On Thursday Nell carried the bread home on two bakery trays. She'd told herself she was going because this was her flat. Now, outside the door, she wished she'd eaten something before she came.
She could hear Ben's voice through the wood.
“You could have just told me.”
Nell opened the door.
Iris stood by the table in a new dress. Sam was leaning against the kitchen counter. Ben had his jacket on, though the evening was warm and Iris had opened the window.
“What's happening?” Nell asked.
Nobody reached for the bread.
Iris said, “Ask him.”
Sam looked at Nell. “I told Ben.”
She set the trays down carefully and slipped the paper bag off the top loaf. “When?”
“This morning.”
“Why?”
“Because she wasn't answering you.”
Iris made a little sound, almost a laugh. “So you decided to help.”
Nell stayed beside the table. She'd spent all afternoon rehearsing how she'd tell Iris there was still a way to avoid this. It had made her feel sick. It had also made her feel powerful. Both feelings were useless now.
“I didn't ask you to,” she told Sam.
“I know.”
“Then why didn't you ask me?”
“I thought once he knew, she'd have to stop pretending.”
Ben looked from one to the other. “I'd rather not be used for whatever this is.”
“It's your girlfriend kissing me,” Sam said.
“And it's not about you winning an argument,” Nell snapped.
Sam opened his mouth, then closed it.
Iris picked up her phone. “Listen to what she sent me.”
“I've heard it,” Ben said.
Nell turned to Iris. “You sent him that?”
“Why shouldn't he know?”
“You've known for three months. Now he should know?”
“And Sam should know as well,” Iris said. “You both should hear yourselves.”
Nell looked at Sam. He glanced down.
Iris played the voice message anyway.
Nell's voice filled the small kitchen. Ben had no choice about hearing it this time. Nell stared at the bread. She had picked the nicest loaf for Iris.
When the recording ended, Iris put the phone on the table.
“That isn't a friend asking,” she said.
“No,” Nell said. “It isn't.”
Sam moved toward her, but she lifted a hand.
Ben unfastened his jacket, then fastened it again. “I asked you before I came here,” he said to Iris. “Straight question. Did you kiss him?”
Iris looked toward the window.
“You told me they were making something up because of the money,” he said.
“They are doing this because of the money.”
“Did you kiss him?”
Her eyes were wet. “It was nothing. I'd had too much. He pushed me away. I apologized.”
Ben looked at the floor for a moment.
“I didn't know how to tell you,” Iris said.
“You knew how to answer me this morning.”
She came toward him. “You know what Nell and Sam are like together. I didn't want that to wreck this.”
Ben stepped aside. Iris's hand dropped before it reached his arm.
“Don't,” he said.
Nell picked up the empty bread bag. Her fingers were shaking and the paper crackled. She shoved it into her work bag.
“I shouldn't have sent that message,” she said to Ben. “I was angry. I still am. But I shouldn't have done it.”
He nodded without smiling at her. “I don't want to decide what anybody owes anybody.”
“I'm not asking you to.”
“Good.”
Iris stood by the table again. “I've been your friend for eleven years, Nell. And now you want to wreck my life for money.”
“I wanted you to keep your promise.”
“So you threatened me.”
“Yes.”
Nell couldn't get out of that part. She'd sent it. Sam could have started the idea, Iris could have broken the promise first, and still it was her voice on the phone.
Ben took his keys from his pocket.
“We'll talk another day,” he told Iris.
“You're not staying?”
“No.”
“What about Saturday? The house?”
“I'm not moving in with you on Saturday.”
Iris gripped the edge of the table. “Because of one kiss?”
“Because you lied to me today. And you want me to stand here and listen to that message as if it makes the lie go away.”
He left. Iris didn't follow him. She looked smaller in the new dress, though Nell knew it fitted her perfectly.
Sam reached for Nell's bag. “Let's go.”
She took it before he could.
“Not with you.”
“Nell.”
“You knew exactly what I was planning. You listened to me send it. Then you did what you wanted.”
“It wasn't working.”
“You gave me two days.”
“She's still not paying.”
Iris pushed the bread away from herself. Nell watched one tray slide toward the edge and caught it before it fell.
There was no triumph in the room. No money coming. Just three people who knew too much about how to hurt one another.
Nell put the tray flat on the table.
“Those need to go back to the bakery,” she told Iris.
“That's what you're worried about?”
“It's something I can do.”
She left both trays, because she couldn't bear to carry the bread back out through the door. Sam called her name once. She didn't turn around.
Outside, Ben's car was already gone. Nell walked toward the water, where nobody would be waiting for her. She bought a bag of fries from a stall and sat on a low wall until they were gone.
Sam called. Then Iris called. Nell sent them both to voicemail.
When it got dark, she went back to the flat. Iris's bedroom door was closed. On the kitchen table, the bread had been covered with a clean towel.
Nell took a slice and ate it standing up. Then she went to her own room and closed the door.