a story about my first day at this new job for people that care about buffy the vampire slayer
so i first met amber benson in like 2003/2004 backstage at a common rotation show (a folk band that adam busch who played warren was in - they were actually really good!) at the bitter end on bleecker street in new york. (lady gaga would go on to regularly play there just after my time.) i think amber was actually dating adam busch?? anyway, i had met this girl from boston in line for the show, and we were both alone so we chatted a lot. she was the reason we went backstage bc she just went for it, i never did that shit. but so we tell the guys the show was great, and i'm like, god, 19 and a dork and trying and failing not to fan out. i asked amber if i could get a photo with her and she was like 'of course!' and when i stood next to her she goes 'wow, you're so tall and pretty!' and i knew there was no longer any plausible deniability about it, i was bisexual as fuck. heart fluttering, full-on. my god.
she was so sweet. follow-up, the pictures were taken with a disposable camera (i got one with adam too), bc we still had those, but the camera got run through a tsa scanner which supposedly ruins photos like that so i never tried to get the photos developed. but amber said i looked pretty and tall, so i'm going to imagine they were great.
cut to echo park, los angeles, 2011? 2012? i lived in the neighborhood for a couple of years, and one day a friend suggested we take our laptops and try to write a bit at a local coffeeshop bc you could still do that in the all-too-distant past. we get our coffees, we open our laptops, i started working on the screenplay i did eventually finish, though it was bad, sorry to it. not too long into his amber benson sits down a table over from us and opens HER laptop, bc we were all clichés, which i think is adorable.
we finished up, and i, quivering, said hello to her, and relayed this story of our past meeting. 'you ARE pretty!' she declared. i ticked up another notch on the kinsey scale. we had a pleasant little conversation and then i bade her goodbye. outside the coffeeshop i was full-on all like 'eeeeee!!!' and the friend i was with was startled at my enthusiasm. i felt slightly bad later thinking i might have made amber nervous about dealing with a fangirl when she's just trying to be a normal la person writing in a coffeeshop, but i moved out of the neighborhood not too long after bc my landlady was a monster and not the fuckable kind and it was time for my life partner sara to finally move in with me so it was probably fine.
so taking this job i was aware that i might see a celeb or two. when i worked at a boutique in beverly hills i sometimes did, and i just spent too long looking this up trying to remember this chick's name so i have to tell you that cat deeley came in there once and i had no idea who she was but she was stunningly beautiful, and i told her she smelled amazing and asked what she was wearing, and that was the first person i encountered wearing le labo santal 33 and you know what, i've come across a number of people wearing that scent since including myself bc it's great, and also a manager i had at my last job which was aggravating bc that's what i was wearing, sam you annoying fuck, but anyway. it doesn't smell as good on anybody as it did on cat deeley. jesus h. christ that fragrance loved her body chemistry.
the point is that during my very first shift at this vintage shop, which i will be at no more than once a week, amber fucking benson comes in. cute as ever. i start her a dressing room, she tries on a few things, they don't work out and she's charmingly apologetic about it. i've already had an ativan before getting in the car this morning bc my body was like 'car?? job???? AAAAAAH' so i'm feeling absolutely fine about literally everything. 'amber, right?' i ask her, bc, you know, i haven't seen her in a long fucking time, gotta confirm. 'yes!' she tells me.
soooooo i tell her about our close encounters of the each other kind. she is DAZZLED by the deep cut of the common rotation situation, and i'm like dude i knowwww and we're trying to think of the name of bar and i eventually remember it's the bitter end and she's like 'i can't believe you remember that' and i'm like girl barely. 20+ years ago, you hate to see it. i mention the echo park moment and she remarks that it's funny she hasn't seen me here before bc this is the neighborhood she lives in now and she comes to this shop with some frequency, i share that it's my very first day and she's like 'oh my god' and i'm like 'i know!!'
anyway, we just ended up talking for about fifteen minutes, she tries to wear mostly vintage or secondhand these days and i was like teeeea and we discussed the fast fashion industry and the pressures of an increasingly consumerist society and she talked about the difficulties she has with raising an eleven year old (a step-daughter, i think) and trying to give her an awareness of all of this and how it's tough. it was just a really good conversation, man, she's so smart and really cool and thoughtful and it was nice to be able to talk to her without my ribcage being full of butterflies on meth at the very sight of her still so lovely face.
we wrapped it up and i was like 'well i'll see you again in like ten years probably, haha' and she was like 'noooo! i'm sure i'll see you again before that, i stop in here pretty often,' and i told her i'd be there mondays for awhile if she happened to come through again and we parted saying we hoped to see each other again soon and so, anyway, that's the latest update on the multiple decade (bi-coastal!) slow slow burn tropey romcom that i am apparently living in with amber benson. i mean she's married, sure. but he doesn't have what amber and i have, and that's because it's so weird and so specific.
my first fucking DAY at this job. girl, what. and by girl i mean 'the universe'. and by what i mean '👯♀️⁉️'
