PLAIN-EVENT SUMMARY:
Thursday morning, December 3, June moves the Marchetti Rooms receipt (her handwritten `FRI DEC 4 / NOON` deadline) from under the mineral spirits jar to the kitchen table and assembles the decision objects around it: notebook, phone, the box of eight of Odile's catalogs, with Mara's blue dish standing in the drying rack and the five leaving-side studies still face down under the water jar. Her notebook's left page holds the Tasker (Philadelphia) offer in figures — $49,500 W-2, ~$3,150/month take-home, $1,180 rent, benefits at ninety days, keys day one, written after-hours studio access, the crossed-out word VANDERCOOK, and the verdict GOOD. The right page holds New York: Kessler's January 4 load-in at $32/hour for three weeks ($3,840, invoiced the 25th, paid in March), Dana's Ridgewood back room at $340 plus a $150 wall share ($490/month), a $2,643 checking balance, possible December crating, and the unfinished line `FEB = `. She confirms the left page wins on arithmetic.

At 9:52 Sam texts that Mara wants her dish back and that Sam and Ruth are nearby; they arrive at 10:40. June gives them the catalog box to return to the studio, instructing them to leave it at Sonia's with a note for Mara if Theo is there, inside the door if he isn't, saying only that it's from June. She starts to send the dish too, reverses herself, and keeps it to bring to Mara in person Tuesday. Ruth admits she noticed things this fall and kept quiet partly out of manners and partly because it was easier for her; June volunteers that she has a job answer due at noon tomorrow and is not asking for an opinion; Ruth and Sam answer with logistics ("We have a car." / "And a hand truck if you need it") and leave with the box at about 10:45. Ruth and Sam learn only that a job answer exists — no city, employer, or terms.

At 4:05 Asha calls back from a freight dock. June asks Asha's consent before sending her name to Nia for the Tasker job and recites the full terms; Asha consents on the condition that June send her name because she is qualified, not to feel less guilty; June concedes it was both and says she's fixing that. June then commits to the New York path, and Asha gives the final terms: $980 to Dana by December 10, key handoff January 2, ten feet of front-room wall with a north window, W-9 to Kessler by December 15, January 4 start at 8 a.m., three weeks minimum, invoice January 25, money in March. June writes the dates on the right page.

Friday morning June deletes the nine-day-old unsent draft email to Nia asking about the Tasker north wall — her first act that feels like decision rather than arithmetic. She re-runs the test of whether the Ridgewood room is worth it even if Theo never speaks to her again, and it holds. At 10:40 she calls Nia and declines before the noon deadline, naming the real reason: even with written access, she would become the person with keys again — deadlines, sink issues, class rosters — and never paint. Nia states plainly that Tasker is the better offer, accepts the no, takes June's referral of Asha Ibrahim, and asks that Asha email today, subject line "Tasker," before one. June then executes everything before it can cool: texts Asha (said no at 10:52), emails Kessler the W-9 at 11:14, texts Dana yes at 11:20 (Dana replies with a thumbs up and a photo of the front room's flat gray north light), emails the landlord notice for a January 31 move-out under paragraph 14, writes `FEB = coat`, pins a fresh index card of key dates where the receipt lived, folds the receipt into the notebook, turns the top study face up, and nails it to her own wall. Theo is never contacted and learns nothing.

No `[UNCLEAR]` markers were needed. The two places I tested hardest: (a) whether the notice letter contradicts a lease that "died January 31 whether she decided anything or not" — it doesn't; the paragraph-14 check establishes the lease requires written notice regardless, and the literal events (wrote it, checked, sent it) are unambiguous; (b) whether the catalog box's final destination (studio door vs. Sonia's) is knowable — it is not, and that is by design ("a route that had nothing to do with her"), not a logistics hole: the reader knows exactly who has the box and both possible endpoints.

INVENTORY:
- "TASKER (left page terms)" — introduced: line 9 (notebook ledger) — first plot weight: line 15 ("the left page won on every line") and the Nia call (line 109) — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("TASKER. $49,500. Divided by twelve, $4,125... Rent, $1,180... Benefits at ninety days. Keys day one." — the ledger restates every ch15 term in figures before any scene asks it to hurt).
- "NEW YORK (right page terms)" — introduced: line 13 — first plot weight: line 83 ("I'm in. Dana's room, the wall share, Kessler.") — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("Kessler, load-in January 4, $32 an hour, forty hours, three weeks minimum... Dana's back room in Ridgewood, $340").
- "VANDERCOOK" — introduced: line 9, as a crossed-out word with no gloss — first plot weight: line 117, where it carries the whole refusal — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("The proof press in the back room. Trueing the bed, keeping it usable. That part." — plain apposition delivered at exactly the point of weight; the ch15-established pull covers the bare line-9 mention).
- "net-45" — introduced: line 13 — first plot weight: line 129 (the counter June reads to Nia) — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("Invoice the 25th, net-45, money lands in March" — the jargon is glossed by its own sentence, twice, lines 13 and 85).
- "W-2 take-home" — introduced: line 9 — first plot weight: same ledger comparison — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("her best guess at what a W-2 actually left you, $3,150, question mark" — function shown, not defined).
- "W-9" — introduced: line 85 — first plot weight: line 153 (the 11:14 email) — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("he needs your W-9 by the 15th and a body on January 4" — paired with invoicing, legible as freelance paperwork-before-work).
- "Kessler" — introduced: line 13 — first plot weight: line 83 — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("Kessler: he needs your W-9... You invoice the 25th" — the "he" plus payment terms fixes him as the contractor who pays).
- "Dana / the wall share" — introduced: line 13 — first plot weight: line 85 ($980 deposit deadline) — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("Dana: first month plus one month deposit, $980 all in with the wall, by December 10. Key handoff January 2. Back room's yours, ten feet of wall in front" — room, wall, and money cleanly partitioned).
- "the after-hours studio sheet / studio clause" — introduced: line 9 — first plot weight: lines 69–73 (Asha: "Say the studio clause again") — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("Her name on the after-hours studio sheet, in writing, a clause Nia had put there" — the clause-guarantees-the-sheet chain is stated in one breath; see alias check under Complexity 5).
- "the Chelsea office" — introduced: line 13, never seen before this chapter — first plot weight: line 165 (the on-hand reminder that closes the chapter) — orientation: SUFFICIENT, barely ("A possible December of crating shifts if the Chelsea office sent them" — one functional clause: a dispatcher of paid crating work. This is the thinnest orientation in the chapter; it survives because nothing depends on knowing more than "possible December money").
- "`FEB = `" — introduced: line 13 — first plot weight: line 129 ("February is a blank line in my notebook") and line 159 (`FEB = coat`) — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("She had not filled in the right side of that equation because there was nothing to put there" — the notation is glossed the moment it appears; the `coat` payoff is planted by Asha's "Wear the coat inside until February," line 85).
- "Paragraph 14 / landlord notice" — introduced: line 157 — first plot weight: same line — orientation: SUFFICIENT ("She had no printer. Paragraph 14 allowed email; she checked." — the clause is a task performed, not exposition).
- "Marchetti header" — reappearing object detail — introduced: line 133 — first plot weight: line 145 (receipt retired print-side-up) — orientation: SUFFICIENT (reader holds from ch15 that the deadline is written on the back of a Marchetti Rooms receipt; "the Marchetti header, the faded total" re-anchors it).

CONFUSION MAP:
- "Tuesday I wasn't there because of a thing I'm not going to explain yet" (line 45) — reader loses: nothing; a character-level withholding from Ruth/Sam, not from the reader, who knows the rupture facts — opacity: ASSIGNED (later payoff / reveal protection — the chapter packet's protected list bars public fake-couple and nephew truth, and Ruth's "You can leave that part out. We came for the dish" shows the book policing the boundary on purpose).
- "She kept scrolling. That was a different noon." (line 99) — reader loses: momentarily, what "noon" means applied to the `Okay. No chair.` thread — opacity: ASSIGNED (voice — June's compression per the reading guide §2; the noon-as-deadline figure has been established four times before this line, from `FRI DEC 4 / NOON` at line 3 through "a job answer due at noon tomorrow" at line 49, so the extension — the Theo reckoning is a separate deadline, not today's — is prepared and lands within the sentence).
- "She put it against the wall and looked at it the way she'd look at a ground: for holes, for thin patches" (line 101) — reader loses: for one clause, whether "it" is a literal canvas (five real studies sit in the same apartment) or the hypothetical test — opacity: ASSIGNED (voice — the sanctioned painter-metaphor idiom; "It held. Not comfortably. The $340 room barely held heat" resolves the referent within two sentences and converts the figure back into fact). This was my strongest ACCIDENTAL candidate; it acquits because the garden path costs a beat, not the scene.
- "pointed at the studio by a route that had nothing to do with her" (line 57) — reader loses: possibly, that the route's real design is avoiding Theo, since the sentence names June instead — opacity: ASSIGNED (voice/POV — from June's chair, her own removal from the errand is the point, and the Theo-avoidance design was stated explicitly twenty lines earlier: "If Theo is there, could you leave them at Sonia's").
- The catalog box's endpoint is never confirmed (after line 57) — reader loses: which branch (studio door vs. Sonia's) occurred — opacity: ASSIGNED (later payoff — canon obligations route the catalogs' arrival into Ch21's studio-side chapters; the chapter deliberately ends June's knowledge where June's knowledge ends, consistent with "narration transparency: June sees scene logistics clearly").
- "FEB = coat" (line 159) — reader loses: nothing if reading in order, but the equation's answer is a joke that must be decoded — opacity: ASSIGNED (voice / payoff — Asha plants "Wear the coat inside until February" at line 85 and June names the blank to Nia at line 129; the foothold chain is complete: February has no money in it, only endurance).

CHARACTER CLARITY:
- Ruth (reappearing): PLACEABLE ("Ruth behind with her coat still buttoned"; her "This fall I noticed things. I kept them to myself and called it manners" ties directly to her established watcher role — and stays inside her canon knowledge state: she confesses noticing, not knowing).
- Sam (reappearing): PLACEABLE ("Sam first, in the orange scarf"; Sam handles the box, moves the chair blocking the door, offers the hand truck — the established furniture-and-room care move). Note: the chapter never uses a pronoun for Sam; no misgendering risk and no awkwardness.
- Asha (reappearing): PLACEABLE ("Asha called back at 4:05, freight noise behind her" — "called back" plus dock noise re-fixes her as the working-installer peer holding June's Kessler spot).
- Nia (reappearing): PLACEABLE (June names her role in-scene before the call — "Program director is Nia Torres" — so the "Torres." phone pickup lands prepared).
- Dana (referenced only): PLACEABLE by function ("Dana's back room in Ridgewood, $340"; her only on-page acts — a thumbs up and a photo — are landlord acts).
- Kessler (referenced only): PLACEABLE by function ("Kessler: he needs your W-9 by the 15th and a body on January 4" — employer, gendered "he," never confusable with a place or firm-only entity).
- Mara / Luis (referenced): PLACEABLE ("Mara wants her dish back before Luis refills it" — one clause re-fixes the couple, the dish, and the leftovers custom).
- Theo / Odile (referenced): PLACEABLE ("They're Odile's" for the catalogs; "If Theo is there" places him at the studio without contact).
- Pair Dana/Kessler: UN-CONFUSABLE (Asha's line 85 partitions them by ledger category — Dana gets money and gives keys; Kessler gets paperwork and gives work — and June's own transcription `DEC 10--DANA, $980. DEC 15--W-9 KESSLER` re-partitions them).
- Pair Nia/Asha (both phone-call women in June's work network): UN-CONFUSABLE (office noise/printer vs. freight gate/pallet jack; offer-giver vs. referral-receiver; the referral transaction itself — June sending Asha's name to Nia — makes conflation structurally impossible).
- Pair Ruth/Sam: UN-CONFUSABLE (Ruth stays "at the edge of the kitchen" and speaks the one sharp line; Sam lifts, carries, and moves the chair — speech vs. furniture, sustained through the scene).
- Pair Sam/Sonia's (shared initial, same scene): UN-CONFUSABLE ("could you leave them at Sonia's with a note for Mara" — the possessive-locative marks a place, and Sonia's is a long-established venue; no reading makes Sam a destination).

COMPLEXITY CHECKS:
1. Scene action / orientation / focalizer / consequence on first read: HOLDS — the chapter timestamps every beat (9:52, 10:40, 4:05, 6:10, 8:00, 10:40, 10:52, 11:14, 11:20) and tracks object custody clause by clause ("Sam picked the box up properly this time, knees, and carried it to the door, set it where it wouldn't be forgotten"); the consequence chain (decline → referral → deposits → notice → nail in wall) is executed on-page in order.
2. New terms plain before plot weight: HOLDS — see Inventory; the strongest counter-candidate was "the Chelsea office" (line 13), oriented by exactly one functional clause, which suffices because its only job is "possible December money," and the chapter treats it as exactly that unsure ("she left the word without an underline").
3. Mysteries genre-apt rather than accidental: HOLDS — the two withholdings ("a thing I'm not going to explain yet"; the unconfirmed catalog endpoint) are both reveal-protection the packet mandates, and both are visibly policed in-scene rather than smudged (Ruth declines the story out loud).
4. Plain footholds at high load: HOLDS — at the chapter's emotional peak the prose goes plainest, not densest: "I'd say I was painting after hours, and then there'd be a deadline, a sink issue, a class roster. I'd still be the person with keys" (line 121), and the densest data block ends by converting itself into a single stake: "So the real question: can you get from here to March?" (line 85).
5. Aliases / near-synonyms: HOLDS — checked candidates: "after-hours studio sheet" / "studio clause" / "written access" (three angles on one guarantee, chained in one sentence at line 9 and re-fused at line 71: "After-hours access, in writing, in the offer letter"); "Tasker" / "Philadelphia" / "the Philadelphia job" (fused at line 67, where June gives Asha the job, the terms, and "Program director is Nia Torres" in one speech, and again by Nia's subject-line instruction "Tasker" at line 139). Neither cluster produces a phantom second concept.

Focused extra checks (ruled within the above): (1) Both term sets are fully laid out as ledger figures (lines 9–13) before any scene loads them emotionally — HOLDS. (2) The decline happens Friday 10:40 (line 109), no Theo repair exists anywhere in the chapter, and the only leak to anyone is "a job answer due at noon tomorrow" to Ruth/Sam with zero terms attached; the daylight test (line 101) explicitly runs the choice with Theo subtracted before the call — HOLDS. (3) Ruth/Sam receive a box, an owner ("They're Odile's"), a conditional drop instruction, and nothing else; Ruth's confession claims noticing, not knowledge, and "We came for the dish" closes the door on more — no accidental implication they hold the fake-couple or nephew facts — HOLDS. (4) The four professionals are partitioned by function and transaction; see the pair checks — HOLDS. (5) The money detail stays diegetic — a notebook June writes in, a peer's clipped dock-side recital, a counter read aloud to the person it refuses — never a narrator's brochure; the one glossary-adjacent moment (net-45) is glossed by its own consequence, not defined — HOLDS.

REVISION ORDERS:
None required. No UNCLEAR, INSUFFICIENT, ACCIDENTAL, UNPLACED, CONFUSABLE, or FAILS findings. For the record, the three passages I pressed hardest before acquitting: the "put it against the wall" referent wobble (line 101, resolves in two sentences), the "different noon" figure (line 99, prepared by four prior noon-as-deadline uses), and the single-clause orientation of "the Chelsea office" (line 13, carries no weight beyond "maybe money").

Heaviest-load passage: Asha's terms recital at line 85 ("Dana: first month plus one month deposit, $980 all in with the wall, by December 10... Kessler: he needs your W-9 by the 15th and a body on January 4, eight a.m...."). The foothold that carries it: the block is pre-partitioned by named ledger ("Dana:" / "Kessler:"), every figure has already appeared once on the notebook's right page (line 13), and the recital exits through a single plain stake — "So the real question: can you get from here to March?" — which June answers in one number ("$2,643 and whatever paid crating I can get in December"), converting the densest data in the chapter into its clearest pressure.

OVERALL: CLEAR-UNDER-COMPLEXITY
