When Eve knocked on Kate's bedroom door the next morning to let her know she was leaving for work, she smiled in amusement as she found Kate stood with her hands on her hips in front of her wardrobe.

"You good?"

Without turning around, Kate replied, "I just can't decide what to wear today."

Eve smirked, leaning on the doorframe, "Well, the good news is that you're volunteering today, not going on a date, so that should make your decision considerably easier."

Kate looked over her shoulder and gave Eve a withering look, before grabbing a random shirt off a hanger and shooing her out of the room so she could get dressed. She heard Eve laugh from the other side of the door before saying, "Today will be fine, stop being such a stress head!"

She left for Greenfields a little while later, and as she approached the shop she saw Sam putting a standing sign out on the pavement ready for opening. He hadn't seen her yet, and Kate watched him tweak the positioning of the sign a couple of times before nodding to himself and heading back inside. For some reason, Kate found that little nod rather endearing.

The shop was still empty, since they'd only just opened, and when Kate got to the back room she frowned. Where were the other volunteers? She stowed her bag in a cubby and jumped as a door she'd never noticed before sprang open next to her. Through it walked Maria and Sam, and behind them she could see that the door led directly outside to the alley behind the shop where there was a van parked, its back doors open.

"Hiya Kate! Mind helping us unload the van? We've had some more donations collected." Maria asked, craning her neck over the box she was carrying. Sam greeted her with a brief "hey" and a smile as he focused on carrying his boxes inside.

With a third pair of hands to help the van was unloaded in no time, and Maria heaved a sigh before forming a plan of action, "Right. The majority of this is books, so you'll be right at home with this, Sam. I'll take the few boxes that aren't books and work on them here. If you two take the books into that side room-" she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, "-then I'd like to get it turned into a proper book nook instead of the mess we've got out here."

They all looked over at the bookshelves on the far wall, which currently served as storage for books waiting to be sold. Their sad shelves sagged under the weight of books stacked haphazardly with no discernable order, and at that moment there was no space to put any new stock. Maria's plan to turn a side room into a book storage area made a lot of sense.

Snapping back to the present, Maria continued, "I came in early today and put up some proper sturdy shelves and cleared out the cupboards, so the room's a clean slate for you. I'd suggest sorting out our current stock and alphabetising them before starting on the new lot. Other than that, the reins are yours! I trust you'll be able to show Kate the ropes, Sam?" After he nodded in confirmation, she excused herself to go and put the kettle on and Sam and Kate were left to begin their day's work.

As they each grabbed a box and began moving the books to their new home, Kate struck up a conversation, "So... what did Maria mean earlier when she said you'd be right at home with this?"

"Oh, that," Sam smiled, "Well I've been volunteering here for a couple of summers now, and I just ended up in charge of books by the end of my first year. And then when I came back for my second year, I just kind of fell back into it. What have you been doing here so far?"

"Clothes with Eve upstairs," she paused to squat and pick up another box, "And just random other bits and bobs elsewhere."

"Working upstairs is nice. Tucked away from the shop a little bit. Although I suppose we'll be tucked away in here too if we're to be working on books for the next few days."

Kate looked around her at the bare room. Before now, she hadn't paid particular attention to this little side room since she usually worked upstairs. It was small and rectangular, with waist-high cupboards lining the walls and several levels of shelves hung from shoulder height to the ceiling (although they were chest-high on Sam). An enclosed bulb on the ceiling lit the room with a yellow glow, apart from the far wall where a small window let in a patch of natural light from the alleyway outside. She tried to imagine what it would look like filled to the brim with books and smiled; this would be a nice little space to work with in no time.

"It's cosy. I like it."

"Me too." Sam agreed, dumping an armful of books on the countertop next to him.

They shared a smile as they left the room to start moving the books off the old shelves outside. After a moment's contemplation, Kate suggested they bring all the books in at once and then alphabetise them. As they began to move the books their chatter continued, and Maria subtly watched them over the box she was going through in the main room. Despite Sam's expert dodging of her question about his and Kate's preexisting connection, Maria had indeed noticed that it was a somewhat sensitive topic, at least for Kate. Her curiosity had been piqued but she'd bitten her tongue and decided to wait it out and see how they worked together the next day; that would give her enough of an indication as to whether she needed to do a little digging. The interaction she was now witnessing gave her enough information for her to quit worrying about Kate and Sam's relationship. Whatever their prior connection was, it wasn't enough to stop them from working together and (dare she say) enjoying it.

Oblivious to Maria's observations, Sam and Kate finally finished moving the books into the new room and began working in companionable silence to alphabetise them. Kate was a little surprised to find that the silence wasn't at all uncomfortable. Apparently Sam was just one of those people you could just be with, which she really appreciated since she wasn't the type to fill every silence with chatter if it wasn't needed.

She didn't know exactly how much time had passed when Sam cleared his throat and hesitantly spoke, "So, would it be awkward for me to ask how Max is, or...?"

Kate let out a gentle laugh. She'd known it would only be a matter of time before he asked about Max. "Why would it be awkward?" she asked, half intrigued and half nervous to hear his answer.

"Well, it's not like he and I were really close or anything, but I haven't talked to him in a while because of everything that happened so I'm curious how he's doing. But my memories from our first meeting involve some level of Max-related tension on your part, or at least that's how I remember it, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Kate felt her heart pounding as she blushed at the implications of Sam's statement. She now knew for certain that on that night as he'd driven her home, Sam had guessed her feelings for Max. And she hadn't thought she'd ever see this new friend of Max's again, so why would she have needed to hide her feelings? Embarrassment threatened to overwhelm her, but she pushed it back, thinking, Don't wallow in it. Make a clean slate.

"That party... well, it was a weird night. It's complicated, but Max and I are good. We're just friends." She paused for a moment to see if Sam would comment, but when he didn't she continued, "So I guess by way of update, he had pretty much the same experience as you after everything that happened. Didn't talk to everyone for a while, was obviously very upset about it. I think he sort of blames himself for it, since his split with Poppy kind of set everything going. Anyway, he got in touch with a few people a few weeks later I think, and now they're all going hiking soon."

"Hiking?" Sam raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, he said its not really his 'thing' but one of the other guys has apparently been bugging you all to go climb a mountain for ages and he and the others figured they'd indulge him, finally."

"That's probably Jack, I think you met him at the party." He paused to grab more books from the box at his feet, "Max really did tell you everything that happened, huh?"

"I just think it was a relief for him to have someone to talk to about it, to get it off his chest. From what he said, it sounded like the group meant a lot to him so of course it was hard when everything broke down."

"Hmm," Sam replied. He put a couple more books in their places, and just when Kate thought they were back to working in silence he commented, "I think Max was lucky to have you there to talk to when he needed you. You're a good friend."

"Oh," she looked up at Sam, and then quickly away in shyness, "Thank you. I try."