"So, what else are we going to have him do? Make the tea?"
"Oh, I don't know. I thought we might throw the lad a bone, give him something interesting to do. How about let him run the new office girls thing we just started?"
"What, do the admin and all that? Yeah, I'm up for that, it's always a bloody nightmare."
"Well, and the other stuff. Meet the girls, film it. Everything."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's not like it needs filming professionally, if he can point a video camera it'll be fine."
"True."
"Besides, it's easier to give him something self contained, less supervision."
Arthur turned and addressed me for the first time in a while.
"So, think you can handle that?"
"Er, I don't know. Who are the office girls?" I didn't sound too confident.
"Who do you think?"
I hesitated some more, I was still slightly lost. "Er, other interns, like me?"
Howard laughed slightly dismissively. "They won't be too much like you."
Arthur smiled slightly and just shook his head.
"It's simple, office girls are just girls who come the office."
"Right." I tried to sound like I understood.
He fixed me with a big grin. "And then they take their clothes off."
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Arthur was the editor of Balls, the last remaining Lads Mag in circulation. Well, I say circulation, these days it was mainly an online thing. There was just about a monthly magazine still but I got the impression it was somewhat of an afterthought and that the whole operation was pretty cheap these days. A sad come down from its heyday a decade or so previously.
I was eighteen and an intern there. I'd passed my A levels and was starting University after the summer, or at least that was the plan. After slightly disappointing results I'd not got a place on my first choices and, after much scrambling, had managed to get in for a media studies course in Brighton. They'd made it conditional, however, on getting some 'experience' before I started, and so I'd sent out emails in desperation to as many magazines as I could think of. Balls had been the first (and only) to reply.
I'd read it when I was younger. Every guy at school had had copies of it or its close cousins stashed away somewhere. The internet existed but it wasn't always easy to gain access away from the watchful eye of parents, so easily concealed magazines like Balls had been a godsend. As I got older and more trusted I hadn't particularly bothered to keep up with them, so I couldn't say I was a big fan. I was, however, desperate, so when the offer came through of a month's internship I accepted as quickly as I was able. Balls' only requirement was to confirm I was eighteen.
Arthur had greeted me on the first day and quickly showed me around the office. There were only three other people there, and Howard, introduced as their head writer, was the only one who seemed at all interested in me. He had wandered into Arthur's office as he was telling me my duties, which at first had seemed to be those of a general office dogsbody. I got the impression they'd accepted my internship because someone fairly junior had quit with little notice. It didn't sound as if the most exciting summer was in prospect but I didn't really care, it would get me on my course all the same.
Then came the office girls.
--------
After my confusion settled down I confirmed that I was sure I could handle the task, and then I asked what on earth I was supposed to doing. Though I tried not to phrase it like that.
Arthur explained that a big part of the magazine's appeal were its 'Girls with Balls', female readers who had been persuaded to strip for a constantly shifting variety of very thin excuses. Arthur briefly showed me the last few on the website, which were topless karaoke and a table tennis feature. Both seemed pretty much just videos of near naked girls.
To encourage participation there was a vague promise of becoming a 'proper' model, as each year there was a 'Girl with the Biggest Balls' contest where a lucky few got professional photo shoots to be judged by the readers. I remembered that it had once attracted national attention and a few winners had gone on to be semi-famous glamour models, but that was some time ago now. I was slightly surprised to learn the whole thing still happened.
"We keep it going as it's cheap content. We don't get as many of them applying, but we still do alright." He paused. "Just about."
Arthur seemed pretty nonchalant about persuading women to strip for essentially no reason at all, but then I'd just seen evidence that it happened. He was also very vague on what the office girls feature might actually consist of. He showed me the announcement that had been on the website and magazine. It asked for those who wanted to star in the next Girls With Balls feature to get in touch and their lack of clothing seemed to be very much implied, but beyond that there was nothing.
"So, will there be an office set or something?"
"Eh?"
"You know, for their photo shoot."
He laughed. "There's no photo shoot for it these days, we just take videos and edit them a bit. Much easier"
"Where is the studio?"
"Well," Arthur continued, "we used to have a studio upstairs but it cost too much. Since then we've usually used the meeting room over there." He shrugged. "The girls didn't seem to mind, they don't know what to expect anyway."
"So, they come here and." I left the sentence hanging, not quite ready to talk about them stripping. "What do I do for the 'office girls' part?"
"You can have them do whatever you want, really. I figured they'd do their hair a bit like a secretary, wear glasses, that sort of thing. But if you get a video of them in their knickers it doesn't really matter." He paused. "Without their knickers if possible."
I felt overwhelmed and didn't really know what 'hair a bit like a secretary' meant, but I certainly wasn't going to back out. I nodded as if everything was clear. Arthur obviously saw my lack of confidence.
"Don't sweat it. Just look at a few of the videos on the site, you'll soon see what you need to get them to do and you can point a camera, I'm sure."
