After Josie had left the cinema for an ‘adult job’ and stopped living with Ben—whom she dubbed the Plant Murderer—she and Evie had lost contact. Theirs was a friendship held firm by proximity. The inconvenience of not seeing each other every week at the cinema meant they had to work harder to stay in touch and, in the end, Evie supposed, they hadn’t worked at it hard enough.

After Evie’s debrief, two young men came up to the counter to buy snacks and Josie served them with an almost manic smile plastered on her face. Evie vaguely remembered their big boss had advised Josie to ‘smile more’ if she wanted to move into a more senior position.

‘Two cokes and a, hmmm …’

Josie tapped her foot impatiently, her smile now rictus-like.

‘What’s that flavour down there?’ one of the young men asked, pointing over at the fridge.

Josie turned around and opened the fridge door, bending down to retrieve a small container of ice-cream. ‘Cookies and cream. Will that be all?’ she asked, looking at him expectantly.

The bloke stood there for a moment, trying not to smirk. ‘On second thoughts, maybe I’ll have the one next to it. The one with the pink label.’

Muttering under her breath, Josie returned to the fridge, bent down again and swapped containers. Evie heard a snicker and glanced over just as the two men elbowed each other, enjoying the sight of Josie’s backside. Evie stepped in front of Josie, giving them both a thoroughly stony look.

Josie returned with the new flavour and the two men paid, grabbed their snacks, and started to walk away. As they did so, one of them glanced back and called out, ‘Nice arse, by the way.’

‘Hashtag Me Too!’ Evie shouted at them, before remembering what year it was again. The #MeToo movement wasn’t even close to being a thing. And while the conduct of some men in the future still had a long way to go, at least expectations were getting higher, and shit was beginning to be called out.

‘What are you on about?’ Josie asked, seemingly unfazed. ‘Hashtag what?’

‘Don’t worry, It’s just an expression from film school. Doesn’t that piss you off?’

‘It’s harmless.’

‘Whoa, Josie, it’s not harmless. It speaks to a much larger issue of men thinking they can objectify women. And if they feel like that, they’re capable of a lot worse than just wolf whistling and name calling. You might think that it was just a comment, or just a stare, but it shows a complete lack of respect for you and women in general.’

‘Calm down, Evie. It’s just boys being boys.’

‘Well, that’s not good enough for me. We have to take a stand against the patriarchy!’ said Evie.