Mae came into the hall before Ruby had taken her key out of the lock.
‘What's happened?’
Ruby closed the door. She could hear the washing machine finishing its cycle in the kitchen, the slow clicks it always made before it let them open it.
‘Dan told me about the money.’
Mae's hand moved towards her, then fell.
‘I was going to tell you.’
‘When?’
Mae didn't answer.
Ruby went into the sitting room. The sofa faced the window. The lamp was where she and Mae had finally agreed it should be. One of Mae's magazines lay open beside the cushion, with a piece of paper marking something she wanted to show Ruby.
She stayed standing.
‘He says it started before you moved in,’ she said. ‘He says he's paid you four hundred pounds.’
Mae sat down slowly. ‘Yes.’
‘For telling him things about me. For getting us back together.’
‘For helping. That was how we talked about it.’
‘You talked about me.’
‘I didn't think you were going to stay apart. I thought you were both hurt and somebody needed to make it easier.’
Ruby looked at her friend's hands. She knew the small scar on one knuckle, the chipped dark polish. She had held those hands when Mae couldn't get work. She had thought that meant something Mae understood in the same way.
‘You helped me leave him.’
‘I helped you when you needed me.’
‘Then you took his money.’
Mae's face crumpled. She covered it, uncovered it, took a breath that shook.
‘I didn't have anything coming in. He offered. Two hundred, then two hundred more. It felt like enough to start again. I knew you hated feeling sorry for me.’
‘I never hated helping you.’
‘I hated needing it.’
Ruby pulled the other chair away from the wall and sat. Her legs didn't feel reliable any longer.
‘Show me,’ she said.
Mae looked up.
‘The payments. I want to know what I'm being told is actually true.’
Mae fetched her phone. She opened her banking app herself and passed it over. Two transfers from Dan Mercer, each for two hundred pounds. Both dates were before the first bag came up Ruby's stairs.
Ruby handed it back. She didn't need to look at anything else.
‘I carried your things in,’ she said.
‘I know.’
‘You were already telling him things.’
Mae nodded. Tears ran over the corners of her mouth. Ruby watched them and didn't reach for her.
‘What have you told him?’
‘That you were worried about the stand. That you didn't want people buying because they felt sorry for you. That you missed having people round.’
‘The café.’
Mae shut her eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘I told you that two days ago.’
‘I know.’
‘I was telling my friend something stupid I'd done. I wasn't asking for a plan.’
Mae began to speak. Ruby lifted a hand and she stopped.
‘He said you told him I'd agreed. That you'd told me about the payments.’
‘I said you'd understood it as practical help.’
‘You knew I hadn't.’
‘Yes.’
Ruby pressed her fingertips against the arms of the chair. The cloth was rougher than she'd noticed before.
‘And Jonah?’
Mae looked towards the window. ‘I didn't want you with him.’
‘Because of what he'd done to you?’
‘Yes. That's true, Ruby. You know that's true.’
‘And because Dan was paying you?’
A long pause.
‘I thought Dan would be better,’ Mae said.
Ruby waited.
‘And yes. I'd promised Dan I'd help get you back together. With Jonah there, there'd be no reunion. No last two hundred.’
Mae rubbed at her wet cheek.
‘I thought that meeting would let Jonah see you and Dan working together. I thought he'd back off.’
There was no argument left that Ruby needed to win. Mae had said yes. The room felt strangely quiet without her denying it.
Ruby took out her phone and messaged Dan.
I won't collect the risers or cover. The loan is over. Please retrieve your things from the hall store through Bev.
Mae's mouth opened as Ruby read the message aloud.
‘What will you use?’
‘I don't know.’
Ruby sent it. Then she rang Bev and told her, simply, that she wasn't borrowing Dan's equipment after all. Dan would collect it. The bakery refreshments were Bev's separate arrangement; Ruby didn't need that changed.
When the call ended, Mae was still looking at her.
‘You made the sign,’ Ruby said. ‘You told him not to come here. Was that just part of it?’
‘No.’ Mae leaned forward. ‘No. I wanted you to have your own name. I knew you didn't want him in the flat. I meant those things.’
Ruby believed she had meant them. That was worse than one neat answer she could hate.
‘I can't live with you like this,’ she said.
Mae sat back.
‘You'll need somewhere else. Not out tonight. But we need to work out when.’
‘All right.’
Ruby got up. She took the price cards and her stock list from the table, and carried them into her room. Mae didn't follow.
With the door closed, Ruby rang Jonah. She told him what Dan had said, what Mae had confirmed, and that she had stopped the loan. Her voice stayed steady until she mentioned the dates on the transfers.
‘Before she moved in,’ she said. ‘Before I thought I could stop being miserable at home.’
Jonah was quiet, then said, ‘I'm sorry.’
‘I wanted you to hear from me.’
‘Thank you for telling me.’
Ruby sat on the edge of the bed. She wanted to ask whether he still wanted her. She didn't make the evening into that question.
‘Can we talk tomorrow?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Call me after work.’
She said goodnight. From the kitchen came the sound of the washing-machine door being opened. Mae would be lifting out the clothes, finding Ruby's shirt amongst her own, doing something ordinary with hands Ruby knew.
Ruby lay down without undressing. She couldn't stop hearing how excited she'd sounded when she told Mae about the walk.