‘LEAVE ME ALONE! Did you hear me? LEAVE ME ALONE!’ Sarah turned her head enough to see Felix standing with his palms raised, admitting defeat. ‘Idiot, bastard, cockweasel, arsewipe, A-hole, crappycrapster.’
Sarah muttered her way to her tent, only realising as she stepped inside she had left all her clean clothes in the shower, including her bra and knickers. Her greying, fraying, over-sized, grandma-style bra and knickers. She flung herself down on the bed, buried her head in a pillow and screamed. When her throat was too raw to make a sound, the screams gave way to hot, angry tears.
There was no way Felix could not have known she was there. He was a dirty perv who enjoyed teasing and tormenting. The past week working with him had been insufferable. All his attempts to help her were thinly veiled ways of showing she wasn’t up to the job. So what if she’d broken a few cups, annoyed a few customers and still not got the hang of the coffee machine? Everyone had to start somewhere, and she’d never promised she was a quick learner. God, she hadn’t even filled out an application form or had a proper interview.
If anyone was at fault, it wasn’t her. She was trying her best. What more could anyone ask? It wasn’t her fault customers were so finickity, with their gluten-free this, lactose-free that, double-expresso-chai-berry-caramel-soy-chicken-milk lattes. OK, so no one had ordered one of those, but they’d come close.
Sarah wiped her face dry and sat up on the bed. What had Felix seen? He couldn’t have been in the shower room for longer than a few seconds. Sarah unfolded her towel and looked down at her naked body. Her face burned with shame. Her stomach lay in rolls against her wide thighs, her breasts drooping down as though in conversation with her feet. Felix would be texting his mates now, laughing at the disgusting creature he’d walked in on. At least it might stop him trying the same trick again. There was no way he could have liked what he saw.
‘Sarah?’
Sarah could see the silhouette of Felix outside the front of her tipi. She grabbed the towel from her bed and wrapped it round herself. ‘Go away.’
‘I will, I promise. I just wanted to say that it was an honest mistake. I was half asleep, my music was blaring in my ears, and I guess I’m still getting used to sharing the facilities. I honestly didn’t realise you were in there.’
‘Whatever. Can we just leave it, please?’
‘Yes sure. I just didn’t want you to think badly of me.’
‘I thought we were going to forget it happened.’
‘Fine. See you at work.’
Sarah dressed with speed. It was important she was at work early to do what needed to be done. By half-past nine, she was ready and waiting outside the front door of the café for Hattie to arrive.
Considering Hattie was managing the place, her time keeping left a lot to be desired. Sarah had been waiting ten minutes before Hattie scuttled up to the café, waving a set of keys and jabbering on about flat car batteries.
‘God, it’s been one hell of a morning and I haven’t even started work yet. How come you’re here so early?’
‘I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute before setting up?’
‘Yes, sure. I wanted to talk to you, too.’
‘OK.’ Sarah wracked her brain for what Hattie could want to talk to her about, but came up with nothing.
‘How about we have a coffee with our chat?’ asked Hattie, firing up the coffee machine.
‘If there’s time,’ said Sarah, glancing at the clock and praying Felix wouldn’t be in early for once.
Five minutes later, Hattie directed Sarah to one of the comfy sofas and placed two steaming cups of coffee down on the table.
‘How about you go first? What did you want to talk to me about?’
‘I’m having problems with Felix.’
‘Felix? We’ve never had complaints about him before.’
Sarah frowned
‘Go on,’ said Hattie, blowing on her coffee before taking a sip.
‘This morning was the final straw. He walked in on me in the shower.’
‘He what?’ asked Hattie, nearly spitting out her coffee. ‘That sounds out of character.’
‘Well, maybe you don’t know the real him. He came up with all sorts of excuses, but I didn’t believe a word of it. It’s verging on sexual harassment, if you ask me.’
‘God, that’s a serious allegation to be throwing out there. Could you tell me his side of what happened?’
