The Saturday following her first shift with Sam, Kate was alone in the flat kneading bread dough. Eve was at work, and Kate had decided to bake some bread before heading to Greenfields that afternoon. Later, it would be toasted and slathered with garlic butter to go alongside a Bolognese. No music played as she worked. Usually she would listen to some album or a podcast, but she felt more comfortable with silence; she would have enough noise to listen to during her shift later on.

There was a strange comfort to be found in the steady rocking motions of kneading dough. Fold, push, turn. Fold, push, turn. Sprinkle more flour on the counter. Fold, push, turn. Kate didn't make bread all that often, but when she did she always managed to get flour everywhere. With the amount of it on her she'd need another shower before leaving at lunchtime. Kate smiled to herself as she thought about how working at Greenfields had had such a distinct impact on her life. If not for Greenfields, she wouldn't have met Eve, wouldn't have moved out of her uni house, and she might not have even got over Max. She made a mental note to thank her mum again for suggesting volunteering in the first place.

Kate rolled the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl with a tea towel over the top to let it prove. She checked her phone. She had the perfect amount of time left before she needed to leave to have a shower and get that bread baked, but she'd have to go as soon as it was done. As she scrubbed her hands, trying to get all the dough off them, she hoped that today's shift would be uneventful. Her day with Sam on Thursday had been pleasant enough, he really was just a genuinely nice person, but it had been emotionally taxing seeing him again after all these months. At least she'd been able to clear up the ambiguity of her relationship to Max. It felt good to truly wipe the slate clean.

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

Maria always seemed to ambush Kate the moment she stepped through the door to Greenfields, and today was no different. Kate had barely hung up her coat and poked her head into the book room to say hi to Sam when Maria trotted down the stairs and made a beeline for her.

"Kate! I have a proposition for you. How would you like to learn how to work the till? You'll probably still end up working back here most of the time but it'd be handy to have you trained in case I need someone to cover the shop floor."

"Don't do it Kate!" Sam whisper-shouted from the book room, "That till's possessed!"

"Ha! You only say that because you broke it the first day I put you on there!" Maria retorted.

Sam pretended to look offended, "I did literally nothing wrong and it just died!"

"Well, luckily I was able to bring it back to life. I'm still not entirely sure what you did to it." Maria turned back to Kate and shook her head with a smile, "Ignore him, its easy-peasy. Come on, I'll show you."

As it happened, there was someone heading for the till at the same time as them. Maria greeted the man warmly before explaining that Kate was being trained, and that she would just take a little extra time to explain what she was doing as she rung up his items. He smiled and told them to do whatever they needed to do. Kate tried to pay close attention to what codes Maria entered for the man's purchases and what order to press the buttons in, but openly admitted she'd probably need to watch a few more times before she would be comfortable trying it herself. After the man left, Maria showed Kate the other little jobs that could be done at the till, like taking size markers off the coat hangers and sorting them in a divided basket on the shelf next to her.

She continued to watch Maria put more purchases through, and by the end of the hour Kate was punching the buttons herself with Maria giving careful instructions. In a weird way Kate was glad that today was busy, as it gave her plenty of practice in a short space of time. A little while later, Kate had put through several purchases herself and felt confident enough to work on her own for a bit while Maria tended to some things in the back.

"Just yell if you need anything! I'll be upstairs in the office, but I'll tell the others to listen out for you and they can come help." She said, before leaving Kate to the now-empty shop.

It was oddly quiet now that Maria had left. Noises from the high street could be heard through the main door, the radio played overhead, and Kate could just make out the conversations coming from the volunteers in the back room but everything had a strange, muffled quality to it, as if she were underwater. She took a minute to just sit there and enjoy the quiet before sighing and picking a clothes hanger up from the pile next to her, popping the sizing cube off it and sorting it in the basket next to her. It was a tedious job but Kate didn't mind; it allowed her to zone out somewhat and think of nothing complicated, something she'd been struggling to do recently.

For the next half hour, several people came into the shop to browse but no one bought anything. Kate wished they would. She'd finished sorting the hangers and tending to the couple of other little jobs Maria had given her and was left to twiddle her thumbs and greet new customers. The bell on the main door chimed, indicating that someone else had entered the shop, but Kate was distracted and didn't turn to greet them right away. By the time the bell's chime registered in her mind and she turned to look the blonde woman was turned away from her, already browsing the clothes. An elderly man left the shop with a nod and a smile to Kate, leaving the blonde woman the only customer present.

The woman moved carefully along the racks of clothes, occasionally pulling an item out to study it. Kate watched her move through every section, only keeping a couple of pieces, before realising that she'd unintentionally been watching her for the past few minutes. Thank goodness the women's clothes were on the opposite wall and she was turned away the whole time. With a final glance over her shoulder the woman started to turn towards the till and Kate shifted in her seat, accidentally knocking her phone to the floor.

Dropping to the ground, Kate hurriedly tried to find her phone as she listened to the woman's footsteps approach her and stop as she reached the till, saying, "Sorry, I just knocked my phone off the table. One sec..."

"Don't worry, you're good!" the woman replied pleasantly.

Grabbing her phone and stuffing it on the shelf under the till, Kate finally stood back up and sat on her stool. Looking at the woman, her friendly greeting died on her lips, replaced by a surprised "Oh!" that escaped before she could stop it.

"Is everything ok? Do I have something on my face?" the woman asked with a nervous laugh as her free hand fluttered across her cheek.

"No no, you're fine..." Kate took a shirt from the pile of clothes in front of her and began to press the appropriate buttons to ring it up. She reached for the next shirt and met the woman's confused gaze. Kate braced herself before awkwardly saying, "Sorry, just... it's Poppy, right?"

"Yeah, do we know each other? I'm so sorry if we do, I'm awful with faces."

Poppy's innocent, apologetic smile almost made Kate forget her conflicting feelings about her. This was the woman who'd unknowingly ruined her chances with Max and then had the audacity to cheat on him. First Sam, now Poppy. Who else am I going to meet? Kate thought mockingly to herself. She couldn't exactly lie to Poppy's face about their connection, so she'd just have to be tactfully honest and get the conversation out the way as soon as possible.

Kate began ringing up the rest of Poppy's clothes and, looking away, said, "Kind of. I'm a friend of Max's, I was at that party of his last October. We work together."

"Oh." Poppy's smile disintegrated as all the implications behind Kate's words sank in. Kate was about to tell Poppy her total and send her on her way when she sighed and continued, "I didn't cheat on him you know."

Kate could only stare. That was definitely not what she'd expected Poppy to say. Poppy glanced at the total on the digital display of the till and held out a £10 note as Kate stammered out an apology.

Poppy shrugged, "It's ok. It's not like I expect you to believe some random girl's word over your close friend's."

Kate handed over her change and the bag of clothes as she said, "So what's your side of the story?"

Poppy tilted her head to one side, "Why do you want to know? I don't ask that in a hostile way or anything. I genuinely want to know."

"Because Max was really messed up by what happened, but I always had this gut feeling there was more to it. He told me he saw you kissing another guy on New Year's, and that he 'didn't want to listen to your excuses'. But personally I believe you should hear people out, even if you don't always want to hear what they have to say."

"Well, your gut was right." Taking a deep breath, Poppy explained, "I did kiss another guy on New Year's... or rather he kissed me. The countdown started and I was rushing back over to Max when this huge guy just grabbed me out of nowhere. I tried to get him off me but he was too strong. I looked over to Max to yell for him right as this guy stuck his tongue in my mouth." She pulled a disgusted face at the memory. "So there I was, making eye contact with my boyfriend while some gross, drunk guy tried to snog me. Max turned away to leave straight away, but if he hadn't he would've seen me get free and slap the guy so hard I broke one of my fake nails."

Kate listened, awestruck as Poppy continued, "So there you have it. My side of the story that Max won't hear. Some of the others who saw it even tried to tell him, but he just won't listen."

Even though she hardly knew her, something about Poppy's tone told Kate she was telling the truth. Or maybe it was the sad, resigned look in her eyes. The look she'd seen in other women's eyes when they'd been forced to do things they didn't want to do.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"Yeah. Some people just don't know how to act like decent human beings I guess." Suddenly panicked, Poppy blurted out, "I'm talking about the guy in the bar, to clarify. Not Max. I wish he'd listen to my side of things, but I do kind of understand why he doesn't want to talk to me."

Poppy awkwardly played with the bag of clothes she held, "Well, thanks for listening anyway. I bet this wasn't what you expected when you came to work today huh?" She and Kate shared a strange laugh. "I just miss him, you know?"

Kate nodded, "I can tell him I saw you, if you want. Maybe he'd listen to me, I don't know."

"Would you?! I mean, only if it happens to come up naturally. I don't want to force him into talking to me. He'd only shut down more."

Kate nodded, smiling a little at Poppy's accurate assessment of Max's character, "I'll play it casual."

The two of them smiled, jolted back to the present as the door bell dinged and another person entered the shop. With a small wave Poppy said her goodbyes and left the shop, the bell ringing out again as the door opened and shut.

Kate sat back on her stool and took a deep, slow breath. So much for a quiet, uneventful day.