blotter

She smoothed out the blotter and patted a few papers--anything, Jane thought, to kill time.

She tossed down her pen as her sister entered, and, taking up a blotter, carefully laid it across the page she had been writing.

He was still sitting at his desk, and he very deliberately proceeded to empty the contents out on his blotter.

The sergeant drew a tired breath and picked up the ruler to make a red line in his blotter.