Guys,

Xtr75, lol, don't think I haven't thought about putting Joey in a uniform

AJ. :-)

Chapter 37

Joey let them in the locked building, and they said hello to a couple of other keepers, who then gave Charlie a little talk about the tropical fish they had there, and the work they were doing on reef and sea conservation.

They were involved in a current major project at the Great Barrier Reef, along with a handful of other partners.

Charlie was fascinated, and asked questions, as Joey sat and watched her chat and listen to the keepers.

Joey was delighted that Charlie was enjoying herself.

When they'd finished chatting, they showed Charlie the food they fed the different fish, and took the supplies with them. They let her drop the food in all the tanks, behind the scenes.

All the members of the public, the other side of the glass, watched as the fish swam round and ate the bits of food floating down into their tanks.

As well as tropical fish, they also had piranha, which looked really mean. Charlie was allowed to feed them too.

They then took Charlie to the massive tank with the reef sharks and rays in. The keepers got into their scuba gear, and Charlie again watched from behind the scenes, as they got in the tank, and fed the fish and sharks inside.

There was even turtles swimming around.

"We'll go and take a look the public side later Charlie." Joey said, as she watched from above the tank.

"OK sweetie." Charlie smiled.

"You having fun?"

"Oh yeah. It's great Jo." Charlie said happily. "A very good choice for our date." She confirmed.

"Good." Joey smiled. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"I most definitely am." Charlie nodded.

When they'd watched that feeding session, they said goodbye to the keepers, and Joey took Charlie for lunch in the restaurant.

"OK. Now for a real treat." Joey laughed. "What can I woo you with for Sunday lunch?" She said as they walked there.

Charlie laughed. "I'm sure it's all delicious Jo."

"Actually, joking apart, it's pretty good quality food they serve here. We all usually have our lunches in here too. We also get a staff discount, so sometimes it's nice to have food in here for a change."

"Is Megan working today?"

"Yeah, she should be." Joey smiled. "We'll say hello if she is. She may be on her break though."

"Ok."

They walked in through the doors, and Joey said. "So, let's take a look at the menu, and then queue up and get our food. It's like a help yourself hot and cold buffet style."

"Are we going to have dinner somewhere tonight before I drop you off home?" Charlie asked sadly.

"Yeah. Shall we." Joey smiled, but not looking forward to saying goodnight to Charlie either, after having spent much of the last week together. "Where shall we go for that?"

"It would be nice to have a Sunday roast somewhere wouldn't it? I love my roast dinners." Charlie smiled.

"Yeah, I remember." Joey chuckled. "Well, I will cook you one sometime, so you can stop with the subtle hints."

"Me? Hints? I don't know what you mean." Charlie said straight-faced.

Joey shook her head. "Right. Let's find a nice pub somewhere up the coast, and have a dinner there later. So, in the meantime, what would you like to eat? Hot or cold, healthy or unhealthy?" She laughed.

"Umm. I think I'd better have something reasonably healthy." Charlie glanced through the menu. "And not too filling if we're having a big dinner."

"I think I'll have a slice of pizza and some chips. So not healthy at all." Joey laughed.

"I think I'll have a baked potato and tuna mayo filling."

"OK. Let's queue up then." Joey smiled.

They took a tray each, joined the queue, and walked along the hot food displays, taking out their selections. They both had a coffee each too, and when they got to the till, Katie, the pretty girl working the kiosk said. "Hello Joey." Shyly.

"Hi Katie." Joey replied, smiling. "Both trays please." She asked her to add them together for the bill and discount.

Charlie noticed the slight blush that this Katie had, when she'd spoken to Joey. She looked at her, and immediately decided that this Katie liked Joey. She liked her a bit too much for Charlies liking.

Fortunately, Charlie could see that Joey had no idea about this, and more to the point, wasn't encouraging her at all. While the girl was very pretty, she looked fairly young, and obviously, Joey wasn't interested anyway. Charlie smiled broadly at that revelation to herself.

Joey paid the amount due, and then said goodbye to a virtually swooning Katie. Charlie also decided the girl was oblivious that she was Joeys girlfriend. Maybe she didn't know. After all, they had only been going out for a week.

They walked over to the cutlery stand, and got some sauces, cutlery, napkins and sugar, before finding a little table to sit at and eat their lunch.

"Umm. This is lovely." Charlie said, as she ate a bite of her potato.

"Umm, this is too." Joey nodded, smiling at Charlie, and eating a chunk of her meat feast pizza.

"Pity we didn't see Megan."

"Yeah. She must be on her break. Actually, I'll text her and see if she wants to join us." Joey said, sending her friend a text.

"That girl on the tills." Charlie said, looking at Joey.

"Katie?" Joey asked. "What about her?"

"She likes you." Charlie stated.

"Don't be daft." Joey chuckled.

"I'm telling you she does." Charlie confirmed.

"Well whatever." Joey shrugged. "That's unfortunate for her then isn't it."

"That's what I thought." Charlie chuckled.

"You did did you?" Joey chuckled.

"Hell yeah." She smiled. "You're taken."

"Big head." Joey smiled. "But most definitely taken." Joey nodded. "And anyway, she's bit young isn't she."

"Yeah, but she's very pretty." Charlie said.

"I've never really thought about it. But I guess she is." Joey smiled. "Whereas you." She chuckled. "Are older, and absolutely beautiful."

Charlie chuckled as she blushed from the compliment. "Eat your lunch you. We have a busy afternoon don't we?"

"We do." Joey laughed, as they finished off their food.

Megan had come back into the restaurant, and walked over to their table when she spotted them. "Hi Joey, hi Charlie."

"Hi. You still on your break?"

"No. Just ending it, but I thought I'd say hi." She smiled. "So Charlie. Are you having a good day so far?"

It seems like everyone knew what she was doing here today. She was pleased that Joey had told her friends and colleagues about her coming to the aquarium.

"Yeah I am. It's been great so far." She beamed. "Well, apart from cutting up the fish bit. That was." She paused. "Yukkie." She grimaced.

Megan and Joey laughed. "Well, I think it's lovely that you want to experience a day in Joeys shoes as it were, and find out what she does." Megan smiled.

"Well, working here is certainly different to working in an office." Charlie smiled.

"Yeah, you like working with fish don't you Jo." Megan smiled. "After your few spells on trawlers and now here."

"Yeah. I love the sea." Joey nodded. "This job is better than the trawlers though." She smiled at Charlie.

"Anyway, I'd better go." Megan said. "Have a lovely afternoon Charlie."

"Thanks. I will I'm sure." Charlie smiled.

"Bye." Said Joey.

Charlie watched Joeys friend go and get a coffee, before paying for it at the kiosk with Katie on. Katie asked Megan who Joey was with. At least that's what Charlie assumed, when she saw the look on Katies face. It was a mixture of deep sadness, complete with a very red flush.

Charlie felt a twang of pity for the young girl. She'd obviously got it bad for Joey, and having Megan tell her she'd got a girl friend, must be hard for her.

Charlie reminded herself, as if she needed a reminder, just how lucky she was to have Joey back.

She then resumed chatting to Joey.

"Hello. Earth to Charlie." Joey repeated. She'd been talking to Charlie for a couple of minutes, and got no response. Charlie was obviously miles away.

"Sorry sweetie." Charlies attention was brought back to Joey. "Was just watching Megan talk to Katie."

Joey looked round at the kiosk, which was now busy with the public buying their food. "What for?"

"Because I think Katie must have asked Megan who you were with."

"Arrh." Joey nodded. "And now you can lip read." Joey giggled.

Charlie chuckled. "I used my super police powers to deduce from her sad face, that Megan told her something she didn't want to hear."

"I see." Joey smiled. "Well, if that's the case, I didn't mean to hurt her, but I wouldn't go out with her anyway. Whether I was with you or not."

"I hope she's OK." Charlie said. "You will still be nice to her won't you?"

Joey laughed and shook her head. "I'm usually nice to most people." She said. "I will be my normal self. And I won't say anything about her crush on me, if indeed she even has one."

"OK. Good sweetie." Charlie smiled. She paused before adding softly. "You're quite something, you know that."

"No I'm not Charlie." Joey smiled. "Anyway. We'd better get back to work. She added, smiling at Charlie.

They put their trays on the rack for the staff to tidy up, and then, after lunch, Joey took Charlie round the public side of the exhibitions.

They held hands as they walked around, and Joey was once again, pleased and proud that Charlie was the one who went to take her hand to hold. They looked at the penguin enclosures, and Charlie giggled as Joey pointed out them all by name.

Then they looked at the tropical fish, and Joey showed Charlie all the tanks, and the things she couldn't see from the keepers side. She showed her the beautiful seahorses, the jellyfish, the tropical fish, the poisonous fish, the crabs, and then the large tank, with the sharks, rays and turtle in. They looked massive through the thick glass. And Charlie was excited to see them swimming around.

They went to the reptile house, and saw the sea snakes, other snakes, lizards, spiders, scorpions and insects that were in there.

"Hey Charlie, this has got some sea snakes in." Joey said before they went in.

When they read the details about the snakes, Charlie was amazed to see how poisonous they were. "Oh my God Jo!" She exclaimed. "I've seen some in the sea in the Bay when I've been swimming in there."

Joey giggled. "Yeah, me too." She smiled. "But they hopefully will avoid us when we go swimming again."

"I don't think I'm going to go swimming in the sea ever again." Charlie said. "What with all these deadly things in there!" She exclaimed.

"We will go in the sea again. I'm sure they're more scared of us than we are of them."

"You reckon?" Charlie laughed.

"I do." Joey smiled.

They continued to look round the glass enclosures, and when they got to the rattle snakes, one was rattling its tail. Just as they watched it, its head flew at the glass, trying to bite it, making Charlie jump, shriek, and cling to Joey. The other members of the public in the reptile house, looked round at them to see what was happening.

"You OK?" Joey chuckled.

"Oh my God." Charlie gasped. "I thought it was going to bite me."

"It did make me jump too." Joey smiled, as Charlie let go of her death like grip on Joey. "But they are behind glass."

"I know." Charlie blushed at making a show of herself. "Stupid aren't I."

"No." Joey cuddled her. "You're far from stupid. It just took you by surprise."

"Now you're just being kind." Charlie giggled. She cuddled Joey back, and kissed her on the mouth tenderly.

Joey smiled back broadly at her, for having done it in public. "That was nice." She said softly, as they released each other.

"Yeah, it was, wasn't it." Charlie said, smiling back at Joey.

Joey smiled again, and they continued to walk around the enclosures, hand in hand once again.

"Right, shall we go and see the dolphins?" Joey asked. "It's their feeding time at 2.30 p.m., so we'll get a front row seat for that."

"Oh lovely. OK then." Charlie nodded.