Things We Don't Normally Do

TEN

Wednesdays at the liquor store have always been brutal. It's one of the slower days, almost 8 hours alone at the till, and on top of that she was working with Man Bun, the laziest little shit that she has ever had the displeasure of work with in her entire life—and that's saying a lot.

"Hi I can help you here if you're ready." she had her right arm up, waving a customer over, "How's it going today."

"It's going. You?" says a clean shaven guy, a regular who comes in to buy the same seltzer variety pack pretty much every single day.

"Pretty good." she responded, "Did you have a loyalty number with you today?"

The guy goes through his wallet, looking for a loyalty card. After going through just about all 50 cards in his wallet like he was shuffling a deck of cards (this is only a slight exaggeration), he produced the right one for their store.

Alex scanned his card, then his seltzer, "So that will be 27.49, and whenever you're ready you can go ahead and tap, the machine just takes a second there."

"And would you like your receipt?

"For sure."

"Alright, thanks! Have a good one." this was the running script that she goes through with pretty much every single customer, with a few minor customizations for the regulars who have started calling Alex by her name like they were good friends.

She goes through this script at least a hundred times a day, even on busy days, unless by some miracle she was able to hide in the warehouse and got someone else stuck at the till. But of course, today she was working with Man Bun, which means she is likely to be stuck doing cashier work because the asshole is so entitled despite working a minimum wage job, that he thought he was too good to work as a cashier—his literal job title.

"Hi! I can help you here if you're ready." she waved another customer over, a girl who came everyday to buy at least a mickey* of Alberta Pure vodka and maybe one or two cans of ready-to-drink cocktails.

"Hey just this today, and a Mickey of Alberta Pure." she smiled at Alex, who already knew she didn't have a loyalty number.

"Yeah for sure." she turned to get the mickey from the shelves behind her, "Alright and that will be $16.45."

"I'll pay with debit." she said, her card ready, showing that she already knew the drill.

"Did you need a carrying bag today?" Alex asked; their store charged for carrying bags and she always asked just in case, even though she knew the girl always said no.

"No, I'm good." the girl smiled as she tapped her card on the store's incredibly slow payment system.

"For sure." Alex said, "And would you like your receipt today?"

"No, I'm okay. Thank you." Alex already knew she was gonna say no and didn't print the receipt. She's been working at the store almost 6 months now, and the girl has never once said yes to a receipt—not that Alex could remember anyway.

"Alright, thanks and have a good one!" Alex said automatically, as the transaction completed and the girl puts her alcohol in her bag.

Alex never really minded working the till, it's boring, almost mindless work most of the time, but she actually liked the 8 hours that she spent out of her own head.