Above It All

Hilda stormed behind the bar as the bikers laughed and rolled with her ultimatum. She began charging people for beers, then giving them a glass of ice, everyone one of Derek's orders miraculously was changed to a shot of spit, even when she did feel like serving alcohol it was the oldest stuff she could find where she had to brush the dust if the lid just to get the bottle open. The whole time the façade of her anger became weaker as she swum in a reminder of her former life of humiliation.

"Pint of beer please, Hilda." Derek requested. Hilda gave him a wine glass filled with bar nuts, lemon juice and Irish cream. "You know the moment you lighten up the banners come down right?"

"I'm sorry I didn't realise you just wanted me to lighten up. I mean if you wanted a smile on my face all you had to do was ask... and take the banners down... and kill yourself." Hilda snarled.

"How about another wager? That's how you ended up on the banner, maybe that's how you can come off it." Those words caught the attention of the bar while Hilda considered it. "We want you to lighten up, so how about you smile? If you can smile for one hour I'll take these banners back to my place and burn them, I'll even let you delete the pictures off my computer so I can't make more."

"What's the downside?" Hilda sceptically asked.

"If at any point you stop smiling or raise your voice at us, tomorrow you do your shift wearing that outfit from the photoshoot." Hilda thought this bet through, she thought about once again exposing herself, not as an anonymous blonde but as herself for everyone to see, she even noticed the obvious trap that Derek had laid for her in the way he phrased her punishment and didn't care. Hilda once again felt a spark of a long lost thrill and agreed.

"Fine, I'll smile for the next hour and you destroy the banners and all the photos from my photoshoot. Ground rules: I am allowed to stop smiling to deal with people breaking bar rules, so no starting a fight, trying to steal, that sort of stuff. Me not smiling will have to be confirmed by the bar's CCTV, don't worry I will stay in view of it. If I win the banners are destroyed and the photos deleted tonight, no waiting around. If I lose..." Hilda took a deep breath at the thought of it, "no photos, no videos, no touching, and the CCTV gets deleted at the end of the night."

"Alright, also if I win you have to bartend to the best of your ability while in the outfit, no skulking behind the bar or being mean to us." Derek replied shaking Hilda's hand. Hilda immediately plastered a smile across her face.

"It's now 10:17, at 11:17 the bet is over." She cheerily announced. "Now get the fuck out of my face, I have people to serve."

Hilda spent the next hour deeply unnerving some of her regular customers, her face, her tone, even her mannerisms were of someone happy. But the words she said and the actions she took were still that of someone full of rage and wrath. Similarly everyone willing her to fail the bet was doing whatever they could to wind her up. Some asked her about how she was going to feel with a whole bar staring at her tits, some took the time to remind her of the photoshoot that got her in this situation, some even goaded that there was no way she was going to emerge from this with her dignity intact. They had no idea that such comments were actually helping Hilda keep a smile on her face.

Hilda had considered giving the bet her all, maybe even winning just to prove a point. But knowing what was ahead of her if she failed, there was no way she could live with letting an opportunity like this slip her by. She looked at the clock and saw the time slipping away, if she was going to fail this task she had to find a believable way to do it soon.

Her whole body thrummed as she had an idea, her legs already seemed weak and seemed to go into slow motion as she deliberately stepped on an errant ice cube on the floor behind the bar. Her foot immediately slipped out from under herself and she felt the world tumble around her as she fell to the floor.

"Ahh, motherfucker." Hilda angrily yelled.

"Well I don't know about you fellas, but I reckon that don't look like a big smile on Hilda's face." Derek announced to the bar.

"Oh come on Derek, I just ate shit behind the bar, surely that doesn't count."

"Don't remember there being a shit eating exemption. Looks like you got a new work uniform for tomorrow." Derek explained with a big grin on his face. Hilda met his eyes and for a moment they shared an understanding that they both knew that there was no other way this could have turned out.

...

Hilda sat in her car outside Big Mike's, she could see every parking space full of motorbikes, word of her lost bet had clearly spread like wildfire. She took a deep breath to calm her raging heartbeat and got out of the car.

The bar erupted into cheers as she entered, she did her best angrily ignoring act, and walked up to Derek to say what she knew she had to say to feign victimhood.

"Alright I'm here, where's the bikini?" She saw Derek's grin widen and she knew she had just sprung his incredibly obvious trap, but nonetheless had to act surprised.

"Why would I bring that?"

"Because I lost the bet last night and now I have to bartend in it, I know you just got a pile of cockroaches where your brain should be but I would have thought you would remember our bet."

"The bet was that if you lost you had to do a shift wearing the same outfit you wore during the photoshoot." He explained walking over to the banner. "As we never specified which one I figured it was dealer's choice, so I choose that you wear the outfit in this photo." He pointed at one of the photos of Hilda stark naked, her parts only covered by the proximity of a motorbike.

"That's not what we meant and you know it!" Hilda yelled performatively.

"Hilda Grimsdottir, you're not a welch are you?" Derek asked accusingly, knowing those exact words and the reactions it spurred from a bar full of bikers would silence any thoughts of disobedience. Hilda walked behind the bar, poured herself a shot of whiskey to calm her nerves, then began stripping off her clothes as the bar cheered her on.

The top came off pretty easily, letting everyone get a view of her black bra. Next were her trousers, she enjoyed letting the patrons get in a mocking laugh at her for struggling to take them off while she still had her shoes and socks on. Eventually the whole mess of clothes and footwear formed a pile on the floor as Hilda faced the bar in her bra and kickers. The bar began to chant 'off, off, off' while Hilda shuddered and hesitated.

She was at the threshold of a degrading exposure, hesitation was part of the act but it was also a chance to savour the moment. Hilda unclipped her bra, then copying a move from her stream she lifted it up, letting the fabric raise up her breasts before releasing them so they bounced out. As the cheers rose she bent behind the bar, drawing her audience to lean closer to try and look over the taps and glasses as she pulled down her knickers, then rose up again to show the bar her total glory.

"Alright, which of you dirty pervs wants a drink!" She yelled. Derek, being good to his word, quickly jumped behind the bar to use the chalkboard to write the pre-approved ground rules, 'no photos, no videos, no touching.'

Hilda grasped the tap firmly to control her shaking hands with each pint she pulled. Each biker who came to the bar looked her up and down and she shuddered in the totality of her exposure. Every shift from now on she would be serving people who she knew had seen her totally naked, who knew she knew they had seen her naked. She was totally at their mercy, showing herself off for their entertainment, degrading herself and getting nothing in return.

Derek was obviously the man of the hour, for the rest of the night he didn't have to buy a drink or lift a finger. Every so often Hilda would have to wander the bar, collecting up the empty glasses and giving everyone an unfettered view of her naked body, and when she did so she would give Derek the most withering glare she could manage while deep down thanking him for making this happen.

"...and a pint for Derek, he got you good Hilda." A large biker drooled while unashamedly staring at her breasts.

"He didn't get me good, I slipped on an ice cube and then he cheated." Hilda huffed in the same way she had huffed for everyone else at the bar that night.

"You fucked up and now everyone's staring at you tits. Although don't think it has gone unnoticed that you shave yourself down there."

"Well I thought I was going to be wearing a skimpy bikini and didn't want to embarrass myself." Hilda explained, lying on both accounts.

"Well, you get a nice tip from me nonetheless. Let me know if you want to earn some more on top of that." He carried away his beers and gave Hilda a wink as she shuddered at the thought of letting him have his way with her.

"Two beers and a bottle of coke please Hilda." The next biker requested. Early on the bikers had noticed that the coke was in the fridge at the back of the bar, and so for Hilda to reach it she had to turn away from them and bend over. After that realisation a lot of bottles of coke were being added to orders. Hilda pulled two taps of beer to run then turned her back and bent over so the man could watch her debase herself just for a coke. "Nice, you should do this more often."

"If it wasn't for that fucking ice cube I wouldn't have to show an inch of flesh in this place."

"Whatever torpedo tits. You know what, make that two bottles of coke."

It would be a couple of hours of non-stop demeaning comments and degrading exposure before Derek deigned to return to the bar to see how Hilda was doing.

"Hey dickhead, enjoying your luck."

"Every drop of it." Derek replied with a big smile.

"You know only shitty people have good luck. That's a fact. I've never seen a lottery winner didn't turn out to be an asshole."

"I've only seen the one asshole today." Derek quipped, making Hilda once again shudder with humiliation.

"And yet I've seen two pussies." Hilda shot back. "You know you cheated to win and then you used weasely words to get me naked." Derek looked around, noticing that although a lot of eyes were on them, nobody was nearby, he gestured Hilda close to whisper into her ear.

"I've never seen you slip on an ice cube before, and I know you're not stupid enough to not notice the trick with the outfit. After our photoshoot you don't have to pretend you're not enjoying yourself. Give the word and I'll give you more fun and not tell a soul."

Hilda shuddered, harder and deeper than any comment on her exposed body or degraded status had made her shudder that night. Derek knew her deeper and more intimately than anyone else, and he was playing with her perversion like a child plays with a pet. He didn't want anything for himself except the status of being the one who took Hilda down a peg and the joy of knowing he could do it again at any time.

"Do it." Hilda whispered, barely believing what her traitorous mouth had said.

"Oh!" Derek yelled, backing away to address the bar, which immediately descended into silence at his exclamation. "I want witnesses to this, Hilda just said she's willing to go double or nothing." A hush fell over Big Mike's as all eyes turned to Hilda.

"You know if it wasn't for that fucking ice cube I wouldn't be here. So yeah, I want another go." Hilda yelled, playing along.

"Very well, if you can keep a smile on your face and not raise your voice until closing time at 2am, I'll get rid of all the banners and the photos on them. But if you can't, if another ice cube slithers it's way underneath you, I reckon same time tomorrow only with a cleaner chalk board."

"Derek it's been a long night and I'm tired of you speaking around the bush, state your terms plainly, like a human."

"Fine, if you can't keep a smile on your face, you do another shift naked tomorrow, only without the 'no photos, no videos, no touching' rules." Derek explained.

"No fucking way." Hilda instinctively reacted.

"I thought you said you could easily keep a smile on your face." Derek goaded. Hilda knew this was all theatre but still had to play her role.

"Alright, but if I win you also give me a grand, think of it as a modelling fee, and nobody is fucking me without my permission." Hilda replied, sweetening the pot to protect her status before shaking Derek's hand and going back to work.

Hilda had thought that her treatment so far had been pretty degrading, but upon hearing about the new bet the bar went into overdrive trying everything they could to get her smile to fade.

"Hey banana flapjacks, stop thinking about cocks for a moment and waddle that flabby ass over here, I need a drink." A man yelled.

"Coming right up sir." Hilda cheerfully replied, skipping over to him with a genuine smile.

"Nevermind, I'll probably catch crabs from any beer you pour." He dejectedly replied. If anything Hilda found the anger at her cheerfulness almost as enjoyable as the smiling whore persona she had affected.

"So do your parents know how big a whore their daughter turned out to be?" A more drunk man slurred from the corner of the bar.

"They don't know I'm serving drinks naked tonight if that's what you mean."

"Well if that pretty smile fades, I'm going to make sure they know. I'm going to take pictures and videos, I'm going to put them up all over the internet, I'll even print out a couple and post them to your dad's law firm. I'm going to make you famous."

"Looking forward to it." She replied, grinning the whole time, drinking in her humiliation and their frustration at how far she had fallen. The man dejectedly took a handful of ice and threw it on the floor at her feet before walking off.

"I think you're enjoying this." A different biker yelled, clearly not believing his words but trying to get a rise out of Hilda. "I think you are a depraved whore and you love everyone staring at your pointy tits and loose cunt."

"Don't forget my ass." Hilda chirped as she continued pouring pints with a smile on her face.

Both the clientele and Hilda were beginning to wonder what it would take to wipe the smile off her face, they were throwing everything they could at her and she was simply enjoying herself too much. Time was moving on and Hilda was starting to wonder if she would actually win the bet. Maybe tonight could be the seed of an idea, planted in the minds of the bikers and harvested at a later date. As she listened to another man give a play by play breakdown of all the ways her body was both disgusting and slutty, out of the corner of her eye she spotted what was going to be her undoing. The bikers had figured out a plan, and as sneakily as they could they were taking down all the clocks in the bar and moving them 5 minutes forward.

Her stomach began to fill with butterflies at the thought of what she was about to let herself in for as she rang the bell for last orders. There was a tense quietness to the bar which Hilda would have picked up on immediately if she was trying to win the bet in earnest. She served some beers, smiling through some now half hearted attempts to insult her, before deciding the best course of action was to stand next to one of the altered clocks and count down until it showed 2am.

"3... 2... 1... two o'clock bitches! Looks like none of you horndogs are going to see my body ever again." She gloated, drinking in the dam of frustration and resentment she was preparing to blow up. "Derek, I will be at your place bright and early tomorrow for my one thousand dollars and to watch the banners burn."

Big Mike's was positively humming in anticipation as Hilda geared up for her coup de grace, she had gone all tingly and numb at the thought of her ultimate humiliation. With one action, she was preparing to lock herself into being the bar's plaything. She was not going to be anonymous model, hovering above a freeway, protected and separated from her audience, she was going to be Hilda Grimsdottir, outsmarted sex object.

"And the rest of you bums, fuck off! It's closing time." She yelled with all the malice and anger she could muster.

The bar erupted into cheers and Hilda acted appropriately confused.

"I didn't think you were all rooting for me but thanks." Said Hilda uneasily.

"They're cheering because you just lost, sweetheart." Derek informed loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The bet was clear, I had to keep smiling until two o'clock when the bar closed. It's now two minutes past. You twist the rules a lot but I don't think this side of the bar is in a different time zone to that clock." Hilda replied.

"Check your phone." Derek instructed. Hilda clumsily pulled her phone out of the pocket of her trousers still abandoned on the floor. She made the appropriate look of horror as she saw the time. "We changed the clocks when you weren't looking. You stopped smiling at exactly five minutes to two."

Hilda dropped to her knees as the bar cheered around her. She decided the appropriate reaction was to run into the back room with her clothes and wait for everyone to leave so she could close up the bar.

...

Hilda had slept and she had stood in a daze, those were her only activities from when she got home from her shift to when she left again. She tried to watch TV, browse the internet, anything to take her mind off what she had been through and what she had agreed to. She checked her email inbox and found an email she had been expecting for a while, one that on any other day would have consumed her world but she couldn't bring herself to engage with the minutiae of bankruptcy law and property listings. The sale of the Ten Pines Mall would have to wait for another time.

She stood staring at a series of social media feeds and TV programs, not taking in any of them until her alarm cut through her fugue state and informed her that her time was nigh.

As she drove towards work, her eyes lingered on the now abandoned ad space she once dominated. Her mind went back to the days of being in complete control and still using it to discard her dignity, often paying for the privilege. Now she was giving herself up entirely, without anonymity or control, and she drove on to the location of her downfall.

As she parked outside, the bikers waved to greet her, no hint of awkwardness or bashfulness, they didn't need her to like them any more. Deb was on the previous shift and had been kept in the dark about why there were so many patrons and why they were so boisterous tonight, though she had spotted the banners and did warn Hilda, unaware that they were acting exactly as Hilda had encouraged.

The moment the door closed behind Deb, a sea of phones swarmed Hilda, eagerly awaiting her final degradation. The crowd parted for an employee of Derek's who had bought the most professional looking video camera Hilda had ever seen, clearly looking forward to capturing her night in the highest definition possible. Hilda rolled her eyes and began to undress.

Hilda had deliberately dressed light, one of her baggiest t-shirts and some comfortable leggings with sandals, no shoes or underwear to complicate the inevitable. She stripped herself with minimal fanfare, trying to look as much as possible like she was not enjoying herself. She dropped her leggings to the floor and went wide eyed at the swarm of flashing cameras and people moving to get a good view of her to capture for posterity. Derek's cameraman remained still but was clearly zooming in on Hilda's body. Then without warning, Derek hopped the bar, slid in behind Hilda, and for everyone to see gave her breasts a rough and firm squeeze.

The bar cheered, it was clear that nobody was planning on keeping their hands to themselves tonight. A couple of other men lept the bar and soon Hilda found herself being squeezed and probed from all angles, the hands clearly wanting to make a good show for the camera as well as humiliating their star. Hilda subtly thrust herself forward as her ass was grabbed, then shuffled her legs apart as a man opened up her pussy and the camera flashes intensified.