When I get stuck going camping I get into the habit of using the showers fairly late in the morning. There are two reasons for this. It lets me sleep in and it also lets me avoid the crowds early in the morning and late in the day. Who wants to have to rush their shower because there's a crowd of women waiting for their turn? Not me.
The particular camping ground that we were staying at had separate showers for men and women rather than a communal shower with set times for each sex. A far smarter way of working it if you ask me. I strolled into the showers late one morning and noticed that the floor was a lot wetter than normal. The reason for this I spotted a moment later. A tap up against the wall was spurting water in all directions.
Being a public minded citizen, and not minding if I got wet (it was a warm day), I braved the spurting water and tried to turn off the tap. Tried, was right. The tap was theoretically off with water spurting from the joint between tap and pipe. I decided to hell with it, I'd go and have my shower and report the tap to management afterwards.
I stripped off and was heading towards my chosen shower when a masculine voice yelled out.
"Plumbers are here. Please vacate the showers so we can come in and fix a problem. We'll give you five minutes."
I just grabbed my towel and wrapped it around me. Then I yelled to the plumbers.
"There's only me here and I'm decent. Come on in."
Moments later the water went off and these two big burly men came strolling in, both of them giving me an appreciative look, not that I noticed that, of course. Why are plumbers big burly men? I've never seen a small one. Is it something about working with pipes that attracts them?
"I assume that that is your problem," I said, indicating the now non-spurting tap. "How long will it take you to fix it? It was spurting water where the pipe joins the tap."
One of the men strolled over to the tap and wiggled it from side to side.
"Hmph," he grunted. "Some clown has tried to unscrew it and left it leaking. They probably bolted when they copped a face full of water. Idiots. We'll just unscrew it, put some new tape on, and screw it back on. Five minutes."
"In that case I'll wait until you've finished and have my shower," I said with some satisfaction. It was going to be faster than going back to the caravan, guessing when they were finished, and returning.
"Suit yourself," the man said. "Get me the Stillson and some tape, Will."
The other man trotted off and returned with this whacking great wrench and a little roll of white tape. The first guy finished taking the tap off, wrapped some white tape around the thread, and screwed the tap back on by hand. I was wondering why the wrench, as he hadn't seemed to need it, when he grabbed the tap with the wrench and forced it to do another complete turn.
"That isn't coming loose next time some idiot gets mischievous," he said, giving me a wink. "Like I said, five minutes and done. Feel free to hop under the shower now."
Yeah, right, with those two watching me? In his dreams.
"That's all right," I assured him. "I'm willing to wait until you've turned the water back on."
"Water's on," announced Will. "Any leak?"
Damn it. I hadn't even seen him leave and now here he was back again.
"I had to wait until the water was back on to make sure that the leak was fixed," said the guy who'd done the work, his eyes laughing at me. "Ah, feel free to have your shower." He very generously waved me towards the waiting showers.
I was tempted to do just that, just to shock the man, but saner councils prevailed. I just smiled and waited.
He dropped the tape into a pocket on his overalls and dropped the wrench into a loop on his belt.
"I guess we'll be on our way then," he said, still smiling cheerfully.
Exactly how it happened I just did not know but he was suddenly standing right in front of me. He just took hold of the towel where I had it tucked into itself between my breasts and lifted it away. With the tuck missing the rest of the towel just naturally fell away as well and just like that I was naked. In front of two men who were once more giving me appreciative looks, and this time I certainly noticed them. I mean, really, they were standing so close to me that if they blinked their eyelashes would have been tickling me.
I didn't try to cover up. What use would it be? They'd already copped an eyeful.
"Do you mind?" I said acerbically, extending my hand for the towel.
"I don't," said the man who'd been called Will. "What about you, Ted?"
