Amanda was the perfect girl to like because she had a great job. She worked at Tape World. Compact Discs had just hit. No one went to Tape World. I always went.
 
“Do you have Born To Run on cassette?” She looked at me like I were retarded and had asked her if I could eat her pizza only instead of asking if I could eat her pizza, I only drooled.
 
“Of course we have Born To Run on…cassette. If you were interesting you’d ask if we had Depeche Mode on cassette because I order all the cool stuff.”
 
“Got that already….on disc.”
 
She had the look. I’ve seen it. It is the way a girl looks when she is about to smack you in the head or throw something at the wall. “Why do I care,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time before Tape World will no longer exist. Then what’ll I do?”
 
“I’m sure they’d hire you at Disc Dat. You stock the best shit. Always. If it weren’t for you, I’d be completely done with tapes.”
 
“You like me?” she asked.
 
“Yep.”
 
“Depeche Mode on disc…what else did you see?” she said, hitting the ‘no sale’ key on the register, springing the draw.
 
“Gun Club, Clash, Stan Ridgeway.”
 
She yanked the twenties, the tens, the fives and the ones out in four quick snaps. “I want to buy you lunch.”
 
Then we waited for the end of the world.