you hadn’t seen in a long time, comforting and warm, knowing you were sure to get a good conversation. Marco, her now boss, had stood at the counter, with greased thick black hair and a stern expression to match. Eve walked towards him in wet shoes. Like the storm, the words slipped out without warning. Eve suggested he hire someone with a more approachable demeanour to work the counter. She didn’t have time to brace for his answer. Marco came out from behind the counter and stared her down. Eve tensed, frozen, realising too late what her mouth had got her into this time.
Instead of telling her to get out, he grabbed her shoulders with a clasp so restrictive Eve doubted she could have run if she wanted to. He laughed, making her jerk. A long throaty laugh. ‘Okay, little girl. I’ll hire you. Only because you insult me and make me smile.’
Their first meeting turned into a one-of-a-kind friendship. They worked side by side for hours at a time. She learned the ropes and soon even bested Marco at the complicated cash register he insisted on keeping for atmosphere. Every Friday, their nights ended with ribs from a corner restaurant Marco had sworn on his family’s lives to be the best he’d ever eaten. One night, her mouth full and smeared with rib sauce, Marco had told her how his parents met. His soon-to-be father had just finished a long shift when he heard sirens in the distance. A woman came hurtling towards him and pulled on his car door, screaming for him to drive.
‘My mother said that my father accidentally put the car in reverse and almost went through a brick wall.’ Marco slapped his thigh and bellowed loud enough for the street below to hear. ‘My mother, the criminal, and my father, the love-struck idiot.’
Eve had grown quiet. She tried to remember her parents telling her their story, her mind turning over and over, replaying fragments without the most important pieces. She didn’t have their first story, but she had their last. It wasn’t something to share over a relaxing dinner. After a month of late nights and constant sarcastic bickering, Marco told her he needed a vacation. He had been gone without a word since.
Eve straightened on her stool, making her feel off balance. She saw Laura coming down the street, trailed by another woman. She smiled easily when her silhouette filled the doorway.
Eve leaned against the counter. ‘We really have to stop meeting like this.’
Laura’s companion looked her up and down with an odd focus in her expression, like she was counting toothpicks.
Eve closed the distance between them, feeling like a specimen. ‘Hi there.’ She made contact. ‘I’m Eve.’
‘Deb.’ She shook her hand. Her long straight nose and pouted lips reminded her of someone, but her mind wouldn’t give up who.
‘We were just on our way to lunch.’
Eve nodded, not knowing if it was an invitation. She wondered if the two of them were friends or worked together. She couldn’t pin down their pairing. Eve’s jaw flexed suddenly when Deb leaned into Laura. Their waists brushed. The brief moment stirred something in her. A reaction she wasn’t sure of. Deb whispered something into Laura’s ear. Eve strained her own, wanting to hear every word. She looked down at her hands and noticed them balled. Eve tried to fold herself up and melt into the paperbacks, her whole body tensed.
Laura cleared her throat. She had said something she missed. ‘Are you alright?’
Eve nodded, needing to get away from the two of them. ‘Yeah, yeah. If you need anything, just call.’ She put as much distance as she could between Deb and the way she had brushed against Laura. Eve tried to busy herself rearranging records on the upper level but her hands wouldn’t cooperate, still tense from the meeting. She peered at the two of them, their closeness, Laura’s easy laugh at something Deb had said. Eve waited until Deb was out of sight down the other end of the store, before asking if she could show Laura something. Eve motioned for Laura to follow her to the storeroom. Eve scanned the room for a talking point. Her eyes rested on the safe that lay hidden under the singular window. She knelt towards the safe and turned the knob, each number clicking over.
‘Look.’
Laura squatted next to Eve and looked inside. Four vinyls wrapped in thick plastic stared back at her. Eve reached inside and held up the first: The Beatles White Album.
‘These are all rare editions.’ Eve grabbed the rest of the records and held them up for Laura to see. Her eyes ran over Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blondeand David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.
‘I bet they’re expensive,’ Laura said.
‘You shouldn’t be going on a date with her,’ Eve blurted, her eyes still on the safe.
Laura couldn’t help but hide a smile. ‘What makes you think I’m on a date with her?’
Eve sighed, standing. ‘I have a sixth sense about these things. But her,’ she pointed outside of the room, ‘she isn’t right for you.’
Laura silently thanked Deb for causing such a rise in Eve. She was visibly agitated. ‘And how would you know?’
Eve threw her hands up in the air. ‘I just … I don’t, okay, but she …’ she trailed off, not sure where she was going, or why it had got such a reaction out of her. Then she realised, looking at Laura. ‘Let me take you.’
Laura took a moment to answer. ‘You, take me on a date?’
Eve’s eyes searched hers. Her body moved closer, almost touching her. ‘Look … I think maybe, you don’t keep coming in here for the records.’
Laura could feel the heat from her skin, rolling through the air. Her breath caught in her throat. She stared back at Eve’s searching green eyes. ‘Okay,’ she managed in a small voice.
Eve angled her phone into the crook of her neck, picking up her pace as she mapped out the quickest way home.
‘Hey Stephen, how’s my favourite security guard?’
‘Hey girl, hit up Punchline lately? My boy, Marvin, can get you in any time.’ His husky voice warmed her while she waited for the lights to change.
‘Yeah, sounds good. Actually, I need a favour. A big one. One that involves a Mister Benjamin Franklin, if you agree.’
Stephen’s husky voice came through clear and loud, like he was singing her a lyric. ‘Yeah, I got you, girl. What’d you need?’
Eve grinned against the phone.
Eve stared at all of the things she had bought. Her crossed legs touched the end of the Christmas lights that she wrapped around her knuckles, a habit from boxing. She tapped her nail along the lens of the polaroid camera she’d managed to find, rummaging at the back of a vintage store downtown. There was an imperfection in the lens that made every picture a hazy orange, like visible atmospheric energy. Eve rolled her wrists back and forth in concentration, hoping what she had in mind would work.
The park was mostly empty. Couples walked back and forth with their dogs, on an aimless path towards things only the canine nose could pick up. Eve squatted by a tree. The sky had darkened, no fade of purple to be seen. Instead, clouds grey and black floated and dispersed, coming together then apart. A light wind still lingered in the air, ruffling her hair. Eve sighed, closing her eyes. The lights hung loose in her hands, reminding her why she was there. Starting at the trunk, she spiralled the lights upwards, tying a knot behind the tree and tugging
