I can't say that I hate my job, but the truth is that there are lots of other things I would rather do.
The damn conveyor belt never stops, one package after another, nothing fits anything anywhere.
Sure, they have those little flat rate boxes that were supposed to help make it easy to pack the damn trucks, but it is amazing how someone can manage to stuff 40 pounds of odd shaped crap into a neat little square box designed to hold maybe 5 pounds tops.
They keep coming down the line, pieces sticking out of the sides, duct tape flapping off the sides sticking to other packages.
Now the people on the counters are SUPPOSED to tell the customers that "Sorry but you really CAN'T ship your 1948 BUICK in that flat rate box, we don't care HOW much masking tape you put on it!"
But they don't. Nice square boxes seem to be round more often than not.
So I get to figure out how to get the damned boxes in the damned truck and keep them in the damned truck.
Eight solid hours of that with the bosses running around with their goddam stop watches telling us we are taking too long, and I am ready for some brew after work.
Which is exactly what I was doing. My old Toyota pickup started up on the 3rd try, letting out a cloud of smoke like she always did. Then she settled down to her nice normal steady clanking sound. I put her in gear and headed off for the Dew Drop Inn, so help me, every town on the face of the Earth has at least one bar named that.
No matter, I liked the place. For one thing, they had air conditioning and it felt like it was close to 90 degrees outside, which actually felt good compared to the 10 degrees hotter it was in the shipping department.
No way was the government going to pay for air conditioning, what with the budget crisis and all.
Hell, they wouldn't turn it on even when there wasn't a budget crisis, I swear, I think the bosses all got commissions for saving money because they wouldn't turn on the heat in the Winter, either.
Mary was behind the bar when I walked in the door. Things were looking up, I checked her out as the blast of cold air made the sweat on my face feel like ice for a few minutes.
"Danny, Hi!" Mary flashed me a huge smile, doing her job which was to make me feel special. That did make me feel special even though she took great pains to greet everyone who walked in the door the same way.
Mary was quite the little tease, and she was good at it. She wasn't what anyone would call gorgeous, in fact she had maybe 5 extra pounds on her tummy, nice big round and soft looking boobs. Her face was roundish also, her dirty blond hair straight as a string and just past her ears.
She made up for any shortcomings by wearing perfect makeup and on the skimpy side outfits, plus a bubbly personality that everyone liked.
Let's just say she had given me more than one woody from watching her do her thing. I never actually tried to hit on her although I had thought about it. Partly because my girlfriend Sarah had no sense of humor that I could see about things like that, and Sarah was one of those women that would do things like naked deep knee bends on top of me. No skin touching anywhere except...well...you know.
Sarah was enough fun that I had even thought of perhaps asking her to hook up full time, maybe even get....married? But then I thought better of that, I had a few friends that did that and I saw the result.
Besides, when it got to two days before payday I was always on hot dogs and mac and cheese. Government only pays well if you are a politician, it seems.
The tall cold one hit the bar at the same instant my fanny hit the seat. I grinned at her, took a long chug. Mary had on that red crisscross top she sometimes wore, which meant I was going to be a bit in the bag before I headed home. Every time she wore that outfit I ended up having a couple more than I had intended.
That top was designed to do just one thing, and that was display Mary. She normally wore it with a tiny pair of short shorts, usually white with a wide belt that sat low on her hips.
Displaying buttcrack. More than once I cracked something about what would happen if I swiped my credit card in there. The response was usually a grin.
Today she had on a matching skirt that if it was any shorter there would be no reason to wear it at all. Her belly was bare, a tiny sparkly thing in her navel. She also had a small red tattoo that appeared to be a heart down low, it peeked above the top of her skirt on her pelvis. I had tried to get her to show me the rest of it several times but she told me with a laugh it was a bit too far down so we would need to get married first.
"Wow, you are looking hot today!" I told her, getting a usual big grin.
"Yea, it has been hot as hell outside so I thought I would wear something that let a little air in." The expression on her face was marvelous, with just the perfect hint of being sexy.
Mary did bask in the compliments, I had noticed that very early on. I still had a few bucks in my jeans since it was close after payday, so I slipped her a buck and got rewarded with her leaning over to pick up a bottle and some glasses. She always took her sweet time doing that.
Mary was good at it. I kept waiting for the day when she would get the whole thing out of her top, for some reason I had a fantasy about that. How she could manage to get just the very upper edge of her nipple to peek out for a second or two over and over I don't know, but that much I had seen many times.
"So how did your day go?" Mary asked me, holding the pose with that hint of brown nipple peeking over the top of her outfit.
She looked right at me while she was doing that, my eyes were of course locked on her expanse of titty showing. I had long since gotten over being bashful about being caught peeking, it was obvious she was putting on a show so I always took advantage of it.
"Usual crap, one box after another, it never ends." I told her as she straightened back up. I noticed the bottom half of her butt cheeks were showing as she headed down the bar to serve a drink to another guy who just came in. That guy handed her a bill and carefully picked up his change so she just thanked him and smiled.
I had been hoping she would bend over again, maybe I could get a peek at what she was "airing out." I took another pull off my brew, looked around the place.
There was a half dozen guys in the bar, a couple of younger kids were shooting pool, the rest of us all sat at the counter, one stool between each of us empty.
Just then Henry, the odd little guy that owned the place came in. I had seen him maybe a dozen times, he normally came in in the afternoons, checked everything out and then went into his back room office.
Just one time I had seen him work the bar, he really wasn't what you would call an amazing conversationalist. This time I noted that he and Mary seemed engrossed in a discussion. She glanced around the room, then her hand came up and swept her hair back, finally she nodded. Henry gave her a big grin, then went on into his office.
That wasn't that much out of the ordinary, it just struck me as odd.
"So what is Henry up to?" I asked her when she got close to me again.
