I munched on my crackers noisily and watched Peggy lie to the kid.

        "So what did you do after you heard the footsteps outside your bedroom door?" Timmy, Farmer Greg's ten year old grandson asked, running his tiny fingers through Peggy's hair.

        "Well," Peggy wrapped her arms around him and lowered her voice, "I got down from my bed and tiptoed to the door."

        Timmy gasped. "Weren't you scared?"

        "Scared? Of course not!" Peggy scoffed and I couldn't help but laugh. She was an impeccable liar.

         "Claire." Sam appeared from the kitchen, supporting a small glass bowl with both hands. He set it atop the counter, retrieved a soft pink plastic spoon from the pocket of his apron and handed it to me. "Try out my strawberry bubblegum icecream and rate me out of ten."

        "Mmm." I licked my lips and spooned some of  the appealing pink goodness into my mouth.

        He watched me intently with wide hopeful eyes as I took another spoonful.

        "So? What do you think?"

        I shook my head slowly as I licked the spoon. "This is the worst ice cream I've ever tasted. Two out of ten." Lack of sleep had caused my voice to become impossibly flat.

        His eyebrows shot up as his smile stiffened.

        "Just kidding." I laughed. "It's good."

        As he blew air out of his cheeks, I noticed his muscles visibly relax. "Not funny Claire, you nearly ruined my plans." He pulled a stool and sat behind the counter, opposite me.

        "Plans eh? What plans?"

        "You can't tell Peggy alright?" He leaned in and traced his hand along his razor-sharp jawline.

        I zipped my mouth and flung the invisible key over my shoulder.

        He hesitated before saying, "I'm planning on asking Rosaria out tonight."

        My palms flew to my mouth as my eyes popped. "Really?" I asked in a whisper.

        He nodded, a small smile playing around his lips.

        "Oh my God I am so proud of you!" I rose from my stool and threw my hands around his neck.

        Sam was Farmer Greg's last child and the hottest and coolest guy that all my life, I'd ever been so physically to.

        He was twenty-seven, tall, handsome and had the most amazing dimples when he smiled. He'd graduated from Yale two years ago and was an editor in some newspaper company in Boston. Whenever he was on leave, he spent his time helping out in Farmer Greg's diner and teaching at the local primary school.

        Rosaria was Matron's neice who owned one of the best drugstores in Crowley Heights. From what I'd heard, she'd graduated from a medical school in Spain and after her housemanship, had decided to come back home to settle.

        "So, are you going to make her icecream or something?"

        "Yeah." He toyed with a napkin in his hand. "I took her to Miss Sunday's ice cream shop last week and she was totally obsessed with the bubblegum flavor."

        "So you decided to make her one? Tonight?"

        He nodded. "Over at my house. Hopefully, she's gonna like it and say yes to my proposal."

        "Aw Sam! You romantic romantic boy." I tickled his neck.

        He tickled my neck back and I giggled.

        "But you can't tell Peggy okay? We both know how she can be."

         Of course I wasn't going to breathe a word to Peggy. Peggy used to work in Rosaria's drugstore and so was pretty close to her.

        "Okay. But can I have the rest of the ice cream?"

        "Yeah." He ruffled my hair and stood up. "But you need to attend to our customers first."

        I turned my head to the direction of his gaze and nearly fell off my chair when I saw them.

        "Oh my God this isn't happening," I wailed as I watched Roman and two other male friends of his take over the booth closest to the door. They were talking and laughing and that caused my tummy to suddenly start aching.

        I got down from the stool and rushed to the Peggy.

        "Claire!" Shrieked Timmy.

        "Hey Timmy my hubby, what's up?" I patted his head and squatted beside Peggy, my heart fluttering wildly in my chest.

        "Hey. You look like you need to have a serious pee," Peggy said, grinning from ear to ear.

        "Look over there." I motioned with my eyes to Roman's booth.

        "Shit!" She exclaimed and turned back to me. "This, Claire, is what I call fate. Destiny."

        "What?!"

        "Fate Claire, Fate. Now's your opportunity to--"

        I shook my head to get that preposterous suggestion out of my head. "You need to attend to them."

        She closed her eyes piously as if lost in prayer. "I'm so sorry love, but I can't interfere with the miracle God's trynna work in your life," she cooed and pressed my cheek.

        "Hello?" Roman raised his hand and waved at the empty counter.

        "Go on Claire, unless of course you want me to shout your full name on top of my-" Her voice rose.

        "Okay," I clenched my jaw and held out my palms to her face, resisting the urge to smack her mouth. "Just shut up."

        "Why do you look so scared Claire?" Timmy asked.

        "Nothing Timmy." I pecked him on the cheek, took off my name tag, stood up and straightened my apron.

        "Hey." Roman waved at me. "Can you come over for a sec?"

        I could have passed out instantly from the cocktail of feelings I started experiencing all at once. Joy, shock, fear, anxiety.

        Taking out my small blue ordering pad and pencil, I said a mental prayer and skated over to their booth with determination.

        "Hey guys," I greeted, making a strong effort to steady my voice and to keep up a warm smile.

       "What kept you so long? We were about leaving." Roman said, his tone friendly and pleasant. I felt every single muscle under my glittering ash dress tense up.

        "Sorry," I apologised, my face prickling with heat.

          "You look kind of familiar," one of his friends said in a thick accent I couldn't place. German? "Do you attend Saint Margaret?" He asked with an aloof look, sounding as if he didn't really care about knowing whether I was a student at Saint Margaret or not.

         "Um, yeah...yeah." I actively avoided Roman's  gaze.

        "Really?" The second friend piped in. His voice was deep and husky.

        I nodded.

        "What's your name?" Roman asked. I looked into his eyes, seeing a mixture of cool self-confidence and enviable peace.

        "Huh?" Confused, I nearly shouted.

       "Yeah, your name. What's your name?"

        I slipped the bottom of the pencil into my mouth and started chewing on it. "Um, um..." I gulped.
        "You don't know your name?" The one who had asked whether I attended Saint Margaret asked in a taunting teasing voice.

        "My name..my name is Gregario." I managed and instantly saw my jaw drop to the floor in the invisible world.

        "Gregaria? What name is that?" Roman asked. I myself had no idea. Farmer Greg plus Rosaria maybe?

        "Um, I.."

        "Are you nervous?" He cocked his head and chuckled.

        I thought I was going to die from embarrassment.

        "Hey look, are you guys going to order something or nah?" I heard Peggy ask with the vigor of a club bouncer from beside me. Never had I ever felt so relieved to hear her voice my God!  Immediately, I melted away from the scene and skated off  into the staffroom without looking back.

***

        When I switched on the lights, they came on, one started flickering and eventually went out.

        I took in a deep breath and and pinched my nose in an attempt to calm the burning shame I was feeling.

        Everything had happened so fast that standing in the small dimly lit staffroom, I began to wonder if all that had actually happened or it had all been my imagination.

         I went to sit behind the old computer and was about switching it on when I saw Sam's purple I pod and earphones beside it. Music at that very moment seemed like just what I needed and so I picked it up, went through his lengthy playlist and finally settled on Adele's 'Set Fire To The Rain'.

        Reclining in the swivel chair, I rested my legs on the table, set the headphones over my ears and sealed my eyes shut.

***

        The door clicked open and after a few minutes, I felt someone breathing on my face.

        The breathing was hot and fast and urgent, like that of someone who had just ran a hundred metre race.

        "Whatever speech you have ready to spew out Peggy, I'm not interested." I held out my palm in her face and pushed her backward.

        She didn't say anything.

        "Okay so I freaked out in front of Roman and so what?"

        I felt her breath on my face again.

        "Seriously Peggy? What's up with this whole breathing thing?" I pushed her back again.

        The door clicked open and then I opened my eyes. But there was no Peggy, only Sam.

        "Where's Peggy?" I slowly spun around in the chair and took off the headphones.

        He stepped in fully and closed the door behind him. "She stepped out thirty minutes ago. Said something about getting some lipstick at Mrs Darcey's."

        I frowned. "So you were the one breathing on my face?"

        He laughed, a solid grown-up laugh, and walked over to the coat stand. "Breathing on your face? No?"

        "Wow." I froze in confusion. "Did you meet someone stepping out of here when you were coming in?"

        "No." He took off his apron, hang it on the rack and slipped on his ash fur coat. "I've been in the kitchen for the past hour and you've been the only one in here. Are you alright?" He eyed me with a look of concern.

        "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't really sleep well last night--"

        Sleeping with Aspeth last night had been five hours of nothing but hell. She'd kicked me the entire night and woken me up four good times to escort her to the bathroom.

        "--probably what's messing with my head," I added.

        He nodded. "I'm going out to get some foodstuff for the kitchen."

        "Okay, take care."

        "You should try to catch some sleep once Peggy returns okay?"

        "Yes Sensei." I clasped my palms together and bowed in a prayer-like fashion.

        He chuckled and stepped out.

        I gripped the sides of my head, trailed my eyes around the staffroom and returned the earphones over my ears.