Unexpected

Shop 'Til You Drop

"Yes, Grams, yeah." I laughed, my phone pinched between my ear and shoulder as I rustled through the stacks of jeans in the shelves. "I was gonna call you when I got home."

Pulling out a handful of options in different washes and styles in the newer size, I stood up. "Oh, I'm, uh, I'm out shopping. Yeah, ripped a pair of pants, so I'm out getting some new ones. Helping a friend upgrade their wardrobe too while I'm at it."

I knocked on the changing room door, and it took a moment, but I heard it unlock and the knob turn with a click. There was Steve's head, cheeks brushed with pink. He got so embarrassed when I made him come out like it was a fashion show. I made him walk around and sit and squat, raise his shirt so I could see how his pants rode, and raise his arms. It was like I was his mom or something, helping him find new school clothes after another growth spurt over the summer. His modesty and old-fashioned values had him all in a blush, but we had a good few laughs, especially when I looked up runway music on my phone and played it when he tried on running clothes. Whispering I handed him the stack of jeans through the crack he offered. For some reason, because the super soldier serum had made him so big and muscled, jeans were a struggle, "Try these."

"Who?" Grams' curiosity was potent.

"You remember my neighbor, Steve?"

"Oh the handsome blonde Adonis across the hall?" my face felt instantly warm and I clenched the phone closer to my ear, hoping to block her voice as much as I could, so there would be no way Steve could hear her.

"Uhm, yeah, that one. Winter's coming on and he hasn't gone clothes shopping for a long, long time." Understatement of the century.

"Well that's very nice of you to help him, Pen." She was obviously amused; I could hear the grin in her voice, "Just tell me, how does he look in a nice pair of jeans?"

The door opened up again and Steve stood there in a navy sweater and medium wash jeans that were oddly baggy around his knees, "Vaguely awkward."

I heard her giggle and couldn't help but laugh too which just seemed to confuse Rogers. I shook my head at him to send him back in. Grams stifled her laughs and started listing off her plans for the holidays while I sat there listening and watching Cap's runway. Finally, when we finished off with that store and were parked at the next, a little higher-class for office-style work and nicer occasions, I cut her off. "Okay, Grams, so yeah, I'll be off for Muskegon two days before Thanksgiving, we'll do Black Friday, and then two days later we'll go see Wicked for my birthday. Yes, of course I'm excited! I have to let you go now, though, okay? Yeah, love you."

Steve looked at me out of the corner of my eye, "Your grandmother?"

I pushed open my car door, with a huffed laugh, "Yep."

"She can really, uh-"

"Talk?"

He looked down as we walked up to the store, grinning.

"Yeah, she's always been chatty. Especially when she's trying to make plans." I shook my head, "Let me tell you, teacher's meetings took an eternity. If she saw someone she knew in a store aisle I learned to just start grabbing things off the list for her, because if I didn't we'd stay there 'til closing time and get kicked out by the clerks before we had gotten more than a jug of milk."

"Did that really happen?"

"No, but I wouldn't put it past her. Right now's the worst time of year for her phone calls, every day until the holidays are over she's going to call and chat my ears off with reiterated plans. Then she'll call all through January complaining about her phone company and her phone bill and threatening to switch lines or something."