On Tuesday, June came down from the staff room and found Ruby and Eli standing by the foyer bench.
Ruby had asked if she could drop off the ordinary rehearsal pages. June hadn't expected Eli. He had his jacket over one arm and looked as if he had just arrived.
“Good,” Ruby said when she saw June. “You can tell him this is worth doing.”
“What?”
Eli shook his head. “You don't need to.”
Ruby held a little notebook against her chest. “A new piece. About what comes after. It's proper writing work, not another stand-in thing. I can pay him.”
June looked at Eli. “You said no?”
“I have a job I've already agreed to do.”
“Not every hour of every day,” Ruby said.
“I don't want another piece connected to the video.”
“Everything I do is connected to the video now. That's how people found me.”
“You can do the audition material.”
“I will. Nina wants that too. But people will ask what happened afterwards, and I need something that moves it on.”
June put her bag behind the counter. Ruby came closer to Eli.
“I'm not asking you to look like the bad man again. You could write something funny. We could have a good part.”
“No.”
Ruby pressed her lips together. Then she told him what she could pay.
Eli looked toward the doors. June knew it was more than the original amount he had named in the café. She didn't speak.
“I can't,” he said.
“You mean you won't.”
“Yes.”
Ruby lowered the notebook.
“Fine,” she said. “It's finally going somewhere, and you don't want to know.”
“I want the part I agreed to clarified. I've wanted that since people started coming after me.”
“June's said you weren't my boyfriend.”
“June shouldn't have had to.”
Ruby turned to June. “Do you think I'm wrong to want this evening to be good?”
“You can make it good without him.”
That answer seemed to catch Ruby off guard. For a moment June saw her considering it. Then she opened the notebook and pulled out the pages she had brought.
“Here. These aren't about any of you.”
June took them. “Thank you.”
Ruby put the notebook away. She didn't ask Eli again. She stood there until he said he needed to go, then stepped aside to let him pass.
He looked at June. “I'll call you later.”
“Okay.”
After he left, Ruby stayed by the bench. June looked down at the pages. There were three lines crossed out on the first and a new one written above them, too small to read without holding it nearer.
“He can't talk to me like that and then walk away to you,” Ruby said.
June looked up. “He said he didn't want the job.”
“It's easy to say no when someone else is going to tell you how brave you were.”
“I didn't tell him anything.”
Ruby took her bag off the bench. “You'll read those?”
“Yes.”
“Soon? I'm not getting much help.”
June looked at the first page again. “I'll read them tonight.”
Ruby left before June could ask about the promised clarification. June watched her through the doors, walking fast enough to miss the little puddle beside the kerb.
Later, Eli called as he had said he would. He sounded tired. June asked about the work he had to finish, and he told her about a client who liked three different versions of an opening and now wanted all of them in the first sentence.
“You can't do that,” June said.
“You could say it to him. My voice isn't working.”
She smiled into the phone. They talked about coming round on Saturday. Neither mentioned the amount Ruby had offered.
After the call, June read the rehearsal pages. Some were funny. One was better with the crossed-out line put back. She sent Ruby that small opinion and waited to see whether it would be welcome.