After her cathartic weekend with Eve and the mental release that followed, Kate settled into the easy, simple friendship with Max she'd been looking for for the past eight months. The sudden and stark difference in their relationship was emotionally dizzying, but in a good way. Kate found herself struggling to keep the smile off her face when she spent time with Max now. From the outside, there was no discernible change in the way they acted towards each other. But the difference was all in Kate's head, where it needed to be.

Every single interaction was painted with a different brush. Kate still listened to Max with the same attentive ear she had before, but now there was no pining or anxious anticipation for the mention of a new girlfriend alongside it. She still brought extra treats to work to share with him at lunch, but now it was because she thought it was funny to see him try (and fail) to be sneaky when stealing one. It was no longer a convoluted attempt to win him over with food.

One day Max looked over at Kate and said, "This is really random, and I might just be imagining things, but something seems different about you recently. I can't put my finger on it..." He drifted off and tilted his head to one side, pursing his lips as he looked her over. Kate was happy to find that his direct gaze no longer made her nervous. Instead she looked right back at him, raising her eyebrows in amusement as both of them struggled not to grin. "What could it be, I wonder? What's changed?"

The truth flashed through Kate's mind, spoken dryly to herself: "Well Max, I'm not in love with you anymore and that makes me really happy!" She almost laughed out loud at how absurd the statement was now. Instead she offered a half truth, "Well, I did get a couple of inches cut off my hair on the weekend."

"Argh!" Max threw himself back in his chair in a dramatic show of defeat, "Of course. Typical of me to not notice something as simple as a haircut. I really am such a guy at times."

Kate shrugged in mock disappointment, "Yeah, you are." She flinched and let out an amused yelp as Max pretended to throw a chunk of fudge at her, "Excuse me! I worked hard on that fudge, don't you even pretend to throw it!"

"You know I'd never throw your food. It's far too good."

She squinted at him as he gave her a teasingly contrite look, "Apology accepted... I think."

Kate haughtily took a piece of fudge for herself, and remained stoic until she met Max's eyes. One look was all it took for them both to collapse into laughter. Their smiles lingered for the remainder of lunch, especially Kate's. In the past, an exchange like this would've made her palms sweat with nerves. She would have replayed it in her head at least once when she got home that night, wondering if Max had been trying to flirt with her or whether he was just being his usual playful self. The fact that none of that even crossed her mind now was a subconscious breath of fresh air, clean and cool, a balm to her heart and mind. The feeling she'd had in St. Mary's weeks ago had been right. Everything really was ok.

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

The weeks flew by, and Kate's confidence in her new, platonic relationship with Max continued to increase. On that first day, her delighted message to Eve after work had earned her a gif of a dancing lady, a dozen thumbs up emojis, and a "I want all the details on Saturday!" in response. After that things only got better. She wasn't much closer to deciding on a long term career or sorting out any of her other concerns, but for now she was ok with that. Kate knew she would get there in time.

One Saturday evening after volunteering, she was walking to Eve's flat with her to spend the night. Eve had invited her to stay over and though it had started off as a casual request, by the end of it she was embarrassedly admitting that since Hannah had moved out living alone had been giving her "the heebie-jeebies" and she'd very much appreciate some company. Kate had laughed good naturedly and said that she'd love to stay over and hang out. After a quick diversion to Tesco's Express for croissants for the next day's breakfast and a surprise "oh, why not" pizza, the two of them were soon settled into Eve's sofa, scrolling through Netflix and enjoying the smell of warm cheese that wafted through from the kitchen as the pizza cooked.

They had just started a film and served up the pizza when Kate's phone buzzed next to her several times in rapid succession. When she read the messages, she almost choked on her mouthful of pizza and coughed dramatically as Eve bolted upright in shock.

"Please don't choke, I don't know how to do the Heimlich maneuver." Eve said, panic tinting her voice. Kate automatically laughed even though she was still recovering, and was suddenly coughing for a different reason.

She took a long drink of water and laughed properly at Eve's flustered declaration before explaining, "I'm good, I'm fine. Sorry, just got an important message from my mum; my sister's gone into labour."

"Crikey. Do we need to get you to the train station or..?"

"Oh, no. She lives way up north, practically in Scotland, it's impossible for me to get there. Mum was just letting me know about it. She and dad are jumping in the car to go up there to be with her since they're way closer and, y'know, they have a car." Kate wiggled side to side in excitement, "She's a few days early too! Natalie will be happy with that. She's one of the most impatient people I know and it would've killed her to go past her due date."

"I get that." Eve paused for a second, "If you want to go home to wait for updates and stuff instead of staying here tonight then I don't mind, I'm not going to be offended or anything."

"Nah, I'll stay. It's not like they're going to be texting me every time she has a contraction or anything. Plus if I'm home alone then I'll drive myself mad waiting; I need a distraction."

"Ok, cool." Eve's reply was casual, but Kate could tell from the way she relaxed back into her seat that Eve was relieved that she was staying.

"How's the hunt for a roommate going?" she asked after a moment.

"Not great," Eve replied as she dejectedly took a bite of her pizza, "I've had a few enquiries but none have been good. I'm pretty picky with who I live with anyway so that doesn't help either. Like, I'll only take other women because I had a male roommate a few years ago and he was awful for a whole bunch of reasons. I know not all guys are like that, but I just don't want to risk it."

"That's fair."

"So..." Eve paused to consider her words before diving ahead, "I was wanting to ask you something, but then you got the text about your sister and I thought 'ok maybe another time', but then you brought up the whole roommate thing anyway and-"

"You want me to move in?"

"Very perceptive. Yes. If you want. I'm not expecting an answer right now obviously, but the offer is there if you wanted a change of scenery. I'll go through all the paperwork and the financial stuff with you if you decide you're interested." Eve put her pizza on the coffee table and turned to fully face Kate as she emphatically said, "And I want to be clear: I'm not going to be upset if your answer is 'no'. I'm not going to stop being your friend or sit here and pout about it. But I just wanted to put it out there for you. It makes things way easier for me because you're not some random weirdo off the street who responded to an ad. I know you're not going to go crazy and murder me in my sleep or anything; I know I can trust you. So yeah... the offer is there. Just let me know in the next couple of weeks."

"Yeah, I will. Thank you." Kate said thoughtfully. Eve was right; she couldn't think about this with the anticipation of Natalie being in labour sitting on her mind. But it was definitely something to consider in a few days' time. She'd been living with her uni friends for almost four years now but they weren't all as close as they used to be. Even their weekly dinners had been cut back to every other week now as they all lived their separate lives. Still, it was hard to imagine moving out after so long.

Maybe I should move in with Eve and get out of there... have a real reset of everything and start over. Decisions, decisions. But as Eve had pointed out, it was not a decision to be made in a hurry. For now, she would just enjoy her pizza and Eve's company as she tried not to bubble over with anticipation about Natalie's baby. That would be enough excitement for one weekend.