Two years and several months later, things are fractionally better in the Hart household. Kermit's payments had been more than doubled, which had relieved a little of the pressure from Katie. Not much, but if she has to miss a day of work for some reason, it no longer means choosing between electricity and water for the month. Also, his employers, an oil company, had not taken kindly to him blaming them for the lack of payment, and had sent a very formal apology, including a small Visa gift card for Maya, on top of ensuring that the money now DOES in fact come directly from his paycheck to Katie's bank account.
Katie, Maya, and Topanga and never spoken of the matter again beyond Topanga handing Katie the papers that had come once the new determination had been made.
It's lateish June when Maya walks into the Diner on a Wednesday - one of Max's solo nights. "Husband." she greets cordially.
"Jailbait." Earl greets fondly. "Is it that time o' year already?"
"SummertIIIIMME…." Maya sings out the first word of the old standard
Early picks it up "And the livin'... it's eeeassyyyyyyy."
Maya smiles widely. "This is why we're so happily married, Earl." she says before continuing into the diner.
When she reaches the counter, Max is leaned over it, chin resting in her hand as she stares out at the empty diner. Maya joins her. "This is exciting." Maya says after a minute, before giving up and moving to get herself a lemonade.
Max shifts to leaning her hip against the counter, facing Maya. "It's been dead since I got here. Everyone's out enjoying the first real hot weather." Moving to refill her nearly-empty Coke, she asks. "So why the hell are you here?"
Maya furrows her brows incredulously. "You're kidding, right? My first weekday of freedom since New Years? This is the only quiet place in the damn city."
Sipping her Coke, Max raises her eyebrows in a universal acknowledgment of 'eh, true'.
Han comes out of the office and looks around. "Well, Max, I can't even get mad at you for not working right now. I am going to go."
Maya says "Oh, hey, wait, Han!"
Han turns back toward them, looking alarmed. "M-Maya? You have… never spoken directly to me before!" It's kinda true. In three years, she's quipped at, made fun of, and hassled him, but never initiated actual conversation.
"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to let you know, if you need any extra help this summer, pretty much any time, I'll work for tips. I only live like two and a half blocks away, so I can come on short notice." Maya says casually.
"Work for tips?" Han questions skeptically.
Maya shrugs. "I can't legally be employed until next January. But if I am just helping out a friend in his diner, I am allowed to accept tips."
Catching the drift, Han says, "I see…" knowingly. "Welll…. One of the day waiters has just asked to have less days for summer, and the other one asked for some days off. I was going to advertise for new part-time server, but…. Can you do Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 8 am to 4 pm? Plus occasional other days?"
"You bet I can," Maya says, smiling indulgently, as if she's doing Han a favor. Han smiles back and turns, hurrying out the door to wherever he's going, telling Earl to go on his way out, that Max can ring out her own check, if any customers come in. Within moments, Earl is gone too.
"Isn't, like, SOMEONE, going to figure out you're gone on those specific days?" Max questions Maya.
The blonde girl shrugs. "Summers have always been more of a free-for-all as far as supervision, and mom and the Matthews don't really talk unless they happen to be face-to-face when mom's picking me up, which only happens on school nights. She has no idea that Riley and Auggie are spending basically the whole summer in Philly with their grandparents. Any time she's in the house and I'm not, she'll just assume I'm at the Matthews'. And her schedule gets more sporadic during the summer, too, so she'll just be home to sleep at weird hours. Not that she's ever home much to begin with anyway."
"What about the other one. Farkle." Max asks.
"Science camp for six weeks, followed by three weeks on the French Riviera with his family." is the succinct answer.
Max gets a weird look on her face. "Wow. So… they all just left you for the whole summer?" she asks delicately, wondering how Maya's taking it.
"Oh, I had options!" The younger girl is quick to reassure her. "I got invited along to Philly, I could've gone to Arkansas to stay with Gammy if I wanted, Mr. Minkus offered to send me to camp with Farkle, or go to a different camp of my choice, AND take me on the family vacation."
Now, the older dark-haired girl just looks dumbfounded. "And… you chose to stay in the city, by yourself… and work for chump change? When you could've been going to camp and relaxing on the French Riviera?"
Maya sighs softly, twirling the straw in her lemonade. "Max… they don't get it. They all think that I have the potential to be like them. But girls like you and me? Even if we're successful, do good, make our dream businesses a reality? We're never gonna be girls that summer on the French Riviera." the last bit is said in a posh, hoity-toity accent, before her voice goes back to normal. "And, as great and wonderful and generous as my rich friends are for trying to include me, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. I'd spend the whole time thinking about the price of everything. How many tables I'd have to wait to be able to afford that fancy dinner, or one night in this swanky hotel." Pausing to take a sip, Maya continues, "Let's be real. I'm not going to college." Max opens her mouth to dispute it, but Maya cuts her off. "There's not money, and I'm not putting myself in debt for it. I'm so bad at school, it will, frankly, be a miracle if I graduate high school, anyway. I'm not tall enough to even try to model, MAYBE I get a singing career. Most likely, I will never make it past working 80+ hours a week to hit the middle class, or out of shitty, over-priced apartments in Brooklyn."
Max really wants to dispute the girl's assessment, but can't. She's not an optimist, and Maya had just laid down a very real, if hard to swallow, truth about her prospects. They aren't so different from her own. Caroline likes to dream big about a cupcake empire, but Max knows, even if the business takes off, it'll be a long time before she's not doing all the baking. Probably years.
"Where's Oleg?" Maya asks, breaking Max out of her thoughts.
"Oh," Max says, waving a hand vaguely toward the back. "Him and Sophie are boning in the walk-in."
Maya's nose scrunches. "I thought they were broken up."
"Eh, you can never tell with those two." Max says dismissively, grabbing her and Maya each a cupcake, since they have nothing better to do than eat.
"Uh, excuse me, miss, this salmon…. Doesn't taste like salmon." the man at table 4 says as Maya walks by carrying empty plate towards the back.
Not stopping, she says, "Well, I did warn you not to order it, so that's your own damn fault."
After dropping the dishes, she swings to pick up the two steaks from the window from the day cook, Juan, and grabs a massive bottle of steak sauce from under the counter, along with a bottle of ketchup. Setting it all on table 12, one of the two men there says, "We didn't ask for steak sauce…" as if she is somehow unaware of this fact.
"Yeah," she smiles condescendingly, "But you'll want it in about 45 seconds, and this saves me the trip. Also, to save you calling me back over to complain, yes, I'm aware that your steak is overcooked, no, you can't send it back, and, yes, I'm happy to get you the owner, but he'll just nod as you complain and pretend he doesn't understand English until you shut up. Any questions?" She asks, fake cheerfully. The men look at each other before slowly shaking their heads. Clapping her hands, Maya says, "Great. I'll be back about ten minutes after you actually want refills on those sodas."
Dropping off table 4's check, she studiously ignores table 9 trying to get her attention while she moves to get the overdue coffee refills for table 2. Max and Caroline have been in back doing who the fuck knows what in their cupcake room, and are now standing behind the counter drinking sodas. Their shift doesn't start for more than an hour.
"I'm so proud." Max says in a voice like she's talking to an animal. "Maya's all growed up and ignoring tables like a real waitress."
"Please, Max, I've been doing that for years." Maya says, pouring the coffee and grabbing a thing of milk.
"Why don't you have to wear the uniform?" Caroline complains.
"Because she doesn't actually work here." Max explains. "She's just 'helping out' and accepting tips."
Maya smirks at Caroline's put-out expression as she moves off to drop the coffees and take table 9's orders. She wonders if she should rub it in that, for "not working" here, and only part time to Caroline's full time, Maya makes more than Caroline does. On second thought, Caroline would probably be more offended that Maya had had a chance to spend three weeks on the French Riviera and turned it down to "not work" here.
At the end of the summer, Maya splurges, taking a couple hundred of the nearly $3000 she'd made that summer to thrift stores and flea markets to get new-to-her clothes that actually fit, a few pairs of cute-but-cheap high heels, and a backpack that will accommodate her new middle school load. True to form, if her mother notices, she assumes the haul is courtesy the Matthews' generosity, and the Matthews' assume Katie is doing better than she is. Who knows what the Minkii think, but she's clothed in things that fit and she seems to like, so they don't ask questions.
Despite Riley's enthusiasm, 6th grade begins quietly, not unlike any other school year. Riley has a hard time being separated from Maya for more than half their classes, and Maya doesn't tell her that she doesn't mind it. She loves Riley, more than she ever thought she could love another person, but damn is the girl high maintenance. Plus, moving between classes, with shifting people, and different teaching styles, actually helps Maya stay focussed on classes throughout the day. That easier focus is immediately negated by the much more difficult and larger amount of work, though.
Another change is weekdays after school. Now that she's nearing 14, Katie has decided Maya doesn't have to be either with her or the Matthews' after school until Katie gets off work. Instead, Maya gets a cheap flip phone, and is told to check in by text with Katie or call the Matthews if she needs anything, but she's free to do as she pleases after school hours, but Katie still expects Maya to be home when she gets there after work on school nights. Maya thinks this is stupid, because she has more homework than ever, and NOW is the time her mother decides to just trust her to do it? Whatever. Freedom. She's not going to complain.
Maya still spends a couple evenings a week with the Matthews, because, let's face it, they're family at this point, whether she's willing to admit it out loud or not. At least one evening is spent at the Diner on one of Max's solo nights, because Maya and Caroline still barely tolerate each other. She gets most of her homework done to a more or less acceptable level, and spends a couple nights a week either lazing in sweats watching one of the three free tv channels they get, or wandering the city, occasionally pickpocketing and stealing when she knows she can get away with it.
When Mrs. Svorski died, Maya felt pretty alone. Not because Mrs. Svorski died - she liked the old lady well enough, but they weren't that close - but because even the people that she'd usually go to when she couldn't take the Matthews' perfection any longer were just too busy for her. Max and Caroline FINALLY got their cupcake window open, and Oleg only got more and more busy between Sophie and his towncar business. The Minkii kept a general eye on her, but Farkle keeps her intentionally distant from his family; he's very cognizant of their incredibly different economic situations, and the only crossover tends to be at Matthews' functions. The literal and figurative middle ground. So, it's not like she can just head up to the Minkus Tower to hang out.
Instead, she takes to wandering the city while it's still not too cold. Summer isn't exactly dragging on, it's definitely autumn, but the cold isn't moving in fast either, so she has time to practice her newfound love of and talent for drawing while sitting in parks without freezing.
Topanga hiring Katie to manage the cafe is both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, Katie only has to work one job in addition to her weekend shifts at Jerry's to make rent now, which is great. On the negative, it doesn't take her long to start asking Maya questions, which Maya doesn't take kindly to. It's not like Maya's out doing anything particularly bad… most of the time…. But she isn't used to having to answer to most anyone for most of the time either. Katie being home by 8, spending time there while awake, and even having days off sometimes, means Maya has to be a lot more conscious of when she's home, and what she does and says while she's there.
And she can't even talk to anyone about it. The only times Maya has now that she could see Max are during the dinner rushes at the diner when Max doesn't have time to talk, and no one else would understand.
So, she keeps an eye out for sketchbook and pencil sales, idly wondering how it is that absolutely no one questions how she always has art supplies now, wanting to explore her new, Matthews-approved hobby without completely blowing through her summer stash.
Fall eventually did turn biting cold and give way to winter, with little discernible change. Things settled, Lucas, to Maya's slight annoyance, became an established part of the friend group, and Maya just kept being the Best Friend she had always been to Farkle and Riley, carefully keeping the Too Real parts of herself away from them. With them, on Manhattan, she is the rebellious but ultimately loyal friend, living to make her friends happy. She's not dumb, she knows they are aware of parts of her other self. Her Brooklyn self.
But Brooklyn Maya doesn't have a lot of outlets these days, with Katie around so much more, and Maya didn't count on… him... showing up.
Josh was always too observant, and that hasn't changed that Christmas. What HAS changed in the nearly 3 years since Maya last saw him is that puberty is in the process of being VEERRRYYY kind to the boy, and Maya's own pubescent hormones immediately go to war with the knowledge that he needs to stay away from him for everyone's own good. Problem being, hormones take an early upper hand, and she just can't seem to help herself.
It doesn't help that Josh has always been curious about her. Riley and Farkle are aware that there's parts of Maya they don't know and they don't go there because they are afraid of what they might find. Josh doesn't have those same reservations, and that makes Maya nervous, because if she has a bad relationship with even one Matthews, she loses all of them, and she doesn't think she can handle that
He's a smart cookie, never gets her around the rest of the family. This time, he catches her after dinner. He volunteers to take out the trash, asks Maya to show him where the dumpsters are and open doors on the way down.
"Noticed your mom's not here." is the first things he says.
She knows there's no point in beating around the bush. Rolling her eyes, Maya replies, "Topanga's pays enough that mom can work 2 jobs instead of 3 to pay rent, but she's still pretty much one step up from waitress."
They clatter into the back stairwell just before the next observation. "Riley's getting too old to protect her from all of it now. She's going to start asking questions soon." When there's no response from Maya for a full flight of stairs, he keeps going. "You can't keep controlling what your friendships forever, Maya."
It starts as a chuckle, but, by the door to the alley, Maya is leaning against the wall, doubled over laughing. Josh stands a few stairs up, staring at her. After a long minute, she calms down enough to pull the door open for him, saying, "Oh, Boing, if you really think I'm in control of AnnnNYTHIIIInnnnnNG, then those observational skills of yours need some serious recalibration."
They're both so distracted when they go back up that Maya misses the Shawn Plot entirely until it's too late.
The fuck do they expect her to even do with a father figure anyway? She barely has a mother.
"Awwww, our little baby bird is all growed-up and working her last illegal shift with us." Max says, bumping Maya's shoulder with her own on New Years Eve.
Maya laughs. "Well, technically, I'm only supposed to work 18 hours a week during the school year, or after 7 pm, so there's still opportunity to work illegally." she comforts her delinquent friend. She walks off with a tray of drink refills for her packed tables without noticing Max's concerned frown.
"What's wrong, Max?" Caroline asks as she stops in the drink station to fill herself up a pitcher of water to take in back. She and Max had worked all day to stock up on cupcakes for their window, and she's going to help in the diner until 10, at which point she's going to switch to the back and start pushing the cupcakes onto the drunks while Max stays out at the diner.
"Nothing…" Max says, distractedly filling cups. "Just realized I haven't really talked to Maya in awhile. I need to make sure and catch up with her soon."
"I'm sure she's fine, Max." Caroline sighs. 3 years, and she still can hardly tolerate the younger blonde girl. "She's not exactly shy about coming to you when she needs you."
Max hesitates, looking over at the young girl taking orders at a booth. "She wasn't. When she knew I had time. She knows I've been busy lately. I don't think she'd want to bother me. I think she'd think she isn't important enough."
Maya reappears behind the counter before Caroline can respond. "You guys know that balance we keep where it looks like we are horrible at our jobs, but Max and I are actually pretty good at it? You two are in danger of tipping it out of balance on the only profitable night of the year this diner has. Stop gabbing and move your asses."
Caroline's mouth drops open while Max's settles into a smirk as Maya immediately whirls back around, now carrying bottles of condiments back to tables.
As planned, Caroline disappears at 20. She unexpectedly reappears at 12:30, having apparently sold out of the special NYE cupcakes they'd stocked up on for the night.
At 2:30, all the customers have been kicked out, and the girls are in a booth counting their tips while the guys finish up whatever.
"So, Maya," Caroline starts. "You know no one actually works here legally, right?"
Maya scoffs. "Of course. Earl would lose his social security if he made minimum wage, and there's no way Oleg has a green card."
"Are you going to ask Han about working here on weekends?" Caroline hedges.
With a roll of her eyes, the younger girl answers. "No, Caroline, I am not aiming to snatch away your evening shifts. I probably won't work here much during the school year. Maybe filling in weekend day shifts here and there if Han needs me or something, but, I still have a lot of restraints on working for the next, like, 2 years. And, I get that you think I am basically a half-step up from a street rat with no one except Max that gives a crap about me, but there ARE actually adults that keep eyes on me. Too many, lately. So I am not going to be able to get away with working more than legally allowed."
"What do you mean, too many?" Max asks, now concerned, ignoring Caroline's mix of offended and relieved on the other side of the booth.
Maya shrugs, sorting her piles of cash to trade in for larger bills. "Riley's mom bought the cafe we hung out at after the owner died and hired my mom to manage it, so mom is only working one job most of the week and Jerry's on the weekend nights now. So she's home a lot more. And then she's at the place me and my friends hang out. All the time. And so is Topanga."
"That must be… weird." Max says.
Maya sighs. "And frustrating. I have no alone time anymore."
"When did this even happen?"The dark-haired woman questions, looking at the girl next to her.
"September." is the bland answer.
Max's eyes go wide. "And you're just telling me NOW?!"
Maya's hands splay out a little and eyebrows raise, but she doesn't look at Max. "When did you want me to tell you, Max? While you were busy with the cupcake window? Or in the middle of dinner rush because that's the only time I could stop in for 5 minutes because I had to get home before mom got there?"
"Well, why didn't you text me?" At this, Maya does look over, with a very incredulous look on her face. Max answers herself. "Okay, yeah, I would've been pissed and worried if you had texted me that."
There's a weird silence for a moment before Caroline continues. "Back to the topic at hand, where are you going to work, then?"
Maya shrugs. "Well, since I have to keep it completely above board, probably somewhere in Lower Manhattan where I am close to school for shifts right after, but I can still make good tips."
Caroline looks confused. "If your mom manages a cafe that your best friend's mom owns, why not just work there?"
She is met with The Look from both Max and Maya. The one that says they both think she is mentally challenged. "Oh, yeah." Maya says sarcastically. "I just told you how I am now spending too much time with my mom lately, so I am totally going to MAKE HER MY BOSS too." the girl rolls her eyes.
Awhile later, Max is walking Maya home. "Seriously, Maya, you know you can text me, though, right?" she says, awkwardly. "We're both busy, and if you can't come to the diner as much…."
"I know." Maya assures her. "I just feel kinda stupid complaining about it. All I wanted for years was to be able to spend time with her, and now that I am, I feel like she's smothering me."
Max sighs. "That's totally normal, Maya. Well, not normal, but understandable. You pretty much raised yourself. You had to become an adult way before you were supposed to. And now, out of nowhere, your mom is back, and you're getting treated like a kid again, expected to do kid stuff. You aren't used to being a kid on this side of the bridge - you BARELY act like a kid with your friends over in Manhattan. It's okay to not know what to do. It's even okay to resent her a little for it." Yeah, Max has her own issues, but that doesn't mean she's unwise about them. It's why she identifies so much with Maya. "And our deal still stands, okay?" she says firmly. "If you want to start doing drugs - even just to try - you come to me so I can make sure you get the good shit."
Maya finally cracks a smile. "I think I'll give that a few more years. Got these hormones all over the place right now, though, so there'll probably be questions about sex coming up, though."
"Well, I highly recommend it." Max says, eyebrows raised a little. "Though at your age, you gotta be careful for undercover cops running stings for prostitutes."
"I think they prefer the term 'sex workers' now." Maya replies idly.
"Whatever you want to call it, if you're gonna have sex for money, now's the time. You can charge primo rates, and if you get caught, your record gets sealed when you're 18 and it's like it never happened."
Maya laughs lightly. "I'm not saying it'll never happen, but I meant in a more recreational capacity."
"Oh!" Max exclaims brightly. "What flavor?"
"Weellll…." the teenager hedges a little. "There's one particular boy that makes me…. tingly, but, in general…." she pauses, before grinning somewhat maniacally. "Girls are VERY pretty."
Max grins as well. "Tell me about the booooy."
"Riley's uncle. He's 3 years older than us, lives in Philly. Too smart for my own good. Hadn't seen him in 3 years, then he showed up for Christmas. Puberty has been kind so far."
"Oh." Max is more subdued this time. "So, out of reach for the time being." Maya nods to confirm. "No other boys on the radar?" a shake of the blonde head. "Ah, well, girls are easy. Well. Girls are easy to get in bed. Eye contact, smiles, a couple compliments and touching their arm or hair. If you're lookin' to date 'em, that's a whole lotta work."
Max has never noticed how much Maya shrugs. "I'm not really sure yet."
They're in front of Maya's building now. "Well, text me anytime."
"Night, Max." Maya says, punching the code in to unlock the building door and going inside.
Max waits for the door to close then heaves a sigh. "Happy birthday, kid." she says quietly, before walking off toward her own apartment.
Maya had ended up getting a job at a fast-paced, medium sized, rock'n'roll themed restaurant halfway between Rockwood Music Hall and the Bowery Ballroom. She'd been hired on as a busser, but had immediately started taking on extra duties without being asked, and seized the first chance she'd had to pick up a waitress shift when someone had called in sick. Her boss loves her and the tips are great, but she is held pretty closely to the strict laws about underage labor. The owner-manager, Joey, an older punk rocker-turned-chef-turned-businessman, lets her slide a little, picking up a few hours here and there working off the clock just for tips, but it can't be much or they'll both get in trouble. Maya can't get away with much more than that anyway with her still relatively new parental supervision, though that has slackened a little now that her mom is dating Shawn and trying to hide it from Maya.
The only other real development that winter is Maya confirming to herself that she is, in fact, bisexual. For now, she sticks to girls. While she finds some boys attractive, most of them annoy her. In her limited free time, she takes to going to some of the cafes on in the Upper East Side that are popular with the girls that attend the Catholic schools up there. It's a cliche for a reason- a lot of them are repressed. Maya learns fast that there's a kind of code about which cafe you're at, at what time of the evening, that indicates how far you're willing to go, and the bathrooms are more for getting off than using the facilities.
One Monday afternoon in early March, she's exiting a cafe looking tousled after getting to third base with 2 girls a couple years older than her when she hears her name being called. Looking the direction she'd heard the voice, she finds Max. "Hey. What the hell are you doing up here?" Maya asks, stopping for Max to catch up to her since they are both heading the same direction towards the nearest subway station.
"I still babysit for Peach one afternoon a week. What are you doing all the way up here?" Max answers, curious.
"Two Catholic schoolgirls." Maya says, smugly.
"Awwww. Maya's all grown up and two-timing girls." Max puts her hands over her chest sentimentally.
Maya scoffs lightly. "If by two-timing, you mean fingering them both at the same time. We're teenagers, Max. We're not dating. I don't even know their names. We show up at certain designated places, flirt a little, mess around in the bathroom, get off, and go our separate ways."
Max contemplates that for a moment before letting out an impressed, "Well, damn, girl. Is that a New York City thing or a Gen Z thing? Because that was NOT a thing when I was your age."
"Orrr, maybe it was, and you just never tried." Maya proposes as they start down the steps into the subway station.
"Yeah, probably that." Max agrees.
"What's going on with you?" Maya asks as they wait for the train they need.
Max twists and rocks her body a little before she spits it out. "I maybe sorta kinda might be starting pastry school next week."
Maya looks at her sketically. "School? Voluntarily?"
"I know! I know, okay?!" Max says as they step into their train and grab a bar to hold on. "It was just one of my daydream things, but then Caroline found the brochure hidden with my porn. And you know what Caroline does."
"Yeah, that's why I don't keep physical evidence of any of my daydream stuff. Riley is like Caroline, but worse because she has parents who will help her." the younger girl replies knowingly. "It's bad enough that they know a thing other than waitressing and sarcasm that I'm good at. I'm not even in high school yet,and they are already talking about things like college. As if THAT'S gonna happen."
"You should at least think about it." Max says neutrally.
"Oh good god, not you too!" Maya throws her free hand up, accidentally smacking someone, and just glaring at him when he opens his mouth to yell at her. "I am not going to college, ESPECIALLY not for art. It's a waste of time and money. Most artists come out of school just to end up waiting tables or tending bar to scrape by and pay off student loans and making art on the side anyway. If I just skip the student loans, I'm already ahead of most of the other artists out there by 4 to 5 years, 100,000 or more dollars, and a massive reality check."
Max is unable to find fault with Maya's logic as they exit the train at Canal street and maneuver their way to the platform they need to transfer to the train to get back out to Williamsburg. "I'm not going to try and convince you. Are you at least finishing high school?" she asks instead.
Maya hesitates. Eventually she answers. "Undecided. I only legally have to be in school until I'm 16. I've heard it's not hard to get the equivalency thing, not that you really need it to be a waitress, but it would at least shut certain people up."
"But do you really want to be a waitress your whole life?" Max asks, scrunching up her nose and looking at her friend somewhat critically.
Shrugging, the girl says, "I don't mind the work. It's simple, keeps me active. Pays well. Admit it, if you could be bothered to leave the shitty diner in Williamsburg and go work someplace in Manhattan, you'd make bank with that rack." It's Max's turn to give a little shrug, conceding that point. She stays at the diner because it's convenient and she's lazy and content enough to be poor, plenty used to it after being that way her whole life. "All that aside, someone has to do it, and I'm not above it being me. There's nothing wrong with being a career waitress. Once I am old enough to legally be in a bar, I'd probably make a pretty good bartender, too."
The brunette woman sighs. "Well, just….. Don't do anything that will make life too much harder if you change your mind later, okay?"
Maya smiles a little, following her friend onto the train. "Okay."