Chapter 39 #2
I suppose whacking something with a hammer for a photo opportunity is the least I can do for the woman after she gave me a job.
Plus, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.
I can’t seem to find my friends, and my housemates, well, perhaps I should be making an effort to avoid them if anything.
Si is busy talking with other grown-ups and is yet to even acknowledge that I’m here, and Adam is busy being introduced to people as the host of the festival.
I’m just wandering around on my own, trying to avoid the lovely Lorraine because I’m not sure I’d be quite so reserved if we interacted again.
Grabbing my compact mirror from my handbag, I touch up my lip gloss and make sure my curls haven’t dropped too much in the wind. Meh, I’ll do.
‘Lia,’ Kerry calls over, ‘we’re ready for you.’
As I wander over to the makeshift building site, I adjust my short-shorts to make sure they’re not riding up, and I double-check each button on my shirt to make sure they’re all still fastened – the last thing I need right now is a wardrobe malfunction.
‘This is Chuck,’ Kerry tells me as she gestures towards a muscular man wearing a hard hat.
Despite his work-appropriate headgear, Chuck looks a bit like what I imagine a builder stripper would look like – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was one.
He’s wearing cut-off jeans and his shirt is tied around his waist, with a smear of fake blood on one cheek that I’m fairly sure is meant to be Halloween-themed but mostly makes him look like he missed his mouth when he ate a hotdog (we’ve all been there), and while he’s probably a little older than Adam, he could certainly give him a run for his money in the six-pack department.
‘Hello, darling,’ Chuck says in his strong East London accent.
‘Hi,’ I reply. ‘You’re not from round here, are you?’
‘I’m not, what gave me away?’ he jokes.
‘It’s those muscles,’ I say flirtatiously as I prod one of his biceps with a finger. ‘We don’t get men that hot around here.’
Chuck laughs as he rubs his stubbly chin.
‘This is our Lia,’ an amused Kerry explains – I’d forgotten she was watching. ‘Give her something impressive to do for a photo op.’
‘I can think of a few things,’ Chuck whispers as Kerry wanders off.
As the photographer gets ready, a crowd of people accumulate around us, just waiting for us to do something interesting.
‘Be gentle,’ I tease. ‘I’m just a girl.’
‘Here.’ Chuck takes off his hard hat. ‘You can wear this.’
‘Is that necessary?’
‘No, but I bet you’ll look sexy in it.’
As he pops the hat on my head, I realise that both Adam and Si are in the crowd of people watching us.
Si is in a smart coat and scarf, looking like a man who would rather be anywhere else, while Adam is holding a beer and trying very hard to look as if he isn’t watching.
Considering Adam has been putting all his effort into trying to make me jealous these past few days, and Si has been positively frosty with me, I don’t suppose it will do either of them any harm to see me flirting with Chuck.
‘Here.’ Chuck picks up a drill and hands it to me. ‘You can do some work on the frame.’
‘Yikes!’ I squeak as I take the drill and realise it’s really heavy. ‘I can hardly hold this thing, are you sure it’s safe for me to do this?’
Chuck leans in close to whisper to me.
‘Don’t worry, you’re not really doing anything,’ he reassures me. ‘This is just for the photos – the toilets are actually going here.’
I feel instantly relieved that I won’t be doing any actual work, but nerves sweep over me again as the crowd grows and Lorraine takes up the spot next to Si. That’s three pairs of evil eyes on me now.
‘Ready whenever you are,’ the photographer instructs me, but I struggle to hold the drill high enough.
‘Don’t you have a smaller tool? This one is too big for my tiny, girly hands,’ I say, instantly realising how rude that sounded.
‘That’s what they all say,’ Chuck jokes. ‘We’ll do it together.’
Chuck stands behind me, so close his body is pressed up against my back, and he puts his arms around me and his hands on mine to support the weight of the drill.
‘How’s that?’ he whispers into my ear.
‘Not bad,’ I joke, but I can feel my cheeks getting warm because I can see Si, Lorraine and Adam all staring at me.
As we start drilling at absolutely nothing in particular, I can’t help but giggle. The drill is so powerful I can feel my entire body shaking; if it wasn’t for Chuck, I’d be drilling my way to New Zealand by now.
The photographer snaps a couple of photos and it’s over in an instant.
‘Thank you for your help,’ I tell Chuck as I hand him his hard hat back – hopefully it didn’t do too much damage to my hair.
‘You’re welcome,’ he replies. ‘If you—’
‘Excuse me,’ Si interrupts us. ‘I just need to borrow Lia for a moment.’
‘No worries,’ Chuck replies as he watches Si drag me away from the crowd.
‘Lia—’
‘Oh, so you are still talking to me,’ I interrupt.
‘Lia, look, Mum asked me to have a word with you, she said you were rude to her.’
‘I was rude to her?’ I reply.
‘Yeah, and I don’t think wearing an outfit like that, and flirting with a builder, is doing much to impress her either,’ he adds.
I glance down at my haunted cowgirl get-up. I’m not actually flashing that much skin. Sure, you can see my legs, but only as much as you’d expect considering I’m wearing shorts, and my shirt covers me; it’s not like my bra is on show.
‘Well, it’s a Halloween party, so I came dressed up,’ I remind him. ‘And my boss wanted people to “do work” for photo ops, and no one else wanted to, so she talked me into it. This is a fundraiser, not a porno.’
‘I know,’ he starts, but I don’t let him finish.
‘And I’m not trying to impress her – why would I be trying to impress her?’
‘It’s just, you know, we’re all living in her house, technically,’ he says. ‘If she speaks to you again, will you be nice?’
I grit my teeth for a moment, and then I smile.
‘Sure,’ I say sweetly.
With my champagne buzz wearing off and a few hours still to go, there’s only one thing for it… Time to prop up the bar.