Closing Alone on Tuesdays

i close alone on tuesdays now. they cut the second closer to save hours so it's just me and the walk-in humming and the radio they make us leave on the easy listening station. mop the front, flip the chairs, count the drawer twice because if it's off it's my name on the sheet. nobody's timing me. i could leave the back mats but i pull them and hose them anyway, line them up to dry the way the old manager liked even though he quit in march. i do it right. i don't know who for.

the store group chat hasn't pinged since someone begged to swap out of a saturday. i punch out on the app and it does the little checkmark and that's the whole goodbye, a checkmark, and then the parking lot, my car the only one under the light that buzzes. nobody's going to ask how the shift was. i set the alarm, hear the beeps count down, pull the door till it clicks. i'm careful with it. i'm careful with all of it. it just hit me that the thing i do most carefully all day is lock up a place nobody's waiting for me to leave.