When Kate got to her room that evening, she plonked herself down on her bed to take a breather before she had to go downstairs and make dinner. At face value her day at Greenfields hadn't exactly been strenuous, but the newness of everything had been exhausting in itself. Eve had taught her a lot in one day: the criteria they had for which clothes to sell and which to toss; the best way to do the little things like check pockets ("Always turn them inside out instead of sticking your hands right in, you never know what you'll find in there."); how to use the clothes steamer; and so much more. Logically Kate knew there would be a lot going on behind the scenes, but she'd never really put a lot of thought into how much work it took to keep a charity shop running.

She'd also learned a lot about Eve herself in four short hours. She was born and raised in the area and had never left. She hadn't been sure what she wanted to do when she finished school but knew that university wasn't for her, and as summer approached she was running out of time to decide. The week school broke up a family friend reached out and offered her a job as a receptionist at their catering business, which she had accepted without hesitation. The company had become very successful and Eve had been working there ever since.

"When it first started up, we didn't get many actual visitors to the office. I mostly handled the phones and paperwork so they were ok with me having my crazy hair," Eve had said, wiggling her head for emphasis, her braided buns wobbling slightly, "I used to have my whole head multicoloured. But as it got more successful and more people came, they understandably didn't want their visitors to be blinded upon entry. Bless her, my boss was so nervous when she had that conversation with me! But I understood where she was coming from so it was fine. I asked if she'd be ok with me just having my underlayers dyed and then style my hair so the colour isn't as obvious, and she gave me the ok for that. So all I do for work is wear my hair in a low ponytail and most of the colour is hidden. And obviously I don't wear black lipstick." Eve finished with a laugh.

She worked five days a week on a two-week schedule, always having Sundays free but then alternating between Wednesdays and Saturdays off, so Kate wouldn't see her next weekend. Kate would probably work with the others downstairs that day unless Maria decided to take over upstairs.

Getting up from her bed and heading downstairs, Kate noted that overall, the day had been fairly positive once she got over her anxiety-induced adrenaline rush. She still had another week of the Easter holidays including another Saturday at Greenfields before she had to think about work (and Max) again, and she was quietly determined to make the best use of her time possible.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kate swam, read, and baked the week away before waking up enthusiastically early the following Saturday morning. Considering how hesitant she had initially been about volunteering, she was now surprisingly excited for her second afternoon at Greenfields. When the time came for her to walk through the shop door later that day Kate did so with a spring in her step, greeting John at the till as she headed through the back.

"Hey Sue, hey Maria." She said as she hung her coat and bag up on a hook in the corner.

"Hey Kate, how's it going?" Maria asked as she continued writing prices on the stack of labels in front of her. Sue glanced up at Kate and smiled before looking back down at the box she was sorting through.

"I'm good. And you?"

"Always good!" Maria replied as she finished writing a label with a flourish. Clicking her pen, she continued, "So I was thinking, I know you'll probably end up spending most of your time upstairs once Eve's got you settled in the clothes routine, but it'd still be good for you to know the basics of what we do with everything else in the store in case you're needed elsewhere y'know? We'll start with the 'odds and ends' – plates, cups, ceramics, figurines, that kind of thing."

Kate nodded as she approached the table Maria was working at. It was large and square, not unlike the one upstairs, but held boxes, labels, and tags instead of clothes. Maria grabbed one of the boxes in front of her and dragged it so it was between her and Kate, and pulled a few plates out.

"What we'll do with all these knick-knacks is basically just look at their condition and go from there. I'm sure Eve taught you the same with clothes. Ask yourself 'would I buy this?'. If no, then we won't sell it. If something needs a little clean up then of course we'll clean it and then put it out, but anything that's straight up filthy we don't bother with unless it looks promising." Maria picked up one of the plates in front of her, "So this plate, it's clean but there's a big old chip out of one of the sides, so unfortunately it has to go." She ducked down and showed Kate the box under the table where the unwanted ceramics went, and gently placed it inside.

Standing back up and picking up the next plate, Maria turned it in her hands and continued, "Now this one is kinda grimy, but underneath that it's actually in good condition. So, we'll grab a cleaning wipe and see if this dust will come off." The dust came off very easily as Maria cleaned the plate meticulously, getting in every groove. Once she was done, the plate almost looked new. "There we go. Now we look at the back and price it depending on if it's some fancy brand or if it's just Tesco's tableware!"

Maria got Kate started on some sorting, and Sue said her goodbyes as she had to leave early. They said goodbye, and then began getting to know each other better as they worked. When Maria learned that Kate worked at Five Oaks, she started asking about the school.

"My son's about to move up you see, and half his mates are going to Five Oaks and half of them are going to another school. We're set to move on to Five Oaks by default, but he's just so torn. I'd love to be able to tell him some good things about the school. I know you're not a teacher, but what's it like there from your perspective?"

Kate looked down at the jewellery she was untangling as she thought for a moment, "It's a good school. The Head's really nice, he personally took me down to my office on the first day. I mostly spend time with other background staff, but I've got to know a couple of teachers since I've been here and they're all so passionate about their work; they really care about the kids y'know? Of course, no school is perfect, but I would've been happy at a school like Five Oaks when I was younger."

"That's reassuring to hear." Maria said with a relived sigh, "And what about for you? Do you like it there?"

"I like it, yeah." Kate thought back to October when her mum had asked her a similar question. She'd been so much more enthusiastic about work back then... what had changed?

Kate was snapped out of her reverie by Maria saying, "That didn't sound particularly convincing. What about the job bothers you?"

Where to start? Kate thought wearily. She didn't want to get into everything to do with Max. Yes, it complicated things, but there was more to her hesitation. Shrugging her shoulders, Kate voiced a thought that had been on her mind for a little while now, "I just wonder if I should be aiming higher. Like, I see other people out there aiming for the next big thing, the next promotion, and I wonder if I should be doing that too. I truly do enjoy my job. I like the routine, I like the predictability, I like my colleagues. But something in me just doesn't feel settled there anymore. I can't put my finger on it."

"This is your first job out of university, right?" Maria asked, continuing when Kate nodded in response, "Then my advice is to try not to stress yourself out about it too much. I'm not going to sit here and interrogate you about your feelings about all this, although if you do want to vent I will absolutely listen and offer my thoughts. But you sound like you've got a good train of thought going. No one expects you to finish studying, fall into a job, and stay there until the day you die. When you walk into a shop and try on clothes, you don't keep a shirt that fits wrong just because it was the first one you picked up. If you need to spend the next little while trying out different things then by all means do it! But at the same time, don't go shooting for things outside your comfort zone just because other people expect you to."

Maria took a couple of necklaces that Kate had managed to untangle and began putting price tags on them, "Don't let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do. If you want to work in admin for the rest of your life because it makes you happy, then do it. If you want to reach for the stars and try a bit of everything then you can do that too! Just don't feel like you have to do any of that because someone says you should."

"Thank you." Kate said quietly, pondering Maria's advice. She looked back down at the necklaces knotted together in front of her and spotted a loop that would free one. As she freed the chain she smiled to herself, seeing the metaphor in her action. Her life was a lot like the jewellery right now, tangled and confused. But each necklace was still intact despite the knots, all she had to do was find a way to free them.