Jo came to the harbour carrying two bottles of water. Eva had rung her and said just enough to make her leave home.
She held out a bottle, saw Eva's face and sat beside her instead of asking anything.
“Will promised Nora my job if Ben left,” Eva said. “Ben knew. He waited till she had it in writing.”
Jo's hand went still on the bottle.
“Oh, Eva.”
“He admitted it.”
Eva told her the rest in broken pieces. The job. The shifts. The flat. She wasn't interested in making it a story Jo could follow easily. Jo followed anyway.
They sat watching a man pull a cover over a boat. One corner blew free each time he fastened the next.
“I kissed him,” Eva said. “I asked him to come home.”
Jo put her hand on Eva's arm.
Eva let herself cry then. Not for very long. She was embarrassed by the wet little sounds coming out of her nose, and Jo looked out at the boat as if that was the thing they had both come to see.
Afterwards Jo found a tissue in her pocket. It had a receipt stuck to it. Eva peeled the receipt off and used the tissue.
“You could leave,” Jo said. “We could go home now.”
“I know.”
“Will can run his own supper. If he can't, he can ring people.”
Eva twisted the bottle cap.
She pictured the twenty places. The Saturday booking for a mother's birthday, her daughter asking Eva to keep the cake out of sight. The two friends who'd asked if they could sit at the window. Her own plan pinned outside the kitchen.
“I want to do it,” she said. “I don't want to make another thing I liked disappear.”
“All right.”
“But not for him.”
Jo nodded. “Tell me what you need.”
“Come now, instead of five. Help me with the tables. And don't let me start crying into a bread basket.”
“I'll provide an empty bowl.”
Eva gave a small, terrible laugh. Jo squeezed her arm, then stood.
Back at the café, Eva asked Will and Nora to listen. Her voice sounded thin, but she had one.
“I'll finish tonight. As the manager. I'm telling people I'm leaving, so nobody sells them a story about me taking a nice rest upstairs.”
Will looked down.
“I'll do a short handover,” she continued. “We agree the time, you pay me normally, and then I'm finished.”
“We can agree that,” he said.
“No Thursday supper. That's yours to sort.”
Nora shifted beside the counter. Eva looked at her.
“Tonight's plan stays the same. You can say no.”
“I'll stay,” Nora said.
Eva nodded. She turned to the folded napkins. Jo came beside her and started setting them out.
After a minute Will went into the kitchen. He shut the door gently. Nobody thanked Eva for saving the evening, which was good, because she didn't think she could have borne it.
She unfolded the first napkin and found a little holly leaf printed in the corner.
Jo saw it.
“I did warn you.”
Eva put it on the first table. There were nineteen more to do.