Unfinished

"You've been working here for three days, and I've never seen the shop so organised," Finn sighed as the door shut behind the customer he'd spent the last ten minutes serving.

The man had wanted a very particular type of fish hook, but had been unable to formulate an accurate description. Hence, Finn had multiple hooks and attractor beads strewn across the dark polished counter.

"Is that a bad thing?" Piper gathered the colourful plastics into her cupped palm as he collected the hooks.

"No, it's a brilliant thing. I normally spend about forty-five minutes with that guy," He shrugged and deposited the hooks into the right boxes underneath the counter.

The organisers had been her suggestion, after taking one look at how unruly behind the counter had looked. Supposedly, it was Finn's responsibility, but he denied ever being told to deal with the mess. 

"Really?"

Finn straightened up, a solemn look on his face, and two hooks dangling from the tops of his ears.

"We sell almost every kind of hook under the sun, and fifty different colours of beads. Do you understand – stop laughing, I'm serious – how hard it was to find the exact shade of 'the water in the Mediterranean at sunset'?" He grinned at her as she howled with laughter.

She'd never laughed as much as she did with him; except maybe with James. The trouble was, between her studies and his newfound success with the band, they hardly had a lot of time to catch up. Despite her hatred for how it sounded, it felt nice to hear her laugh again.

Elodie appeared from the backroom, holding a box filled with fish tank decorations. An Easter Island head poked out the top and frowned at them both.

"Claire's just left the cafe and she's headed this way. Looks murderous," Elodie announced, heading to the back of the shop. 

Piper tried to calm herself down, barely having the time to exhale before Claire burst through the door.

"Hey babe!" Finn waved at her.

"Don't you 'Hey Babe' me!" She hissed, throwing down a plastic tub.

Finn took one look at the container and laughed nervously. 

"I did mean to tell you about—"

"You gave Oscar worms!" Claire shrieked, flapping her arms in the air.

At the other end of the shop, Elodie ducked down, hand covering her mouth as she tried to stifle a laugh. Unfortunately, she was directly in Piper's eyeline, and seeing other people laugh had always set her off.

She snorted and clapped a hand over her mouth, quickly pretending to busy herself by rearranging the lollipop stand.

"When you say it like that, it sounds like I infect—"

"I just got a call from his teacher, and he put them in her desk! Why on earth would you give a ten year old worms of all things!"

Piper once again made the mistake of looking up at a soft thump from where Elodie was. She was on the floor, tears streaming down her face with the effort of supressing her laugh. It was difficult to keep a straight face after that. Thinking quickly, Piper sent the stand crashing to the floor and dropped to collect the lollipops. The happy couple didn't seem to notice her departure.

"I thought he wanted to go fishing with Steve!" Finn protested, holding his hands up.

"As if Steve would have the time to go fishing— And why are there fish hooks on your ears?" Claire's hysteria reached a crescendo, and Piper made a sound like a dying parrot.