She caught her breath a little but the tears kept falling, splashing on her
hands and the plate. She held onto the edge of the bar and rocked a little.

"It's so stupid. I shouldn't cry. This is the best morning I've had since I
moved here, and I'm crying!" Will pressed his hand on her back a bit more
firmly, and she pulled her feet up onto the bar stool and wrapped her arms
around her legs.

"I don't really even know you two, and you've been nicer to me than anyone
in this entire city." 

She took a deep breath and the tears started to slow. She took a bite of the
food and visibly relaxed. 

"This is so good!"

"Asparagus this time of year's a bit out of season, but the I found a decent
price on it." Bill smiled. Alyson thought he might be puffing out his chest
a little. 

She picked at her plate and after a couple moments, she started eating in
earnest, still crying and smiling.

Her watch chimed softly.

"Time for work. I'm opening today." 

She pulled on her jacket

"Thank you so much!"

She stepped out the front door. Bill locked it behind her, and she sauntered
to work. She almost felt like skipping. She arrived at the back door of the
market just as the manager was opening the door. He looked her up and down
and shrugged. 

She put her backpack into the locker with her coat, donned her apron and
headed out to the cash register.

* * *

Her lunch break came and she bought an apple and a block of cheese and
stepped out of the store into the sunlight. She leaned against the warm
brick wall of the front of the store and devoured her food. The warm rich
taste of the cheese melded with the apple. She thought about the night
before, about the lonely walk and the busses and the homeless man. She
wondered if he'd been treated or just cast out of the hospital when and if
he woke. She hoped he did.

Her manager was glaring at her as she stepped in.  "Two minutes late."
She sighed and stepped back in front of the register and started ringing.

A few minutes later, she thought she saw Bill among the throng of customers
in the store. She tried to watch for him, but if she paused for more than a
moment, she found her manager glaring at her again. She sighed. She wasn't
sure to keep her hopes up, that she'd see him appear and make the day better
like he had the night before. She kept up the frenzied pace, ringing up box
after box of pasta, pound after pound of peppers and tomatos and eggplants.

She was halfway though Bill's cart when she looked up to see whose groceries
she as actually working on and saw his face. He grinned at her broadly and
her face lit up.

"Bill!"

"Hey! I thought I had seen you in here before."

"I've been here most of the last nine months." She felt herself blushing a
little as she tried to keep up the pace while talking. 

"I'd love it if you came over for dinner tonight."

She looked surprised. "Why?" She paid more attention to what was in that
basket. A few cheeses she'd never tried. Fresh tomatoes, basil, onions,
garlic. 

"You still look like you could use a friend. I have an employee working the
evening. I'd love to have you. You're intriguing."

She smiled. "I'd love to. I get off at eight. Is that too late?" 

"That's perfect."

She had never felt a day go by so slowly. Her single break for the shift
came and went, and for the first time, dragged. She fidgeted when there was
a break in the crowd.

She felt relieved when at five to eight, her manager tapped her on the
shoulder. "Go home."

She grabbed her backpack from the locker and practically ran from the store.
She got to the bar fast enough that she was barely damp. The NO MINORS sign
was still forboding, but she reached for the door handle anyway. She paused,
and then realized she could get to the apartment from the back. She dashed
around the building and up the metal stairs.

She knocked on the door, and thought that the noise was too loud in her
excitement. Will opened the door, and behind him, she could see Bill bent
over the counter, covered in flour. She grinned and stepped inside. Will's
infectious smile was aimed right at her, and she felt like laughing.

"It smells so good in here!" Her senses were assaulted with the smells of
basil and garlic and tomato cooking. Something smelled indescribably
different about this apartment than her own cooking smells. She wondered
what the difference was. 

The apartment was warm, and she shed her jacket quickly. Will put on some
gentle guitar music and she thought she saw him swaying to the music.  She
grinned at him while his back was turned. Something about the way Bill and
Will acted made her smile. She thought to herself that if she ever had
roommates, she wanted one like Will or Bill.