GUILTY PLEASURES …. A story of passion, obsession and estate agents
By Sarah Salway (with a little help from various artists, click links to play....)
1. Nine to Five, Dolly Parton
Tuesday starts off as just another day at the Cotton and Wool Estate Agency but after tough but secretly vulnerable estate agent, Belinda, takes a call from her boyfriend, she rushes off to the toilet crying. Brian, the receptionist, bumps into her by accident as she, still mopping up the tears, goes back to her desk. They’ve never talked before because Belinda is far too important and also suspicious of non-alpha males, but there is something about his smile that soon causes the truth to come spilling out …
2. Kiss with the Fist, Florence and the Machine
And Brian confides that things aren’t perfect for him at home either. Something is stirring deep within him …
3. Changing of the Seasons, Ane Brun
So later that night they go to the pub together.
Where Belinda secretly thinks …
4. Falling Slowly, Glen Hansard
And Brian secretly thinks …
5. Strange and Beautiful, Aqualung
Soon they both find themselves in an unfamiliar world. one that neither of them recognise. Even Brian’s beer and Belinda’s Spritzer taste different …
6. The Healer, Erykah Badu
The next morning, Brian still feels a little uncertain …
7. Paranoid, Black Sabbath
But Belinda hasn’t got to where she is without knowing what she wants …
8. Feeling Good, Michael Buble
For two weeks, the air at the Cotton and Wool Estate Agency is full of a strange pulsing energy that causes at least one secretary to go home in tears she can’t quite explain…
9. I Got You (I feel good), James Brown
Meanwhile Belinda’s boyfriend is starting to get suspicious …
10. Big Easy, Raphael Saadiq
And comes to see Brian to tell him the truth about Valerie …
11. Pretty in Pink, Psychedelic Furs
However, Belinda hasn’t climbed to the top of the estate agency ladder by being passive. She retaliates by going to see Brian’s wife, Laura, who had no idea …
12. Always The Last One to Know, Del Amitri
It’s a long night of the soul – hair washing, standing under trees, and staring at the pet rabbit. But at last, Laura applies fresh lipstick, makes a decision …
13. Fuck You, Ani Difranco
Brian begs her to reconsider. Belinda was a nobody, he’s been a silly boy, he’s only loved her, doesn’t she love him when he says sorry so very nicely …
14. Rose, Stephen Fretwell
They decide to turn the page, write a new story, although Laura’s makes sure the rabbit hutch is firmly locked before Brian whisks her off to bed. In the morning, Brian lets Belinda down gently …
15. Every Day I Love You Less and Less, The Kaiser Chiefs
He tells Laura that it was fine, she understood. And so, everything in Brianland is lovely, apart from … hang on … who is that at the window?
16.One Way or Another, Blondie
TO BE CONTINUED …..
Guilty Pleasures 2 – out soon.
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This work by Sarah Salway is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
5 comments:
Belinda's fingertips are pressing on the window pane, so white they're almost neon. She starts to sway and the ladder topples sideways. Brian and Laura ignore the crash and sink into each other again. Belinda has landed on the laurel. She dusts herself down and struts off to the supermarket. In the crowds of Friday shoppers no one notices the mad woman grinning manically at the rat poison on the shelf.
Arrgh, want to read next bit, but can't because I have to listen to the song... It's like you're controlling how fast I read.
Great idea Sarah. Such fun to read. And soundtracking the story too. All books should do this.
I love overlap between genres, films that feel like stories, that even have 'chapters' or subheadings, that use music centrally. No reason why books couldn't do the same.
Some great tunes there too! I'm loving Florence & tM at the moment, great little stories within her songs.
I am the Great Controller indeed, Clare. And you thought you were lifting that coffee cup all on your own, did you? That's it ... put it down now.
Fun to do, Jem. Laura Esquivel did it for one of her books - it came with a cd you had to listen along to as you read!
I recognise some of those songs :)
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