Lifeline (Scomiche)

Seven

"Oh, no." He blushed a little, looking down at the huge cup of iced coffee in his hand. They'd stopped at a Starbucks on the way and Scott had ordered a venti iced latte for him, and Mitch had been so surprised when the man working in the drive thru handed him this. It was huge! He'd never gotten a venti anything before and he nearly asked Scott to exchange it for something smaller before he drove off. "No, this is just a treat from Scott. You want some?"

"Nope, I'm fine. You're so sweet for asking. Want me to do your nails again? It'll be fun!"

Mitch didn't even get a chance to respond before Scott interrupted, saying he wanted to do them, but Esther quickly waved him off.

"You have work to be doing, kiddo. I scheduled a girl this morning who wants senior portrait hair and makeup done and she specifically asked for you. I know they're supposed to call a few days in advance but you can still do it, right? You just have some haircuts today and a couple of eyebrow appointments, so you might even have time for some walk-ins. I'm sure you can manage."

"I can, that's fine. When's she coming in?"

"Fifteen minutes." Esther smiled at him apologetically. "I know, I know. She'll probably leave you a nice tip though since she really wanted you. Go ahead and set up your station and then try to give the floor a sweep before she comes in, alright?"

Scott obediently went off to start working, leaving Mitch and Esther on their own. She took him to her own station and tried to urge him to choose something other than his usual black so he settled on a nice dark maroon polish that was nearly black but not quite. He wasn't in the mood for adventure today but the color was pretty and seemed to make Esther happy.

She cleaned his short nails and filed them into shape all while updating him on everything new she'd done with her business. Esther had opened the salon on her own just a year before Scott had finished beauty school and gotten a job here and it was nice to see her business growing. Most of the details of flew right over Mitch's head but he was glad to hear of all the progress she was making. She paused when she finally got the first nail painted and smiled, rotating his finger side to side for him to see.

"You picked a good one, this is so pretty on your pale skin. Wow, very sexy. Scott's gonna love this on you, isn't he?"

He blushed at her teasing and Esther laughed, bringing her attention back to working on the rest of his nails. He didn't understand how nails could possibly be sexy, but he did agree that the color looked nice. He knew Esther wouldn't even dream of charging him or Scott for this and made a mental note to bake her cookies or something to pay her back.

"So what brought you down today? Am I allowed to ask? Was it school?"

Mitch watched as she finished up his first hand, almost too distracted by how pretty his fingertips looked coated in the maroon polish to respond. He could have have never done them so quickly or perfectly or even in one sitting. Everyone who worked here seemed so talented painting nails so flawlessly like it was no big deal and he was always taken aback by how easy they made it look. "Oh, no. Not school, I was doing rotations at the hospital and the guy I worked for kinda sucked. The surgeon."

"I'm sorry, honey. What did he do?"

"He didn't really do anything. He was just really rude, you know? I don't even know how to put it in words, doctors are just really mean to nurses sometimes. Like, the surgery we were doing wasn't even that hard but he was yelling and calling some of us names and it just sucked and put me down."

"Oh, no! I'm so sorry. Nursing is such a respectable field, I hate hearing stories like that. You work so hard, honey, nobody should be treating you so badly."