Lena made herself look him in the face. Early twenties, pale skin, dark-blond goatee. Could be a student. Or just the kind of bloke who spends time swapping amateur porn with other blokes on the internet. ‘Probably seen me in here. I work a lot. That’s eleven forty-five. Cash or card?’

‘Nah, I never come here.’ He put his head on the side. ‘You on Tinder?’

‘No. Eleven forty-five.’ She pushed the EFTPOS machine towards him.

He slapped his card against the reader, looking down at her chest. ‘How come you don’t wear a name tag?’

She resisted the impulse to cross her arms over her breasts. ‘Lost it.’

‘So you’ll have to tell me your name then.’

‘Jane. Is there anything else? I need to close my register.’ She turned to her cash drawer, never wished so hard in her life for a queue to form.

‘Nice to meet you, Jane. I’m Zac.’ Out of the corner of her eye she saw him pick up his bag and then hold his phone out towards her. She would not look.

‘I’ll keep an eye out for you,’ he said. ‘Message you next time you pop up on here.’

She was going to throw up. Or scream. She pulled a Handi Wipe from the container under her counter, wiped up the moisture that had seeped out of his meat pack before she’d bagged it. It wasn’t much. A patch of sweat. She scrubbed at the belt, taking off months-old grime. Kept going until she could be sure he’d left.

In the tearoom, she told Barb about the man. Laughingly, like it was a clumsy pick-up attempt because probably that’s what it was.

‘I dunno how you do it, you young ones,’ Barb said. ‘All this online dating palaver. I’d never have gotten hitched if I’d had to do all this selfie swiping stuff, worrying the next customer coming through has already had a good look at me and my proclivities on his phone.’

‘I don’t do any of that,’ Lena said. ‘He didn’t know me at all. Just being a creep.’

A couple of shelf-stockers passed by. One mumbled something to the other and they laughed, side-eyeing Lena. The taller one saw her looking, stuck his tongue through a V of his fingers.

She stood, fire all through her. ‘You got something to say?’

‘To you? Nah, love.’

‘You sure? Because it seemed like you did just now.’

‘Calm down,’ the other bloke said.

‘Let ’em be.’ Barb touched her arm.

‘I’ll let ’em be when they stop talking shit and making obscene gestures.’

‘Obscene gestures?’ He threw his hands in the air then brought them down in a chopping motion on either side of his crotch, pushing his groin towards her. ‘Like this, you mean?’

‘For god’s sake,’ Barb said.