Alright, how much time’s left? ... Three and a half hours. Sure. Just half an hour passes after five hours of looking away from it. Fan-fucking-tastic. Ok, you know what? Not that bad. That’s 60 minutes three times and then one half. Each of those 60 minutes is just ... uh... 15? Yeah, 15 minutes 4 times. And 15 minutes is just 3 minutes 5 times. So in all actuality, I’m waiting 3 minutes... 70 times and then my shift’s completely over. And I think one of those three minutes passed just thinking about that. So 69 more to go ... heh. Oh, the joys of being bored as all hell. At least one good thing came from school. I can now add a bit of flair to counting down the minutes. Totally worth the 7 hours every day for half my life.

My internal calculations are interrupted by a loud thud on the conveyor belt, shocking me to my core. Once I recover from my jolt, I look in front of me to see the source of the noise. To my dismay, it’s someone I’m quite acquainted with, Mason. Oh, goody. As if my day needed more hell to endure. Whatever. Just need to scan his shit and he’ll leave me alone. As a matter of fact, he might just ignore me completely. He’s looking on his phone.

“Taiga?” he questions in an exaggerated tone, “Little gayby Taiga? Is that actually you?”

Fuck.

“Oh my God, I didn’t notice you here. How are you?”

“Sir, I’d thank you to refrain from calling me that,” I respond, scanning and bagging his things,

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to make you all fussy. You want me to find you a guy to give you your pacifier?”

I ignore his taunting, scanning and bagging faster to get him out of my fucking face.

“What, this is what counts for customer service around here?” he continues, “You’re not gonna ask how my day’s going, if I found everything to my liking, or even ask if there’s anything you can do to better my experience? I thought you would jump at the opportunity to service your customers.”

All I can do is sigh and shake my head at his remarks. I reeeeeally need this job, so I just gotta let this slide. Plus, I’m almost done. Just gotta scan and bag these last five items and I’m home free. He’ll be gone and I won’t have any more threats of being fired.

“Come on, Taiga. Surely, you wanna do everything in your power to brighten my day. What, are you reserving your services for your boss? You saving your special assets for better job opportunities? I bet you are. I bet you like how hard they pull on your little tail while they give you your ‘promotions’. I bet when you heard of the different ‘positions’, you just couldn’t wa-”

“Ok, your total comes out to be $45.65. Will that be cash or card?” I interrupt, internally begging for all of this to be over.

He gives me a smug smirk before reaching into his pocket.

“Still got that temper on ya, huh?” he says, pulling out his wallet, “Honestly, you really need to work on your people skills, Taiga.”

“$45.65. Will that be cash or card?” I repeat, trying to hurry this along,

“Chill out, Taigy. I’m just trying to create conver-”

“Will that be cash or card?”

He snickers at my growing agitation, taking out his card and handing it to me, saying,

“Wow, someone’s extra cranky today, huh? Is that it? Is little gay baby Taigy cranky?”

Don’t get fired. Don’t get fired. Don’t get fired. Don’t get fired. Do not get fired. I take the card out of his hand and scan it. Hm. Declined. Who’da thought?

“I’m sorry, sir,” I say through the most convincing smile I can conjure up right now, “This card declined.”

His smug demeanor takes a noticeable shift. At least I can take solace in his embarrassment. He gives a smug scoff before reaching into his wallet again and pulling out another card. I take it and scan it.

“Declined,” I say, handing him the cards back, “Would you like to pay in cash?”

Admittedly, I’m starting to enjoy myself a bit. At least I don’t have to hear his stupid “jokes” anymore. Plus, the sight of him slightly panicking because he’s a big strong man who’s at risk of looking like a broke boy in front of someone he was just making fun of is just hilarious. It’s always a beautiful thing when the universe comes in clutch.

“No, no,” he says, “Just give me a second.”

He types away at his phone, probably just making it seem he’s settling things with his bank. Now I just wish there was a sea of people behind him just so he can suffer in the anxiety of being rushed. But you can’t have everything, I guess. A guy can dream, though.

“Ok, here,” he says, handing me the initial card.

I scan it and once again, it declines. I give him a smug look, saying in my most patronizing tone,

“I’m sorry, sir. It still declined. Would you like to try cash now?”

He grimaces before returning to his phone, aggressively tapping on it before bringing it to his ear. Uh oh. Someone’s gonna get a piece of his mind. Hopefully, he’ll be generous with himself. He doesn’t have that much to give. He turns away from me, whispering in the phone,

“Hey, I’m gonna need you to send like $50.”

“Just $50?” I hear his dad question through the phone,

“Yeah.”

“Now?”

“No, five years after I starve. Yes now.”

“No need to be aggressive. I’m just making sure. You seemed so sure you had enough. You want me to go in there?”

“No, I just need you to send the money!

“Well, what could you possibly be buying for that much anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter. I just have a bit less than I thought is all.”

“Well, it matters to me. $50 is a lot of money to just be sending out on a whim.”

“Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Just send it.

“Ok, ok. This is just a bit bizarre is all I’m saying ... Aaaand sent. There you go.”

“Thank you. Jeez.”

“Also, side note, a “please” would’ve been much appreciated. Just something to take for the future.”

Ok, bye.”

“Oh, well, bye. I lo-”

He hangs up the phone, composing himself before saying,

“Ok, everything should be in order.”

I roll my eyes before swiping his card again. Sure enough, the payment goes through this time. Thank God. I place the card down on the conveyor belt along with the printed out receipt.

“There you go, have a nice day,” I say, forcing a smile,

“That’s it?” he questions in a sarcastic tone, “Come on, Taigy, where’s your hospitality? Can’t I at least get a ‘Goodbye’?”

“Sir, the transaction is complete. I now ask that you exit the premises unless you would like to make another purchase.”

“You’re so mean. What about a kiss?”

“Sir, I don’t take kindly to being harassed. Now, please leave or I will contact security to escort you out of here. And neither of us wants that.”

“Oh, now, you don’t have to go through such lengths, Taigy. Look, why don’t we just hang out after your shift like we used to? I’ll take you wherever you want, get you whatever you want, maybe we’ll go back to my pla-”

“Macy,” a thunderous voice says in the distance, causing Mason to turn white as a ghost, “What did we discuss about saying ‘I love you’ at the end of our calls?”

Mason’s frozen in place as his dad heads in our direction. Oh, sweet, savory, delicious karma, how I adore thee.

“You know how important it is to me that we end every conversation possible with those three words, Macy. Why’s it so difficult for you to say it?”

“Ok, ok, I love you,” Mason says with blatant desperation in his voice, “There. I said it. Now would you please quit calling me that so loud?”

“Oh, now you want proper considerations to be accounted for. I thought I raised you better tha- ... Oh ... Hello, Taiga.”

“H-hi, Mr. Klef,” I greet back with a wave, barely able to make eye contact.

I am now torn on how I feel. On one hand, I’m in the presence of the person whose marriage I accidentally ruined a few months ago because of a dumb drunken kiss that still eats me up to this day. But on the other hand, Mason’s feeling immensely worse about it for obvious reasons. Both him and his bitch mom’s lives have been turned upside down and I’m the reason why. It’s funny how something as minor as homewrecking can be the cause of such a weird mix of emotions.

“I- uh- ... I didn’t know you worked here,” he says,

“Just started a few weeks ago,” I reply as my heart races trillions of miles a second, “It’s- ... part of a bet I have going on with a friend. Winner gets $1,000. I’m here in retail and he’s got food because scissors beat paper.”

“Hm. That’s ... good ... I guess ... Keep up the good work.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it, he’s doing such a good job,” Mason chimes in, “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we were talking about plans for later before you rudely interrupted.”

“Oh ... oh ... I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I should probably- ... get going anyways.”

“Yeah, ok, bye.”

His dad starts to say something, but stops himself before hesitantly turning around and walking back outside. Once he’s out of sigh, Mason turns his attention back to me, saying,

“Anyways, like I was saying, we could go back to my place. Maybe catch up, rekindle that flame maybe. I missed you.”

Is he insane? Not even 15 minutes ago, he was insulting me. Now he’s saying he misses me? I’ll never understand the guys I hook up with. But maybe there is some catching up that needs to be done with someone else.

“You know what?” I respond, leaning forward on the counter, “You’re right. What’s life without reconciliation? My shift ends in about 6 hours. You come back at around that time, then I’ll take you up on your offer. Who knows? Maybe one thing leads to another and I’ll let you show how much you missed me.”

He tries his best to hide his intimidation, failing miserably.

“Alright, then,” he manages to say, “See you in 6 hours.”

“Can’t wait.”

He walks away, trying to look suave, but in reality just looks like he’s just learned what his legs are. Fucking creep. I guess one good thing about dating a dumbass like him is the fact that he never stops to consider things like how the store closes at 9 instead of 12:30. I just wish I could be here to see his stupid ass face.

But enough about him. His dad is all I’m after, anyway. I could smell his grief a mile away. He’s the only reason I feel bad. He’s such a nice guy. He didn’t deserve that ungrateful fucking cow in the first place. And he damn sure doesn’t deserve the pain of finally getting her out of his life. Maybe I can show him a good example of how much better other options can be.

Eventually, the egregious hours pass by and I’m finally free from my cell. I’m really wondering if this $1,000 is worth it at this point. I say my goodbyes to my fellow coworkers before stepping outside and sitting on the bench. I then take out my phone and search my contacts for Mason’s dad’s number. After finding it, I call him and wait for him to answer.

“Hello?” he greets,

“Uh- ... hey,” I reply, remembering that blindly walking into something like this probably isn’t the best idea in the world, “It’s- ... it’s me.”

“Taiga?”

“Y-yeah. I just- ... A friend kinda stood me up and I’m kinda ... stuck. Do you think you can ... give me a ride?”

“Yeah, sure. No problem at all.”

“Cool. Thanks. You’re the best.”

“Alright, see ya in a bit.”

“Ok, bye.”

I hang up the phone and put it back in my pocket, waiting for my knight in shining armor to appear and rescue me. After a few minutes of waiting, I finally spot his car driving up to me. Once he’s parked in front of the store, he rolls his window down, saying,

“You rang?”

“Maybe,” I reply, opening the door and getting inside,

“Alright, where do you live?”

“Um ... I was actually thinking that ... maybe we could ... go to your place. Just to ... you know ... talk.”

“Oh ... Uh ... Ok. If that’s what you want.”

He pulls off and drives back to his house. The car is radio silent during the drive. It’s so uncomfortable and awkward. I should probably be thinking about how I’m gonna start this damn conversation, but it’s kinda hard to find an opening statement to “Hey, so how’s the single life treatin’ ya after the 20 years were crushed before your very eyes?”.

We soon arrive at his apartment before stepping out of his car and heading inside. After shutting the door, he leads me to the living room before we take our seats on his couch. It’s way more rugged than I remember it being. Hopefully, that doesn’t become too much of a problem.

“Soooo,” I start, trying to get the ball rolling, “How’ve you been holding up?”

“Oh ... You know, about as well as I can. What about you?”

“Same ... Same ... Content creation’s really lucrative.”

“Well, that’s good ... That is good.”

God, this is so awkward. This used to be easy. It’s so weird what a bit of extra information can add and take away.

“So I couldn’t help but notice Mason with you during your shift,” he says, “What was that about?”

“Uh ... It was a bit of an ... awkward reunion,” I reply, trying to mask my agitation, but judging from his look of concern, I’m failing miserably, “His memory’s still as sharp as ever. Still carries around that little nickname that Mrs- ... Or ... Ms. Felder made for me.”

“Oh, wow, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine. Demeaning homophobic nicknames never hurt anyone. At least it stopped me from being bored.”

“You want me to say something to him?”

“No, like I said, it’s fine. I just look at it as his way of coping with what happened. Plus, he’s a momma’s boy, so it’s kind of a given that he’d mimic everything about her.”