Author's Note: This story is completely fictional and did not happen. All names of characters are fictional and were made up. Please do not copy and plagiarize my work.
This story was written for Revrapid, enjoy!
******************
Seattle, Washington
The wind blew in the distance through the cold November evening with no sunlight to wash away the chill. The temperature would only drop further as the day turned to night. Snow had yet to come in the winter season as the least of concerns regarding tomorrow. The traffic was normal in the streets for now, with the usual number of cars coming and going. On the eve of Black Friday, one had to think about the bumper-to-bumper traffic that began in the wee hours of the morning. Shop owners knew what to expect with such a hectic day coming. Most shops across the streets were already decorated with promo signs displaying special sales for the next day. The same streets would be filled with people walking shoulder-to-shoulder as they came and went from the shops, all bunched together.
The promotional signs had been sitting outside one specific store for more than a week now. Honey Bucket Records started out small just three years ago. The store was named after a Melvins song in tribute to the legacy of Grunge. Vinyls had returned in the past decade, proving to be a lucrative market to cash in for selling music in physical format. Seattle was filled with various music shops where Black Friday was a prominent date on the yearly calendar. It was the second 'Record Store Day' of the year for those who missed out in April. Honey Bucket Records sold almost entirely vinyl records, new and used. Online, the business boomed for secondhand sales and exchanges through collector circles. What did not get sold on shelves was marked down to discount prices on eBay.
Roy had entered the family business just in time for an explosion during the pandemic. He dropped out of community college to take a job working under his father Leslie in 2020. The store was his father's pet project for many years. The dream had come true to own and operate a record store, especially thanks to the vinyl explosion with a new generation. During the pandemic lockdown, online sales skyrocketed for vinyl. CDs saw something of a comeback as the used market increased in the following months. By the time Honey Bucket opened its doors again, the business had reached a new level of respectability and had the funds to compete with other record stores in Seattle. It was hard to believe that was only three years ago. Honey Bucket received a major boost of publicity when an Instagram influencer filmed themselves shopping during an April Record Store Day event.
It was a complete stroke of luck that saw two more influencers reach out to the store and offer a promotional agreement. Roy's father had a team of online managers who handled the eBay store and other promotional events on social media. Most of the time, Roy only concerned himself with the weekly paycheck he received, which went to rent, and his few hobbies in life. At twenty-three years old, he hoped to be spending most of his time outside of work chasing good times. That did not even come on weekends now, since his old man put him to work in the shop. The opening hours were at 7 AM and closed at 5 PM in the evening. For employees, they could not leave right away after changing the sign on the front entrance door. There was much work to be done with moving shelves to lockup, as well as the online management team, which had to handle shipping and printing. Roy had learned about the high costs of maintenance in his first year of working.
Most of his time this year was spent on the computer since February. The previous social media manager quietly quit without notice. Leslie handed his son a promotion to social media manager simply because 'he knows how to work Twitter and Instagram'. Flattering words caused a level of embarrassment since the websites were not hard to work. This new job kept Roy hidden away from the main room of the store. When a customer entered the front door, they were greeted with a small walkway and four rows of shelves. It was important to put the hottest-selling items on front display on the shelves for people to see first. The white wallpaper was hidden in the store by many posters of various bands and music long gone. Some of them were concert posters or vintage memorabilia that was on sale for negotiated prices. Roy's father loved to negotiate a price on vintage concert posters. Any of them from the late eighties and early nineties gave him a chance to lecture people about the shows he had witnessed.
Upstairs was where the other employees worked away from the customers. A small cubicle-style office separated the social media team. Only four people were needed to work from their own personal space every day. Roy preferred to be left alone in his small office. He arrived to work most days in casual jeans and a T-shirt to cover his skinny, pale body. His brown hair was shorter at the beginning of the year but now extended past his ears. He was unable to see the reflection of his face across the flat screen of his computer monitor. It was a relief to work alone, with his only human contact coming from two coworkers at the other desks working from their computers. Two people were required to run the eBay store for six days of the week. The job had changed hands between a few employees and was offered to Roy once. He passed, preferring to keep his position managing social media accounts.
Working online in privacy gave Roy a level of freedom he did not have downstairs in the main room of the store. With Black Friday coming up, he knew that he would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of customers entering and exiting the building after making purchases. Past Black Friday events were of little concern due to an increase in customers. Tomorrow would be different thanks to one special promotional event they had spent days preparing. Through sheer luck in reaching out and trying to contact various pop singers, Roy caught a break when he established communication with one. The promotional event was entirely his idea, despite his father's doubts that it would work. Most singers had their own managers behind social media accounts, reading and responding to private messages. Roy was pleasantly surprised to receive a message back from whoever was behind one specific account he messaged.
Billie Eilish followed the Instagram account belonging to Honey Bucket Records. Whether it was truly her or someone else replying in messages, Roy was ecstatic about the chance of working with her for an event. His first idea was an autograph signing event for fans. The one thing Roy did not consider was how much money they would need to pay her in a fee just to visit the shop. Billie accepted the offer almost immediately and forwarded contact with her management to speak with him. Roy had to inform his father. All he had to tell his old man was the number of her Instagram followers to impress him. An offer of $30k was made for the promo events. It was a hefty fee, but Roy argued that it was worth it for the store to get much-needed publicity from one of the biggest names in the music industry now. Billie had a single to promote with her latest release, 'What Was I Made For?' on vinyl format.
Several days of negotiating with her management unfolded in the following days. It was eventually decided that this would be a grand promo event for Record Store Day. Billie visited Honey Bucket herself earlier in the week. No one seemed to notice a major star had walked through the door when she arrived with a bodyguard. Her hair was platinum blonde instead of the signature black and green look she was known for. She wore black baggy clothes as part of her casual wear. Billie met the store owner and called her agent to swing by. Due to his job upstairs, Roy missed her arrival and did not hear about it until the following day, when a coworker mentioned it. The employees who recognized her all managed to get selfie photos with the famous singer. All of them except the one man who engineered the entire meet and greet event.
"Don't worry, she'll be back. You can get her autograph and a selfie if you're not busy upstairs."
Riley knew how to tease Roy with a goofy grin to finish his words. He was the only real friend Roy had at work. They bonded as young men with similar interests in the same style of music. Both of them had dropped out of college and were now stuck with the same job. Roy was a native of Seattle, while Riley had only arrived in the city last year. He claimed to have a girlfriend, but that did not stop him from looking at models on Instagram. Roy had caught him when he was walking past his computer one day while Riley was in the bathroom. It was too easy to open another tab in a web browser and daydream on the job, gazing at lewd photos of models. Riley preferred buxom ladies, judging by the choice of models he followed. The two men never spoke about the attraction they had for women. That made it easier for Roy to talk about Billie.
When it came to her music, Roy truly did not know much about her. Pop music was a genre he was completely out of touch with. That was his own fault for sticking with the genres he enjoyed and not listening to what was new and fresh on the radio. Beyond her music, Roy had taken a particular interest in Billie after her Vogue magazine shoot last year. The pictures in vintage-style corsets revealed her busty breasts. He would have never guessed that she had such an excellent rack hidden beneath her baggy black shirts. Her natural beauty was reserved only for herself and the lucky men she chose for boyfriends, past and present. Roy found himself lusting over Billie before he made the daring move to contact her on Instagram. If there was anything he would've wanted her to autograph for him, it would be his personal copy of that Vogue magazine. He imagined her asking him if the pages were stuck together inside.
True to Riley's words, Billie showed up at the store again the next day. Her second visit did not alert any strangers to her presence. Riley did not have the same level of interest in her that Roy did. The other man sat back in his desk chair, grinning at the screen. He wore a black windbreaker to deal with the dropping temperatures. His face was covered in tiny black hairs that matched the top of his head. Honey Bucket had a relaxed policy on long hair, beards, and tattoos. Riley took advantage of that with his own appearance. He passed on the opportunity to meet Billie face-to-face. He claimed that she was not his 'cup of tea' in his own words. Roy felt relieved that he did not have any competition with his friend. It was hard for him to realize that he had feelings of affection for a famous singer he had never met before. It was the first chance in his life to meet someone like her.
