"I'm not forcing you, I'm just telling you what your job is."
"It's a bit late for that, isn't it?"
"I don't think so, the contest doesn't start till tomorrow evening. You've plenty of time to make your decision."
I stood and watched the conversation from the bar, not really knowing what to do. It was my new friends who were being put in a really difficult situation by Clive, our boss, but I couldn't really help them. If I was honest I didn't want to.
"We'll quit!" That was Jenny, a blonde from London.
"Then quit. Like I said, nobody's forcing you."
"But we need this job!" Ruth followed up, she was a shorter dirtier blonde from somewhere on the South coast.
Clive just shrugged at that. I could see the three girls look at one another nervously. Liz, a Scottish red head, looked particularly sad about it. I could understand their dilemma, I'd been thinking about it since Clive had told me about his plan.
----
"There we go, that'll have the punters streaming in."
It was earlier that day and I was stood behind a very empty bar. Clive had been fixing up posters for the last ten minutes but I'd not read any yet. He turned to me expectantly as he stepped back from one he'd just placed in my eyeline.
"What do you think?"
There was the silhouette of a woman, obviously naked, dancing with the words, "Wet T-shirt Contest Fri 11PM" written in massive red capitals beneath.
"Are we having a wet t-shirt contest?" It wasn't the most intelligent reply.
"You're damn right we are." Clive drifted over to me. "We'll try one out on Friday, I'm thinking of making them a permanent fixture."
"Oh, well, good idea, I think." My mind was immediately racing, although I'd never seen one in the flesh I'd seen pictures and videos from them online many times over the years. They had always excited me a lot.
Clive seemed content to stare at the poster so I joined him. I read the smaller print.
"Wow, 200 euros first prize. That's pretty good."
"Yeah, that'll have them turning out for sure."
I looked around the empty bar and couldn't help adding, "quite a bit of money, though, especially if it's a regular thing." The bar had been so quiet that I'd begun to worry a little about my job, if I lost it I'd probably have to head back home.
Clive smiled and tapped his nose. "Don't you worry about that, I've got a plan."
I looked expectantly. "Oh yeah?"
"You know the flyer girls?"
I nodded, I'd spent much of my first few weeks here fantasising about them. They were three girls Clive had hired to walk around and hand out flyers every day. I found all three of them stunning and they usually came to the bar in their beach stuff. I couldn't really decide which one I lusted after the most. Sadly all three had treated me just like a good friend from the moment we'd been introduced so it didn't particularly matter.
"Well, I'll make sure some of they enter every time and tell them to be sure to win. That way first prize is actually nothing."
I looked at him startled. "Do you think they'll be up for that?"
"Who cares, a job's a job and I'm their boss. Those three are sexy as hell but there's a million young girls who look good round here."
I nodded, what Clive was saying was correct. I knew myself how many people came out here speculatively hoping for work and most of them went home disappointed. All three of the girls had said to me how lucky they felt to even have 4 or 5 hours work a day. Now the season was in full swing I imagined open jobs were even more scarce.
I felt a little uncomfortable about it, but the thought of Liz's massive boobs in a wet t-shirt soon chased them away. Or maybe I'd enjoy Ruth's nicely soaked bum.
"Anyway, you need to be prepared as well, you'll be running it."
"Me? What about the bar?"
"I'll help out there, much better to have a young, good looking lad like yourself up there with them. They don't want an old perv like me."
"Why not Ollie?" Ollie was the other bar man, he was a bit older in his mid twenties.
He shrugged, "I picked you." It didn't sound like he'd thought very hard about the choice but I was grateful for it. From my internet 'research' I had some ideas about how best to persuade the girls to get wild.
Clive continued. "You'll work it out. Besides, what's there to do? Ask them their names, get them wet, tell them to dance." He shrugged. "Piece of piss."
"How many rounds will there be?"
"I don't know, you decide."
"How will we get them wet?" The bar was deserted and Clive's attitude made it easy to talk about treating girls as objects like this.
He carried on in his lackadaisical way. "Maybe jugs from behind the bar with water? Have them stand in a paddling pool or something."
"Maybe." I couldn't help but get into it. "How about if we got one of those hand pump spray guns you use to wash cars?"
"I suppose." He paused suddenly thoughtful. "I think I have one in the garage, never used it."
"Perfect. That way there's not as much water about, but you can get it right where you want on the girls. I reckon they could just dance on the stage as normal, it'll dry easily with the windows open."
Clive looked over to the stage which was right next to the open front of the bar. "You might be right."
"We can spray all the girls while they dance together, it's a much better than having them come up one by one."
Clive laughed again. "Well, I can see I picked the right man for the job."
I blushed slightly. I didn't want to come across too much like an obsessive, but Clive just looked pleased I was helping him out.
"What about the t-shirts?"
"I ordered them last week, I've got dozens. All small and thin, obviously."
I couldn't resist carrying on. "And what else will they wear?"
Clive was looking more and more involved in the conversation, my zeal for detail carrying him along. "I don't know, I didn't think."
"Well, we'd be saying no bras, wouldn't we?"
"Yeah, obviously."
"Well, if we're making rules let's say just their knickers. You know, along with the t-shirt we give them." I couldn't help but sound a little hesitant.
"I like your thinking." He slapped me on the back. "If we make it a rule then what can they say? Brilliant."
"Only, I imagine some of them won't want to get their actual underwear wet, so we should offer them some as well. Maybe say it's strongly advised or something."
This time Clive arched an eyebrow. "We buy them all new underwear?"
"It's to help them out, we can say that girls complained about having to wear wet clothes afterwards, so."
"I dunno, Jim, you're losing me, isn't that their problem?"
I could see he was getting bored so I cut to the chase. "Clive, what if along with thin, tight white t-shirts they were wearing thin, tight white knickers?"
I saw realisation dawn.
"Where would we get them from?"
It was my turn to shrug. "Go to a discount supermarket, buy lots of their cheapest, smallest whitest underwear."
Clive was beaming now. "Good man. Well, I'll get it all set up. If it goes off like you say we'll soon have them queuing round the block. We'll put them on every night!"
----
"Did you hear what that creep told us earlier, Jim?" Jenny's still angry tone carried across the bar.
It was later that afternoon and the girls had returned from their flyering. As usual they stayed for a drink, they got one free every day.
"Yeah, he told me about the contest earlier. I'm sorry, I was going to warn you but he saw you all first. I don't know what to say."
"It's not your fault." Liz smiled at me, her cute freckled face peering out through her frizzy shoulder long hair.
"No, but." I couldn't help but think what would happen was partly my fault. Clive had told me earlier that they'd agreed to 'think about it', but he considered it a done deal. Everyone knew it was either take part or book their flights home.
"I wouldn't mind so much if we didn't have to win it." Ruth sounded slightly annoyed but mostly a little thoughtful.
"Only one of you has to do it, I guess." I didn't know why I said that, it was probably just me trying to sound like a friend. Of course I wanted all three of them in the contest.
"Maybe, but we were talking earlier. One chance out of all the entrants isn't much, all three of us probably need to do it to have a decent chance."
I nodded grateful my careless talk hadn't ruined things. "So, you're, er, going to do it, then?"
Ruth answered. "I don't think we have a choice."
"Fucking Clive!" Jenny let out her anger.
"Well, I'm going to be running them, so I can help you out." I figured it was best to let them know now.
"Oh, great, so you can just make sure one of us wins!" Liz smiled at me some more.
I hated to disappoint her but it had to be done. "Well, not quite like that. The winner is the one who gets the biggest cheer from the crowd."