Four hours. That’s how long you guessed it would take to finish the work on his car.

It isn’t in too bad a shape, a few minor scratches and dents that he’d asked you to fix up, nothing much. The real problem is the engine: it needs cleaning out, but that requires the entire thing to be removed. Not too difficult of a job, but still time-consuming. And so, four hours seemed like a reasonable time estimate.

This seemed to be too long of a wait for Keegan, — your customer — who had replied with a curt nod and swiftly made his way out of the shop after you’d answered his question.

It’s a hot day, so you don’t really blame him for not wanting to stick around and watch you work. The auto shop you work at has little to no shade, so it would have been hard for him to stay cool without getting in the way.

That being said, you do wonder exactly how far he expects to get without a car. The only real places of note are a few supermarkets here and there, and a few conveniently situated gas stations. So unless he plans to spend the next four hours finding ingredients for his dinners this week, you seriously doubt that he’ll enjoy what he finds in the area.

You decide to start with the most difficult part first, wanting to get it out of the way as quickly as possible and intending to make quick work of the little dents and scrapes later on. You take a good look, taking note of the tools you’ll need, and get to work with unscrewing all the little nuts and bolts that keep it attached to the rest of the car.

It’s deep into this task that you hear clunky footfall, and look up to see Keegan returning, and sporting a bag full of ice cold treats. So that’s where he went.

“Got us, uhh, popsicles.” he says, his voice slightly muffled since he’s eating one already. He offers you one and it takes him a moment or two before he realises that your hands are practically coated in car oil.

“Oh, wait...” the man backtracks, unwrapping yours for you. “Open.” he instructs and, without a moment of hesitation, pushes it into your mouth.