There were three chairs in the lamplight and only two glasses on the table. Vivienne had counted on the arrangement being noticed. What she had apparently not allowed for was Vera noticing her noticing it.
“You've looked at that chair three times and at me only twice.”
Vivienne made a grievance of it, lightly enough to leave herself room to retreat. She refused to lose an evening to furniture. Vera should sit down. If an inventory was necessary, the glasses still numbered two. Then came the explanation: the room had looked too certain of itself. Vivienne had wanted to see whether Vera would ask who was missing.
Vera declined the offered mystery. Nobody was missing yet. An absence had been arranged, and she was being invited to provide it with a name. She had a more practical question: which chair belonged to Vivienne? Beside her, the evening could begin. With an empty place kept between them, it would resemble an interview. Vera had not dressed for a vacancy.
That earned a bright objection. Had this been an interview, Vivienne said, Vera would have been given the bad light. She took the chair beside Vera's. It was a concession, but she immediately fenced it with another joke: choosing a seat did not mean Vera had solved her.
The empty chair, she added, was not intended for a rival. It was meant to make staying easier. Perhaps a room with an unoccupied place would feel less like a perfect picture that Vera must be careful not to spoil by leaving.
Vera was unimpressed by an escape route decorated on her behalf. She could leave a room containing two chairs. She had, as she pointed out, an excellent coat. The difficulty was elsewhere. Vivienne had not made a request, and no answer could be given to a request still concealed inside an experiment.
One thing, Vera asked. One thing Vivienne wanted that evening, expressed in small and ordinary words. Vera promised she could survive hearing them.
“Stay for ten minutes after I stop being entertaining.”
Vivienne pronounced the plainness of it horrible. Yet she let the words stand. Then she explained the chair by the lamp.
It was her own seat when Vera was absent. She had moved it before Vera arrived because it looked as though she had been waiting. Putting it entirely out of the light had proved no easier. The troublesome extra place had never needed another guest. It had held evidence of the woman already in the room.
Vivienne invited Vera to be insufferable about the admission, provided she would be quick. Vera said she had prepared a magnificent little speech. It would have to be saved for somebody who deserved it.
Her answer to the request was yes. Ten minutes was something she could agree to. Vivienne should take her own chair, and Vera would bring hers over. Quiet did not have to be earned by first becoming exhausted.
Still, Vera had one question left. Did Vivienne actually like the seat she had chosen, or did she like the view she imagined it gave Vera?
The chair by the lamp was the one Vivienne liked. Its arm was worn where her hand wanted to rest. She returned to it and asked Vera to come closer; enough had been confessed without having to shout across the embarrassment.
Then she discarded the last useful disguise. Jealousy had not been her aim. She had wanted to look like a woman who had not noticed the door.
The invitation she tried next was unfinished, conditional, almost awkward. Tomorrow, if she asked Vera to come, would Vera let her ask badly?
Yes, Vera said. Vivienne could ask badly. Vera could answer honestly. Those were separate privileges, and Vivienne must not attempt to bundle them together.
Vera moved her chair beside Vivienne's. The spare chair could remain wherever Vivienne pleased. Tomorrow could contain an invitation instead of a floor plan. No answer for tomorrow had been secured, but the question was allowed to be asked.
Tonight, there was a smaller agreement to keep.
Their ten minutes would begin now. And if Vivienne tried to make a joke to rescue them from the quiet, Vera would start the clock again.
Three chairs remained in the room. At last, neither woman was asking the empty one to speak.