This follows on from Harry Herrick's Naked Summer. It's best, though not essential, to start there.
Working for Ellen
Summer couldn't last for ever, and by the middle of September, most of my friends were at University. Judith and Stuart had settled into what was pretty much a conventional marriage. I was now 20 and my parents were understandably sick of me sitting around doing nothing, although that 'nothing' had been pretty exhausting. They gave me an ultimatum -- if I wasn't going to University I had to get a job.
To be fair, I had got a job in a local estate agency, but lost it again when the owner's son dropped out from his own University course. He got priority, although I don't think he was too pleased. The alternative was the local chicken factory, so he didn't take long to decide. So, I had to start looking again. I could have gone to the chicken factory too, but it didn't appeal to me either. If I had gone there, I suspect my life would have ended up rather differently.
So, I went job-hunting. Having spent most of the summer naked, it was a bit odd to have to wear clothes and meet normal people. In the end, Colin, the one who had promised me the job in the first place, found me something at another agency. It was however in a different town, there was no suitable bus service and it was too far to go on a push bike. If I took it up I would have to live there, but it didn't really pay enough for me to afford it.
I was wandering around the place, trying to decide what to do, when I saw a job advertised in a local cafe, for weekend staff and went in to enquire. I was surprised to recognise the woman in charge. The last time I had seem her she was lying in a drunken sleep on my bed, leaking my cum from her cunt. It was Ellen, my mum's friend. I expected to be sent packing, but she didn't, telling me to wait at a table in the corner.
After her divorce, Ellen had really hit the bottle. I think her jumping me had been the point at which she realised she had to get control of her life. She'd cleaned up her act, lost a lot of weight and made a new start with this job. I know she still kept in touch with Mum, but nothing beyond that.
Once she had dealt with her customer she took off her apron and sat at the table with me, while her assistant took over. I explained about the job offer and the need for more money to cover rent. She asked me a few questions about myself and what I had been studying, what I planned for the future.
"I need to take on more staff, because we've just got an alcohol licence and we'll be opening three nights a week as a cafe-bar. Angie over there is going to take on the management of those nights, I've got enough staff for the cafe, but we urgently need someone for the bar. I want a man for it because all the other staff are female. I'm not looking for a bouncer, but someone young and fit like you would be an asset even so."
"You won't be waiting tables, just serving behind the bar. You are bright and numerate so that side of it shouldn't be a problem. Interested?"
"Yes, but I can't start until I find somewhere to live."
"Not a problem. Angie is moving in with her boyfriend at the weekend. At the moment she rents my spare room upstairs. You can have that if you want, at least until you find a place of your own. Don't worry, I won't cramp your style. Angie's boyfriend often stays over."
"Come on, it will stop your Mum worrying, if you are staying with me." She paused. "I never told her what happened you know. I just said you'd helped me upstairs to sleep it off on your bed. I said you'd been very kind. That was true anyway."
I hadn't expected her to bring that up. In the few times we had met since, she had acted as if nothing had ever happened. In fact I had wondered if she even remembered, although the leaking cum would surely have been a hint.
"From what I hear, you would do a better job these days."
I looked at her in surprise.
"I know you spent much of the summer shagging Ann Wilson -- and probably her mother too. Then after that you seem to have worked your way through half the available girls in town."
I must have looked shocked at this. I thought I had been discreet but if she knew, did my parents? How far had knowledge of my summer escapades spread, I wondered.
"Don't worry. If your Mum had heard, she would have talked about it with me. She knows the problems I had with Joe and Alice and would want to know how I handled it."
Joe and Alice were her children. They were twins a couple of years older than me. Joe had by all account got the Head's daughter pregnant causing quite a stir in our small town. For a time Alice had succumbed to drugs and ended up in hospital. With that and her husband running off with a woman half his age it wasn't surprising that Ellen had briefly cracked under the strain.
"How is Alice doing now?
"She's doing well. She has everything under control and is in her second year of training to be a Mental Health nurse. She has a lovely boyfriend who's on the same course. I worry of course, but I think she's going to be OK. Joe though has got another girl pregnant. He seems a bit more committed to this one, but we'll see."
"That's why I was worried about you though. I expected one of those girls to end up pregnant, but you were either very lucky or very sensible."
"I'll be honest, at first I was lucky, then realised the risks for everyone and started being sensible."
"I am sorry about what happened with us Harry. I wish it had been different."
"Don't worry. You were under a lot of stress at the time."
She grinned broadly.
"You misunderstand me. I'm sorry I was drunk yes, but only because I was too drunk to do it properly."
I sat back stunned.
"Don't worry. I won't try to jump you in the bottle store. I'm sure you don't want an old woman like me anyway."
"Don't put yourself down, Ellen."
"Are the stories about you and Judith true? Did you go with them on the honeymoon?"
I laughed at that.
"No I didn't, and I'm not going to say anything else about her, or Stuart. They are still my friends and I don't gossip about friends."
"Anyway, are you going to take the job?"
"I will. I'll have to go back to the agency to sort things out with them. Can I come back here afterwards to sort the rest out?
"Of course."
The agency was only around the corner, so it didn't take long, with a start date of a weeks time. That tied in well with the room becoming available too. I went back to the cafe. They were just cleaning up after the last customers. Once that was done, Ellen took me upstairs to see the room, while Angie locked up, bringing the cash from the till upstairs.
The room was surprisingly large with ample room for a double bed, a wardrobe and some drawers. In the bay window was a table on which I was delighted to see a small watercolour painting.
"You are a painter, Angie? So am I!"
"I'm sorry but I'm taking the table. I bought it to use as a work surface and I'm moving it to our new place."
"No problems, I'll put my easel there."
We talked some more and worked out the practicalities of moving in, the rent (peanuts compared to what I expected to pay) and a start date.
"If you can start on Monday, before the bar opens, we can train you on the till and things during the day, then when the bar opens in a couple of weeks you will be up and running."
"I won't have anywhere to stay though. Angie will still be here."