At seven twenty, Elena called to ask whether the others could come to Mara's apartment.
“Tonight?”
“If they're free.”
Mara had been sitting with the television on and no sound coming from it. She had eaten half a sandwich at Daniel's table while he put the second box in the refrigerator, then driven home with the empty lamp box occupying the place where she kept expecting Elena's bags. She had forgotten to give it to her; Elena had taken the lamp out, and they had left the box beside the car. Mara could not remember which of them had closed its lid.
“What for?”
“To tell them about Saturday.”
Mara looked toward the cupboard where the ticket had been.
“I've spoken to someone.”
“I know. Tell them too.”
“You could've asked me.”
“I'm asking if we can come.”
Mara held the phone against her ear. She had worn the same shirt all afternoon. There was a pale stripe on one sleeve where the lamp's cord had rubbed against the dust.
“I'll call them,” she said.
“I'll do it. Just tell me if we can use yours.”
She said yes. Elena thanked her and hung up.
Mara put the kettle on, though it was too early. She took five mugs out of the cupboard, saw what she was doing and left them on the counter. There was a clean hand towel in the bathroom. She changed it for a better one.
Jo arrived first, without the earrings. Kit had wanted a turn with them and Jo had put them somewhere even she was going to have trouble finding. Calvin was home. She could stay an hour, longer if she called, but he would need to get to bed before his early shift.
“Is she all right?” Mara asked.
“Yes.”
“The room?”
“It's a room.”
“Clean?”
“She was putting her shoes away when I left. I didn't inspect it.”
Jo took off her coat and folded it over the back of a chair. Bev came with Priya, who had parked around the corner because the street was full. Elena arrived a few minutes later. She wore the thin coat and carried the purse she had taken from the kitchen chair. The little key was on a ring around one finger.
For a moment they all stood while Mara moved things out of their way. Priya took the chair near the window. Jo sat at the table, Bev beside her. Elena remained by the counter until Mara said there was room at the other end.
“Do you want tea?” Mara asked.
“After,” Elena said.
Mara sat. The kettle switched itself off behind her.
“On Saturday I told Mara I wanted to stop doing the tickets,” Elena said. “We'd argued. She gave me my two dollars back. I took it. Then she went and bought them.”
Jo looked at Mara. Priya kept her eyes on Elena.
“Before she bought it?”
“Before.”
“And the photograph?” Jo asked.
“I left the chat. I didn't get the photograph.”
Mara put her hands flat on the table. There was a chip in the edge of the laminate beneath her right thumb. She could find it without looking.
“We were angry,” she said.
“I understand that,” Priya said. “How much did you buy?”
“Eight dollars. Four plays.”
“Ours. The four of us.”
“Yes.”
Jo leaned back. She was still wearing the work shirt under her cardigan. A fine white thread had caught on one button; Mara wanted to reach over and take it off.
“You said five on Sunday.”
“Because we'd been doing it together twelve years.”
“You said five,” Jo repeated.
“I wasn't going to stand there and leave Elena out.”
“You could've told us what happened.”
Mara looked at Bev. Bev had taken off her glasses and laid them on the table. There was a mark on each side of her nose.
“I knew,” she said.
Mara's hand moved off the chipped edge.
“You knew what?”
“Elena told me you returned the money. On Saturday. I was on my way to the library. I spoke to her before I saw you.”
“She told you the whole thing?”
“She told me she'd said she wasn't doing Saturdays and you'd given the two dollars back. That you'd said she was out.”
Mara could see the apples in Bev's bag, the library book pressed against the side, the question she'd begun and not finished. Bev looked at her across the table.
“I didn't know you were going to win.”
“Why didn't you say something?” Priya asked.
“On Sunday she said all five. I thought they'd sorted it.”
Elena shook her head. “We hadn't.”
“I know that now.”
Bev put her glasses on. She did it carefully, one arm at a time. Mara had the sudden, childish wish that Bev would take them off again; she had looked less certain without them.
“You heard me say it,” Mara said.
“Yes.”
“You could've asked.”
“So could they.” Bev pointed toward the others, not unkindly. “If they'd known there was anything to ask.”
Priya stood and went to the window. It opened only a little way, catching on the frame. She stopped trying and turned back toward the table.
“I need the actual story. Not whose turn it was to say it.”
Mara told them. Elena's two dollars at lunch, the milk, Daniel, the after-work quarrel outside and the money she had handed back. She said Elena had wanted to stop. Elena nodded. Mara said she had returned the money. Elena said yes again. When Mara got to the four lines, Bev took a pen out of her bag, then put it back as if the movement had embarrassed her.
“The old numbers came up,” Mara said.
“I know which ones,” Jo said.
Mara fell quiet. Elena told them about Sunday: the photograph, Mara saying the others believed she was included, her agreement not to tell them while Mara helped her leave Daniel.
Jo sat forward. “You traded it?”
“I asked her to stand with me,” Elena said.
“And you weren't going to tell us?”
Elena looked down at the key in her hand.
“I agreed not to.”
“For how long?”
“We didn't say.”
“Jesus,” Jo said softly.
Mara looked at Elena. Her coat was still buttoned. She had done what she wanted to do, gone where she wanted to go, and now she was here giving away the part of the arrangement that had made Mara useful to her.
“I did come,” Mara said.
Elena raised her eyes.
“I was there all afternoon. I packed. I carried your bags.”
“You did.”
“I helped you.”
Elena nodded, not withholding that much. Mara felt the others waiting for the rest, and hated them briefly for knowing there was more to come.
“I asked you not to bring him in to make it easier for him,” Elena said. “You asked him to come.”
“To help with the lamp.”
“I could have carried it.”
The lamp box stood beside Mara's door. Nobody looked at it. That was worse than if they had.
Bev moved her chair an inch closer to the table.
“What happens to the money?” she asked.
Elena turned toward her. “I don't know.”
“Do you still want a share?”
“Yes.”
“An equal share?”
Elena's fingers closed around the key. “Yes.”
“After you said you weren't doing it?”
“I've put money in for twelve years.”
“So have I.”
Elena nodded. Bev waited, but she had nothing else to say.
Mara had imagined many versions of this conversation. In all of them somebody had been unkind enough to make her generosity necessary. Bev sat with her feet planted beneath the chair, her swollen ankle pressing against the strap. The purple chair existed. The balcony existed, not as a place yet but as something Bev could see herself wanting without apology.
“There's enough,” Mara said.
Priya turned away from the window. “Don't do that.”
“There is.”
“Then tell me how much of yours you meant.”
Mara stared at her.
“When you said five. Were you offering yours or everybody's?”
“I meant we were a group.”
“We are a group. You still have to ask.”
Jo put her phone facedown on the table. It had been lighting up with messages Mara couldn't read.
“I don't know what I'd have said on Sunday,” she said. “I don't know what I'm saying now. Calvin thinks this is settled. I let him make plans. We've got children.”
“I didn't mean to take anything from your children,” Elena said.
“I know you didn't. That doesn't tell me what I've got.”
Mara stood. The table was too close, the chipped edge beneath her hand, all four women occupying the space where she usually put things until she could decide what to do with them. She went to the counter and poured water over the tea bags. The water had gone cold enough not to make the proper color. She switched the kettle on again.
“I've told Anna,” she said without turning around.
“Your lawyer?” Bev asked.
“All of it. On Monday. She said you needed to know. Before anything was signed.”
There was no answer. The kettle began making its small gathering noise.
“I was going to tell you.”
Behind her Jo shifted her chair. Mara wanted someone to ask when. Nobody did.
Priya came to the counter and took two of the mugs away. She put them on the table, then returned for the spoons.
“We need to get advice separately,” she said. “And the same facts written down. No new story on the phone, no forms saying it's one thing while it's another.”
“I haven't submitted any forms,” Mara said.
“Good. Don't.”
Bev asked where the original was. Mara told them about the office, the receipt, the copies. She brought out the receipt and laid it on the table. They looked at it one after another. It said what had been received, when, by whom. Nothing on the paper chose which of them should sit closer to another.
“I'll give you copies of everything,” Mara said.
Elena put her key away. “Thank you.”
They drank the tea. It was too strong in some mugs and weak in others; Mara had forgotten which bags she'd already poured over. Jo took a call from Calvin in the hall and came back saying she needed to go. Bev offered Priya a ride to where she'd parked, though it was less than a block. Priya said yes.
Mara stood by the door while they put on their coats. Jo touched her upper arm, briefly, before leaving. Bev reminded her to send the photographs and the dates, then looked as though she'd meant to say something kinder and couldn't find one that would do.
Elena was last. She picked up the empty box.
“I can use this,” she said.
“For what?”
“I don't know yet.”
Mara let go of the door. Elena held it with her foot while she shifted the box under her arm, then stepped onto the landing. The stairwell light came on, showing Mara the mark from the cord on her own sleeve again.
“Did it work?” she asked.
Elena turned.
“The lamp.”
“Yes.”
She smiled, a small tired smile Mara had seen at the end of a shift when the last guest had finally moved away from the door.
“It's on now,” she said. “I left it on.”
Then she went downstairs, carrying a box with nothing in it to the room she had already chosen.