IT’S crucial to remember that people working in shops and cafes are paid to be nice to you. Here are five you definitely shouldn’t hit on:
Coffee shop baristas
Just because they know you order a flat white it doesn’t mean they want to shag you in the disabled loo. It just means you go there all the time and boringly order the same thing. And they ask everyone their name, you dummy, because they need to know to what to write on your cup.
Bar staff
Bar staff smile at you either because they enjoy their work or because they’ve correctly recognised you as the type of tedious prick liable to say something like ‘cheer up, love, it might never happen’ if they don’t. There isn’t the teeniest hope that they will ever go home with you, so stop offering to buy them drinks, you weirdo.
Supermarket checkout staff
These people have been mindlessly beeping groceries all afternoon and have zero interest in being flirted with by some twat who thinks they are sophisticated because they’ve bought Jacob’s Creek wine instead of Blossom Hill. They’re not laughing at your witty jokes, they’ve just caught the eye of their colleague who has clocked you and mouthed ‘wanker’.
Cabin crew
Your life is in their hands so it’s unsurprising you find their quiet competence and smart uniform a bit sexy as they politely ask you what you’d like to drink. However, keep your lascivious thoughts yourself as if you boorishly attempt to ask one of them out after necking too many ruinously expensive cans of Heineken, you’ll find yourself arrested the second you land.
Estate Agents
Is it your imagination, or is that easy-on-the-eye estate agent flirting with you as they mention the ‘comfortable master bedroom’ and ‘shower with room for two’? No, that’s really happening, but the only thing they want from you is a quick sale and a big commission rather than an illicit screw on the brand new carpet. They’ll be treating you like a contemptible piece of crap the second you’ve signed on the dotted line, so don’t get your hopes up.