The Art of Bathing

Daddy-o

Steve couldn't be bothered cooking for himself tonight, his first shift had been hectic and he had only supposed to be there four hours – but Peggy begged him to stay, the flow of people never ceasing from when they opened that morning to when they closed, finally, at 7pm. Steve was exhausted, his lunch break had been a quick bite at whatever the nearest convenient place was, sitting around with new colleagues that were just as tired as he was. There was only one woman on break the same time as he was, when he had another chance to sit down after lunch. Her name was Wanda; she had henna dyed brown hair, curled lightly and swept back into a high pony tail on top of her head. Steve only noticed this when she slumped into the chair next to him, scooping it up with her hands and snapping a band around it.

"I can't believe today. It's so busy. Too busy. I need water."

Steve had laughed with her, eyes following her around the room as she pulled out a litre of water from her bag , chugging back a quarter of it without taking a breath. She sighed as she sat back down into her seat, shoulders falling in a defeated kind of way. "I hate Christmas. Like, Christmas time. People go crazy."

Steve swallowed his final bite of his lunch, nodding his head. "Too right. I didn't think it could get this bad."

"First day?" Wanda asked him, extending her hand out to him like Bucky had earlier. "Wanda." She had said.

"Steve."

"Nice to meet you. And I'm sorry this is how we have to meet, me dripping with sweat and too tired to even ask you questions about yourself. You know, polite first-day-at-the-job talk." Wanda laughed, her accent dripping through as she began to talk faster. "I mean, oh my god, I just want to moan. And complain. And don't get me wrong," she risked a quick side glance at Steve to check he knew she wasn't being serious, "I love it here, but customers can drive me crazy."

"Don't worry about it. I've only been here a few hours and got the rudest person ever," Steve leaned in close to Wanda, smiling as he retold the tale. "I mean, this guy came in and demanded to know where the stuff "for guys" was. I just kind of smiled at him and told him all of everything was unisex. And then he called me a name, scoffed at me and went around looking for something blue coloured." Steve pulled a face, remembering the incident all too well.

"What did he find in the end?" Wanda asked, doe eyed.

"The blue robot." Steve snickered, covering his mouth to not spray his new friend with sandwich and mayo.

"That is for children!" Wanda squealed, her hands rushing to her mouth to cover herself. "How ridiculous! He'd rather have a product designed for children than one for women! "

Steve shrugged, letting his apple juice slip down his throat as Wanda continued giggling. It was nice to speak to someone who knew. Steve didn't get the impression the guys would understand his rage; none of them worked in retail.

" And it only gets worse. Customers can get really edgy around Christmas time. My mom only gets like that the day before Hannukah ." Wanda confessed, wiping the sweat from her hairline with the back of her hand.

Steve grimaced , remembering the incident last year when he and his friends decided it would be "nice" to have Christmas together, seeing as none of them really had any family to speak of. It started off...okay. And then it wasn't okay, and then the turkey was burnt and the wine was everywhere and Clint threw a carrot at Tony and everything was just bad. Still, Steve thought they were considering doing it again this year.

"Yeah, I understand that kind of feeling, I suppose." Steve agreed. The rest of the break had passed far too quickly for Steve's liking, and soon he was rushing back out to involve himself in a parade of the bath bombs and smelling different concoctions people were shoving in his face.