When Kate arrived home from her usual Saturday of volunteering, the house was strangely quiet. Usually she could hear music coming from one of her housemates' rooms or the sounds of footsteps on the floor above her, but right now she could have heard a pin drop. Her unease was only intensified when she smelled food cooking in the kitchen. Surely someone had to be home. As she reached the end of the hallway and turned into the living room her suspicions were confirmed by her housemates jumping out from behind the furniture, shouting "surprise!" and setting off party poppers. Kate stumbled back a step in shock as a bewildered smile began to appear on her face.

The rest of the evening was spent eating good food and reminiscing about their uni days as they threw Kate a going away party. It was bittersweet; they all recognized that their lives had gone in different directions since graduation, but it was still strange to see the first of them really spread their wings. Nevertheless, Kate was still glad her friends had surprised her so. The next day they all helped get Kate's things into the van Eve had borrowed from work, gave their final goodbyes and hugs, and just like that, she was gone.

Unpacking her things at Eve's flat (her flat!) was a disconcertingly quiet experience. It wasn't silent by any means; sounds from the street below were there, faint in the background, but Kate hadn't realised just how much noise five people living together made until it was gone. Instead of footsteps, muffled phone conversations, music, and goodness knows what other sounds she'd been listening to for the past four years, Kate could only really hear Eve's single set of steps padding around the flat as she went about her business. Eve occasionally helped with a large piece of furniture or popped her head in to check how things were going, but other than that the two of them kept to themselves that day until dinner time.

Over dinner, Eve brought up her plans for the week, "So this week was supposed to be the week I work Wednesdays and have Saturdays off, but Jo asked if I could do another split week this week instead. Maria said she doesn't need me in particular on Wednesday, but that I'm welcome to come in if I want. I'll probably take the morning off to run some errands and then come in in the afternoon."

"Ok, thanks for letting me know. Speaking of errands, we never talked about stuff like splitting chores and food shopping. How do you want to do that?"

They spent the remainder of the evening going over nitpicky housekeeping things, and easily settled on a few casual guidelines that would work for the two of them. Kate found herself more and more relieved as the discussion went on. She had, for the most part, had a gut feeling that moving in with Eve was going to be a positive thing, but it was still nice to see her instincts somewhat confirmed by the ease of their agreements.

It took Kate longer than usual to fall asleep that evening. She figured that the unfamiliarity of her new sleeping arrangements was agitating her subconscious, but the recognition of the fact didn't automatically fix the issue. As she tossed and turned, Kate realised with a pang of sadness that she hadn't heard the bells of St. Mary's ring out after the Sunday service since she lived too far away now. She then realised that trips to the church would now have to be very much deliberate rather than (as they often were) spontaneous like she'd been used to. Thinking through how else her day to day life would change now she'd moved finally got her tired enough to drift into sleep, and that night she dreamed of her stained glass.

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

Kate's final day of work passed uneventfully, as did Tuesday, and then suddenly her first full day at Greenfields was upon her. It was strange to turn up on her own and not automatically start working with Eve, but working with other volunteers downstairs for the morning was pleasant in it's own way. She had arranged to meet Eve at a nearby coffee shop for a quick lunch, and after they'd eaten they headed back to Greenfields together to resume their familiar afternoon of work, tucked away in their room full of clothes.

Maria greeted them as they came through the back door, "Hey you two! Just so you're not surprised, we had a delivery over lunch of clothes from another shop, stuff they didn't sell. So don't be too shocked by the state of upstairs."

"No worries," Eve replied, already heading up the stairs, "How bad can it be?"

Kate followed after her and laughed to herself as Eve reached the top of the stairs, looked at the room, and muttered, "Pretty bad apparently..."

Maria had been right to warn them about the delivery. In the corner of the room, the industrial sized laundry cart they used to hold donation bags waiting to be sorted was overflowing, with a handful of bags sitting on the floor next to it. They sighed and, figuring there was no point procrastinating, each grabbed a bag and dumped the contents in the middle of the table. Eve turned the radio on and sat down opposite Kate, and they began their usual routine of sorting, tagging, and steaming.

Between the unending piles of clothes and chatting about whether to get groceries that evening or dine out, the afternoon went surprisingly fast. They filled a whole wall with clothes ready to be sold, and with 10 minutes to go until closing time they began to clear up.

A sudden happy greeting sounded downstairs, and Kate and Eve looked up at each other as they heard Maria exclaim, "Sam! How are you?"

"Oh, Sam's here!" Eve said. Seeing Kate raise her eyebrows in questioning, she explained, "He's a seasonal volunteer, works the summers 'cause he's a teacher. We'll go down and say hi in a sec. He's really nice."

Kate peeked over the bannister next to her to catch a glimpse of this new stranger before they headed down but quickly jerked her head back out of view, gripped by panic.

"You good, Kate?"

She hurriedly walked over to Eve on the other side of the room and, trying to hide the awkwardness she felt, quietly said, "I know Sam."

Eve frowned in confusion, "So? Why are you looking at me like this is a dirty secret?"

"Because it feels like a dirty secret!" she replied, almost raising her voice. Pausing to gather herself, Kate continued, "You remember when I had that awful night at Max's party way back in October? You know, where he kissed Poppy and I got really upset and ran out? And then one of his friends followed me and gave me a lift home-"

"Oh my gosh Kate, don't tell me Sam is the friend."

"Sam is the friend!!" Kate buried her head in her hands, "I never thought I'd see him again! What if he remembers? What if he doesn't remember?"

They sat staring at each other as the greetings continued below and Kate attempted to suppress the months-old embarrassment that was festering inside her. Eve suddenly said, "Well, I'm going to go say hi."

"Eve! Wait!" Kate tried to stop her, "Can't we just wait to go down until he's gone?"

"Nope, coward."

"I'm literally going to kill you."

"Nah, you won't." Eve countered, already disappearing down the stairs, "Too many witnesses."

Left with no choice, Kate grabbed her bag and reluctantly followed Eve. She heard the end of Eve's welcome to Sam and then a sentence that almost made her bolt back upstairs, "Oh, and this is Kate, she started volunteering around Easter!"

Reaching the bottom step, Kate looked up and met Sam's eyes as he smiled warmly at her and extended his hand to shake. As they clasped hands, a look of recognition appeared on his face and he said, "I'd say 'nice to meet you', but unless I'm wrong, I think we've already met."

"I'm surprised you remember to be honest, it was that long ago now..." Kate cringed internally at the tone of her voice, she sounded ridiculous.

"You guys know each other?" Maria asked, oblivious to their history.

"Yeah, we have a mutual friend." Sam quickly replied. Kate hoped the relief she felt didn't show on her face; she didn't know how she would've explained their connection. "Anyway, I just dropped by to confirm my volunteering days in person. I know I do the same days every year, but I always figure it's better for me to not just show up without checking."

"I definitely appreciate that!" Maria said gratefully, "Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays?"

"Sounds good to me!"

Behind Sam's back, Kate and Eve made disbelieving eye contact as they both realised Sam would be doing the same days as Kate. Eve looked gleeful. Kate looked horrified.

The grin that then spread across Eve's face made Kate's panic intensify, and rightly so, as she sweetly said, "Well, it's closing time, and Kate and I were about to go get a bite to eat. Want to tag along, Sam?"

"Yeah, why not?" he replied with an innocent smile.

Kate really was going to kill Eve when they got home.