Beep.
The card reader beeped, just like that.
The first thought that surfaced in Margot's mind when she laid eyes on the couple stepping through the glass doors was, 'Oh, this is rare. A performative gold digger and her blue-collar boyfriend who is trying to impress her.'
She had seen variations of this dynamic before. The beautiful woman in expensive clothes, the working-class man stretching his credit card to its limit. Just the usual desperate transaction of status and affection playing out across the sales floor.
Usually, the man looked nervous, while the woman looked bored. Usually, the whole affair ended with a declined card or a whispered argument near the fitting rooms or a pair of shoes returned the next day with scuff marks on the soles.
But this couple was different from the moment they walked in, and Margot, who had been doing this for years and had developed an instinct for these things, felt her initial assessment begin to crack almost immediately.
