Free Judith Wants To Be Your Friend by Annie Weir

unnecessary Sellotape will cause the bundle to weigh correctly when the duty manager comes in to check the banking. I sign the paper band to say that I have counted it and make another mark so that I can identify it later, and then hand the Sellotape back to be stored safely in her drawer.
    ‘Make sure that torn note is on top,’ she reminds me, ‘so that Mary Morris can see it when she checks the banking. She’s duty manager today.’
    I look up slowly. ‘I’ve already done that.’
    ‘Yes of course. Sorry Judith. You’ve picked it up so quickly since you’ve been here. Are you sure you’ve never worked in a cash office before?’
    ‘Quite sure.’ Does she really think I wouldn’t have remembered? ‘I have worked with money though.’ I stop there. Never forget Strand 1: don’t tell her things. I might think of something to tell Anita next time we are together, like that I used to be treasurer of a society my dead husband belonged to. Yes, that sounds good. I’ll give it a bit more thought.
    ‘Any preference for which lunch break you want?’ she asks when she realises I am not going to say any more.
    I gauge how far we have got with the work and decide that we are far enough ahead for me to prepare the banking early.
    ‘Late, if you don’t mind,’ I say.
    She looks surprised that I have answered properly, but then she is so predictable.
    ‘OK. We’ve got on really well this morning. Will you start to prepare the banking while I’m out?’ See what I mean? The plan just simply falls into place.
    ‘Yes, of course. No problem.’
    We work in silence until Sal comes in at midday as usual and Maureen leaves for lunch. Sal goes about her normal routine of preparing the cash trolley to do what we call a note-lift. That means that one of us will accompany the duty manager and checkout supervisor along the bank of checkouts taking the notes, gift vouchers, coupons and card receipts to do an interim count. The money that we count in the morning is the final take from the day before that we balance against till readings. I start to collate the notes for banking and the other forms of tender to do a check of the cash office float. While Sal has her head in the cash trolley, making sure the little boxes are in till order, I slip off the paper band on my bundle that is ten pounds short and swap it with one of Maureen’s. I continue to do the preparation necessary and start to count the change in the safe.
    At precisely one o’clock Maureen returns and sends me for lunch. When I return at two o’clock there are three worried faces: Maureen, Sal and Mary Morris.
    ‘Is something wrong?’ I ask innocently.
    ‘The cash office float is ten pounds over,’ says Maureen. ‘I’ve counted it twice. Will you do it, Judith?’
    ‘What is the point of that, Maureen?’ snaps Mary Morris, the general store manager. That is a stroke of luck that she is duty manager today. ‘You’ve already counted it twice. We’ll need to check every bundle of notes, and quickly before Securicor gets here.’
    ‘I’ll do that,’ says Maureen, ‘but Judith can check the float again, just to be sure.’
    ‘I’ll help you count the notes,’ says Mary Morris, and as luck would have it, she picks Maureen’s tray to count. It is just a matter of time now. I painstakingly take out all the bags of coins and count them back in, just to string it all out until Mary Morris says, ‘Maureen, this bundle is ten pounds short. And one of the notes has Sellotape on it.’
    ‘Well, that explains the store float being over,’ she says with relief, ‘but who signed the band around that bundle?’
    Mary Morris handed it to her. ‘You, if I am not very much mistaken.’
    My day is made. Even if it wasn’t Spanish tonight, today would be the best day of the week.
    Spanish class is quite hilarious. We learn to talk about hobbies so I mention my interest in art, just to continue a theme, and say I enjoy going to the cinema. Joanna says she