Jas is already in the staffroom when I get there at the end of my shift. Sweeping her long curtain of hair out of the way she shrugs herself into her coat and turns, hearing me enter the room.
“You ready to go ho…?” Her question tails off as she sees what I’m sure is the somewhat dazed look I’ve been wearing all afternoon.
“Meg? What is it?” She asks, “did something happen with a customer?”
As well as being work colleagues, we’re also housemates, and I’m grateful for the friendship that has sustained us both through all the ups and downs of working and living in London in your twenties and thirties. Jas is definitely the mama bear of the two of us.
“Uh…well…sort of…nothing bad…” It’s a truth universally acknowledged that working in retail will bring you up against some of the worst kinds of human behaviour on a pretty regular basis and Jas and I were used to debriefing all our anecdotes.
“I…uh…a guy asked me out for coffee…I’m supposed to meet him in a few minutes…”
“WHAT?!” Jas explodes in shock. Personally, I’m still in the dumbstruck phase.
“Who is he? When did you meet him? Why am I only just finding out about this?!”
Her questions come thick and fast as she tugs me down onto the decidedly sunken sofa where it wasn’t unknown for any number of the team to take a quick power nap on their lunch breaks.
Her grip is firm on...