Photo by Cosmin Ursea on Unsplash
The stationery shop assistant has paired a leather mini skirt with cowboy boots, a bold choice in the Athens heat and when I tell her she looks fabulous, in my nascent Greek, she turns around abruptly, with a stern look on her face and asks: “You really think so?” like a child seeking reassurance, which she does need because a regular customer recently told her she was getting fat, that she was too big to find a man, but “What can I do? I love sweets!” she explains.
As I’m choosing between yellow and orange notebooks, lined or unlined, she sashays back to the register and turns on music, beckoning me over with “Έλα!” so I can hear her sing, watch her sway, dance as if holding an invisible partner; it feels like a private moment and I wonder if I should leave but she grabs my arm and asks me if I know what the song is about. Before I can answer, she sprays my hair and arms with a pungent mist that smells like cigarette smoke and baby powder, telling me it’s a perfume called “Narcotic Delight,” enunciating every consonant in English, assuring me “You will get a man if you buy this,” and even though I want her to know that I’m not looking for one, I confuse the verbs “search” and “find,” so I just say: “Next time,” as she shakes her head disapprovingly.
I put my notebook and pen on the counter, saying “No receipt” – an exchange that means I will pay in cash and she will lower the price – and as she hands me my change, she pauses: “I was the woman of your life, she is singing to the man, tell me you remember me, that you regret losing me, she begs him, but the tragic part is that he has moved on with someone new.” The shop assistant sighs and plays the song again. I can hear her belting out the refrain as I leave the store, the sound of her fierce and melancholy words mixing with the chemical smell of the perfume.
Rebecca Tiger teaches at Middlebury College and lives part-time in New York City. She writes on the long train ride to and from work. You can find her published stories at rebeccatigerwriter.com and on twitter and Instagram @rtigernyc.
