Ruby and Bev moved two empty tables across the hall, stood back, and saw immediately that it wouldn't work.
The new row left barely enough space for a person to turn between stalls. Bev shook her head.
‘We tried that last year. Someone caught a bag on a corner. Took half a stall with it.’
Ruby pushed one table back. ‘What about there?’
‘That's the door to the toilets.’
‘I know. I mean farther along.’
They tried. The leg caught on a ridge in the floor. Ruby leaned her whole weight against the edge until it moved, then found she'd blocked a radiator.
She stood breathing hard. Bev let her look at it before saying no.
‘I'll ask whether anyone can use less space,’ she said. ‘That takes a phone call. It won't happen by wishing.’
‘Can he share mine?’
‘If he wants to. You'd each have three feet. You've got six boxes of pottery coming.’
Ruby looked at her rectangle on the plan. All morning she'd been pleased by how much would fit. Now she tried to imagine losing half of it.
‘I should have checked,’ Bev said. ‘She'd been sending things for both of you. I believed her.’
‘So did I.’
Bev rubbed her hands together, cold from the hall. ‘I can apologise to him. I can't uninvite the other person.’
Ruby helped put the tables back. Doing it carefully felt worse than moving them had. Every imagined solution was an empty rectangle again.
She went to Jonah's workshop. He opened the door, but he didn't touch her.
‘Mae admits it,’ Ruby said. ‘She said she was protecting my day. I've stopped her sending anything for me.’
Jonah looked towards the back of the room. Several of the little mixed frames stood on the bench, ready to pack.
‘And the stall?’
‘Bev's trying. She can't put you back where you were.’
He nodded. His mouth was tight.
‘You could share mine,’ Ruby said. ‘If you wanted. It'd be small, but—’
‘No.’
She stopped.
‘I'm not taking half your launch to fix this,’ he said. ‘Then I'll owe everyone another conversation about whether I deserve to be there.’
‘You wouldn't owe me.’
‘I'd be standing beside you while Mae watched me and Dan brought you things. I'm not doing that.’
Ruby could see it. She still wanted him to say yes.
‘I'm sorry,’ she said.
‘I know.’
He went back to the bench. Ruby followed a little way, then stopped again. There was nowhere comfortable for her to stand.
‘I didn't ask her to do any of it.’
Jonah set down the cloth he'd picked up. ‘I believe you.’
‘You don't seem like you do.’
‘I'm angry, Ruby. She used both of us. I've been making things for a stall I haven't got. I can believe you and still be angry.’
She looked at the frames. There were more than he'd shown her yesterday, pale and dark squares in several sizes. She picked one up, then put it down without inspecting it. Trying to praise his work now would be unbearable.
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Let Bev call me when she's got an answer.’
That was so little. Ruby had arrived needing a bigger job, one she could do until it proved she hadn't wanted any of this.
‘All right.’
‘And don't promise me a place because you feel bad.’
She nodded. He went back to wiping a fleck of glue from a join.
Ruby watched for a moment. Last night he'd asked her to hold something. Now she wasn't sure he wanted her touching anything at all.
‘I'll go,’ she said.
He looked up then. ‘I've got work to finish.’
She could hear the attempt to soften it. She didn't make him try harder.
Outside, Ruby walked towards the seafront, then changed her mind and went home. She didn't want to sit anywhere pretending someone was coming. She wanted her own sitting room, even with Mae in it.
Mae was in the spare room with the door open. She came out when Ruby shut the front door.
‘Could Bev fix it?’
‘Not yet.’
‘I'm sorry.’
Ruby hung up her coat. ‘I heard you.’
Mae's eyes filled. Ruby went to the cupboard before she could do something to stop them.
She unpacked the green jug, turned it over and stuck the price label beneath it. Then she did the blue bowls, the red dishes, the pieces with a darker speckled glaze. There were more than she'd thought. She had made most of them in the last six weeks, often with Mae sending ridiculous messages to keep her company at the studio.
Mae sat at the table, a few feet away. She didn't pick anything up.
Ruby found one label crooked and peeled it off to start again. The paper tore. She threw it away, took another and kept working.
Her phone lit with a message from Dan asking whether the equipment was all right. She answered that it was, then said she wanted to go over the loan arrangements tomorrow. She needed every part of the day to be clear now.
He offered to meet her at the bakery after the morning rush. Ruby accepted.
She put the phone facedown and counted the pieces in the box. Mae was still sitting at the table. Ruby didn't ask her to help.