They come in again, about five o'clock. Good, I think. They're nice to look at, in between customers. When they get to the front of my queue, I don't treat them any different. Why would I?
"Alright?"
"Alright, yeah, you?"
I scan their items and ring up their total.
"£8.65. Anything else or is that you?"
"That's me, just -- listen, it's completely fine if you say no, but I wondered if you wanted to get a drink after your shift."
"Are you asking to get a drink with me or are you asking to buy me a drink?"
"What's the difference?"
"You know the difference."
"Do you have a girlfriend or something?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."
"Hmm. Maybe we shouldn't, then," they tap their card on the reader. "I don't know if I can trust myself."
"I finish at seven."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"See you at seven, then."
"See you at seven."
I refuse to think about it at all until the end of my shift.
They meet me outside, leaning against a low wall, their legs straight out in front of them.
"Hello."
"Hey."
"Rest of your shift alright?"
"Not bad, not bad, can't complain. Where do you want to go?"
"You know the pub on the corner?"
"Yeah, sounds good. Let's walk and talk."
They get up and we start walking, hands in our pockets.
"You changed?"
I'd changed out of my uniform into dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt.
"I wanted to look sharp."
"You look good."
"I don't smell good, I smell of sweat."
"Come here," they grab my arm to stop me walking, lean close to my neck and take a deep breath. "No, you smell good."
"I can't believe you just sniffed me."
"You smell good, though."
We walk in silence the rest of the way to the pub.¬
It's an old man pub, no two ways about it. They're sitting in twos and threes at tables dotted around the room, all white hair and jowls, but they don't look up right away, because for a moment we pass as the kind of lads they expect to see there. They don't realise we are different kinds of boys. My date orders two pints of light ale for us at the bar and the bartender looks at us properly, then looks back down at his taps.
We sit around the corner and I watch them skim the foam off their pint. They're so pretty it makes my stomach hurt. I want to stare at them uninterrupted for a few minutes at least, just taking in the way their forehead melts into their cheeks and then their jaw, so firm and so soft and something else I can't name.
"What are you looking at?" They raise an eyebrow at me.
"What?"
"You're staring at me."
"I'm just looking at you."
"You're staring."