Tess filled the tote carefully before she left home.
Without the lining, the paper packets sat squarely against the canvas. She put bread on top, wrapped the small glass jar in a tea towel and lowered it into the space beside them. There was room for everything. She checked the handles, picked it up and stopped looking inside.
There would be no more searches. The café had called back again with nothing. Ben and she had looked along the whole route. Cal had helped her cut the lining out. She wasn't going to spend another evening lifting corners and hoping.
At Mara's flat the kitchen door was open as usual. The little room photograph lay printed on the table beside a confirmation for next Monday at eleven. Mara had written shoes on a scrap of paper and underlined it twice.
“I've brought a jar,” Tess said.
Ben looked into the bag she held open. “We've got lots.”
“This one doesn't have glue on it.”
He smiled slightly. Tess set it on the counter and took out the bread.
Mara came from the bedroom carrying a small box. She kissed Tess's cheek, then put the box beside the paper.
“That's the last of the cards. We only need a few now.”
She sounded brighter than when she had asked for the two-day delay. Her hair was pinned up, and she wore the comfortable trousers she'd had on when she tried the shoes. Tess liked seeing her dressed for an ordinary evening. The wedding had stopped taking up every inch of the room.
Ben tore off a piece of bread before anybody found a plate.
“You're meant to eat something with it,” Mara said.
“I will.”
She went to the fridge. Tess folded the bag handles together and put it on the hall chair, in the same place as Thursday. She hesitated at the kitchen doorway, then came back in.
No ring. No use trying to make it appear by thinking hard enough.
Ben spread the room photograph out. “Can you hold this corner?”
She put a finger on it. The paper had curled during printing.
“We don't need everything,” he said. “Just those.”
He pointed at two of the jars. Tess picked them up and put them beside the box. Mara brought over cheese and a little dish of olives. They ate standing up while they worked.
Tess cut a length of paper to fit inside the box. Ben measured another against it and cut his own. There was something pleasing about doing the same small task next to him without making a promise he needed to challenge.
“I'll go to the shop when we've finished this,” he said to Mara. “They're open late. I checked.”
Mara looked over from the cupboard.
“You're going tonight?”
“Yes. The deposit's all I've paid. I'll pay the rest and bring it home.”
She nodded. “Right.”
He tucked the scissors beneath the curled paper and reached for the next sheet.
Mara held up a green ribbon. “This one or cream?”
“Cream,” Tess said.
“I think cream too.”
“Then why ask?” Ben said.
“So you can agree.”
He laughed. Mara dropped the ribbon beside him and went toward the hall.
“There's more in the little box. I'll get it.”
Tess watched her stop near the hall chair. The box Mara wanted was on the shelf beyond it. Mara turned toward the bathroom instead.
Ben was trying to fold the paper with one hand. “Tess, here?”
She held the edge while he made the crease. It went wrong, and they opened it up and tried again. The paper rustled loudly between them.
Mara came back to the hall shelf. Tess caught a glimpse of her standing beside the tote, one hand down by her side. She was reaching for the ribbon box with the other.
“The broad stuff?” Mara called.
“Yes,” Tess said. “Not the thin one.”
Ben moved the glass jars out of their way. Tess picked up the bread wrapper and took it to the bin. When she turned back, Mara was standing in the kitchen doorway.
She didn't have the ribbon box.
“Tess,” she said.
There was something in her hand.