Possessed - Bucky Barnes x OC

Part 2

"Margaret, I need you!" August called from the upstairs office of the gallery, in a patronizing sing-song voice.

Maggie hated when people used her full name. Everyone had called her Maggie since the day she was born. The only time she heard her full name was when she was in trouble with her mom. So, hearing her boss use it everyday never failed to make her stomach drop a little.

She ran up the tall stairs, up to the loft area of the gallery, then into the back office. August sat in his office chair, spinning back and forth behind his desk. The man was only a little taller than her. He had platinum hair that he kept slicked back and always wore tight black turtlenecks, making the color look even more extreme. Constantly having an aloof attitude towards everyone around him, despite the fact that he had little to no talent himself, besides coming from an upper class family.

"Hey, what's up?" Maggie huffed out a breath from hustling up the flight of stairs.

"I wanted to thank you for preparing so diligently for tonight."

Her eyes widened. She had never received a single compliment from the man in the last two years of seeing him nearly every day. Working her fingers to the bone and never hearing a speck of praise.

"Wow. August, thank you for saying that. I—"

"And if it doesn't go well," he cut her off, "its your neck on the line." He gave an arrogant smirk and spun back around in his chair. "Now go call the catering company. Make sure they aren't serving fish. I hate how the scent lingers the next day."

Pride cut short, Maggie chewed her lip and walked back out of his office, downstairs.

After calling the catering company, she did one more look over the schematic. Dusting fixtures and making sure everything was flawless. The caterers arrived, sans fish, and started to set up downstairs.

An hour later, she welcomed each of the artists as they made their way in, giving them a walkthrough and showing them how their work was displayed. Each of them were pleased with the layout story she had designed. The general theme of the showcase surrounded local contemporary artists.

Maggie kept walking past her own piece, eyeing it nervously. She just knew she'd chew through her lip by the end of the night, nervous habit stuck with her since she was young. She had placed her own work towards the back of the gallery, upstairs in the loft, figuring it wasn't good enough for the main room and wouldn't attract much attention anyways.

Slowly, the room filled with people. Music played overhead, while everyone walked around mingling and looking at the art. Maggie was being pulled in every direction at once as offers were being made on some of the work.

Just as she was bending down to press a sold sticker on one of the display signs, she felt a hard slap on her ass, making her face turn bright red. Spinning around, to see Natasha smirking, leaned back against Steve. The two of them look picturesque together. She wore an elegant shimmery champagne dress, while he wore a black suit.

"You look great, Mags." Natasha gushed.

"Oh, uh, thanks." Maggie shrugged. She wore a white polkadot dress tonight. It was a little more low-cut and shorter than she usually wore, but she found it at the vintage store by her place the weekend before and didn't have time to make any alterations. Natasha loved it of course. She lived for dressing sexy.

"So, show us your piece."

She quickly walked them upstairs, weaving their way through the crowd of people, up to her piece. She wiped her clammy hands over her dress, peeking up at her friends.

"You did this, Maggie?" Steve asked.

She nodded quickly, looking back ahead to her painting. She hated sharing her work. As much as she wanted to be a respected artist, it made her anxious to expose herself so much. It was probably the thing that set her back most in her career, but she couldn't help it. She was painfully reserved.