The Table with Four Chairs

Esme came for dinner the following Saturday carrying a plant she had been told was difficult to kill.

“I'm not taking that as a challenge,” Leila said.

“Good. Mum asked me to make the terms clear.”

The plant joined the thyme on the windowsill. Jean had already inspected the thyme during a brief visit and declared it improved, then pointed out a leaf Leila needed to remove. Praise remained a mixed service.

Micah arrived later with bread from the shop near his house. He had asked Mum what to bring rather than guessing that a large bunch of flowers would be useful in a flat where they were still looking for the vase. Mum put the bread on the table and gave him plates to carry.

Toby watched him with the suspicion he reserved for people who might take up too much of Leila's time. This lasted until Micah asked about the football medals and listened to the full account of the final home match, including the assist Dad had missed.

Esme helped Leila in the kitchen. There was not a great deal of room, but they could move around each other without anyone needing to ask whether the sink was available for brushing teeth.

“It's nice,” Esme said.

“It's still boxes.”

“Nice boxes.”

Leila smiled. “You can say it is. I won't make you prove you understand every other part.”

“Thank you. That sounds exhausting.”

They ate at the table, using four chairs and the sturdy folding one Janice had lent them. Mum's pasta sauce was better than the jar they used on the first night and less successful than the version she remembered making before the move. She said so. Everyone disagreed except Toby, who said the old version had more cheese and was therefore objectively superior.

The conversation moved without needing Leila to guide it. Esme described a course she had visited that made her interested rather than frightened. Micah talked about the early train he would need in September. Mum asked practical questions, not because she doubted him but because she understood how much a route could shape a day. Toby wanted to know whether working with plants meant owning a tractor.

“Not immediately,” Micah said.

“So later?”

“We'll see.”

Toby narrowed his eyes at the phrase. Everyone laughed, though only some of them knew its full history.

After dinner, they played a card game whose rules changed whenever Toby began losing. Mum objected on procedural grounds. Esme formed an alliance with Toby and regretted it when he abandoned her two rounds later. Micah proved quietly competitive in a way Leila had not expected. She liked discovering an ordinary, slightly annoying thing about him.

At nine, Mum took the dishes into the kitchen and told Toby to help. He objected that guests were still present. Mum replied that dishes were also present and less likely to leave independently.

Leila, Esme and Micah sat by the open window in her room. The evening air moved the paper sign on the door. Outside, someone called a child in from the yard. The white shirt had been replaced on the line by a row of small towels.

Esme looked at the exhibition panels.

“Are you making more of these?”

“Not the same ones.”

“What next?”

Leila took out the notebook containing the course questions. There were more answers now, though not enough to form a finished plan. She had booked one open day with Mum and asked Armitage about preparing a portfolio over the next year.

“I want to draw people at work,” she said. “Not portraits exactly. The things their hands know how to do.”

Micah held up his palms. “These mostly know how to acquire scratches.”

“Could be a starting point.”

Esme offered a demonstration of the way she held a pen during an exam, which resembled an attempt to prevent it escaping. Leila drew a few quick lines while they laughed.

There was no need to make the evening last forever. Esme had a bus to catch. Micah would walk with her to the stop, then take a different route home. Plans ended at times people had agreed, and endings did not have to mean abandonment.

At the door, Micah kissed Leila briefly while Esme made a theatrical study of the stair rail. Mum called goodnight from the kitchen. Toby asked whether Micah could come back when they had more cheese.

“I'll take that as an invitation,” Micah said.

After everyone had gone, Leila helped dry the last dishes. The table stood in the sitting room with a few crumbs beneath it and one chair still at the wrong angle. It looked used, which was what they had wanted it for.