Chapter Text
Emma Swan groaned like an inconvenienced pterodactyl once the fog cleared in her head enough to realize her alarm was beeping incessantly. Last night had been a late one; having to try and up her bailbondsperson game by taking on as many cases as possible meant lots of waiting in her car, sipping as much caffeine as she could handle. In a perfect world Sundays were meant for sleeping until noon then indulging in enough breakfast foods and Netflix to question the meaning of life.
In Emma’s world, Sundays meant dragging her ass out of bed by a quarter to eight so she could make it to work at Spellbound Sound by five to nine. As much as the job was firmly stuck on the minimum side of minimum wage, it was steady income while Emma tried to level up her side hustle.
Ruby Lucas – her best friend and official smokeshow – had gotten her the job; the only prerequisites being a general appreciation for music and ability to work a cash register. A friend of a friend of a friend had acquired the store by possible dubious means but eventually it fell into the hands of David Nolan – Ruby’s childhood friend and all around decent guy. David had minimal involvement in the day to day; only around to settle any conflicts and vet new hires.
The rest of the staff was a pretty interesting bunch, though Emma got along well enough with everyone. Jefferson was into prog-rock and vintage hats and preferred staring to talking in most cases but he was on time and his till never had any issues at the end of the night. Jasmine was a ray of sunshine who would sing along to anything – the more upbeat the better – which would typically grate on Emma’s more cynical nature if Jasmine weren’t so genuinely nice. Tilly was the youngest of the bunch and, Emma assumed, the most attuned to actual music trends. All Emma was really certain of was Tilly was sweet although occasionally spacey and that she cringed every time Tilly put on a Bleachers record.
One of the most appealing perks of working in a record store was that she could wear anything with the possible exception of a rival store’s logo and it would be considered acceptable attire. After long nights of trying to catch skips sometimes in very high heels, it was nice to just grab whatever jeans were the cleanest, whichever shoes were the comfiest, and whichever t-shirt was the least rumpled and head out the door.
Today’s outfit consisted of faded grey jeans and a well-worn maroon Weezer t-shirt. The piece de resistance however, was definitely the bright pink bobble hair tie she had to dig out of the bottom of her junk drawer to keep her tangle of blonde hair suitably tamed.
It was early (if 10:12am could be considered early for a Sunday) and Emma wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t dreaming doing inventory rather than raking her actual awake eyes over piles of scuffed jewel cases. The lunch room’s attempt at coffee was better described as a lukewarm chemistry experiment gone wrong and the acceptable coffee wasn’t due to arrive until Jasmine brought some in for her 11:00 shift.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me find something?”
Emma startled at the directness of the question and slow-turned towards the source after hearing the British lilt in the voice itself. Usually customers circled staff like anxious sharks for several minutes before someone would ask them if they needed assistance; such was the age old retail dance. This fucker had just sauntered up and asked. The hopeful grin and too blue to be real eyes that met her blank expression only served to confuse her further.
“Yeah?” Emma said after five long blinks.
“Do you know where I might find the most annoying music imaginable? I mean to say annoying in terms of content, not necessarily volume.” The man gave his earlobe a scratch, grin faltering slightly as Emma continued to stare.
“Uh, maybe try soundtracks and compilations? It’s next to the movie wall on the east side of the store.”
“Cheers, lass, I’ll give that section a go.” He gave her a nod, winding through the aisles to his destination; leather jacket swishing against rows of CDs.
Emma hummed in response, turning her attention back to pricing the new arrivals.
“Ems, do you maybe need glasses?” Ruby waved a hand in front of her face, the brunette popping up out of thin air, “because that customer you just brushed off was drop dead gorgeous and would have probably asked you out if you had given him any sort of smile.”
“This isn’t Empire Records, Ruby. It’s not going to end with a big block party and everyone finding true love or piles of money or some shit,” Emma scoffed.
“I know that, Ems,” Ruby gave her most accurate Emma-inspired eyeroll, “I’m just saying you walk a fine line between basic politeness and complete apathy most days, which is no reason the handsome customers have to suffer…”
“If you like him, you ask him out.”
“I have my sights set on someone else, thank you very much,” Ruby said, gaze wandering to the front door as if the object of her affection would magically appear. Emma raised her eyebrows briefly.
“What’s Empire Records?” Tilly interjected, rifling through the stack of music on the counter. Tilly had a knack for cherry-picking the CDs that would sell first from their giant resale hauls, promptly moving half such picks to her part of the staff recommendations wall.
“A movie,” Emma sighed. She didn’t remotely want to think about how long ago it had been released.
“My youth!” Ruby said at the same time, clutching her chest wistfully and twirling.
Tilly looked between them, a mixture of amusement and ambivalence on her face, before nodding her head and dancing herself over to change the current album.
“You know how this place is like Empire Records, though?” Emma nudged Ruby with her shoulder. “Four of us are staffed on a fucking Sunday and we have a total of two customers in the store.”
“If all the customers look like that stone cold fox over there, you won’t find me complaining.”
Emma laughed, head still clearing from the sleepy morning fog. Maybe she’d have to give him another look once she had a few cups of coffee under her belt.