Much to my disappointment Olivia was nowhere to be seen, indeed neither were Ruth, Ellie or Sophie. As I made my way round the bar I began to realise why, the contest was the major topic of conversation and lots of people wanted to make their thoughts known to me. I enjoyed it and was more than happy to take praise and slaps on the back from enthusiastic spectators, but quite possibly the close attention the girls would have been getting was less easy to deal with.
No one I asked had any leads on Olivia and I was still technically working that night, so I made my way back behind the bar. Clive was just as enthusiastic as the rest of them and was already talking about putting another one on in a few days. I had no objections whatsoever and the rest of the evening passed in a blur of satisfaction and free drinks from my band of admirers.
----
"Hi, girls, is Jenny not with you?"
It was early the next day at work and, as usual, I was the only employee there. I'd just had a few customers to serve and most of my thoughts had been occupied with waiting for the girls to arrive. Now they were here, without Jenny, they were dressed pretty much as they usually did. Ruth in a bikini top and tight shorts with a blouse loosely around her and Liz in her conservative one piece, light cardigan and sarong. They were smiling at me seemingly slightly nervously.
"No, we went to her place but I'm not sure she was even there." Ruth answered with a mild look of concern on her face.
I shrugged, it was about what I expected. Clive would probably have followed through on his threat to sack her and Jenny had always seemed wilful and independent enough that she wouldn't bother to turn up to find out. It was a shame as I'd always liked her, but I certainly wouldn't have changed how the contest had unfolded.
"I'm sure she's fine."
"Yeah, I guess Clive would have given her the sack anyway. You know, after she refused to."
Ruth's sentence petered out but I was glad the conversation had got round to the topic quickly.
"I think so." I tried to shift the mood and my tone to be more upbeat. "You two girls don't have anything to worry about, though, you were both great."
Liz blushed slightly and looked at the ground, but Ruth attempted some eye contact with me and smiled slightly. "Thanks, but I, er. I was a little embarrassed when I woke up this morning."
That wasn't hard to believe, she had spent a lot of time naked on a stage in front of the whole bar. Not something I imagined she had ever really thought she would do.
"Don't worry, they all loved you."
Ruth blushed a little bit now as well. "Yeah, I'm sure they did."
I wondered what part in particular she was thinking of. It was enjoyable to run through them again with them both stood in front of me and I was pleased to find I still felt confident with them discussing it. I had worried I would end up slightly embarrassed as well, but it seemed as if their own obvious reticence took that away from me.
"What about you, Liz, how are you feeling today?"
She looked up from the part of the floor she had been studying and stared back at me for a few moments. I found myself wondering if she'd mentioned to Ruth what had happened between us in the back room afterwards. I suspected not.
"Do you think there will be another one?" From her tone it seemed like she at least slightly hoped the answer would be no. I tried to ignore that and answer with enthusiasm.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure of it. Not sure when but I think Clive will probably let us know today."
Last night he'd considered holding one every day. I didn't think that would happen but fairly soon seemed a very safe bet.
"Right." There was silence for a little bit.
"And, do you think we'll be expected to, er?" Ruth's question was hesitant and just petered out.
"To be in it? Oh, yeah." I tried to sound casual as I looked at them both.
"Well, not just in it."
"Oh, you mean to take your clothes off?"
"Yeah." She just about managed eye contact as she said it. I couldn't help but think about how I'd pulled her knickers off on stage last night and I was hoping she was thinking about it too.
"Well, it maybe won't go exactly the same, but I mean, I guess so."
It seemed pointless to lie to them, and I figured the more it was expected of them the more likely it was to keep happening. As far as I could tell their mood this morning seemed to be more nervous about the reactions they might get than embarrassed at what they'd done. Though there was still definitely some embarrassment. It didn't feel like they were on the verge of quitting, though, and I knew they had both clearly loved it on stage at the time. For the moment, however, the two girls greeted the news they would likely have to strip again with slightly pensive expressions. I tried to lift the mood.
"It really went great. Everyone had a good time, the bar was packed for the rest of the night and you two would have had fun afterwards, I'm sure. Guys must have been following you around everywhere."
Liz looked at me with a fairly serious gaze but Ruth mumbled, "yeah, we, er, did have a few admirers follow us." She smiled slightly and from the way she said it I began to wonder what exactly she got up to when she left the bar.
"Maybe we can get together before the next one, you know, work out which bits to keep and how we might do some stuff differently."
Ruth laughed and looked at me "Very keen. Are you one of our admirers, then?"
It seemed like I may have sounded a bit too eager. I wondered how to recover.
"I mean, I just want to make sure the contests go well." Thankfully she smiled at me, letting me know she'd been at least in part joking.
"Yeah, of course. You're just a hard worker."
There was a pause as I wondered how badly I needed to reassert my status. Clive arrived, however, and headed over to us immediately. We waited for him to arrive.
"The stars of the show!" Clive greeted the girls very enthusiastically, it seemed his ebullience from the night before had remained. They smiled back politely.
"Come on, don't be shy now, you were both amazing!"
Ruth continued to blush a little as she finally replied, "thanks."
He looked around the three of us. "So, planning the next one were you?" His tone suggested it was half joking and half serious. There was a moment's silence as Ruth started to, like Liz, look mostly at her feet.
I stepped in. "A little bit." I grinned at Clive who gave me a wink.
"Well, look, I've got a few ideas of my own too. We need to keep going with this, that's for sure, we were coining in it at the bar last night." He hesitated and looked at the two girls, who both still seemed pretty subdued. "In fact, we did so well I reckon you two can share the prize from last night."
He looked at them as if expecting a big reaction. The girls looked more surprised and wary than excited, I guessed they were rightly wondering what Clive might want from them in return. "Oh, right. Thanks." Ruth managed.
Clive looked a little surprised, as if trying to work out why they weren't more enthusiastic. He shook his head slightly and carried on.
"Anyway, I'm getting some new t-shirts for the contest to advertise it. They should have some examples here soon, and you can wear the shirts while you're handing out flyers as well, OK?"
Clive smiled at them while Liz and Ruth just stared back at him, they didn't seem thrilled with the news. Liz looked at Ruth who looked at her and then Clive. It seemed like Liz expected her to say something but Ruth was hesitating just as much to speak up. I imagined it had largely been Jenny who handled industrial relations previous to this.
Clive stepped into the pause. "OK, I get it, I think. You two were the stars last night and you figure you deserve more, yeah?"
I was pretty sure their intention had been to get Clive to let them off the hook entirely, and when that seemed massively unlikely didn't know what to say. But they weren't about to refuse to discuss more money.
"Yeah." Ruth looked over at Liz who stared back blankly but at least didn't contradict her. "I mean, I think so." She still seemed a bit unsure but Clive carried on as if just making a speech he'd prepared earlier.
"OK, fine. I can't say I can blame you. How about this, you get a bit of a raise, a few more free drinks and I'll pay you for when you're in the contests. Can't say fairer than that, can I?"
He turned to me as he finished speaking, shaking his head as if he was in a tough negotiation. Behind him I could see that the girls still looked more confused and cagey than thankful, though I think they were pleased about the extra money.
"And, er, do we really have to wear the t-shirts when we're out on the beach?"
Clive turned back to them. As ever it seemed like it was the first time he'd really thought things through.
"The whole outfit, I reckon." I could see another look pass between Ruth and Liz, it didn't sound like welcome news. I decided to give them a hand.
"Clive, I guess they're worried they'll get wet on the beach and, well, start the show before it's time."
"Oh, yeah. I guess we don't want to give it away for free." He was staring at the girls' bodies as he talked, clearly trying to resolve the issue of their potentially visible pussies.
"What about if they wore something underneath the panties?"
"Yeah, we could wear our bikini bottoms." Ruth backed me up, clearly interested in the idea of wearing more clothes.
"OK, fine." Clive sounded disappointed, he contemplated things again for a few more seconds then tried to wrap things up. "Any more questions?"
Liz spoke up in her gentle tones. "So is that our job now? Being in the contests and, er."
Clive smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is."
We all gave that some thought, both girls looked nervous but Ruth seemed to be working herself up to speak again.
"We'll wear our bikini tops underneath the t-shirts as well, OK? Just when we're handing out flyers, I mean." She looked up at us, her cheeks flushing again slightly.
Clive hesitated then smiled at them. "Come on girls, what's the problem? You'll look amazing!"
Ruth carried on, she was obviously steeling herself to but part of her was probably realising they actually did have some leverage now. At least when it came to things other than appearing in the contests themselves.
"We did enough in the contest, didn't we?"
Clive dropped the false enthusiasm slightly. "Yeah, but there'll be another and we want people in the bar for it."
"There wasn't any problem getting a crowd in last night."
