Someone Else's Shoes

Content Warning: This section features discussions of sexual harassment.

Sam, a London-based salesperson, wife, and mother in her forties living in London, awakens one morning full of nervous thoughts about her family, her job, and her mother, with whom she has an imaginary argument as she gets out of bed. Before going into work, Sam plans to use a gift certificate to a gym and spa that her 19-year-old daughter, Cat, bought her, as it will expire on the following day. At the spa, Sam compares herself negatively to all the other women around her, noticing their differences in class and how polished and expensive they seem to be, unlike her own modest and humble appearance. Toward the end of her stay, she gets a text that a meeting at her job at Uberprint, a printing company, has been moved up, and she hastily leaves the spa’s locker room, taking with her the spa flip-flops and the black bag that she believes to be hers.

Her coworkers Ted and Joel pick her up for the meeting and discuss their new boss, Simon, and Sam worries that he might soon initiate layoffs of her and her coworkers. As she gets ready for the meeting, Sam goes to take out her own