It's a public holiday and I'm spending it where I spend most of my afternoons... working. I'm having good luck with customers today, they all seem so polite. Oh, the spirit of public holidays.
I hear the bell at the door ring notifying me there's another customer. It's only the delivery man with new stock, he also bought a new display rack. Maybe that's where I can put the Short Stack demos, I put it aside. I get the stanley knife and begin opening one of the many boxes filled to the top with cds.
The bell rings again, it's probably the delivery man with more boxes.
I continue opening the box, I hear foot steps leading up to where I am. They stop.
When I look up I'm surprised to see Andy, I'm not sure if it's that good kind of surprise.
"Hey" his voice's sounding so apologetic already.
"Hi" I reply. I notice the bag of cds under his arm, they're obviously the reason he came.
I stand up and begin walking behind the counter. I extend my hand, he looks confused to begin with, but he soon understands and hands over the bag of cds. I pull out the display rack I put aside earlier and begin figuring out the nicest way to display the cds, not speaking a word.
"You're still mad at me?" he questions. His question confuses me, I'm quite sure he was the one mad at me...
I leave him in silence for a few seconds whilst re-arranging the cds.
"I thought you were then one mad at me" I say, not looking him in the face continuing my stacking.
"I wasn't" the temptation to tell him what I heard Saturday night lingered in my brain, but I couldn't.
"Then why were you ignoring me?" I say in utter seriousness, making how upset I am obvious through the break in my voice.
He takes a deep breath. "If I could tell you why, I would. It's just..."
"Complicated?" I finish.
He chuckles. "Yes, complicated"
I laugh at him and shake my head.
"I'm sorry?" he apologizes.
I hand him the rack of cds. "forgiven".
"Where do you want me to put them?"
"Where ever you like" I tell him. I watch him, he puts it near the punk rock section. Just as I expected.
He returns to the desk and stares me down until I stop what I'm doing.
"So, I never got to thank you properly" he declares.
"You were too busy ignoring me, remember?"
He laughs under his breath. "You're never going to let me forget are you?"
I laugh too. "eventually"
"How can I pay you back?"
"Hard Labour" I say with a pause between the two words.
"Deal"
I didn't think he'd actually agree, but I must admit that having his assistance will help me get this done quicker. He begins by going around to all the boxes and slashing them open with a stanley knife quickly, so precise it's unbelievable.
The boxes are labelled with the genre of music but the hard part is putting them in alphabetical order. I give Andy the box labelled 'punk rock' since it seems to be his favourite genre.
We work quietly, the only noise made is us occasionally singing along to a song we know. Until finally, every cardboard box around the room is empty.
Andy groans in relief and sits in a box filled with foam balls from the delivery, I laugh at him. He looks at me seriously, grabs a hand full of foam and throws it at me. I look at him, open mouthed. I then pick up and a box full of the foam and dump it on his head.
"You better run" he threatens.
I watch him get up from the box and come after me with foam, the only place I can find to hide is the counter. I duck behind it but still manage to get hit.
"You must admit you had that coming" he says in the midst of laughter.
At this point I can't stop laughing so I simply nod my head in agreement.
"Do you want me to help clean this up?" he offers.
"You've done enough for today"
He grabs his phone off the counter and says he should go.
We say our goodbyes and I watch him leave the store until he's finally out of sight.
