BoreTown..the most boring place I've ever lived in. I was thoroughly disappointed in this college town, considering people in MacTown that were familiar with it ranted and raved "oh, you'll love it there!". I hated it. From the moment I pulled into my dilapidated rented trailer, I knew this wasn't going to be home for long. The fact that I had a hard time finding somewhere to live was bad enough. The trailer came through 2 days before I was released from training, and I was very appreciative that I didn't have to pay for a hotel until I found a place, but still, something just didn't quite set right with me about that whole place. I have this "sense" that tells me when something's not right, and when I get that feeling, I'm on guard instantaneously. That's why I didn't retrieve all of my things from the storage in MacTown. I got the feeling that I just needed the bare necessities: something to sleep on (I got my futon), my TV & DVD player, a few cooking utensils, and a few bathroom items; all of my other furniture and things stayed in storage, and I lived out of boxes and suitcases. I couldn't get comfortable there no matter what I tried.
The job wasn't panning out like I'd hoped, either. It didn't help that my General Manager and I majorly clashed within my first 2 months there, and I begged the corporate office to transfer me out of there as soon as possible. Allegedly there was a waiting list for a transfer that could take upwards of a year, IF anywhere became available for me to transfer to. Yeah, right, you just couldn't find any other sucker to move to this God-forsaken place, so you want me to suffer until some other poor sap comes along. There was no way I was going to make it a year in that town, nor in that store. In the mean time, I had no choice but to try to tough it out until they either transferred me, or things became so intolerable that I had to look for another job. I preferred the former, but the latter was the inevitable.
I tried my best to make lemonade out of lemons, so I hit every possible scene that could have any type of attention grab in this populated town of 7,000. Being that this was a well known college town in the state (probably half of the population was college students), it couldn't be that hard, right? WRONG! BoreTown didn't have a reputation with me for having any type of good scenery or anything geared towards someone having a successful social life, and the guys there were definitely nothing to write home about. The ones that were decent were either too young, not my type, or not single. I could see that statistical ratio, because really, no interesting, attractive, "old enough" single person would live there by choice, unless they were there for a job...such was my case (have to toot my own horn on that). BoreTown was only 2 1/2 hours from the city I had trained in (We'll call it "Suburbia"), so on my off days, I would commute to the city just to get away from that hell hole.
I was getting more and more depressed day by day. Then I met "Kinley" and "Ashton". I was at the laundrymat, and had just finished loading my clothes into washing machines when they walked in. Kinley was an older gentleman (almost old enough to be my father), and I thought Ashton to be his son. Ashton kind of put me in the mind of Ryan Dunn from Jackass (add a thinner trimmed beard, and a better build), and he was the closest thing I'd seen to hot in these parts. I was embarrassed because I looked like a hobo. I had on a faded old t-shirt, a ratty pair of shorts, some sneakers that should have been thrown away years ago, and a purple scarf (that one of my dog's got after being groomed at PetsMart) on my head. In other words, I was a complete mix-matched mess. Being that I was familiar with the pool of guys that BoreTown had to offer, I felt no need to look "presentable", especially on laundry day. Little did I know that pipeliners housed there on occasion. The first thing I did when he finished loading his clothes was look at his ring finger. No sign of committal, so I stared in my trying-not-to-stare way. Good thing I had a book with me, I could hold it up to "read", and no one would be the wiser. Kinley sat in one of the chairs, and Ashton leaned against the door frame. I put my book down in my lap, then, because it would've been too obvious what I was doing at that point. They chatted with each other for a bit, and then Kinley broke the silence:
Kinley: Hello, young lady
(I knew he was talking to me, we were the only people in the laundry mat)
Me: (looking up from my book) Hello
Kinley: How are you doing today? (he had a husky loud voice)
(Ashton just watched us quietly with his arms folded)
Me: As soon as I finish washing and get out of here, I'll be doing good. (smile) How 'bout yourself?
Kinley: Ah, just enjoying a day off, trying to get some cleaning done, then gonna try to relax. Hey, what is there to do around here besides go to the casinos?
Me: That's a good question. I've been trying to figure that out myself for the last 2 months. I just moved here with my job, so I really couldn't tell you. Sorry.
He introduced himself and told me he was from southern Oklahoma, and they were in town for the next few months laying a pipline. Ashton was his co-worker from North Carolina. Kinley and I ensued conversation, while Ashton stood there quietly, looking at me. Like I said, I was looking extremely bad, so I was self-conscious at that point, and was nervously rubbing the scarf on my head like I could smooth my hair down under it. I was glad when my washing machines stopped, but hated that I had to walk past Ashton to get to them. I smiled as I passed him, and he slightly smiled back. I tried to unload my machines in a sexy way, but let's just face it, there's no sexy way to unload a washing machine unless you're in a mini-skirt and high-heels. I loaded my clothes in the dryer, and went back to my seat. Kinley and Ashton had begn talking to each other again, so I picked my book up, pretending to read, but was really trying to listen to their conversation. General man talk. Nothing about women. Hmm. Ashton's clothes finished washing first, and he loaded his clothes in the dryer right next to mine. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, there were only 7 dryers in the laundry mat, 3 of them were broken, and I had one occupied.
I didn't know that I the dryers only dried for 10 minutes per quarter, and I'd only put .50 in, so as I was checking my clothes to see if they were dry enough to take out, Ashton came to check his clothes, too. This was the first time he'd said anything to me since he'd been there.
Ashton: (smiling at me) Are they dry yet?
(OMG his eyes are gorgeously blue)
Me: (smiling) Not quite. I think I can give them another 10 minutes
Ashton: Yeah, I think mine need a few more minutes, too. Do you have any extra quarters I can buy from you?
(I just saw him pull out a handfull of them a few minutes ago...what the heck?)
I gave him a dollar's worth, put another quarter in my dryer, picked up my book, and walked out to my truck. Something about Ashton was making me nervous. I was attracted to him, and this wasn't a good thing. "Get it together, R" I thought. There was absolutely no way anything could come of me and him, so what was my problem? I stayed in my truck listening to the radio until my clothes were done, went back in to get them (didn't bother folding them), bid the guys a good day, and left.
I didn't think I'd ever see them again, so I didn't think about Ashton anymore. I'd forgotten that I'd told Kinley where I worked, and coincidentally, 2 days later, he needed a new laptop...
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