“You’ll be at the mess hall for dinner?” he asked.
“Maybe not tonight.”
“Someone got to you already, huh? Lucky bastard. Well, maybe I’ll catch you around.”
“Uh, sure…” and I watched him lope back down the hall. I returned to the slopping up table to see a group of blokes loading the meal containers we’d made up into the cart. A couple stopped mid delivery when I appeared, causing the men behind them to stumble and curse, but they seemed to recover quickly enough and got back to the job. That was something I was never going to get used to. Being the invisible waitress was more my speed, seamlessly taking and delivering orders, only noticed if the kitchen screwed up the order. I squared my shoulders and decided to ignore the attention, heading over to the storeroom where we had been doing a stock check and opening the door.
“Oh yeah, honey, you can ride me hard tonight…”
“Oh, shit! Sorry!” I said as I walked into Nerida in a clinch with some tall, dark and handsome guy. His eyes opened first, and he regarded me with a sly smile as I beat a hasty retreat.
“You OK?”
I blinked a few times, searching around mentally for the brain bleach, to see Brandon looking concerned.
“Stop chasing skirt and help us get these containers,” one of the guys shouted.
“Blow it out your arse, Sam!” he called back. “You want me to get someone?”
I shook my head. “It’s just taking me a bit to adjust here, is all.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Same thing happens to most girls who come here.” He had a look at his watch, and said, “It’s nearly lunchtime. Why don’t you wander over to the mess hall and grab a bite? Nerida and Sonny will be up to whatever they are doing for a while, and Finn’s stuck with something behind the fence, so…”
“Yeah, sure, sounds good. Are you coming?”
He shook his head ruefully. “Animals eat before we do. Anyway, go on, these guys are gonna take forever if you don’t.” I looked around him and saw the blokes had slowed down to a snail’s pace, watching what was going on.
I walked past the line, Bud at my heels, and over to the Mess Hall. Being outside in the fresh air instantly made me feel a bit better. I looked at Bud, and said, “C’mon!” taking off at a jog, him running between my legs and barking as we went. I nearly tripped twice, but he was grinning and I was laughing by the end of it. I wandered inside and saw the place was half empty, thankfully. People looked up, but I just swept past, grabbing a plate and the makings of a huge sandwich and some juice, before scanning the tables for one where the guys on it didn’t look up to see what I was doing. I found one towards the back, with three blokes sitting a fair way apart, not talking to each other and not looking around either, and made a beeline for it. “Do you mind if I sit here?” I asked.
The three of them looked up with a start, one guy’s eyes flicking to the other, but the third nodding an
d gesturing for me to take a seat. I sat down at the other end, giving the guys their space if they wanted it, no sound other than the clink of utensils or the sound of people chewing. Finally, I said, “I’m Julie, the new girl.”
“I know,” the guy closest to me said. He had short greying hair and intense blue eyes. “Mack,” he said, pointing to himself. “George and Al.” The other guys gave me a nod and went back to eating. Well, thank fuck for that, I thought, not everyone here was gagging for it.
“So, what do you guys do?” I asked, relieved to treat them like any other person I’d meet on the job. Getting people talking about themselves was always an easy way to start a conversation.
“Construction, on the married quarters side,” Mack said, apparently the spokesperson for the group.
“So, do you have partners? What’s your wife’s name? Have I met her?”
Mack smiled slightly and seemed to relax a little. A girl would have to be a bit weird to try and use questions about your girlfriend or wife as a way to crack onto you. “Louise, and I don’t think so. She works in the married mess, running the kitchen.”
“So, there’s two different messes? You guys don’t eat with the single blokes?”
He shook his head, “Not normally, we just needed to grab a quick bite today. Too many hot heads, and I’ve got a daughter. Not old enough to date any of these idiots, but some of them don’t seem to get that message.”
“Are single women allowed in? I mean, if they aren’t looking to…you know.”
The guys all looked at each other, as if considering it, then shrugged. George, an older guy with thinning blond hair, said, “I guess so. I admit, you’d want to run it past the women first. They get a bit…protective at times, but we’ve had some come over if the crap that goes on here gets a bit much. If you’re not a troublemaker, people shouldn’t take issue with it.”
“God, no. I just want a bit of peace and quiet and normality.”
“Hello there, Miss Julie.” As if summoned by the devil to contradict my words, I looked up to see Brett and his buddies, the three blokes from this morning, coming and taking a seat in front of or beside me. Mountain dude boxed me, blocking my view of the people I had been talking to.
“How’s your day going?” the darker haired guy asked, picking up a sandwich and biting into it.
“I’ll talk to the missus,” Mack said, getting to his feet, his mates following suit, “and get back to you.”