, bent over the bench. She went on pushing the trolley, thinking about the kiss and the green jug that hadn't moved.
Mae was out when Ruby got home. A note said she had a trial shift that afternoon, and would tell Ruby about a possible room when she knew more. Ruby read it, laid it beside Mae's keys and began unpacking the crates.