Ben arrived at six, when Eva was checking the water glasses.
For a second she saw Ben's hand touch Nora's wrist across Jo's table. She looked down at the water glasses in front of her.
Nora put down a tray. “I need to speak to you.”
“I've got us a bottle in the car,” he said. Then he saw Eva's face. “What's happened?”
“I know,” Eva said.
He looked at Nora. She didn't help him.
“About Will's offer,” Eva continued. “About you asking for it in writing before you'd leave me.”
Ben took his hand out of his pocket.
“I wanted to know we could afford it,” he said. “Me moving in. I wasn't going to leave our flat and pay for everything somewhere else.”
There it was. No misunderstanding to spend another evening clearing up. No kinder Ben behind the one in front of her.
“You said, 'Then I'll go'?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And you went because you saw it.”
“I was going to leave anyway.”
“But you waited.”
He looked at the glasses on the table.
“It wasn't about hurting you.”
Eva put the last glass down before she broke it. Nora had moved nearer, close enough to hear everything. Jo was at the back counter, folding her arms slowly across her chest.
“You knew it was my job,” Eva said.
“Will said you'd be doing other things.”
“Did you ask me?”
“I thought you'd be all right with him. You always got on.”
“You thought about me with Will before you left.”
“Not like that.”
“How, then?”
Ben rubbed his face. He looked tired. She waited instead of asking whether he'd slept.
“I told myself you had somewhere to land,” he said.
Eva looked at him for a long moment.
Nora said, “You told me we could start properly.”
“We could. I didn't know he'd pull this.”
“What did you think he'd do?” Eva asked. “Keep me downstairs till I asked which manager I was?”
Ben looked towards the kitchen. “Where is he?”
“Cooking.”
“I should speak to him.”
“Why?”
“Because he's been using everybody.”
Eva shook her head.
“Stay here. I'm asking you.”
Ben faced her again. Something in him changed. He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
“I got it wrong.”
She didn't move.
“I know I did. We could sort out what happened between us without him in the way.”
Nora's mouth opened a little.
Eva could feel the familiar pull. Three years of it, ordinary mornings and his warm feet against hers, the look that said they were the only two people in a room who got the joke. She had wanted him back on Thursday, even while she was telling him no.
“There's no us to sort out,” she said.
“Eva.”
“I miss you. I do. But I don't want to live with you again.”
He looked at her as though the first half had made the second impossible.
“Because of him?”
“Because you waited for somebody to promise away my job before you packed.”
Ben's eyes dropped. She watched the answer reach him. For once he didn't have another one ready.
Nora spoke behind him.
“You brought a bottle for us.”
He turned.
“I did.”
“And now you're asking her back.”
“I'm trying to sort everything out.”
“No. You're trying each door.”
Her voice shook at the end. Eva looked at her. Nora's hands were white against the edge of the tray.
“If she said yes,” Nora asked, “would you still come home with me?”
Ben looked between them. “You don't need to make this worse.”
Nora let go of the tray.
“You're not coming home with me.”
“Come on.”
“You've got your things there. Message me tomorrow. You can collect them when I'm in.”
He stared at her.
“Nora, don't do this in front of everyone.”
“It's Eva, Jo and me. You already asked one of us to take you back.”
Jo stepped forward at last. She wasn't smiling. “You need to go, Ben. We've got guests arriving.”
He looked at Eva once more. She could see he wanted her to say something to soften it. She'd done that so many times: translated him, excused the awkward phrase, made the next part easy.
“My key on Tuesday,” she said. “Ten, before I leave. All your things are gone now, aren't they?”
“Yes.”
“Then just the key.”
He nodded. He went out without the bottle. The car was still on the other side of the window, which meant they had to watch him get into it.
Nora carried the tray into the kitchen. Eva heard her set it down too hard, then a quick breath behind the door.
Jo came beside Eva.
“Water,” she said, touching the glass on the table. “I can do water.”
Eva stepped away to let her.
There was a table of two which wouldn't be used now. She went to the bookings book and crossed out Ben and Nora's places. Their late meal together wasn't happening. Nora would eat with the workers; Ben was gone.