On Wednesday, a senior manager came to check on us (AKA spy on how Steve was doing as manager of the store) and decided to rag on us about everything wrong with the place. Our displays were shabby, we weren't prioritising the right titles, we should be pushing this genre more than that one, why didn't we have more than 5 new people register this week, blah blah blah. He had finally left at 2pm, only for a plumber (there to fix a pipe in the staff bathroom) to start giving Robin homophobic abuse when he heard us talking about her latest date with Vicky. He inserted himself into our conversation with, "you have a girlfriend? Well isn't that a darn shame. Would've been a great match for my nephew, but he can't get a girl these days since you're all lesbians." Robin was too stunned to respond, as was I, the middle aged man had took this as a sign to continue, "Maybe you just haven't dated the right boy yet sweetie. You're too young to know what you want, definitely too pretty to be a lesbian. I guess the other girl is the man in your...relationship?" He kept looking Robin up and down as he spoke, I saw her clutch her jacket further around her, uncomfortably. Robin hated confrontation, she had grown up in a house where her parents were either fighting with eachother or picking on her, so she retreated into herself anytime there was a whiff of conflict. Steve and I on the other hand, completely went to town on him. "Excuse you? maybe your nephew can't get a girl because he sounds like a little bitch, which must run in the family." I Stepped in front of Robin defensively and glared at the man. He turned to Steve with a red face, sputtering, "you should keep your employees in line and teach them how to talk to people with respect, son." Steve took a short breath and came to rest an arm on Robin's shoulder, "I think the way they talk to people is just fine, sir. Maybe if you don't want to be spoken to like a piece of crap, you shouldn't act like one. Thanks for fixing the pipe, now get outta here." The plumber then started ranting about reporting us for our behaviour, and how we should be ashamed of ourselves. None of us were listening though. Robin sighed long and hard, Steve and I put our arms around her. "Fuck that guy." Steve spat out once he was gone.

Later, Vicky picked Robin up from the store and the four of us were able to have a laugh together about it, Vicky clutched Robin's hand and kissed her on the cheek lovingly before they turned away and headed home. "Want a ride Rain?" Steve asked. We sat in the car outside my house for about 15 Minutes, talking about the party on Friday. "Dustin is pissed that i'm cancelling Movie night - like who the hell would rather stay in and watch a movie instead of going to a party... in a field?!" Steve said, bewildered. "Dustin," I simply said with a laugh, "I'm sure the kids will forgive us when they get there and start having a good time." Steve Knocked his head back against the head rest, "hopefully. Have you, uh, spoken to Eddie yet?" he asked. I bit my lip to hide a smile, "yeah. We went out on Monday, it was good." I didn't want to give too much information out since Eddie and I hadn't discussed telling people. Steve's face was unreadable, "Okay. Cool. Good for you guys." was all he said. There was a weird silence for a second before I asked, "do you have a date for the party? Will it be odd seeing Linda there?" I watched Steve guIp, " I was thinking of asking Nancy..." my brain ticked and I screwed up my face at him, "Listen dude, If you really wanna ask her then go ahead. Just be careful. I don't wanna see either of you hurt again." Steve slowly nodded, "I know. I just - wanna figure something out." his voice was quiet and contemplative. I patted his knee and unclipped my seatbelt, ready to get out of the car when Steve said, "I talked to Annie Leonard yesterday." I immediately turned back to face him, with my head tilted sideways in confusion. "I actually spoke to her a little at Linda's party, they're friends now. Anyways, I was driving home from work and passed her at the bus stop. It was raining so I offered to give her a ride home, y'know how useless the busses round here are, I felt bad for her."

I didn't understand why he was telling me this. "She seems like a nice, normal girl, I don't think there's anything bad about her. Pretty dull though, like painfully boring to talk to." Steve said, watching a lady walking her dog across the street. "I know what you mean. You thinking of asking her on Friday instead of Nancy?" I asked, thinking that would be the only reason Steve would bring any of this up. He chuckled and shook his head, "Annie is gonna ask Eddie to go with her. That's what I was getting to. So, whatever's going on with you and Munson, maybe you should get it out there before you have a repeat of last weekend." Steve eyeballed me as he spoke. My throat felt constricted and all I could say was, "thanks for the heads up, Steve." Two hours later I fell back onto my bed, still wet from the shower but exhausted after the day, Steve's words were tumbling through my head. He was right - Annie was a nice normal girl, and my distaste for her just because she had a crush on Eddie wasn't very feminist of me, I know. But I'd known girls like Annie my whole life; Nice and normal, until they want something that isn't theirs. In Arizona after my breakup from charlotte, I'd briefly dated a girl named Dolly. We were inseparable and being with her was Like being on a white knuckle roller coaster. Dolly had a friend named Lucy, she was nice and normal, just like Annie. Lucy was closeted and dating some jock, but got super jealous of me and Dolly to the point that she started copying my hand writing and making it look like I was sending dirty notes to boys on the football team. Lucy escalated to paying guys to come up to me and Dolly at school and start talking to me as if we'd sIept together, or even try to kiss me. She convinced Dolly I was cheating on her because I was bisexual, so I lost her. Two months later they started dating. This is how I knew Annie was going to be a problem.