“Uh huh…” I jerked my attention back to the Finn standing in front of me, rather than soapy, naked dream one in my head. “Thank you for everything today.”
“No problems. See you at dinner.”
“Hey, you made it! And you brought Buddy!” I’d gotten to the mess shed a bit before 6, worried I’d miss meal time. I hadn’t had lunch and was starving. Nerida popped out from inside, a big smile on her face.
“That’ll be OK, right?”
“Sure, sure. C’mon, we’ve got a table at the back. Us chicks need to stick together.”
“Ah, right… So remind me, why do us chicks need to stick together?”
“Oh, no reason. This is a good place to work. People are fair, pay’s good…”
“Great.”
“Come and have a seat, Jamie and Dex are already here. They’ll fix you up with a drink. I totally want to see your face when they get here. You look pretty too, that’s a really cute top, with the embroidery and everything.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure… Uniform, casuals…”
“It won’t matter much, but I know what it’s like, wanting to look your best.”
“Pretty sure you don’t need to work at it,” I said. She was amazing looking, rocking that fresh faced, super happy look that men ate up with a spoon. It was never something I was able to imitate, I just came across as unmedicated.
“Naww, listen to you. You’re sweet. Well, here we are, best seat in the house. This is Jamie…”
“Hi,” a petite blonde gave me a wave.
“And Dex.”
“Take a load off, sweet thing,” an older woman with the growl of a long-term smoker gestured to the bench beside her. Her hair was a fall of harshly dyed burgundy, but she had good bones, though she looked like she knew she still had it. “What a gorgeous dog. Husky?”
“Yeah, he’s about two years old.”
“Just a pup then. So, you’ll be gofering for our Finn. You excited?”
“I don’t know what to think, to tell you the truth. One minute I was broke, no job, no place to stay, now I’m employed and have accommodation. My brain’s still trying to catch up.”
“Well, while it's trying to do that, have one of these,” Dex picked up. “I call them Long Island iced teas, but I have no idea if they have the right ingredients. Drink up, love, it’ll put hairs on your chest.”
“So this won’t be an issue…?”
“For Finn? He’s had enough of them at meal times himself, so I can’t see why not. Anyway, you’re going to need some liquid courage, trust me.”
Nerida giggled and poured one for all of us, and then called, “Cheers!”
“Guys, you’re starting to freak me out. If this is some kind of hazing thing or something, just lay it on me, I can take it. Not knowing? Not so much.”
“Don’t worry. Here they come,” Jamie said with a wide smile. She watched the front entrance to the hall, her eyes
seeming to grow to twice their size, looking much like a kid at Christmas. I turned, and it all made sense. They seemed to walk in in waves, row after row of guys, filling the considerable doorway and filing in to take seats at the many picnic tables in the middle of the room. That wasn’t all that unusual, blokes piling into a mess hall at knock off time no doubt happened all across the country. No, it was the guys themselves. My mouth dropped open, and I didn’t bother to shut it because every damn one of them was at the very least good looking. Tall or short, you had guys with long hair, short hair, in between or dreads. Blue eyes, brown eyes, hazel or green, every skin and every hair colour, including a bloke with a purple mohawk. But that wasn’t what had me sitting there like a fool. Every single one of them had well defined physiques, from long and lean, to full on body builder types, shown to advantage in shirts with the sleeves ripped out and thin white wife-beaters. Every single one of them had the kind of dramatic facial structure with high cheekbones that you saw in fashion mags or on male strippers.
“What the actual fuck?” I said, my head whipping around to confront the girls. My eyes narrowed, “Is this a joke? Am I being punked?”
They all started laughing, assumably at my stupid expression. “Oh, no,” Dex said, “this is all real.”
“A porn set then? Seriously? You can't tell me all of these gorgeous guys happen to work at a mine in the middle of nowhere. That makes no sense, whatsoever! How is that even possible?”
Nerida shrugged. “We’ve all asked those questions, and no one’s really come up with an answer, though maybe Doc Hobbes has a theory. After a while, you just learn to accept and enjoy.”