This is entirely a piece of fiction... one would think...
To catch you up, dear reader, Cindy, a 19 year old red-head college girl, former high school cheerleader, has a summer job at the beach tending one of many lemonade/soft drink kiosks in the shadows of one of the lifeguard stands. She's rooming with three other girls, who she discovers are all topless dancers at a local strip club. Cindy, who's no prude, got peer-pressured into sunning topless by the apartment pool yesterday, her first day in town. There she met Donnie, a summer lifeguard who is a beefy lacrosse coach in the winter months. Now, on to today's story!
I met with Bill at the warehouse promptly at 9:30 like he asked. I needed to sign some paperwork in the office -- all normal employment stuff -- and then I followed him for a 10-ish minute drive to the north end of the beach where my kiosk was located. He showed me where to park in the Condo parking lot where my car would be safe, and we walked to the kiosk. His assistant had already restocked the kiosk with drinks and ice and set up the umbrella and a small stool for me. Bill handed me my cash box, I pulled off my t-shirt, and I was ready to go.
To allay Bill's fears that I might be one of 'those girls' who use the kiosk to set up 'dangerous liaisons', I was wearing my most conservative mother-approved bikini, almost no makeup, my hair in a cheer-leader stereotype ponytail, a visor, and cheap sunglasses. I looked for all the world like the girl you'd hire to babysit your kids or walk your dog, but nothing more.
The kiosk was very near the lifeguard stand, which doubled as a stand to rent umbrellas and beach chairs. Two guys -- I assumed life guards -- were busy setting up and I hadn't paid them any attention. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of them walking my way, and my worst fear was coming true -- it was indeed Donnie. Of all of the lifeguard stands on this beach... Donnie had to be working at mine.
"Hey, Cindy! Lucky seeing you here! Good luck on your first day."
I started blushing. It was like a reverse walk-of-shame. Here was the hunky guy who'd met me while I was nearly naked by the pool yesterday, and now I had to work under his gaze for the next 8 hours. I tried to make the best of it, and said, "Yeah, thanks. You're working this one today?"
He nodded. "Yeah, like I said yesterday, they move me around to wherever they need a filler. Two lifeguards to the stand, one on duty for 2 hours and the other renting beach chairs. Then we reverse."
Yesterday, he'd been wearing skin-tight shorts that really accentuated his man-ass. Today, however, he was wearing a much more demure set of board shorts and a red tank top. Somehow he looked older today, although I was still pegging him at late 20's.
Just then, the other lifeguard came over, and Donnie said, "This is Carter, my accomplice for the day. Carter, this is Cindy. I met her yesterday. We're staying in the same apartment building."
Carter reached out to shake my hand, and the whole affair had the air of normalcy, like seeing a girl nearly naked the first time you meet her was something normal here. I guess if I was going to survive the summer, I was going to have to get used to a teeny bit of debauchery.
"Cindy. Great to meet you. Maybe I'll see you over at your apartment. I live near you in a house I rent with some other lifeguards." Then he turned to Donnie and said, "Hey, bro, you gotta invite me over sometime. No pool at my place. I'll bring the beers."
Carter hit me more like a college guy, but like Donnie, built like a brick wall with zero body fat. How exactly did these guys float well enough to swim?
Donnie said, "Well, gotta get back to work. If you have any problems, let me know. Do you have a whistle?"
"Whistle? No."
"I'll get you one. We have several spares. Great for calling for help if you need it. You should carry one all the time. I'll bring it back to you later. Otherwise, good luck."
I couldn't help but notice that neither Donnie nor Carter seemed to be looking me over, like girls in bikinis were the norm around here. Then again, yeah, it was the beach, so this is the norm. Instead, they would have stared if I'd been wearing a cocktail dress.
The day went along pretty simply. I had a tip jar on the counter, and Bill had recommended that I empty it regularly, leaving just a few dollars in it to give customers the hint. There was a little locking cabinet in the bottom of the kiosk where I could keep my beach bag and any tips I collected and lock up the cash box when I took a break.
Most of the morning went OK. Sales were slow, but Bill told me to expect that until the afternoon. I noticed a pattern emerging on the tips -- Moms tipped about a third of the time, and then usually just some change from her purse. Maybe a quarter on a five-dollar sale. Kids didn't tip at all. Dads (and I assume they were all Dads) usually bought more and tipped a lot more generously. By one o'clock, I'd been standing here for three hours and made maybe fifty bucks in sales and maybe five bucks in tips. Not much to show for it, but again, it was the slow time of day.
Donnie and Carter were working a different set of hours than me. My shift was 10 until 6, eight hours a day. When he and Carter swapped places, he came over and explained that they started work at 9am and worked until 7 -- ten hours a day, four days on and two days off. They could swap days with buddies if they needed to go somewhere, but the 10 hour shift was a legal thing set by the county. He said that the work was more boring than real, nothing like Baywatch, and setting up and renting chairs and umbrellas was the hard part. I asked him what he did when he got off work, and he said generally an hour in the weight room, then lay by the pool until sunset.
Bill came by about 1:30 to check on me and to remind me I was legally entitled to a 30 minute lunch break. I promised him I'd take one, and he said it was OK if I wanted to just eat at the kiosk and then go for a walk or lay in the sun for a while. However, in case the inspectors came by, he needed me to be seen taking a lunch break, and would prefer I take it before 2pm when business started picking up. I took the hint, and put out the 'back in 30 minutes' sign. I decided to use my break to walk around and go talk with (read: 'flirt with') Donnie and Carter.
When I went by, Carter was in the rental shack under the lifeguard stand and Donnie was up top-side. Carter was nice, although not as hot looking as Donnie. I could see myself dating either of them, if I was lucky enough. Judging from the professional girls back at the apartment, I had plenty of competition. Plus, summer girls seemed to outnumber summer boys by about three to one around here. Carter told me he was a Senior pre-med at Georgetown and on the swim team there. He told me he and Donnie had only met today, but he gathered that Donnie coached somewhere in the mid-Atlantic states.
Like Bill said, business picked up about 2pm. I'd brought a salad to eat, but barely had time to poke at it. Tips followed the same pattern as the morning. Bill's helper came by about 4:30 to empty my cash box, and told me to take the box back to the warehouse when I knocked off at 6. I could pick it up again in the morning. Today was Thursday, so I'd only work 2 days this week, but that was OK and it would give me more time to settle in.
I really didn't know how much I had in receipts all day. Everything was cash, and I never used the card reader on the cell phone he gave me. My tip jar was in pretty good shape, though -- nearly $100. With minimum wage, I'd clear about $130 per day, and if this kept up, over six hundred a week. Not bad, but not great either. My rent, including utilities, was about twelve hundred per month, and even with minimum living expenses (gas, food, some more clothes, laundry) I'd be lucky to clear $2000 for the summer. Again, better than picking up Dog poop, but nothing to get rich on.