Daniel was there before six, carrying two long loaves in a paper bag that kept catching against his leg.
Mara saw him from the back door. She was taking an empty box out to the bins, wearing her blue dress beneath the coat she'd put on because the room was still cold. He lifted the bread, smiling as though they had met by accident somewhere pleasant.
“You didn't trust them,” she said.
“They're busy. I can do bread.”
She took one loaf from him. The crust was rough beneath the paper. They went inside together, past the little sink where she'd washed her hands so often she'd begun reaching for it whenever she walked through the door.
He was wearing the mended shirt. The cuff looked almost new, the two edges sitting neatly together above the knuckle. He saw her looking and held it out.
“Passed inspection?”
She touched the seam. “Just.”
He laughed and carried the other loaf through to the tables.
The flowers had opened overnight. They looked less like two small bunches now, yellow heads turned toward the windows on either side of the room. Doreen had moved one vase so nobody would catch a sleeve in it. She was putting water glasses out with Sonia, talking while they worked. Jules came in holding her sister's coat over one arm, her own still on, her hair damp from a shower she'd had to hurry.
“We haven't come early, have we?” she asked.
Mara took the coat. “You're right. Sit down before someone gives you something to carry.”
Jules's sister sat at once. She had a face Mara recognized in pieces: the same eyes as Jules, a different way of holding her mouth. She looked around the room, took a breath and said it smelled good.
“It had better,” Jules told her. “We've been asking since Thursday.”
They laughed. Mara found the table they'd made room at and gave them both glasses. Daniel was cutting bread in the kitchen. When she went to tell him there was plenty already sliced, he showed her the uneven pile he'd produced, most pieces thick at one end and thin at the other.
“That's for different appetites,” he said.
She stole the thin end of a slice and ate it while he worked. For a few seconds they were back in his kitchen, none of the rooms they'd been through since then having changed who knew which part of the bread the other wanted.
Jo arrived with Milo and Kit, who had both been told to keep their coats on until she knew where to put them. Calvin had sent a message saying to have a good night and not bring him anything unless there was something left. Jo showed it to Mara.
“Ignore the second half.”
“I've got a box.”
“I knew you would.”
Kit had put on a necklace so long it rested against the top of her pants. Mara complimented it, and she held up the little plastic heart at the end to show where it opened. Inside was a picture so small Mara couldn't tell what it was. Kit explained in detail while other guests came in around them.
Iris and Nell arrived together, carrying a flat box. Behind them was Leo, who had seen them park and waited. Mara put a hand on his back as he passed. He bent to kiss her, then looked toward Daniel, who was standing by the kitchen door with the bread knife still in his hand.
“Put that down before you greet anybody,” Mara called.
He looked at his hand, laughed and disappeared into the kitchen. Leo followed him. Iris handed over the box: little cakes, all different, with icing that had shifted in the car. Mara opened it far enough to see and let out an appreciative sound that made Nell smile.
“Some are ugly,” she warned.
“So are some of us. Come in.”
Iris laughed and took off her coat. She wore a green shirt Mara hadn't bought, with sleeves wide enough to catch on things. Nell put a hand through one to free it from the button of her jacket, and they came into the room still untangling themselves.
Bev brought Anne. Both wore earrings that matched, a level of coordination Bev told Mara had taken all afternoon. Priya came alone; Arun was with his father that evening. She had brought the napkins she'd bought before remembering the hotel owned a few thousand. Mara took them and found somewhere they could be used.
For a while everybody was doing the awkward first part of being glad to see each other. People who had worked together for years introduced the ones they lived with. Sonia stood near the door until Doreen pulled out the chair beside her. Simon came through with a tray nobody had asked him to carry and put it down where the food needed to go. Mara moved it. He thanked her without seeming to notice why.
She said a few words before the kitchen sent everything out. Nothing from the page she'd tried to write with Jo.
“Thank you for doing this,” she said, looking at Simon, then at Doreen. “And thank you for coming. We're going to eat while it's hot.”
“Best speech,” Bev said.
There were a few cheers. Mara sat before anyone could ask for more.
The food came at six thirty, the sauces separate, the rice plain enough for anyone to recognize. Jo helped Kit choose, then gave Milo a look that stopped him taking a second roll before the first had left his hand. Doreen filled Jules's sister's plate before her own. The woman took it with a small startled smile and began eating at once.
Mara watched them for a moment, then turned back to her own table. Daniel had pulled out the chair beside him. Iris sat across from her with Nell and Leo; Anne and Bev were near enough to join the conversation whenever they wanted, which was most of the time.
They talked about the hotel. The guest who had tried to warm a pizza with the hair dryer. The man who locked his suitcase, lost the key and said someone had taken it because it must have been valuable. Sonia listened, smiling, while Doreen leaned across from the other table to supply the part everyone was leaving out.
“You told him to call the police,” she said to Bev.
“I said he could. He kept asking what I'd do.”
“What did he do?” Nell asked.
“Cut the case,” Mara told her. “With scissors from reception. Then complained it wasn't secure anymore.”
Leo laughed with his head down. Daniel put a hand between his shoulders for a moment, the touch so familiar neither seemed to notice it. Mara had just lifted her glass when Iris said something about the time her mother had brought home a lost toy that belonged to the wrong guest, and all three women tried to explain at once.
It had been a rabbit. They could agree on that. The rest grew less certain with each person who remembered it. Mara had found it in a hallway, Bev had asked the wrong family, Elena had known exactly who it belonged to. The name entered the conversation without stopping it. Daniel looked down at his plate and cut another piece of chicken.
“It was wearing a jacket,” Iris said. “You put it on my bed.”
“Until I could take it back.”
“I woke up with a strange rabbit looking at me.”
They laughed. Daniel laughed too, quietly, before putting the mustard back where the others could reach it.
At seven Jo began collecting the food for Calvin. Mara got the box, filled it from what was still hot and added bread because Daniel was standing beside her with the bag open. Jo thanked them both. She'd stay another few minutes, she said; Kit hadn't finished telling people about the necklace.
“She's got a captive audience,” Daniel told her.
“Don't say that where she'll hear.”
He grinned and took the bread back to the table. Mara watched him stop to speak to Jules's sister, crouching a little so she wouldn't have to look up. The woman said something that made him laugh. He stood with his hands on the back of an empty chair and listened while she explained.
When Mara returned, Leo was showing Iris a photograph on his phone. Not of Elena's room. A cupboard in his own apartment, the door listing to one side. Iris looked at the photograph, then at Daniel's back, and began laughing so hard she couldn't hand the phone to Nell.
Mara took it and looked. A strip of tape held the cupboard shut.
“Don't show him,” Leo said.
“He'll feel it from across the room.”
Daniel turned, as though called. They all looked down, hopelessly conspicuous. He came over, glanced at the screen and said nothing for long enough to make them worse.
“I'll get the tools,” he said finally.
Leo caught his arm. “Eat your dinner.”
He sat. The room filled with noise again, chairs moving, cutlery dropped, someone calling for another serving spoon. Mara let herself eat without checking every plate. Once she rose to fetch something for Jules, and Sonia was already there, asking which dish she meant.
The little cakes came out after seven thirty. Nell removed the bent lid and arranged the worst ones in the middle. Anne chose one immediately, then told Bev she had been about to choose it too slowly. Bev took a larger one and looked pleased with herself.
Jo left with the children and Calvin's meal. She kissed Mara's cheek, held on briefly and said she'd call. Kit waved to the room with the whole length of her arm. Milo held the door while his mother turned the box to get it through safely. Outside the window Mara saw her stop to put the food on top of the car, take the keys out, then move it inside before she could drive away. She smiled and turned back.
Jules and her sister left soon afterward. The sister thanked Simon twice and Mara once, then asked if it had cost too much, all this food. Simon told her to take a cake for tomorrow. Jules put two in the box, and the women went out together, their coats properly fastened this time.
Mara looked at the clock. A little after eight. She could still sit with her brother. There would be time to clear the first things and leave for the room at nine. She went to the kitchen for another plate, and Daniel followed to help with the cups.
“Good night,” he said.
She looked at him.
“It's a good night. You did well.”
“The kitchen did it.”
“You got everyone here.”
He put the cups on the tray, fitted them around one another so the handles wouldn't knock and took it before she could. She followed him back to the room.
Simon was thanking people. He stood by the flowers, speaking without notes, remembering how long Bev had been there and getting it wrong. She corrected him. He thanked her for that as well and held up his glass. People raised theirs. Mara lifted her water, listening to him promise they could always come back as guests if they were prepared to behave better than the ones they used to complain about.
Daniel set down the tray. He waited until Simon had finished, then stood beside his chair.
“I've got one thing,” he said.
Mara smiled automatically. He looked toward her, his clean cuff resting against the table, and for a moment she was so glad she'd invited him that she forgot the bag in her car.