Exclusivity

Opening Up

The wall clock told me I had about forty minutes to set up. Better get cracking.

My store was set up in such a way as to accommodate all the rows of records and CDs, and a listening area in the back.

I prided myself on how neat and clean it was, and plus the overall store aesthetic was very inviting and pleasing to the eye.

Imagine this. A coffee shop sorta deal, nice wooden floors and shelves loaded with records from as far back as the forties. There's posters promoting local bands and even some more well known ones, like historical posters, that kind of thing. My pride and joy was a poster from the eighties that had all the dates to Stevie Nicks's first solo tour in the U.S. I would sell my soul to see her live, she's an icon. AN ICON. Plus she my dad gave me a hand down copy of Rumors my life was changed forever.

I had a few ceiling fans circulating the comfortably cold air around. The lighting was very subdued, but not too dark. In the back of the store was the listening area.

The listening area consisted of about ten bean bag chairs, a leather rocking chair, a very large oriental rug that was in pristine condition, and a jukebox.

Every month I would change all the seven inches inside the jukebox, and replace them with ones that would correspond with a time period I had previously selected.

This month was 80's new wave. An eclectic mix of Joy Division, New Order, Blondie, Squeeze, and hell I even threw some Smiths in there. The Smiths are great no matter what anyone says. You can't really have an argument against them without using personal opinion so why bother?

No music was currently playing so naturally I had to change that. I had a player in the front of the store near the register that was hooked up to a PA that played at a low volume.

I decided that this morning's record would be The Boy With The Arab Strap by none other than Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian.

Great record by the way. Incredible band too.

I needed to get back to working to unpack the boxes though.

So I did, and I was more than halfway done when a knock interrupted my silent inner monologue and also the title track. My focus shifted to the door, which is where the sound originated from. Obviously.

It was this girl. She was like, at least 5'10 and she had short platinum blonde hair, cut like Marylin Monroe style. It was definitely a look. She had really blue eyes that kinda just looked like the sky on a clear day. Not a single cloud.

The exact opposite of today. It was pouring ass and the rain was coming in at an angle. According to the weather, the wind would reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Hell.

But anyways this girl right? She was still standing there and she kinda looked angry. Whoops. I was leaving her out there just to get soaked so I mean I would be mad too.

So I walked over to the door to let her in and she falls right on through. This girl was leaning on the god damn door! Not a wise move. Not a wise move at all.

"Thanks for finally letting me in, asshole." She was fuming.

"Well, ma'am if you couldn't read, I was still closed so I'm doing you a favor by lett-"

"No need to pull that tone miss I-own-a-record-store! I'm gonna buy a shitload of your stuff today, like I'm dropping two weeks worth of paychecks here!" Wow. Nice business.

"So, what's your taste like? What do you listen to and all that?" I wasn't too sure honestly, her clothes didn't really scream 'I love ------!'. She was wearing a, business sort of shirt? Like a button up kinda thing, it was grey with a denim look to it. She had this tan trench coat straight out of the x-files or something. Black boots. And then to top the look of, leather fucking pants! The fuck kinda shit is that?

Suited her though.

"Well I kinda really like everything but I'm not too fond of really hardcore stuff or rap, some country is okay but I'm not a huge fan." She paused, looking at the A-C section. She must have found something she liked cause she continued her earlier statement

"Disintegration by The Cure? I love them, this record has so many good hits on it." So she liked The Cure. Lots of people like The Cure. Moving on.

"Yeah they ain't too bad." That was an understatement. The Cure were my fifth favorite band but you wouldn't hear me say that out loud.

"Uh do you like, want a cup of, coffee or something?" Like I was just being nice I wasn't gonna let her just sit outside!

"Coffee sounds totally great yes bring it on, charmer."