Ruby trudged back to the flat in the rain. By the time she got there, she found that a plan had formed, seemingly of its own accord, a bit like the melody had done. There was a quiver of a thrill, that she was being guided by the muse again, but this time not just in music. She made no attempt to resist or to think it through: she walked in the door and got straight into the shower, turned it up as hot as she could bear it and began to scrub. Soon she’d washed away two weeks of grime, shampooed her hair three times. She shaved her armpits and legs, exfoliated her entire body the way she always used to do. She toweled herself dry, applied lotion, used tweezers to shape her eyebrows. She put makeup on and grabbed a dress out of her wardrobe that she hadn’t worn in months. There, she thought, admiring herself in the mirror. I’m unrecognizable.

You’re all dressed up with nowhere to go, said a mean voice inside her head.

I don’t have anywhere to go yet, she said to the voice. But maybe I will soon.

That night, she put on a pair of heels, stood in the dark, and watched the shadows play on the blinds of his living room, imagining the scene within. It was comforting to know that he was still doing the yoga, even if she couldn’t see it. That perfectly muscled body had to be maintained somehow.

Ruby went to bed and slept better than she had in weeks, without any sleeping pills, between clean sheets. The next day she dressed carefully, forced herself to eat a breakfast of scrambled eggs and set off to ride the tram.

There was no sign of him, so she rode all the way to the end of the line and back, getting off in the city center to sit and watch the crowds for a while. She was gratified to see that several young men noticed her, though she didn’t acknowledge their curious glances. Just yesterday she’d been invisible, a hunched and grubby thing, moving through the press of people without drawing a single eye. Apart from his. He’d looked at her. He’d seen her.

At the market, she bought an apple and ate it while she stood at the tram stop, waiting to get on, heading out of town again, only to come back in.

When he wasn’t on the next tram either, Ruby couldn’t hold back the disappointment. She stopped hoping but kept riding. There was no reason to go home, really. See? said the mean voice in her head. I told you.