Truly, Madly, Like Me - Jo Watson Page 0,30
he started pulling DVDs off the shelves. Something had changed in him. He’d gone from slouchy, low energy to looking almost perky. Once he’d finished, he walked over to the counter and laid them out.
“What about watching some of the quintessential Hollywood romances then?” he asked.
“Okay.” I looked at the boxes and then pointed at one. “But this is in black and white. I can’t watch black and white. It’s like watching an entire movie through a bad Insta filter.”
He shook his head at me. “But this is Casablanca. It’s one of the greatest love stories ever written.”
I shrugged.
“Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, ‘Here’s looking at you, kid!’ ” he exclaimed.
I shrugged again. “Have you got anything that’s not black and white?”
“How can you not want to watch something just because it’s in black and white?”
“It’s boring,” I said. I never used a black and white filter on Instagram. That’s just lazy.
“Boring!” he exclaimed and then looked at me questioningly. I held his gaze and eventually he just shook his head.
“Fine, what about this?” He showed me another one. “It’s a must-see romance.”
“An Affair to Remember,” I read, taking it in my hands. “It looks soooo old.”
“It came out in 1957.”
“Nah, I don’t think I’ll relate to it then.” I waved my hand at the DVD dismissively.
He shook his head again, hair flopping from side to side. “That’s where you’re wrong. The thing with a good romance is that it’s timeless. A love story today is just the same as one from long ago. Love is love, no matter the time and place and language.” I watched him as he talked; he came alive when he spoke about movies. Like this was his passion, and, for some reason, this won me over ever so slightly.
“Okay, I’ll give it a go. What else is here?” At that, his face lit up even more, his smile caused his glasses to slip down again and he popped them back up on his nose, a move I was starting to find rather endearing, for some reason. He started passing me DVDs: Grease, Sixteen Candles, Sleepless in Seattle, Love, Actually.
“I’m giving you one from every decade.” He sounded pleased with himself.
“How do I watch these?” I asked. “I’m staying at the hotel.”
“They have TVs there, from before the observatory moved here. They’re pretty old, but still work.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
He suddenly shrugged and looked a little sheepish. “I’ve been there. You just have to rent a DVD player from me and plug it in.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Here, take this one.” He walked over to a shelf and picked one up. “It’s small enough to carry.”
I eyed this strange black box in my hands and squinted at it in disgust. “I can’t believe we actually used to use this to watch movies on,” I said with a tone of amusement in my voice, but when I looked up at Video Store Guy, he didn’t seem amused by my comment and I think I had offended him.
“Do you know how to hook it up?” he asked flatly.
“No, but I’m sure if you give me the instruction booklet I can work it out,” and then I chuckled as a thought crossed my mind. “Is it printed on papyrus?” I carried on chuckling but stopped when I saw the look on his face. Okay, maybe I had pushed that a bit far.
“Fine.” He sounded brusque and then walked off to the counter, picked up a booklet and almost slapped it down on top of the DVD player.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. I looked around the shop again. “What music can you recommend?” I asked.
“Music is such a personal choice, I can’t really recommend anything,” he said, not looking at me now.
“Okay, I’ll just take these then.” I pulled money out of my wallet and passed it over once he’d added up my total. But when I tried to leave, Satan defiantly planted himself down and wouldn’t budge. I pulled at the leash. But it was like pulling a brick wall. Immovable.
“Come, boy! Come!” He just looked at me.
“For heaven’s sake!” I hissed. “Five minutes ago you were raring to go! What happened?”
At that, he rolled over onto his back, put his legs in the air and his belly on display.
I huffed. “You can’t be serious.”
Video Store Guy walked over to him and gave him a belly scratch. Satan’s legs wiggled around, as if he was running. And then, just like that, he rolled over, jumped back onto his feet and shook