For nine days, Nell waited for the win to turn into money.
She went to work. She bought milk. She put off replacing her coat because it seemed ridiculous to buy the cheapest one now. Iris answered calls from the station and told them when she'd heard something new. Ben went to see the yellow-door house with her. She came back with pictures of the garden, none of Ben.
Sam asked Nell once whether they'd talked about her half yet.
“When she actually has it,” Nell said.
He wanted to look at Northbay dates. She told him looking was fine. Paying for anything would wait.
Then, one evening, Nell got home to find flowers on their table. Iris stood beside them, grinning at her phone.
“It's there,” she said.
Nell let her bag fall to the floor. “All of it?”
“It's mine. Available. I checked.”
They hugged. Iris smelled of the hand cream she kept at work. Nell squeezed her shoulders, then stepped back to look at her face.
“Have you told Ben?”
“Called him first.”
“Good.”
Iris put the phone down. “I've got something for you.”
On Nell's chair was a large paper bag with ribbon handles. Inside was a dark blue coat, soft and heavy, with a proper lining. Nell lifted it out. It was the one she'd looked at on their winning night.
“Iris.”
“Try it.”
Nell slid her arms into the sleeves. The shoulders fitted. Iris pulled the collar straight and stood back.
“See? You look like somebody who has a job interview.”
“I've got a job.”
“A glamorous job interview.”
Nell looked down at herself. She had wanted this coat when she first saw it. She wanted it now. In the hallway mirror, she looked warmer, better prepared for whatever came next.
“Thank you,” she said.
Iris smiled at her in the mirror. “I knew you'd like it.”
Nell undid the buttons. One was still covered in thin paper. She rubbed it loose with her thumb.
“We should talk about the money,” she said.
Iris went into the kitchen. “We can get dinner. Wherever you want.”
“No, my half.”
The tap came on. Iris rinsed a cup that wasn't dirty.
Nell hung the coat over the chair. “I'm not expecting you to sort everything tonight. I just want to know when.”
Iris switched the tap off.
“Nell. I didn't think you meant that.”
“What?”
“That night. With the potatoes.”
Nell looked toward the sofa. The cushion had slipped. The old stain showed beside it.
“We said half each.”
“I know what we said.”
“Then what didn't I mean?”
Iris set the cup on the draining board, too hard. “We were messing about. We were talking about buying islands.”
“We promised before that.”
“I bought you the coat. I'm happy to help you with things.”
Nell waited. Iris folded the dish towel along its old creases.
“Help me,” Nell repeated.
“Yes.”
“With your money.”
Iris looked up. “It is my money.”
Nell felt suddenly stupid for taking the coat out so eagerly. She could still feel its soft cuffs against her wrists.
“We both entered. We said if either of us won, we'd split it.”
“And I won.”
“That's the point of a promise.”
Iris's eyes filled. Nell had seen that happen when Iris was furious as well as when she was sad.
“You can't really expect me to give away a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“I expected you to do what you said.”
“You sound like Sam.”
The name stopped Nell for a second. “He wasn't even there.”
“He's been talking about that stand for months. Now there's money and suddenly it's all happening.”
“I want that too.”
“You want whatever he's excited about.”
“No.”
“Where were you going before him?”
Nell gripped the back of the chair. “That doesn't make this your money.”
“It's my name they called.”
They stood facing each other across the kitchen table. The flowers were white, expensive-looking, wrapped in paper Iris hadn't yet taken off. Nell wondered how many other things she'd bought already. She hated herself for counting them.
“If I'd won,” she said, “would you think I was joking?”
Iris looked down. “You haven't won.”
Nell lifted the coat from the chair.
“Don't do that,” Iris said.
“Do what?”
“Make a big thing of the present. I bought it because I love you.”
Nell put it back into the bag. It didn't fit as neatly now. One sleeve stuck out. She pushed it down.
“Take it back.”
“It was for you.”
“Then keep the money from that as well.”
Iris flinched. Nell felt the little cruel satisfaction, then the sourness after it.
“I don't want to fight with you,” Iris said.
“Then split it.”
“I can help with Northbay. We could work out what you actually need.”
Nell's phone vibrated in her bag. She ignored it.
Iris came around the table. “Let me help. You don't have to turn everything into this.”
Nell stepped back before Iris could touch her.
The movement hurt them both. She could see it in Iris's face.
“I want the half,” Nell said. “I don't want to ask you for every separate thing.”
Iris held her hands at her sides.
“I'm not doing that,” she said.
Nell nodded once. There it was. Not confusion, not waiting for a payment, not a joke neither of them could remember properly. No.
She picked up her work bag.
“Where are you going?”
“Out.”
“You haven't eaten.”
Nell put on her old coat. The broken zip opened when she tried to fasten it. She pulled the two sides together instead.
Iris followed her into the hall. “We can talk when you're not so angry.”
“I heard you.”
She closed the door without slamming it. Outside, a cold wind blew between the buildings. Nell walked past the bus stop, then past the bakery she'd left an hour earlier. Through the window she could see the clean counter waiting for tomorrow.
Her phone vibrated again.
Sam: All good?
She stopped beside a shuttered shop. She'd been going to send a picture of herself in the new coat. Instead she called him.
“She won't split it,” she said when he answered.
For a moment he said nothing. Then, “Where are you?”
Nell looked back along the street. The flat was out of sight.
“Walking.”
“Come here.”
“I don't just want to complain about it.”
“Then don't.”
She pressed the phone harder to her ear. “I want her to pay me.”
“Okay,” he said. “Come here. We'll work out what to do.”
Nell crossed the road toward his place. For the first time since the call from the radio station, she wasn't smiling at anyone.