Eli brought the correction to June on Thursday before he posted it.
They sat on the low wall outside the cinema, where the afternoon sun hadn’t reached yet. June read it on his phone. It said he had appeared in an earlier clip with Ruby and had performed a stand-in role connected to a dramatized video. It said they had never had a romantic or sexual relationship. He regretted the confusion.
June read the last line again.
“It sounds like people got confused and you were unlucky.”
He looked at the words. “I agreed to it.”
“For money.”
He took the phone back. “You’re right.”
She stayed beside him while he changed it. He made the first part plain: he had accepted a paid stand-in part, knowing viewers might connect him to the story, and had expected the acted role to be clarified. He regretted his part in creating the false impression.
“That says it,” June told him.
“Less flattering.”
“More yours.”
He held the phone for a moment, then posted the correction. June didn’t lean over to look at the response.
“Do you want a coffee?” she asked.
“I’d like that.”
They went inside. Ruby was waiting by the counter with a page of timings for her evening. She looked up from it when they entered together.
“I’ve been trying to get hold of you,” she told Eli.
“I was with June.”
“I can see.” She turned the page toward June. “Nina says there’s room for a short conversation after. I thought you could sit with me for that. Not perform. Just be there.”
June didn’t take the page.
“I said you couldn’t promise my presence.”
“I’m not promising. I’m asking.”
“My answer’s no.”
Ruby looked between them. “You’ve both decided I can’t have anything.”
“He’s published his correction,” June said.
“I saw.”
Eli stood a little apart, by the poster stand. Ruby folded the timings and unfolded them again.
“He was paid,” she said. “He agreed.”
“He says that in it.”
“But now he looks as if he’s telling the truth and I’m the only one left standing here.”
“He told me he didn’t write the video,” June said. “He says he performed the part you gave him. I’m not asking him to apologize for a relationship you didn’t have.”
Ruby stared at her, then looked at Eli.
“You’re very willing to believe him.”
June’s face warmed. “I’ve asked you things too.”
“Before you started kissing him.”
Eli took a step forward. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? Notice?” Ruby turned back to June. “It’s easy to be very careful about the truth when the truth gives you the man you want.”
June had put her bag down. She picked it up again.
“That isn’t fair.”
“None of it feels fair to me.”
June could hear people talking near the stairs. In a moment somebody would come down and see the three of them. Ruby had the folded timings in her hand. She looked as if she might tear them, but she only pressed a thumb into the crease.
Ruby held out the timings again. “I need my friend there.”
June left them in her hand.
“I’m going to stop reading the pages too,” she said. “For now.”
She put the bag over her shoulder and turned to Eli.
“I’m going home. I’ll speak to you later.”
“Do you want me to—”
“No. Thank you.”
She walked out alone. She didn’t look back through the doors. At the crossing, a driver waved her over, and she lifted a hand to thank him though she could barely see his face.
On the other side of the road she stopped long enough to take a breath. Then she carried on home.