Cal had brought two paper bags to the corner where Tess caught her bus.
“Breakfast,” he said.
“I've had breakfast.”
“Then mine, with company.”
She took the smaller bag anyway. Inside was a warm pastry. He had bought the one with the crisp edge she liked and left it whole.
They sat on the low wall outside the closed shop. Tuesday traffic moved past in uneven bursts. Tess had ten minutes before her bus. She had told him that; he had said ten minutes would do.
“How's the bag?” he asked.
“Usable.”
“Good.”
“Ugly inside.”
“Nobody looks inside.”
She smiled a little. He was right, which didn't make her like the cut edge more.
Cal unfolded his own paper bag and took out a roll. Seeds fell onto his trousers as he bit into it. Tess found a napkin in her coat pocket and gave it to him. He used one corner, then held it beneath the roll to catch the rest.
They ate for a minute. Tess wasn't hungry, but the pastry was warm and he had come to sit beside her before work. That was something she wanted to notice, not hurry past on the way to a bigger thing.
“Saturday,” he said.
She looked at him.
“Can we have Saturday evening? If the wedding's Monday now.”
“What about Saturday?”
“Nothing. That's the point. I won't book anything else. We can eat, go somewhere, come back. Whatever we want.”
“No boat.”
He smiled. “No boat.”
Tess brushed a crumb off her skirt. “Yes.”
“Good.”
He folded the empty part of his bag down. She waited, because he hadn't finished. He was making it much neater than it needed to be.
“I hated that ring,” he said at last.
“It's a nice ring.”
“Not the ring. Seeing it on you.”
She put her food down.
“For a second I thought somebody had managed to do the thing I hadn't,” he said. “Then you wouldn't tell me his name, and I wanted him to be awful.”
Tess watched his face.
“There wasn't anybody.”
“I know that now.”
He looked along the road for her bus. There was no bus yet.
“I liked it,” Tess said.
He turned back.
“When you looked upset. Before you tried to leave.” She scraped a fingertip across the paper bag. “I wanted you to mind.”
Cal nodded slowly. He didn't pretend she had meant something nicer.
“I minded,” he said.
She felt the warmth of that answer, then its embarrassment. It wasn't a clean thing to be pleased about.
“I could have asked you to stay longer,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You could have offered.”
He looked down. “Yes.”
Tess brushed the crumbs from her fingers. He caught her hand before she could put it back in her lap.
“Saturday?” he asked again.
“Saturday.”
He pressed her hand between his for a second. She wanted to lean against him, but her bus was coming now, and there wasn't enough room on the wall to do it without nearly falling off.
They stood.
“Tonight?” he asked. “Can I take you home after work?”
“I said I'd help Mara one last time. The things for Monday.”
“Right.”
“I'll tell you when I'm done.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
He didn't offer to come and sort it out. She was grateful for that, and slightly disappointed that he couldn't make the evening easy for her. Both feelings sat there while she gathered her bag.
Cal kissed her before the bus reached the stop. Not for very long. Long enough that she got on smiling, with the paper bag crumpled in her hand.