Pokies at Lunch With Linh and the Gang (Part 2)

Social Club Bargains

HIH has a Social Club to which you only pay two dollars extra per fortnight. Not only do you get cheaper rates on all the events they book up but you get first choice of what they would call garage sales. In one advertisement, I read that they were giving away free Fax Machines and in another, free Polaroid Cameras. So, you can see why I was intrigued to enter the Social Club but as yet, I haven’t decided upon the conclusive decision yet.

Jonas Has a Birthday

When the morning mail was complete I started work on a brief which was complete within the hour and from that, the rest of my day was spent upon filing and sending out of briefs. Grabbing a brief for an update, I headed out to the kitchen to get some photocopies and met Jonas there. Greeting him with a handshake I sat there and talked to him as he told me about his grand finals on the weekend for soccer. Just as demure as myself, it wasn’t until some other guy walked into the room uttering “We’re going to get you shattered at lunch today and we’ll have to give you twenty punches” that I realized it was Jonas’s birthday.

“Hey is today your birthday” I asked him as he looked over in the corner of his eyes, smiled and nodded his head. You know, I would never head to work if I was having a birthday on a weekday. Sure you get your two hour lunch, a cake and a happy birthday song but I’d rather be away from work and doing my own thing. Despite my words, I know that after my day of leisure away from work, I’ll probably get that treatment the very next day.

When Jonas left the kitchen area Linh popped up to get some photocopying done. The funny thing about Linh, Gawain and most other people throughout level two is that they don’t dominantly use one photocopier. To Linh, the photocopier in the kitchen is well away from where he has to work yet he goes there frequently to churn it through. The same goes with Gawain who uses our little photocopier, probably to chat with Blythe and Anneliese as he always does.

Matthias Stirs a Lunch Fight

Anyway, as Linh and I were talking about having lunch together, he told me about his experiences at lunch on Monday with Thao, Rhett and Matthias. Finding themselves seats up in the smoking section of the HMV Food Court, they were all surprised by a lady’s curt words sitting across on the next table. Brazen enough to ask “Can you please stop smoking, it annoys me” Linh and the rest of them just looked at each other baffled.

They had all the right to smoke as they were in the smoking section and as the lady’s friend giggled to her request, Linh got pissed off when seeing her light up a smoke soon after. The bitch to my liking was playing a game as now with a smoke in her mouth she told them again to stop smoking. “Why don’t you go get fucked bitch” Matthias voiced.

Much to her stunned face she turned around and said “What did you say” and capping it off he uttered “What, do you want me to say it right to your face” and staring her right in the eyes he repeated his uncivil but called for words. During our stay at the photocopier to which we worked and chatted, Najla also made her trek down to get some photocopies.

Left Behind at Lunch

The both of them found leverage to speak with each other and again, when heading back to our desks, Najla had a couple of curious questions to ask about Linh, nothing in particular, just out of the blue. How obvious is her intrigue in this guy. This Catholic girl who is set to get engaged with her three year running boyfriend and who is midway through buying land to build a house in the future. Despite that, as I was leaving the kitchen, Linh and I made a pact of having lunch together which sounded alright to me.

Skipping now to my having lunch at midday, a minute or two late, I headed downstairs to meet with the rest of them. Continuing dubiety has been growing for a while now regarding their acceptance of me into their group and it had me thinking on Tuesday. Somehow, I just didn’t think that they wanted me around their group and by their facial remarks, I figured they just wanted me to phase out. Although I was late by a minute or two and they left early I felt left out when I noticed them almost turning the corner of Kent Street on their way to lunch.

Contemplating on just heading to Circular Quay for lunch to sit with my somber mood, I chose against it and made quick haste to catch up with them. Silent until I caught up with them, Rhett looked at me and uttered “Hey, we forgot about you” to which Linh and Thao had their usual stunned-mullet expressions. On Tuesday I did feel a touch intimidated of being there but I’ve now learnt after the next three days at work that I do have acceptance into their little group.

Smokes and Food Court

Progressing up towards the food court in HMV we bought our selective dishes and headed up in the smoking section. Apart from making cracks about the two girls from Monday, Linh kept talking about his motorbike and how he’s getting out a loan which is in finalization for nine grand. There wasn’t much doing except for a hot girl that I noticed sitting in one of the booths, chatting with her friend.

There’s not too much I can remember about her that my memory hasn’t sustained or my words already haven’t endeared in other women but I’ll just say that she was a hot, light brown haired Italian or Lebanese girl with slender, long fingers. You all know how much I love long fingers on women, that and perfectly smooth palms to die for. Anyway, after lunch at the food court and a quick smoke by them all we made our way back to work.

Pokies With Linh

Having a couple of minutes to spare, Linh figured that we should make an appearance into the pub just down the street from our work so we could say hello to Jonas. Figuring that there would be a heap of people there celebrating his birthday, we all looked around to a quiet surrounding thinking “Where’s the party”. From the corner of our eye’s we saw Jonas sitting with one lady friend from work, just as we were about to walk back out.

Everyone said hello to Jonas and as Thao stayed to chat, the rest of us headed down stairs in a binged craving to play the pokies. Now this boy has a stroke of luck each time he plays the pokies, either that or I’m his lucky charm. Placing five dollars into the machine, he had no luck but in his last five dollars he pulled off something I had never come across again.

To my surprise, after expressing the vibe I had that Linh would get three pyramids on the next go, such luck happened and he received fifteen three turns. Sitting back and watching his luck pile up, we were all surprised and dirty to the fact that his free spins weren’t winning him shit. Only up by one dollar and three more spins to go I uttered “I can feel another couple of free turns in the second last spin” and sure enough, to our disbelief, four pyramids turned up within the five lines.

Not only did Linh receive another fifteen free spins but his winnings were multiplied by five instead of doubled. Linh still didn’t have any luck in gaining big money but he did get it up to $25 to which he lost it all by betting large amounts. “Alright, play it down to twenty dollars” Rhett said and when he exceeded that with his big bets he said “Play it down to $15 and we’ll go”.

Linh was just looking for some more luck as he played the bigger bet but making his way to zero credits, he didn’t win shit. Linh wasn’t disheartened as we walked out, noting that it was only $25, nothing much at all. Heading outside to watch them all have one more smoke, we caught the elevator up to level two and said goodbye as we parted ways.