Paula knocked while Anna was hanging a wet pair of trousers over the back of the chair.
“Are you staying another week?”
Anna had thought of the question all night. It still surprised her coming from outside the room.
“If I can.”
“Same room?”
“Yes.”
“I can keep it till the eighteenth. Then I've got somebody.”
“Right.”
Paula watched her look at the trousers.
“You need a rack?”
“Probably.”
“I'll find one.”
She went before Anna could ask what somebody meant: holidaymaker, person with a booking made before Anna became a woman who needed next Tuesday. There was no reason to resent that person. She resented them for a moment anyway.
The phone showed enough money for another week, less comfortably than for the first. She paid. She would have shifts now. More could come. The little room would be hers until a date rather than hers because it was home.
She hung the trousers on the rack Paula brought, thanked her and put on something dry.
Tess had written while she was doing it.
Can you do anything tomorrow?
Anna sat on the bed. The spring sounded.
What sort of anything?
We're playing in Ashcombe. Small thing. You could come, if you want.
Anna looked at the Tuesday shift on the phone calendar.
I'd like to.
She hadn't answered the question. She stared at the words she'd sent, waiting for the part where wanting would become an obligation she had to fulfil.
Tess replied: We can talk. I'm near you for a bit. Do you want coffee?
Anna looked around the room. The wet trousers, the unmade bed, the blouse drying at the window. She could have invited Tess here and let Tess see a place her mother inhabited. Instead she sent the name of the cafe near the guesthouse.
She arrived first, bought coffee she didn't want, then became afraid she'd made Tess feel late by doing something without her. Tess came in looking at the cakes.
“They have the enormous one.”
“Which?”
“The one that's meant to be a slice and has misunderstood.”
Anna followed her gaze. A wedge of cake leaned under a glass cover.
“Do you want it?”
“Not all of it.”
“We could share.”
Tess looked at her, then nodded.
Anna went to order it. At the counter she nearly asked for two forks, then remembered she could ask without making the sharing sentimental.
The woman gave her two.
They sat by the window. Tess broke off a corner of cake and examined it.
“What?”
“I'm trying to decide if the orange things are orange or carrot.”
“Why?”
“I have different levels of respect for either.”
Anna laughed.
“Taste it.”
Tess did.
“Orange. Less respectable.”
She pushed the plate between them. Anna took a piece, slow enough to let Tess stop watching.
“Yesterday was good,” she said.
Tess looked down.
“I thought you'd hate it.”
“Why?”
“The noise.”
“I've heard noise before.”
“Not that kind.”
“Not that kind. I like it better than most.”
Tess smiled.
“You don't have to say it's good because it's me.”
“I thought Ruby was good.”
“She is.”
“And Jo.”
“Yes.”
“And him.”
“Eli.”
Anna took another bite.
“I remember.”
Tess moved the spoon though she hadn't used it. Anna left the name alone for a while, then failed.
“Do you like him?”
“Yes.”
“In which way?”
Tess's eyes lifted.
“Usually the way where he hasn't started talking about strings.”
Anna laughed. She would have liked a more complete answer, something she could take home and examine as if she'd been given access to a room. But Tess smiled with her and the answer could remain a joke.
“Ashcombe,” Anna said. “What's happening?”
“Ruby knows the people doing it. There's a little music night. We get a short set, other bands after. It's a useful warm-up.”
“Before the tour.”
“Yes.”
Anna drank the coffee. It was hot enough still to burn.
“How do you get there?”
“Train. We're using most of what's there, taking small stuff. We're staying at Ruby's friend's after because everybody wants to stay for the other bands. Back Wednesday.”
“Is there room for me?”
“At the friend's?”
“Yes.”
Tess paused.
“I can ask.”
“I can get a room. I didn't mean you had to—”
“It's okay. I think there is. She's got a sofa and a floor.”
“Which would I get?”
“Not sure.”
“That's an exciting degree of luxury.”
Tess laughed. Anna was relieved that the laugh hadn't required any extra answer.
“We could do something first,” Tess said. “Not spend the whole day carrying things.”
“I don't mind carrying.”
“I know. But there's a place with food Ruby says is good. And a beach. There's mostly a beach.”
“What time?”
“About eleven from here. Depends what the others decide.”
“I've got work tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
There it was, the opportunity becoming less likely before Anna could stop it.
“I can ask.”
“Don't if you can't.”
“I can ask,” Anna repeated. More calmly, this time. “That's part of having a job. Sometimes somebody wants another day.”
Tess nodded.
“I'll send the details.”
Anna could see Tess trying not to look responsible for a choice she hadn't asked Anna to make. She put the coffee down.
“If it's possible, I'll come. If it isn't, I'll hate you for a bit and get over it.”
Tess laughed properly.
“That seems fair.”
They ate the rest of the cake. Tess said Rachel wouldn't approve of giving it half a plate because it already deserved less space than it occupied. Anna smiled, and the name could be present without occupying the whole table.
When Tess left, Anna took the receipt. She folded it and put it in her bag. Celia's old advice, retained by a woman who no longer wanted to borrow from her.
At the Anchor the lunch rush was nearly over. Anna waited at the end of the bar, where Keith sat with his newspaper. He nodded as if their last encounter had been pleasant.
Dee came through from the kitchen.
“Trouble?”
“Not yet.”
“Give it time.”
“I wanted to ask about tomorrow.”
Dee looked at her, then at the clock. Anna could see how quickly the request became another vacancy someone had to fill.
“I've just put you down.”
“I know.”
“Is there something?”
“My daughter's playing. Out of town. She's asked me to go.”
Dee leaned her hip against the counter.
“Tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Anna thought of all the sentences she could add: first time, fourteen years, just a day, woman needs help. She waited instead.
“We're short Tuesday,” Dee said. “That's why it's Tuesday.”
“I could do Wednesday. Or Thursday.”
“I can use you Wednesday. It doesn't give me someone Tuesday.”
Anna looked at the taps.
“Is Leah back?”
“Not to work.”
She laughed before she could stop it. Dee did, too.
“Right.”
For a moment they shared the ordinary annoyance of an absent woman. Then Dee opened the folder beneath the bar.
“Fran might want Tuesday instead of Wednesday.”
“Can I ask?”
“I'll ask. She won't answer a strange number.”
Dee took out her phone and sent a message. Anna stepped aside when a customer came to the bar. She could have poured the pint, begun working without being asked and let useful hands encourage agreement. She stayed where she was.
Dee served, returned, checked the phone.
“She'll swap if you do Wednesday from four through close.”
“Yes.”
“Think before—”
“Yes. I'll do it.”
“All right. Ask her properly when you see her. It costs her an evening she wasn't going to work.”
“I will.”
Dee changed the page in the folder. A pencil crossed out Tuesday beside Anna's name and wrote Wednesday. The little action made the outing real.
“Enjoy it,” Dee said.
Anna tried to answer casually and failed.
“Thank you.”
Dee lifted a hand, already turning toward the kitchen.
Outside, Anna called Tess.
“It worked.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
There was pleasure in Tess's voice, real enough that Anna wanted to ask her to say the word again.
“I can come.”
“Ruby's asked about the sofa. It's yours if you can manage sleeping under someone's terrible art.”
“I've slept under worse.”
Tess laughed.
“We'll work out the train. I'll message.”
“All right.”
“Bring something warm for later. It gets windy.”
“I have clothes.”
“I know.”
Anna smiled because she could hear her father's sentence in her own mouth.
“Sorry.”
“No, it's fine.”
They ended the call. Anna stood near the crossing, reading the Wednesday shift she'd just put into the phone. Close. It would be a long day after little sleep and a train ride. The cost was small enough to pay willingly, large enough to make tomorrow matter.
She went to the guesthouse and packed the black blouse, a T-shirt, the cardigan and the new lipstick. The blouse fitted differently now it was something to wear out with Tess, though none of its seams had changed.
Then she called Lorna.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “I'm going somewhere with Tess.”
“Where?”
“Ashcombe. For music.”
“Does it have chairs?”
“I hope so.”
“Then I'm pleased for you.”
Anna sat on the bed.
“Were you serious about coming down?”
“Yes.”
“I'd like you to.”
“You have a lot happening.”
“I do. But I'd like you to.”
They chose the following Sunday, after lunch work. It was a day Anna couldn't promise Tess if Tess decided to want her, and a day Lorna could ask off because she had her own life to arrange.
After the call, Anna checked the weather for Ashcombe, then checked it again as if the second screen might make the breeze more agreeable.
She had forgotten to ask Tess what music she herself liked. All she'd done was watch Tess make it.
Tomorrow, she thought. There would be time for something she hadn't rehearsed.