I strolled in the door at about five minutes to six and saw Katie sitting behind the counter reading a magazine looking bored as hell.
"That bad huh?" I offered as I went through the lobby of the ice cream store toward the backroom. Kate just shot me a look and dramatically flipped the page of her magazine.
"Look on the bright side, you get to catch up on your reading," I shouted as I walked through the "employees only" door, knowing I would not get any response beyond an eyeroll.
I picked up the daily log to see how bad the numbers were and walked through the backroom to the service area behind the counter with Katie. Katie was sitting on a stool by the cash register, wearing an oversized gray hooded sweatshirt and a pair of short khaki shorts as she leafed though a Cosmo.
"Amy call in?" I asked.
"She went to have dinner with Chris. Should be in soon," Katie mumbled without looking up from the "How to satisfy your man quiz".
I was in between junior and senior year of college and working nights at Avery's Ice Cream. I'd been working there since it opened five years earlier and the brothers that owned the place had made me the night manager shortly after I started. Katie had been working there since we opened. When she was first hired and was sixteen, she was cute and sassy but nothing to write home about. I'd kept my eye on her over the last two years since there was an obvious attraction. Katie had always had a good personality, was a hard worker but mostly I liked that she could give it as well as she could take it. The flirtations had always been there but escalated this summer especially after one of her friends let it drop that she had a huge crush on me. It also didn't hurt that she really came into her body over the last year. While the uniform white t-shirt and khaki shorts allowed me a pretty good view of all the girls that worked there, most of the girls wore sports bras underneath for work. I really got to check Katie out a week before when she left work early to go to a party and changed into a tank top and jean shorts that really showed offer her C-cup tits and tight ass. I was replaying the thought of seeing her bounce out of the store that night while I attended to paperwork in the backroom.
I was working days with a landscaping crew and nights at the ice cream store to put together my college money and was burning the candles at both ends so I didn't have too much time to socialize and the girls I worked with at the store were the females I interacted with the most those days.
"I'm going across the street for a red bull. You want anything?" I asked Katie as I rounded back into the serving area.
She turned with a mischevious grin and took $15 out of the tip jar and slapped it on the counter.
"Tea or lemonade?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Katie smirked, "Lemonade please."
My management style had become pretty lax and I frequently bought the girls booze from the mini-mart across from the ice cream store. The girls liked the danger of a little buzz and it served as a bond between me and the girls I worked with. I grabbed the cash and headed out into the July drizzle that was keeping our clients away. By the time I got back Amy had arrived.
Amy was one of Katie's best friends. Amy was a cute, dark skinned brunette who was really short but had really long hair. Amy was the hippie chick you saw at a phish show wearing the hemp dress that made you wonder if she was knocked up but was clearly stoned and spinning around in a circle. She did not really fit the mold of the girls the owners usually hired (blond, perky, cute) but got the job because Katie recommended her.
I slid the six pack of hard lemonade across the counter and they both smiled, batted their eyes at me and crooned, "Thanks Charlie."
"Anytime angels."
By the time I got back around to the service counter they had unloaded half of the sixer into three cups. I started going though the close down procedures as the girls chatted about graduation parties and bullshit.
"A little early for that, isn't it?" said Katie as I cleaned out one of the ice cream machines.
"You said we haven't had a customer since four, even if the rain breaks its barely 60 degrees out there. Might as well get everything ready so we can walk out at 11," I said as I removed the screwnuts that held the faceplate on the ice cream machine.
The girls went back to chatting.
"Bill is probably going to call and tell me to cut one or both of you since its so slow..."
Amy chimed right up, "Chris is getting off at 9 anyway so I don't care."
"Can one of you girls grab my nuts for me?" It was my go to innuendo when I was cleaning out the ice cream makers. Both girls let it go past with more than a passing glance. Like clockwork the boss called in.
I gave him the rundown that we had no business and he told me to cut Amy. I hung up and let the girls know.
Amy chugged the last of her hard lemonade and said "I'm getting out of here before Charlie makes any more nut jokes".
Amy skipped out the door and blew a kiss to Katie. Katie jumped off the stool and stripped off her sweatshirt.
"If we get everything done early, can we shut down at 10?" she asked.
"Why got a hot date?" I fired back without even looking back from cleaning out the ice cream machine.
"Yeah. Jealous?"
"Not at all, kid. Actually I should give the poor bastard twenty bucks for taking one for the team," I said as I turned my neck to grin at her.
Katie had taken her Avery's baseball hat off and undone her pony tail. Her dirty blond hair fell to her shoulders as she restocked the supply counter.
She gave me the middle finger without looking at me and replied, "Suck it."
I pulled the ice cream blades out of the machine and lugged them back into the back room to the utility sink for the nightly scrub down. A few minutes later Katie came through to get more backroom supplies. Even with the sports bra, that all of the girls had taken to wearing under their t-shirts, her tits had a great bounce to them. I watched her ass as she reached up for a re-stock of cups.
As she walked back toward the front section I called out, "Katie, I've got my hands full can you handle my nuts?" She came back carrying the four screwnuts in her hand and smiling.
"You wish I would handle your nuts."