“Fuck you. I’m trying to buy the things on this list, asshole,” Chase said, waving the list in the air. Tears were definitely present. Usually she could control them, but she was embarrassed that she didn’t understand how all this stupid checking out stuff worked. She’d never not had enough money before. She just gave them a card and they swiped it. Presto chango.

“Okay, ma’am, calm down,” Lisa said, looking nervously at the front, where a man with a thick mustache craned his head toward them.

“Calm down? Look, I’ve never done this before, okay?” Chase said, looking at Lisa, who had started taking the items she’d indicated from the bags and rescanning them as returns.

“You need to watch your mouth, young lady. We don’t tolerate cursing around here,” the stupid man behind her said.

“But you can use hurtful words? I’m pretty sure ‘fuck’ never hurt or belittled anyone before, but what you used does. Maybe you should watch your mouth.” Chase turned around to Lisa and looked at the screen. The total was still too high.

Chase went to the bags and took out some seasonings that were higher priced along with the coffee creamer that had not been on the list. “Take these off.”

The guy with the mustache moseyed over. “Do we have a problem over here?”

Lisa shook her head. “It’s cool, Tony.”

The asshole behind her said, “We have a shopper who doesn’t know how to add.”

“And an asshole who insults people,” Chase responded.

“Ma’am, calm down,” said Tony, whose badge revealed he was the assistant manager.

“I don’t need to calm down. I need to not be insulted by people like this jackass. I made a mistake. It’s my first time shopping on my own, which obviously I can’t do.” As she said the words, she realized they were true. She hadn’t been able to do a simple task like get items on a list and check out.

Lisa didn’t look quite so grumpy anymore. Something softer appeared in the cashier’s rheumy brown eyes. Her pity made Chase even more upset. She didn’t need these idiots’ sympathy or censure.

“Oh, and to make matters worse”—Chase reached over and grabbed the National Tattler—“Spencer has given me an ultimatum! And I’m not even dating him, so how could he give me an ultimatum, I ask you. Any clue?”

The three strangers stared at her, looking absolutely puzzled.

“You know what? I’m out of here! So done.” She slapped the magazine on the conveyor belt, grabbed her prepaid card from Lisa’s hand, and shoved the empty cart out of her way. She flipped off Tony with his passive-aggressive male chauvinism bullshit and walked out the sliding doors, where the guy who’d helped her earlier gathered up the stray carts.