At three o'clock on Thursday, Tess was standing in Mara's kitchen in a dress she had pretended to choose by accident.
“You're nice,” Mara said.
Tess looked down. The dress was dark blue, soft at the waist, and a little too good for writing names on cards. She had put the green cardigan over it because a cardigan made the effort less obvious.
“It was clean.”
“So were your jeans.”
Mara smiled and went back to the chopping board. Tess unhooked her bag from her shoulder.
“I can start the cards.”
“Not those yet. Ben's got the final names. He'll bring them home.”
“What do you need me to do?”
Mara looked around the kitchen. There was a bowl of chopped vegetables, a damp tea towel, a baking dish waiting to be filled. Two unopened bags of flour stood beside the kettle.
“You could do the ribbons. Or sit down. You've been helping every night.”
Tess had taken the afternoon off. She had told herself she could spend it getting ahead, so there wouldn't be hours of work after supper. At home she had changed her clothes twice and put on mascara. Then she had arrived early enough to make the afternoon look useful.
Cal hadn't sent another message. He had invited her in person. He didn't need to invite her again.
“I'm thinking of going out for a bit,” she said.
Mara turned. “Where?”
“Down by the river.”
“To see Cal?”
Tess hadn't told her about yesterday. She had planned to mention it over supper, casually, after she knew whether the café went well.
Mara wiped a wet hand against her apron. “You do have that face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you're waiting for me to ask the right question.”
“I saw him yesterday.”
“And?”
“In the shop. He asked if I wanted coffee.”
“Do you?”
Tess rubbed a thumb along the seam of her tote. “I don't know.”
“You put that dress on.”
“I liked it.”
“All right.” Mara came close and tucked the loose end of Tess's cardigan under its button. “Have coffee. Find out. You don't have to decide the rest today.”
For a moment Tess wanted to lean her head against Mara's shoulder and say how much she hoped for. It would sound ridiculous aloud. One invitation and she was already imagining his face at the wedding, the way he might look up when she came down the aisle ahead of Mara.
“He probably asks everyone,” she said.
“I don't think that's true.”
“You didn't see him.”
“No.” Mara stepped back. “But you did.”
She returned to the counter, took off her ring and dropped it into the blue eggcup. The little click was familiar. She washed her hands, opened the flour and began stirring it into the bowl.
Tess checked the time. An hour and a half until Cal said he would be there. She could walk slowly, find a table first, sit where he would have to notice her when he arrived.
She pictured herself alone at the table. Waiting. Turning her head every time the door opened. She didn't like that picture.
“Do you think he's seeing anyone?” she asked.
“Ask him.”
“I can't just open with that.”
“Don't open with it.”
Mara tipped dough onto the counter. Tess found the ribbon box and sat at the table. She cut one length too short and another much too long. The kitchen smelled of onions and warm flour. It would have been easy to stay there, in her unnecessarily nice dress, and later say she had been too busy to go.
But Cal would sit at the café. He would drink something, eat one of the flat sweet biscuits, leave when he wanted to. He would have offered, and she would have missed the hour he was willing to give her.
She stood up.
“I'm going.”
“Good,” Mara said. “Back about half six? We'll eat then.”
“Yes.”
Tess put the box on the shelf. Beside it stood the blue eggcup.
She looked at the ring.
It didn't have to mean anything. She could put it on her right hand. It was pretty; she liked the colour. Mara had let her try it on Monday.
For ten seconds, in the kitchen. Then Mara had held out her palm.
Tess knew the difference.
Behind her, Mara called, “Can you let yourself out? I've got dough all over me.”
“Yes.”
She could ask. Mara was only a few feet away. She could turn around and say, Can I wear your ring to make Cal wish he hadn't left me?
Mara would say no. She would wipe her hands, look at Tess properly and ask why she couldn't just have the coffee.
Tess took the ring from the cup.
It was cool between her fingers. She put it on her left hand and curled that hand around the handle of her bag.
She wasn't going to invent a whole man. She would let Cal see it. Let him wonder for a little while. She wanted, just once, to sit opposite him without feeling that he was the one deciding how much she mattered.
Before supper it would be back in the eggcup. Mara wouldn't have to know. Tess would have one small thing to keep to herself, and no harm done if she was careful.
“Enjoy yourself,” Mara said.
Tess looked over her shoulder. Mara was pressing the heel of her hand into the dough, her apron dusted white, her hair falling out of the knot at the back of her head.
“I will.”
The words came out too softly. Mara glanced up.
Tess waved with her right hand and went through the hall.
At the bottom of the stairs she stopped to pull her cardigan sleeve down over the ring. Then she pushed it up again.
Cal had always liked the blue dress.