Tess brought supper on Friday. She couldn't bear arriving with nothing.
Mara took the bag from her and looked inside.
“You didn't need to do that.”
“I was passing the shop.”
It wasn't true. She had gone there after emptying her tote on the bed, shaking out the cardigan and calling the café again. She had bought the things Mara liked: the little savoury pie with more pastry than filling, a salad she usually pretended she didn't want, strawberries although they were expensive.
Mara unpacked them. Tess stayed by the counter.
“Any call?”
Mara shook her head.
“I checked the bag again,” Tess said.
“I thought you would.”
“Nothing.”
Mara folded the paper bag carefully and put it beside the bin. Tess wished she would ask for something, any task she could complete and point to afterward.
“I've been thinking,” Tess said. “If it doesn't come back, I can buy another.”
“No.”
“You haven't even—”
“Tess. No.”
Mara rubbed her bare ring finger with her thumb. Tess had begun watching her do that. Every time it happened, she wanted to look somewhere else.
“I don't mean it would be the same,” Tess said. “But I could pay. It shouldn't cost you money.”
Mara stood very still.
“I don't want you buying me something because you feel terrible.”
“I do feel terrible.”
“I know.”
She said it gently. That was almost worse.
Tess leaned against the counter. Mara began putting the supper out, leaving her standing there.
Ben arrived and kissed Mara on the cheek and asked whether anybody had called. She shook her head. He took off his jacket and stood by the table instead of sitting.
“All right,” he said. “We'll find something.”
Mara laid down the knife.
“I want to move it.”
“Move what?”
“The wedding. Just two days.”
Ben looked at her. Tess put her plate down very quietly.
“To Monday?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mara pressed both hands to the back of her chair. “Because I can't do all this and feel happy. Not right now.”
“It's a week tomorrow. There's still time.”
“I know when it is.”
“We've told everyone.”
“I know that too.”
He pulled out his chair, then pushed it back without sitting.
“Mara, we don't need that ring to get married.”
“I didn't say we did.”
“Then—”
“It's mine. It was mine, and Tess took it to do something I would never have let her do. And now every time I think about the wedding I see us crawling around the hall.”
Tess felt the words in her stomach. She was standing in that same hall three feet from the place where she'd shaken out the sleeve. Mara had been making supper for her while she was on the bench with Cal.
Tess set her plate beside the cold pie. Ben looked at it, then at Mara.
Mara took a breath. “Two days. That's all I'm asking.”
“And what do those two days change?”
“I don't know. I get to breathe for a minute.”
Ben looked down at the plates. His was the blue one with a chipped rim. Mara always gave it to him because he said the others were too small, although they were almost exactly the same size.
“Do you still want to get married?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“To me?”
“Of course to you.” She reached toward him. “Ben. Yes.”
He let her take his hand, but didn't move closer.
“Then I don't understand why Monday would be better.”
Mara's eyes filled. She rubbed them with the heel of her free hand, annoyed rather than careful.
“Because I'm asking for Monday.”
Tess wanted to leave. She wanted to stay and stop the conversation turning into something nobody could repair. She picked up the pie, then put it down again. It needed heating; they had forgotten to turn the oven on.
“We won't have the room Monday,” Ben said. “The evening one. It's weekends only.”
“I know.”
“You wanted the dancing.”
Mara nodded.
“And the tables. All of it.”
“I know.”
Her hand left his. She sat down and looked at the food Tess had brought, the unopened little tub of dressing.
“Then we won't have that part,” she said. “We'll lose the room deposit. I'll tell them.”
“You don't have to give everything up.”
“I'm not giving you up.”
She said it quickly. Ben's face changed. He sat opposite her and put his hands on the table.
Tess turned on the oven. The familiar click was much too loud.
They ate late, with the pie unevenly warm. Mara gave Ben the thickest piece of crust, and he took it without their usual argument. Tess ate what was on her plate, though she could hardly swallow.
Afterward Mara fetched her phone and opened the message about the evening room. There was a photograph of the empty floor, lights strung across the ceiling. She looked at it for a few seconds before she began to type.
Tess had seen her practicing the first dance in her socks in that kitchen. She couldn't imagine her doing it now.
“Let me pay the deposit,” Tess said.
Mara shook her head without looking up.
Tess stood with the pie bag in her hand until Ben quietly took it and put it in the bin.