Buy
X
Broke
Cat
Total holdings, all pockets
$0.00
I open the wallet, I show you the inside, and then I do the thing with my other hand.
Checked 47 times today
Three separate locations, one identical result. In each of them somebody was standing close enough to watch me check.
I was told these machines give money back. They gave noise back. Fifteen thousand on the sign above my head and nothing at all in the leather.
Everything was already on the belt. The chips, the cookies, the confidence. The person in the red shirt waited very politely, which made it much worse.
This is where the wallet usually gets opened, because at this point it is less about checking and more about showing people that I checked.