"...and then right at the end I asked them when I'd be likely to hear back about the position, and Jo said that she and her husband would decide in the next 24 hours and would send out an email by tomorrow afternoon. Or today. This afternoon, I mean."

Kate was telling Sam (who was supposed to be making a round of drinks for everyone) about how her interview had gone as she and Eve worked through their usual mountain of clothes at Greenfields. Eve was silent, having heard all the details the night before, but Kate could tell she was still listening.

"Sounds like it went really well!" Sam said, finally jumping off the stool he was sitting on to put the kettle on in the kitchen that neighboured the work space.

Raising her voice a little to be heard over the sounds of tea and coffee being made, Kate replied, "Yeah. I'm still a bag of nerves though. I won't be able to relax until I get that email. It's the whole thing of not realising how much I wanted to change jobs until that path opened up, you know? I've even got my resignation email for Five Oaks typed up already so I can just send it if I do get this new job."

"Well, let's hope you get it then." Eve said, finally breaking her silence.

The rest of the day seemed to drag by. Kate and Eve waited and waited for the email to come, tension so thick in the air it could almost be cut with a knife. Mid-afternoon they moved downstairs to do some different work for Maria and Kate brought her phone with her, carefully setting it on the corner of the big table with the ringer on, and had to actively resist the urge to check it every five minutes.

About an hour before closing, Kate's phone dinged. Hers and Eve's heads snapped up, and Sam practically ran out of the book room to join them.

After glancing down at the screen, Kate looked back up at her friends, "Oh my gosh, it's from Jo."

Flapping her hands at Kate, Eve agitatedly said, "Well flipping open it then!"

Kate's hands were almost shaking as she unlocked her phone and opened the email. The room was silent as Eve and Sam waited for a response.

A look of shock crept over her face as Kate locked her phone and set it down on the table, saying, "I got it. I got the job."

The silence was suddenly fractured by Eve squealing in delight and crushing Kate in a hug as Sam punched the air in triumph. The three of them grinned, the reality of Kate's success sinking in, as she repeated, "I got it! I got it!".

When Eve finally let go of her, Kate instinctually turned to Sam for a hug and he held her so tightly that she could hear his heart pounding where her head rested on his chest. Pulling away slightly so that they still had their arms around each other, Kate looked up at Sam with a giddy grin still plastered on her face. As he smiled back down at her, the feelings of joy and contentment almost seemed to overflow. It felt so right, so good, that Kate wished she could live in this moment forever.

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

The next night, Kate and Eve were curled up on the sofa with a Chinese takeaway watching trash TV. It was some random dating series that Eve had roped Kate into watching a while ago, but now Kate found herself enjoying it in a strange way. As the two of them alternated between horror and amusement at the cast's antics, Kate spotted her phone light up out of the corner of her eye and absentmindedly picked it up. When she read the message displayed, she almost spat out her mouthful of noodles.

"You didn't read another scandalous 'where are they now' article, did you?" Eve asked, glancing over at her, "You know that always ruins the ending of the show."

"Uh no, it's not the show." Kate skimmed the message displayed again and raised her eyebrows in disbelief, "It's Max."

"Yeah, what about him? Did you tell him you're leaving Five Oaks yet?"

"No, not yet. He just..." Kate paused, still confused, then said, "Max just asked me out."

"He did what now?!" Eve fumbled for the remote and muted the TV, just as shocked as Kate was.

"I'll just read you the message." Clearing her throat, Kate read, "Hey Kate. I was wondering if you would want to meet up tomorrow? There's a big park outside of the city and it's supposed to be good weather so I thought we could have a picnic. I'll get all the food. I've just been thinking about how much our friendship has grown over the year we've known each other and that I'd like to take you on a date. Let me know!"

"Well that's a development we didn't see coming." Eve weakly commented.

Neither of them spoke for a minute after that. Finally, Kate said, "I feel so torn. I worked so hard to put all of that behind me and move on, and I feel like it'd be stupid to go back to him after all this time. But there's still a massive part of me that wants to say yes. I can't help but feel like I'll always wonder 'what if?' if I don't say yes." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration, "Of course, before now I wasn't thinking 'what if?' because it wasn't even a possibility."

"I really don't know what advice to give you here. I'm not even sure what I'd do in this situation." Eve said, absentmindedly stirring her rice box, "And I don't mean to sound... well I don't know what word I'm looking for here, but what about Sam?"

"Believe me, that's the first thing that came to mind. I really don't know. It's not like we're a couple or anything, but I get the feeling we could be, you know?"

"I get that." Eve nodded, "At the end of the day, this is your choice. You and Sam have got chemistry for sure but, like you said, you're not actually dating right now, so it's not like you'd be cheating on him or anything by going out with Max. And if you feel like that little 'what if?' is going to bug you if you don't go... then maybe you should go."

Kate raised an eyebrow at Eve, "I thought you were solidly anti-Max?"

"I was never anti-Max," Eve's lip quirked up in a half-smile, "I was just pro-Kate. And he wasn't making you happy back then. But if he could make you happy now then maybe it was never wrong for you to be with him. Maybe it was just the timing that was off. You never know."

Kate was up for hours that night, trying in vain to fall asleep. The prospect of a long-awaited date with Max had proved too hard for her to resist, despite her growing feelings for Sam, and after a little more discussion with Eve she had texted Max back saying yes to the date the next day. Kate checked the time, her phone blinding her in the darkness. Twelve twenty-four. The date was today. Angrily rolling over in bed, she cursed her busy mind for not shutting up long enough for her to fall asleep.

Eventually sleep claimed her and she slept in late, late enough that she was horrified when she checked the time. The flat was quiet as Kate made herself brunch; Eve had long ago left for work. Max wasn't picking her up until 1, so she had a few hours to kill until she needed to be ready to go. She knew she wouldn't be able to focus on a book. If she went for a swim, she knew she'd lose track of time and end up rushing. Sighing, she decided to clean the flat once she'd finished eating. At the very least it'd be a nice surprise for Eve when she got home from work.

A couple of hours later, the flat was spotless. Kate was happy to note that the menial work had been successful in emptying her mind and forcing her to focus on the task at hand rather than her upcoming date. She showered and washed her hair, then began to get ready. Standing in front of her wardrobe and chest of drawers she opened them both and stared at the contents, indecisiveness starting to grow within her. Suddenly, Kate remembered what Eve had said so long ago when she was trying to get over Max initially about needing to be loved as you are, no frills. Nodding resolutely to herself, she made a conscious decision to wear something easy, something comfortable. A minute later she looked at herself in the mirror, pleased to see that the simple blue jeans and burgundy polo she wore looked nice aside from their comfort. She brushed her hair through but otherwise left it as it dried; loose with an ever so slight wave to it.

The chime of her phone made her jump a little and it was just what she thought it'd be, a text from Max saying he was downstairs waiting in his car for her. Looking in the mirror one last time, Kate found that the anticipation she felt wasn't born from anxiety, but from excitement. It made her laugh a little to herself. Kate from a year ago wanted this day to arrive so badly, but would've felt so differently about it. A year ago, she would've been a bundle of nerves, would've agonised over what to wear and how to act. She would've analysed every text and tried to find meanings behind them that didn't exist. Now, Kate was confident in her simple messages back to Max. She knew that she needed to put herself first, that she needed to be herself, for anything good to come of this. And that whether that 'good' was a relationship or not, everything would be just fine afterwards.