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It has been four hours.
And he still, for the love of god, could not find the right spatula.
Look, Bob wasn’t a picky man. His restaurant was dirty and run down, as was everything else he owned. But a spatula was different. This is what he’d be cooking with, who he’d be talking to, who’d be flipping his precious meat. It needed to be perfect. And not perfect in a ‘bright shiny spotless show off’ kinda way, no, he needed to connect with it. The connection he had with all the things he cooked with. So this was important.
And yeah, maybe spending four hours shopping for a spatula made him look a little crazy, but he didn’t care. He’d shop all goddamn day if he had to. He had been shopping all day. He didn’t mind. Linda was watching the restaurant, and though he hated leaving his precious workplace, they desperately needed this new spatula, so it was worth it.
The only problem was his six year old daughter dragging her flats across the tile floor beside him.
Louise had insisted on coming because in her words ‘the restaurant was the most boring place in the world’. And Bob had to try his best not to get offended by the words of a six year old girl.
And since Louise was six, while her siblings were eight and ten, she couldn't work, but they could. Causing her to become extremely bored. There wasn’t much a child as young as she was could do in a workplace besides cause trouble. Which is what she did. All the time. Everyday. At any given chance. So maybe a couple hours with her not in the restaurant was fine.
But it was seven PM. She should definitely be home by now, eating dinner and playing with her siblings. But he just needed to find a spatula.
“’m tiiiiiirreeddd,” Louise groaned. Stomping her feet while letting her arms fall to her sides.
“I know I know we’re almost done.”
“You said ‘dat like three hours agooo,” She groaned again. Rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. At 6 years old she’d already grown a bigger attitude than both of her siblings combined.
“I know but-”
“-I’m serious this time,” Bob and Louise spoke in unison.
“I know daddy, you keep saying ‘dat,” She frowned.
Bob took a deep breath and sighed, “Okay well we’re going to leave soon, I promise.”
She opened and closed her mouth silently while he talked, mocking him.
“Louise,” He monotoned.
“WhaAaaaatttt,” She whined, flinging her arms and head back dramatically, staring at the ceiling.
“We’re gonna head to one or two more stores and then we'll be done, okay?”
“‘Dats one or two too many.”
He sighed, “look you’re clearly tired, this’ll go by faster if you just let me pick you up. We would get there a lot faster.”
“No!” She stood straight up immediately, “I don’ need to be carried. ’m not a baby.. And ‘m not tired.” She crossed her arms.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Out of the three of his kids, she was definitely the most stubborn and independent. Always wanting to be in control of situations and insisting on doing things herself. So being picked up was not her thing. You don’t have very much control when you’re being held.
“Okay, fine,” Was all Bob said back.
Louise didn’t reply, just followed him to the next store slowly. As they made their way around he realized it was definitely time to wrap this up. He suddenly felt guilty for keeping her out so long. Her eyelids were doing workouts just to stay open. And as he intently looked at the spatulas the store had, she just stood next to him silently, no snarky attitude filled remarks like she usually would make.
He didn’t find any he liked, because of course he didn’t. There was one spatula he thought was okay at best, but there wasn’t that big of a connection. He really wished he could pick out cooking utensils like a normal person, but he was not going to buy some flimsy spatula he had no connection with because he’d be cooking with that thing for years. It had to be perfect.
But then she started tugging on his shirt and let out a quiet, “Can we w’eave now?” and as he looked between the spatulas and his exhausted child, he sighed.
“Yeah. We can leave now. I just gotta pay for this,” he held the okay-at-best spatula in his hand.
She nodded in reply but that was it. He felt bad. He knew she was tired but he hadn’t thought about how long they’d been out and how much that was for a six year old. He hadn’t noticed just how exhausted she had gotten until now.
He paid as quickly as possible and left the store. All that was left was to get out of the mall, to the car, and drive home. But with how slow Louise was walking it was going to take hours.
“Alright, come here,” He bent down and reached for her, scooping her up in his arms.
“No-” She replied tiredly, trying to push him off of her but in a sleepy, exhausted kind of way that wasn’t very effective.
Despite her resistance he picked her up anyway, she pushed him slightly but once he fully had her in his arms, her tiredness took over her. She yawned and slumped down into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder and slightly held onto his shirt. He let out a relieved sigh and looked at her. A soft smile grew on his face as he continued walking.
Maybe he didn’t have the best new spatula. But his daughter was asleep in his arms and he couldn’t feel more happy.