When I walked in the front door at work there was an elegantly dressed woman behind the front desk. She greeted me with a smile and a cheery “Good morning Sarah”
I smiled back and said “Good morning to you” not wanting to give away that I had no idea who she was.
I stashed my bag in the lunch room and returned to the front counter. She did not have a company logo on her shirt and was not wearing a name tag. She looked to be in her mid 30’s. Her most striking feature was an obviously pregnant stomach, I estimated she must be in her last month. I asked her “Is Marlene about?”
“No, it will just be the two of us for most of the day. Marlene is helping set up the display at the motor show….. Now show me that ring on your finger”
I held out my left hand and she inspected the ring, she made some noises as if suitably impressed. “Have you made any wedding plans yet? We got married at ‘Duchess Winery’ it was such a lovely venue. We had 125 guests………” She was a talker and kept asking questions and gave me little time to reply.
10 minutes later, I was able to beg a toilet break. Grabbed my bag and went to the ladies. I whipped out my phone and sent a text to Sarah “Who is the pregnant chatterbox?” I took the opportunity to change pads once more. There was only the lightest pink spot. It raised my hopes that we could swap back tonight.
I was washing my hands when a reply came through “Helen, Gerard’s wife. Works Thursday – Sunday”
At last released from my ignorance I returned to the counter. Helen was over near the new Mazda 3 with a customer. None of the sales guys were around, she beckoned me over. “Sarah, allow me to introduce Linda. Could you hunt up one of the sales team so we could organise a test drive?.............. Mitch is around, maybe out in the workshop”
“Good morning Linda” I said “I won’t be long”. Mitch was the sleazy salesman who I had tried to avoid since he had trapped me in the toilet on my first day here as Sarah. However, I could not disappoint a customer, so walked out towards the workshop hoping to encounter one of the other sales staff first.
That was not to be. Mitch was looking at the engine of a vehicle with Rex one of the senior mechanics. I interrupted them to say that there was a customer who wanted a test drive and could Mitch come with me.
“Sure, anything for you Sarah. I’ll be back later Rex”
I led the way back towards the showroom. Suddenly Mitch was beside me and put his arm around me and hugged me towards him. “We got some lovely shots of you and Karen yesterday you little minx”
I was able to push away from him and trotted as fast as I could back to the showroom. Mitch followed me, no doubt leering at my wobbling bum as I tried to stay in front of him.
I slowed as I entered the room and then introduced Mitch to Linda. That allowed myself and Helen to return to the counter. I quietly asked her “Should we be letting Mitch alone with a female customer?”
“Has he been hassling you again?” She said quietly “We have never had a complaint from a customer. He seems to confine his smutty behaviour to staff”
One of the hundreds of subjects that Helen chattered about for the rest of the morning was that Gerard thought he had got some tremendous shots from the photo shoot yesterday. He was evidently off to a print shop this morning to see whether they could expand some of the better pictures into posters that they could display at the motor show.
Linda had returned from the test drive safely and Mitch told us he was confident that she would make a purchase.
After lunch Helen mentioned “I see you will be on duty with me again on Sunday at the Motor Show” This was news to me. I thought Sarah just worked Monday to Friday 8.30 to 5. However that wouldn’t be my concern, I would be back to being Zach by then. She pointed out a roster for the show on the staff room notice board. I had a closer look. It was a list of who was on duty at both the dealership and at the motor show for each day from tomorrow and over the weekend. Sarah was down to work at the dealership tomorrow whilst Marlene and Helen were at the show. Karen and someone called Denise were at the show on Saturday while Helen would be here at the dealership. On Sunday Sarah and Helen were listed to be working at the show. Oh well, not my concern.
During the afternoon the sales guys began shifting each of the new models out to the motor show which was been held at the local show-grounds. Steven informed me that our display was impressive and that we had a prominent location.
At about 3pm I answered a phone call from Marlene. She asked me to pick up some posters that printers had just completed and bring them out to the stall. I could use one of the company’s courtesy vehicles and she told me the address to pick them up from and where to find her once I was at the show grounds. As my usual job as ‘Zach’ was a delivery driver this would be a welcome change from answering the phone.
I found a vehicle and quickly arrived at the printers. As I entered the young fellow at the counter appeared to recognise me. I assumed he must have been an acquaintance of Sarah’s. I read his name tag and said “Hello Jack. I’m here to pick up some posters for Penberthy’s Mazda”
He replied “Hello Sarah, I have just finished wrapping them. They have come out very well. Would you like to take a look” He indicated to a large parcel on the bench it was about 90 x 150 cm and 2cm thick. Wrapped in brown paper.
I didn’t want to get caught up in a conversation with a friend of Sarah’s who I didn’t know, so replied “I’m in a bit of a hurry, I’m sure they are fine”
He said “It’s pretty heavy, how about I put it in your vehicle”
“It’s bigger than I thought. I will have to lower the back seat”
“I’ll help” He came, made room in the car then returned to collect the parcel which he carefully placed in the vehicle.
“Thanks again Jack” It was only once I was driving to the show grounds that I realised he may have got my name from the tag I was wearing.
It was only a 5 minute drive to the show grounds and I quickly located where Marlene suggested I park. Knowing that my currently female body might struggle with the parcel, I went into the pavilion to seek help. As I entered the large room the Mazda booth was immediately on the right in a very prominent location. The theme appeared to be “Pacific islands” with palm trees and a large thatched roof hut in the center. The display cars were spaced around the hut each under a spotlight.
Marlene and Steven were in the hut and I asked if someone could help me carry the parcel of posters inside. Steven took the keys and went to collect the posters. Marlene decided to show me around the booth. She explained that they had a bar in the hut where patrons could sit down and enjoy a refreshing drink. Near each of the cars was a smaller table with brochures and a laptop with information about the relevant vehicle. There was a large TV screen mounted on the rear wall where promotional images would be shown. Some of poster’s I had bought would be mounted in the empty wall spaces. The rest would be giveaways.
Steven came back and lay the package on the bar. Gerard had joined us and I watched as Gerard cut the wrapping to see how the posters had turned out. He removed the posters one at a time. The first 6 were of each of the car models with the dealership in the background. Gerard instructed Steven to place these in spaces against the rear and side wall. I thought two of the shots might have been ones I had taken.
The 6th photo was of me and Karen posing with the MX-5. I moved closer to have a better look. It was one of the photos taken when we were mucking around at the end of the shoot. Karen was caressing the driver’s side of the car and showing prominent cleavage. I was on the other side in a provocative pose. It appeared that I was in love with the car and was giving the camera a come hither look. The combination of sunlight and angles made me look like a playboy centerfold. It was faintly erotic. I was a bit embarrassed.
That embarrassment multiplied 10 fold when I realized the remaining stack of posters was of the same picture. No wonder Jack at the printer shop had recognized me. I realized these were the give-away posters Marlene had mentioned. Sarah will kill me I thought.
…….
I muttered something about getting back to the dealership, picked up the keys that David had placed on the bench and walked as quickly as I could back to the car. It was close to 5 by the time I was back and Helen said everything was under control. I thought I should warn Karen about the posters, her number was in Sarah’s phone. I rang to explain the situation but she seemed unconcerned. I think I did not properly emphasize how raunchy the poster was.
I took the opportunity to visit the toilet and was very happy to see no sign of blood on my pad. Once the clock had ticked past 5, I fare-welled Helen, saying that I would see her on Sunday, even though I secretly hoped I would not. It was finally time to get back into my own body.