Day two of the especially hot heat wave left the skeleton crew of Gerbert Gerbil and The Cosmic Crew in a worse predicament. Management had hoped a scheduled birthday party would break up the downturn in business. However, the guests had canceled at the last minute to transfer to the swimming pool across town. As the rest of the staff wouldn't be coming in the rest of the day that left Sandy, who was opening the kitchen, and Vinnie, who was cleaning down the party rooms, to be stuck at the store to see out the rest of their shifts.
"It feels ten degrees warmer than yesterday," Sandy complained, as the two took a break sat at one of the tables in the main dining room.
Vinnie was used to muggy conditions from living in his old man's basement. The A/C at the restaurant was on the fritz, unfortunately, as neither of them new how to activate the primary systems for the store with the mechanic as one of the lucky ones off the clock. That left most of the kids pizzeria in at low power, critical infrastructure only. The stuffiness even turned off the pothead from lighting another joint.
Vinnie had an uneven mustache and curly dark hair. The stoner was well past the chubby phase of his life, his uniform shirt and slacks beginning to cling to his skin from the humidity. The same affect was happening to Sandy as well, as Vinnie tried his best to curb his ogling...
"Why should we be penalized for going home if we already did our work?" Sandy complained, undoing the top button of her work polo shirt. Much like Vinnie, she carried most of her weight in her middle with the pizza cook's doughy stomach. Dark patches of sweat seeping through her clothes, below her rounded breasts.
Eyes darting between her shoulder and bosom, as to not be too obvious about it, Vinnie's heat addled mind was waiting to see how far Sandy might strip down to cool off in this heat. They had been getting rather chummy since he had joined the staff, thanks to the pot and munchie breaks they snuck in whenever they find some quiet time. Vinnie had to slacken his belt a few notches since working here and Sandy looking to be putting on some more weight as well. Vinnie wasn't sure what she weighed back when they first met on the job. Although accounting for height and physique differences, maybe she was close to his weight? Both looked to be around the mid-two hundreds in poundage. Anything that wasn't going to the brunette's belly looked to add plumpness to her chest and hips. In this heat she might strip down to her brassiere, maybe her panties, and Vinnie would catch a glimpse of her stretch marks...
"You did finish cleaning the party room, right Vinnie?" Sandy asked, snapping him out of the private fantasy. She had undone the buttons of her polo but the shirt was still on.
"Huh?" Vinnie coughed, catching himself. "Yeah, I had." Two-thirds had been mopped by the time Sandy and Vinnie had taken the call on the party cancelation. The cook had a prepared cake batter mold and pre-made pizzas awaiting the oven when the event was called off. It wasn't like either of them were going to report the other for unfitted work when there was no longer a purpose for the orders and they still have five hours until they could punch off their time cards.
"It's way too hot to do anything," Sandy sighed, oblivious to Vinnie's snuck glances. "It would be nice to have our own chance to go to the pool. Or anything to cool down with."
A minute passed between them before Vinnie thought of the idea. "Are the characters still active on backup power?"
Sandy blinked, as they both reached the same conclusion. "You know, they might because corporate always slates expenses in the direction of the animatronics. Which could mean more milkshakes..."
A brief investigation backstage showed that the animatronics were on backup power when Sandy tested Moolia's switch. "Ready for dessert?" the character said at the start of her milkshake dispensing mode.
Two rich, creamy chocolate shakes apiece for the contract stuck laborers and both Vinnie and Sandy were feeling a little cooler. That soon ended when an indicator bulb on the back of Moolia indicated her tank was empty.
"We have to remember to top her off before tomorrow," Sandy said, having served in this job the longest.
"Where does her tank get refilled?" Vinnie asked.
"There's that little station around the corner from the freezer," Sandy explained, which gave her a new idea. "Hell, if we're the ones stuck here to ride out our shifts, making sure Moolia is filled up on shake mix means we have to stay cool as well, right?"
This scheme went over the mustached, pot-brain's head.
"We could cool off with some of the ice cream treats in the freezer," Sandy said. "I could even finish baking that cake layer and we could have ourselves an ice cream cake!"
"Sounds fun," Vinnie scratched his chin, regarding the alien cow with the empty tank indicator. "How exactly do we do that?"
Sandy was sure there had to been instruction manuals for the animatronics, and thus Moolia's dispensing functions, somewhere either in backstage or parts & services. After a few minutes it was discovered that while the animatronics could be active during the restaurant's low power settings, they needed to be moved manually. The quest for Sandy and Vinnie to stay cool much have just gotten harder.
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