Monday morning arrived and Sarah once again found herself running the grader. Her Friday apprenticeship had gone surprisingly well, so much so that she was now doing fine grading on the main section of the project.
She was still under the watchful eye of the regular operator Vic, who was continuously inspecting the grade behind her equipment and giving her feedback whenever she passed by.
This went on all morning but in the afternoon a few thunderstorms rolled through and as visibility decreased the decision was made to get off the road. After an hour of being parked, a call went out over the CB radio.
"The forecast isn't looking great." Levi the foreman announced. "We're done here. I've reserved tables at Gringo's Restaurant and we're going to have a team supper to discuss a few things. Meet there at 6:00."
Sarah almost immediately received a text from Roy: [Photo is loaded on my lock screen. Tonight's the night. We're doing this!]
The photo he was talking about was one she had posed for weeks earlier after he had caught her skinny dipping.
After climbing out of her pool she had sat on a lounger with her feet pointing directly at Roy, She reached over her head to grip the seat back with both hands, then arched her back, thrusting her totally exposed DD's directly toward Roy. She locked eyes with him and gradually drew her right knee toward her torso, then slowly lowered it to the side providing him with a very intimate view of her pussy.
What had immediately struck him was her smile. Often amateur models want to capture a look of surprise or unawareness to give them a level of plausible deniability over their willingness to participate in the photo.
That wasn't what he had witnessed. Anyone who saw this photo would instantly know that she saw the camera, posed for the photographer, and broke into nervous laughter a millisecond after the click of the shutter. And that's exactly what had happened.
And now the photo was on his lock screen. Any time he received an incoming text her image was going to display on the screen for 5-seconds to possibly be seen by a yet to be identified coworker.
Sarah took a deep breath to calm the rush of adrenaline she was experiencing, then sent a quick text to her candaulist husband Brian: [We're doing this.]
She traveled in the crew van but wasn't her usual chatty self as she mentally went through a list of coworkers, imagining how each would react if they were lucky enough to be sitting beside Roy at the restaurant.
They stopped briefly at the crew's motel since a few of her coworkers had been standing outside when the rain hit and required a change into dry clothes. One of the guys must have needed to go to the washroom or call home, because the stop ended up being 30-minutes long and they were the last of the group to arrive at the restaurant.
At the door they were met by Duke, their 60-year-old waiter. "Are you still drinking Coors Light dear?" he asked Sarah despite her only eating here twice before.
"Yes, that would be fine." she replied.
"And what about you gentlemen?" he inquired of the others.
After taking everyone's order without writing any of it down, he rattled off the specials and then led them to Levi's reserved tables.
When they entered the dining area Sarah immediately noticed that Linda was seated to Roy's right but the seat to his left was still vacant. This meant that someone from her van, a fellow equipment operator, would be seeing her photo. She could have sped up her pace to grab the chair, but that wouldn't have been in the spirit of this endeavor.
Instead, she found another seat that would allow her an unobstructed view of the table so she could monitor the action.
Vic, the 72-year-old grandfather who was tutoring her on the grader sat beside her which gave her a sigh of relief. It wasn't the thought of him seeing her naked that caused her pause. Sarah and Vic held a mutual professional respect for each other, and she just didn't want him jumping to the wrong conclusion of how Roy came to possess such an explicit photo of her.
After this game of music-less chairs played out, it was Josh who ended up seated to Roy's left. This wasn't a terrible development. The front-end loader operator was a generally likeable fellow with a dry sense of humor not unlike her husband.
Most importantly, Josh had already proven himself to be very discreet. He had caught Kent and Polly making love multiple times this summer and that information had never leaked out.
Levi had already ordered some appetizers which were delivered shortly after everyone was seated. As Sarah flipped through the menu, she heard a text arrive.
Roy: [This lock screen isn't going to turn itself on. Shoot me a text.]
He then set his phone between his and Josh's place settings so it would be visible.
She hadn't realized that she was going to be playing such an active role in exhibiting her body, but shrugged and began typing.
Sarah: [Hey Roy. Just wondering if u need a lift home tonight?]
After hitting send she started a 5-second countdown in her head. Josh was looking at his own menu and it wasn't until the count of 4 that he noticed the phone, then did a double take just as the screen was fading to black.
Sarah had been prepared to quickly peer down at her own menu if Josh looked her way, but since he didn't, she figured this probably meant that he hadn't gotten a good enough look to identify her.
Roy picked up his phone, typed a message, then tossed his phone on the table so it was sideways, pointing away from Josh.
Roy: [We got a bite! Watch this.]
Since part of Sarah's message would be visible on the screen, she couldn't type nonsense like Roy was.
Sarah: [We can give you a drive if you need a designated driver.]
She didn't need the countdown this time as Josh immediately turned at the sound of the ping. However, since Roy had played with the phone angle, Josh had to crank his head to try to view the almost upside-down image.
Once again, he showed no sign of recognizing her face as he instead strained to garner details of the nude torso attached to it.
Roy replied to her message, then set his phone down carefully so it was almost lined up perfectly for Josh to view.
Roy: [Enough playing. This one is the money shot.]
Sarah took another deep breath to calm herself as she typed her next salvo.
Sarah: [Just let me know.]
She had her head down when she hit send only to look up and find Duke standing directly over Roy's left shoulder taking his order. His animated discussion on menu options faltered when Roy's lockscreen lit up, demanding 100% of his attention.
Sarah was momentarily frozen in place while her subconscious stubbornly continued the 5-second countdown. When the lockscreen expired, both Josh and Duke looked across at her. She tried to act nonchalant as she refocused on her menu but felt like she failed miserably.
Roy: [Two for one special. Lol. Just your kinda luck getting seen by Duke...he has a photographic memory.]
As Sarah typed her reply, she was aware that Josh could potentially be able to read her first half- dozen words.
Sarah: [Don't get me wrong, taking 20 food and drink orders without writing anything down is impressive. But a man with a photographic memory of boobs is nothing special.]
Once again Josh watched the lockscreen for 5-seconds before looking her way.
After the meal Levi stood up to address the team.
"We're about 3 weeks ahead of schedule on this job." he began, "As long as the weather cooperates, we should wrap up our portion on Thursday and then it'll be the paving crew's responsibility to bring it home.
"The agreement the full-time guys had with the owners was a 26-week summer program before we return to winter operations." he continued. "We have won a tender for a quick 3-week job in the la Terrace region.
"The trucks will arrive Thursday evening to float everything out of here and we'll enjoy a paid long weekend as a reward for a job well done.
"The first question for you guys: la Terrace is about an 8-hour round-trip. Do you want to come home every weekend or do we stay up and blast through it?"
After some discussion the consensus was to stay up for the duration, put in a nice leisurely 8-hours on Saturdays but take Sundays off.
"Next question: we normally hire a bunch of locals to round out the crew, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to start fresh for such a short job. Are the locals we currently have interested in coming on the road?"
As her co-workers began asking Levi questions about the arrangement, Sarah had a question that she was asking herself. Why hadn't she waited just a little bit longer before allowing Roy to "accidentally" expose her to a co-worker?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Roy asked a question.
"Is the truckers' association ok with us moving around? A decade ago, that would have led to 18 flat tires."
"They're in the same mess we are." Levi explained, "Once the industry changed to semis and belly dumps, new drivers can't afford to get into the business. Their rep told us the average age for an independent trucker up there is 63 years old. You're a member of a dying breed. If you're willing to pay them membership dues, they'll let you in."
"I'm in then." announced Roy. He then sent Sarah a short text.
Roy: [Raise your hand, you're coming too.]
Sarah winked at Roy, raised her hand, then said, "I have a few questions." earning a frustrated glare from the big man.
"Can they wait?" Levi asked. "The owners of the company want to meet with you, Vic and myself after we're done here. You'll have a lot more clarity afterwards."
Sarah nodded to Levi, then texted Roy.
Sarah: [Travel plans = TBA.]
She watched as Josh once again turned his head to drink in her body.
***************
After dinner they drove to the crew's motel for the video conference with the owners. The other operators did their best to prep Sarah for the meeting, even Josh who seemed to have recovered from the phone incident with minimal awkwardness.
The gist of what they told her was that she'd be meeting Vanessa and Charlotte. Vanessa and her late husband had inherited the dying company from his family, and her business sense is what built it into what it was today.
Their daughter Charlotte had inherited an engineering mind more akin to her father's, and she controlled the operations side of the business.
