'Finally,' Katherine exclaimed opening the door to Joe and standing aside, while her heart pounded in her chest. 'What took you so long?'

'I had an errand to run,' Joe said brushing his hair out of his eyes, looking more dishevelled than usual.

'Come in,' she said, relieved that her voice was steady despite her stomach performing summersaults. Joe followed her through to the living room and briefly greeted Donnie while studiously ignoring Danielle who shot daggers at him.

'So how come you're over an hour late?' Danielle asked, forcing Joe to acknowledge her presence. 'We're helping you out here.'

He slowly turned towards Danielle. 'Shannon dropped her phone. I took it to get repaired, that's all.' For all his voice was quiet, Katherine could tell he was annoyed.

'So your girlfriend smashed her phone cos you were doing something for Kat?' Danielle said smirking. 'That sounds about right, anything for a bit of attention.'

'That sounds more like something you'd do,' Joe fired back startling Katherine.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Slating Kelly's business. She's worked her ass off to get where she is and you've badmouthed her to anyone who'd listen out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Kat.'

Danielle's face turned scarlet and Katherine cringed. Danielle's support had been amazing in the early days of the breakup but now it was bordering on humiliating. She wouldn't want Joe thinking she'd put her up to it.

'All I did was leave some legitimate feedback on public forums,' Danielle said testily. 'I was deeply unimpressed with her services.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, really.'

Joe scoffed. 'So the fact that she's a friend of Shannon's has nothing to do with it?'

Danielle tossed her hair over her shoulder. 'None whatsoever!'

Katherine looked from Danielle to Joe and struggled to stop herself from laughing. The pair of them were squabbling like a pair of first graders. She caught Donnie's eye and he raised his eyebrows, clearly thinking along the same lines she was.

'Okay guys, how about we make a start?' Katherine said raising her voice. 'I'm sure Donnie doesn't want to waste more of his day off work than he has to. Joe, why don't you get all the small stuff out of the study, and then we can move the bulkier items.'

Joe turned to her, frowning slightly. 'Wouldn't it be quicker if you did that, and Donnie and I can move the heavier stuff from the other rooms while you get started?'

Donnie nodded, and Katherine felt unreasonably annoyed. Joe's suggestion made sense, and yet it irked her that they'd disagreed with her. 'Fine,' she said trying to hide her irritation. 'I just didn't think you'd want me going through your things.' From the way they all looked at her, she knew her explanation was silly. She'd had weeks to go through Joe's stuff, presumedly he'd already taken anything of importance. She gave them a tight smile and left the room before she said something even sillier.

Entering the study she allowed a small wave of misery wash over her. This was it, the end. There would be no reason for them to maintain contact, and she suspected Joe would gently rebuff her if she tried to. Looking around the room she realised there wasn't much of anything to empty out. The paperwork in the filing cabinet could stay there, the PlayStation and printer she could carry to Joe's car. She threw some computer games into a box along with some stationary as she contemplated her next move.

'Are you done in here?' Joe asked popping his head through the door. 'I didn't think I'd left much.'

Her heart leapt and then sank. 'You didn't, you did a pretty efficient job of clearing out already.' She didn't attempt to hide the accusation in her voice.

Joe stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. 'It's a study Kat, there isn't much to take. If you want to keep anything-'

'No, no I don't. I rarely brought my laptop in here,' she said quickly. 'I don't want a computer desk and chair cluttering the place up.'

He raised his hands up in front of him. 'Relax, I was just saying. I'm putting everything into storage so if there's anything you can use you should keep it.'

Katherine let out a slow breath, trying to still her racing heart. 'No, there's nothing I need, and it wouldn't be fair on Danielle for me to monopolise the whole house.' She was finding it quite an adjustment to think of it as Danielle's home as well.

Joe cleared his throat. 'About Danielle.'

'Yeah, sorry about that. I guess she thinks she has my back.'

Joe looked at a point past her head. 'That's not necessarily a bad thing. But be careful, living together and being friends could get complicated.'

Katherine rolled her eyes. 'Careful Joe, you're beginning to sound like you care.'

'Of course, I care,' he snapped before bringing himself back under control. 'Just watch her, you know more than anyone, she's out for herself.'

Katherine frowned. 'Anything I told you about Dani, I told you in confidence.' She made a mental note to never confide a friend's secrets in a boyfriend again.

'I know you did,' Joe said quietly. 'Which is why I kept my mouth shut back there. I wasn't going to drop you in it.'

Katherine nodded holding her hands to her face. She didn't want to feel grateful to Joe, and yet she did. A few indiscreet words and her friendship with Danielle would have been over.

'Thank you,' she murmured not looking at him. 'I don't want any more fallouts.' Joe nodded and turned to go. 'Wait. What is the story with Shannon's phone?' He turned to her with a small frown, and she wondered why she was even asking.

'She dropped it, that's all,' Joe finally said sounding distinctly uncomfortable. 'I guess it was my fault cos I was trying to take it off her.'

'And why would you do that?' Katherine asked her curiosity piqued.

Joe let out a sigh. 'Kat we can't really talk like this anymore.'

'Jeez, I was just making polite conversation!'

His shoulders sagged. 'Sorry, sorry, I'm upsetting everyone today.' He paused and she remained silent, forcing him to go on. 'Shannon found out her ex-boyfriend is having a baby, or rather his girlfriend is having a baby.'

'I see.' She closed her eyes remembering the time she'd called Shannon, supposedly to clear the air but more to warn her off. She felt her cheeks heat up. What had she been thinking of embarrassing herself like that? She couldn't even recall if she'd told Joe they had spoken. Some of their conversations she could recite word for word, others she struggled to remember.

'Is she upset?' she asked, hating that she now felt a pang of sympathy for Shannon.

Joe's head shot up. 'Of course, she's upset.' He knelt down beside the filing cabinet and began to empty it.

'So why are you here then? You should have stayed with her.'

'And had you on my back all day?' Joe said scowling, and Katherine could hear the resentment in his voice. 'I can't do right for doing wrong.'

'Stop talking like a petulant child,' she snapped. 'If you'd explained, I would have understood.'

Joe raised his eyebrows. 'Sure you would.'

'I am trying very hard to be considerate to the woman who took my life,' Katherine hissed. 'You could at least acknowledge that instead of giving me attitude.'

Joe scoffed. 'The woman who took your life? That's absurd, but if you want to look at it like that, I was with Shannon first.'

Katherine inhaled sharply, was that actually how he saw it? 'So you're saying I was just a blip in your relationship with Shannon?'

Joe shrugged, his face impassive. 'It's just another perspective, I'm not saying anything.'

She clenched her jaw as she tried to hold her temper, but that was pretty much why she'd been uneasy about Shannon's reappearance in the first place. More so when it became clear she'd been more than his first significant girlfriend, they'd virtually grown up together.

'I can't help thinking you're trying to justify your actions,' she said slowly. 'It's like you think I was the other woman who should have known her place and faded from the scene when Shannon came back into your life.'

Joe turned away, putting the files into a neat pile. 'No, I'm not trying to justify anything. You were completely blameless. It was all down to me.'

Her anger ebbed somewhat although she wasn't entirely convinced by his words. 'But you do think I should have realised you wanted to end our relationship?'

'It doesn't matter, I wasn't direct enough,' Joe said, still with his back to her.

She swallowed, her mouth feeling suddenly dry. She'd wanted full disclosure but now she wasn't so sure. 'Those files,' she said watching as he put them in the box along with the games. 'Wouldn't it be easier to leave them in the filing cabinet?'

'No, I'm putting everything into storage. I want to keep the paperwork to hand though.'

'The cabinet's only small, why don't you leave it at your mom's house until you've got your own place?' She was surprised Joe was putting anything into storage, his parents had plenty of space.

'I don't want to dump all my stuff on my mom indefinitely,' Joe said picking up the box. He turned towards the door, and then stopped, hesitating. 'I might be working in England for a while, it's easier to put it all into storage.'

Her eyes widened as she stared at Joe. 'England? You hate me that much you want to put an ocean between us.' She tried to laugh but her voice sounded strangulated. Would he actually move to England when he'd never stepped out of his comfort zone in his life? He'd gone to college in Boston, then into the family business despite his testy relationship with his dad. She knew he'd had plenty of foreign holidays as a child but he'd barely been abroad since; it seemed incredible that he'd willingly uproot himself in this way.

'Kat?'

'Sorry, what?' she said when she realised Joe was talking to her.

'I was saying this move has nothing to do with you.' He grimaced. 'It's down to Adam's machinations, I might not even go.'

'And if you do, will you let me know?'

Joe looked at her, his eyebrows furrowing. 'Yeah, if you want me to.'

She nodded as he retreated from the room and she tried to collect her thoughts. If he went to England then she could hand on heart say they were completely over, she couldn't kid herself during low moments that they might somehow reconcile. She waited for the tears to come but thankfully there were none. Joe leaving could be a blessed relief.

                                                                                      ~~~

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