If I 'get you off,' please take a few moments to tell me about it in the comments.
This is a work of fiction.
_Avril and the Shoe Store_
This story is about an experience of mine in 2010.
At that time I was working in a well-known sportswear store in West Hollywood, not far from the strip and just outside of Beverly Hills.
I was the deputy manager and on this specific day, we'd received a telephone call from Head office saying that a celebrity customer would be visiting the store that evening. Exciting? You'd think so but, 'No'. It generally meant that after closing up for the day, we'd have to stay behind, unpaid, and look after a VIP. The first few times we'd received that kind of call, all the staff had all spent the afternoon guessing who might be coming. All sorts of guesses had been wrong when a car pulled up and a middle-aged gentleman that nobody knew knocked on the glass front door and said, "Hi, you should have been notified that I'd be coming this evening". It had turned out that he was some middle-ranking government official with an overinflated ego. Hardly a celebrity!
The next few times that we'd received similar calls saying that, so-called 'celebrities' would be coming in for (what the company called) 'closed-VIP-visits', it had been a record producer, film editors, or some backing singer from a band that none of us had heard of. None of them spent any significant money and most were just tripping on their on opinion of themselves.
Today's call was, at least, the fifth call we'd had in the past few months and none of my staff were in the slightest bit interesting in hanging around after work to see who this week's nobody would be.
I locked up the store at 18.00 and the rest of the team all left. I waited until 18.25 and was about to give up and go home as well when a long black limo pulled up in front of the store.
I watched as a huge bodyguard slide out of the front passenger seat and make his way to my shop door. He was dress all in black and wore shades. He knocked his fat knuckles on the glass even though I was stood right there, and said, "Ok. We're ready. Open up".
I rolled my eyes and unlocked the door as he made his way back to the curb and opened the rear door of the limo to allow his client to get out.
I watched with amazement as the Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne sprung out of the car and headed for my open door.
The big lump of a bodyguard stayed very close behind her and I was surprised that once she was inside the store that she turned to him and said, "right I'm fine now. I'll call you when I'm finished. You can fuck off now". She used her hand to usher him away in a shooing motion. He looked rather reluctant and said that he'd prefer to wait but she was clear and said "for god's sake, I'll be fine. I'm not a fucking baby, now fuck off". He took a few moments of consideration and then he turned and made his way back to the car which quickly pulled away down the street.
I was a little shocked at her dismissive and rude behaviour towards this poor guys and had to assume she was a bit of f diva.
I closed and locked the door and as I turned back around I saw that Miss Lavigne had taken no time in making herself at home and was wandering down the length of the wall looking at the shoes.
I decided to give her a few minutes and just stood quietly and watched her.
She was sexy. Really sexy! There was no other word to describe her. I was definitely a 'fan' if not of her music then certainly of her rebellious punk style'.
She was about 5 feet tall. Maybe 5'2". She was dressed exactly as I'd seen her on TV. She had her hair blonde and straight with some pink dye in the front and was dressed in a tank top with a motif on it. A short hockey-style skirt and long white over-the-knee socks. On her feet, she wore some beaten-up old converse all-stars.
I gave her a few more minutes and then moved towards her casually asking, "is there anything specific that you need or are looking for?"
She turned towards me and smiled. At first, I thought she wasn't going to actually say anything but then, in a much more friendly voice than she'd used to her bodyguard and an almost reluctant tone, she said, "is there anything I need? Hmmmm, yes, yes there is. What I need, is to get out of my world for ten fucking minutes. To speak to someone from the real world".
She let out a long and heavy sigh and looked pretty sad. She took a moment and then spoke again. "I just want to have a conversation with someone that isn't continually trying to get money out of me or work an angle on me". She flopped down heavily onto one of the seats used for trying on shoes. I wondered for a moment if she was going to cry.
I didn't know what to say, so I settled with a compassionate tone and said, 'Oh fuck, that's shit'.
She stayed seated and repeated back in a defeated voice, "Yeah, pretty shit".
I really didn't know where this conversation was going and didn't really know what to do. "Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked. I was surprised at just how vulnerable and small this wealthy, famous young woman seemed.
She appeared to shake herself down a little and brighten herself up. She sat up and said, 'Yeah, I wanna spend some fucking money as I'm not usually allowed out the house cause my record label has me under such strict body guarding. They tell me I've got money but I never get to enjoy it. So fuck it. Let's get some new sneakers". She was smiling now.