At Superstore,
the cashier asked me how I was
on a day I was doing great
and I said alright, you?
She said it wasn’t very busy
but hopefully it picks up
because the day goes faster.
I said yeah, it does
like I’ve ever worked a till
or want it to pick up.
We were both committed to the bit.
It felt important.
The outcome was identical.
There is a person at work
who doesn’t really want to know.
You can tell because when you skip the greeting,
even once—
they say and how are you
like a terms and conditions you forgot to scroll past.
Does it matter?
No.
And also: you don’t actually want to know.
So let’s not do this.
Or let’s at least admit it.
The thing is
I had a great day.
I had my end-of-week latte,
which is how I celebrate survival now.
It felt significant in a way I wouldn’t defend under questioning.
I didn’t mention it.
I would have answered, if that’s what we were doing.
And somewhere in the exchange
about till traffic and shift length
I kept it entirely to myself
like a normal person.
Official terms and conditions,
unread and binding:
Answer exactly how you feel like answering.
If you just crushed a latte and something went right—
say so. Or don’t. That seems to be the system we’re running.
And if you don’t actually want to know,
don’t ask.
It’s not complicated.
We just decided it was.
