Growing up Maya Hart was always a rebel. She was in detention more than she was in class, and she was constantly flitting between boys. Her fluffy blonde hair and electric 'come hither' blue eyes drew all the boys in her school to her. Her senior year she got around so much that she couldn't tell you all the names of the boys she slept with and definitely not when it happened. Which became a problem shortly after graduation when she suddenly had a baby bump. 8 1/2 months later the small blonde gave birth to a little ebony haired child with bright blue eyes. From that moment on Maya turned her entire life around, it was like she made a vow to Fiona Emilia Hart that her daughter's life was going to be better than her own. And it was.

Maya put herself through a mediocre liberal arts college to get her degree in painting. As long as Maya could keep Fiona quiet she took her baby to all of her classes for 3 years until she was old enough to go to daycare. Maya had a plethora of odd jobs, usually 3 or 4 at a time that paid enough for her to stick to her payment plan with the school. She took jobs with odd hours so that she could be with Fiona most of the day and then have someone, usually her mom or her best friend Riley, watch her through the night and into the morning.

Once she graduated she still needed to have a steady income so she took a part-time job at a small decorating business in the area as a specialty/regular painter, as well as a part-time secretary job at a law firm. She hated her secretary job but it paid the bills, and the woman that worked the opposite shift was nice enough to sometimes take her shifts when she needed to be with Fiona, who was now 6 years old.

"Good morning Ms. Hart." Called the newest member of the firm. He was not much older than her, and he was a hunk. He had tanned skin, messy blonde hair, beautiful sea foam green eyes, and you could tell even through his suits that he was perfectly muscled.

"Good Morning Mr. Friar! And I've told you before you can call me Maya!" She twirled her curly blonde hair around her finger and leaned onto her elbows.

"And I have told you to call me Lucas but you haven't done that now have you." He put his arms out onto the ledge of her desk that was higher than the rest, and smirked down at her.

"Well Mr. Friar you're my boss, it feels wrong to call you by your first name it's informal. I'm just a secretary please call me Maya." She pleaded as she pursed her plump pink lips into a cute pout.

"Just a secretary? Oh please, you know this office wouldn't run without you gorgeous." Maya was a little thrown off by the gorgeous; sure they had flirted but nothing this upfront.

The tension that had built up around them was quickly shattered as Mr. Franklin, the head of the firm, stormed into the small office.

"Mr. Friar refrain from flirting with Ms. Hart," Lucas nodded as he turned to walk towards his office, "and Ms. hart do I have any messages?" The older man continued to walk past Maya, meaning that she was going to have to chase after him to relay his messages. Sometimes, when he was feeling nice, he would stop at her desk, give her a cup of coffee, and patiently wait for his messages. However, on days like today, where for some reason (his wife) he was annoyed, he would just sprint past her desk and then blow up at her if he didn't get all his messages.

She quickly jumped from her chair and took off down the hall to catch up with him, which was a challenge in heels and a constricting pencil skirt.

"Timothy Roeford called apparently his youngest got herself into trouble again and needs an immediate meeting, Isa Drake just said to call her and she sounded stressed so I would make that a priority, Hannah," his youngest daughter AKA his little princess, "called she wants to meet you for lunch today, and finally Lucy called in with the flu so she won't be here today and maybe tomorrow." She took a few deep breaths after she finished her messages and continued to stride along behind him.

"Thank you darling, I will call everyone back. And please make reservations for Hannah and me at Parlay for 1 o'clock." He reached his office and unceremoniously slammed the door in Maya's face.

"Of course sir." She mumbled under her breath as she spun on her heels and headed back to her desk.

For the rest of the day she absent mindedly doodled in her note pads, made copies, signed for packages, and counted down the minutes until she could get back to her home and her daughter.

Towards the end of her day she noticed Lucas going down to the coffee cart outside, and switched al the calls to her cell and decided to take her break. She smiled and took off down the hall eager to catch up with him.

"Hold the elevator!" She yelled as she just barely reached the doors. Lucas smirked and shoved his hand in between the closing doors so that she would have time to catch up.

"What's got you in such a hurry Ms. Hart?" He smirked down at her, seeing as he was a foot taller than her even in heels.

"I need my afternoon coffee Mr. Friar it's been a long day." She smiled and stepped into the elevator next to him.

"Yes I heard you had to run the mile this morning." She laughed at his comment.

"Yes, yes Mr. Franklin was in a mood this morning, he almost broke my nose."

"What?" He said breathily followed by laughter.

"Yes I got a door to the face for breakfast this morning." He laughed at her again. She smiled at him, she had never heard him laugh before and it was a glorious sound. His face scrunched up and his entire body vibrated with his deep rich laughter.

"I'm sorry I'm sure that would have made your boyfriend pretty worried."

"Well Mr. Friar I do not have a boyfriend," She saw his face perk up and he brilliantly smiled down at her, "but it sure would've given my daughter a scare." She stared at him pointedly trying to stop him in his tracks of courtship. Most men immediately stopped hitting on her as soon as they heard about Fiona, and she liked it that way. It weeded out all the assholes and the deadbeats who she didn't want in her life in the first place. With her limited knowledge of Lucas she figured he was a playboy just trying to get up the skirt of the hot secretary.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a daughter." He sounded defeated and that brilliant smile had left his face.

"Well I do. She just turned 6." She looked over at him with a blank face, and waited for any kind of reaction. His face remained sunken in and he remained stationary until the ding that signaled they had reached the ground level filled the elevator. Maya darted out of the elevator in record time because she could not stand one more second of Lucas staring at her like was a ghost. She could hear him slowly emerging from the elevator and sped up her pace so that she could be in front of the older woman who was walking towards the cart.

The line was already long but from the time that she got in line at least 6 more people had lined up behind her before Lucas jumped in. She waited in the freezing cold, without a jacket, for about 10 minutes until she finally got to order.

"Can I get a large coffee, 1 cream and 2 sugars?" The skinny blonde barista nodded down at her God am I shorter than everyone? She thought to herself. She pulled a 5-dollar bill out of her wallet as she thought about how the barista could've easily been a super model.

"It's 4.25." The barista said boredly, she accepted Maya's five-dollar bill and handed her the coffee.

"Thanks, keep the change." She quickly got out of line and made her way back into the building. She ducked her head as she walked past Lucas, and this was a grave mistake. She ran straight into a man walking in the opposite direction. Her coffee spilled all over the two of them causing a series of yelps, and all of his things tumbled to the ground.

"Oh my god sir I am so sorry!" Maya crouched to the ground and started picking up the papers that were scattered over the cobblestone

"It's ok doll I got it." The man crouched on the ground beside her and grabbed his various pens, pencils, flash drives, and papers. Maya rolled her eyes at the name he called her, if there was anything she hated it was sexist men. He stood from the ground and winked at the still crouching Maya. She let out a huff and struggled to stand up.

"God damn it!" She glanced down at her white button up shirt that was now soaked in coffee and partially see through. She looked up and made eye contact with a smirking Lucas. She huffed again and walked away, adding a little sway to her step. If Lucas was going to stare at her might as well give him something to stare at.

She reached her floor and headed straight back to the bathroom. She stared at her distressed figure in the mirror. Her shirt was becoming stained and transparent, her hair had begun to frizz due to the running and the collision, her cheeks were flushed, and her face had become dull due to her lack of caffeine. She was a wreck.

She splashed some water on her face, careful not to ruin her makeup, and a little in her hair to calm the frizz. She pulled the curls that had fallen apart back together and twirled them around her finger to better define them. She looked down at the wet patch on her shirt and realized that there was little she could do. Hesitantly she unbuttoned and pulled the shirt off her shoulders then angrily stuffed it under the faucet. She put a little soap on her hand and lightly scrubbed at the stained fabric. When it was as clean as it would get she shoved it under the hand dryer. There she was standing in the middle of the, co-ed, bathroom in her bra, 5-inch pumps, and skintight pencil skirt. What has my life come to? She pulled her now warm shirt back on to her shoulders. She buttoned it up and tucked it back in to her skirt.

She exited the bathroom and made her way back to her desk. She slumped down into her chair and pulled out the hidden picture of Fiona from her desk. Mr. Franklin did not like personalization but sometimes she needed a little pick me up. She rubbed her thumb on the well-worn picture of her baby girl. It was a picture from her first year in pre-school and she had worked late that night so Auntie Riley got to dress her, which meant she wore whatever she wanted. She had on a purple shirt with a duck on it, fleece pajama pants with pancakes on them, and a yellow velour zip-up sweatshirt. Her hair was in a partial water-sprout, her self-cut bangs were mussed above her eyes, and she had a smile that showed all her little teeth. Fiona was the most beautiful child and this particular picture always seemed to calm her. It showed how care-free her baby was, and the fact that she looked precious even in that ridiculous get up showed just how beautiful her little girl was. Just thinking of being back in her home cuddled up on the couch with Fiona made time seem to speed by. She sat there examining every strand of the child's black hair until her shift was over. This was not unusual, on slow days she spent most of her time doodling or thinking about Fiona.

"Hey Maya, I'm here to relieve you!" Kate, the woman who worked the other shift, bounded up to Maya and started to lean on her chair.

"Hey Kate. You couldn't have come at a more perfect time." Maya stood and hugged Kate tiredly.

"Bye girl!" Maya waved back to Kate's goodbye and trudged her way towards the elevators.

She leaned her back against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief to finally be heading home. She sat against the railings in the elevator feeling the pinching ease in her toes and the tension and pain in her legs stopped for just a second. Once the elevator dinged she leisurely made her way to where she had parked that morning. She knew that she should probably be moving a little faster since she had to pick up Fi from the bus stop in 45 minutes, and it was a 30 minute drive home then a 5 minute walk to the bus stop. After a few minutes she reached her beat up cherry red 2007 Honda civic, and slumped into the drivers seat. Maya had a stressful day so she sat in her car just breathing for a second until she knew for sure that her head wasn't about to explode.

She loved being a mom, she even loved being a single mom, but sometimes it all became too much. Being the only person her little girl could rely on was a lot, but she never got a break. Usually there are two people to share responsibilities but she was the only one. She had to earn enough money to support the two of them along with enough to pay off her college debts. However she couldn't work too much or Fiona would feel abandoned. There was so much stress on her shoulders that sometimes she felt like she was being suffocated. She was only 24 and she had all the struggles of your twenties along with the struggles of your thirties and even some of your forties. She had to stop thinking about this and so she made her way home.

She arrived at 2:50, which was a little late, so she shot off a text to one of Fiona's friend's mom's and asked her to chill with Fiona until Maya could be there. Maya slipped off her heels and ran into her run down, but chic apartment building straight to the elevator. Her feet were killing her and she could not handle the stairs right now. She could suddenly hear fast and heavy footsteps approaching her and was on immediate standby due to her sketchy neighborhood.

"Maya wait up!" She turned around at her name being called and saw one of her best friends Isaiah Babineaux.

"Hey, Zay!" She opened her arms and he swooped in and lifted her into a hug. One of the best things about being short is that she gets the best hugs from her tall friends.

"How you doing baby girl!" He was the only person she would allow to call her pet names. He was her right hand man; he lived right upstairs and was Fiona's most common babysitter.

"I'm doing great Hunkalicious! I really need to go pick up Fi. Come with me upstairs?"

"Of course darlin'!" He was from Texas so everything he said sounded sweet, and charming and it always made her perk up.

On the first day she moved in, Zay had seen the young woman struggling to unpack all her boxes while her 3-month year old screamed, and had come to her rescue. He took all the heaviest boxes up while Maya soothed the screaming child, and when he finally grew tired she insisted she take the rest of the boxes. Zay had never held a baby before, but when Maya put the adorable baby in his arms he instantly fell in love with Fiona. He was cooing and baby talking her by the time Maya came back down from her first trip. When they had finally taken all the boxes upstairs she was exhausted and starving and Fiona was snoozing in the comfortable arms of her new best friend. Since nothing in the apartment was set up yet there was no way she was eating tonight and having fast food with a 3-month year old was nearly impossible. So being the southern gentlemen Zay was he brought her and a sleeping Fiona up to his apartment and made them a lovely microwave dinner. Ever since he had been right there always helping her out and supporting her to the best of his ability. Sometimes there wasn't much he could do to make things ok but he still tried. Most people would think he was in love with her, but he was absolutely infatuated with the sports physician, a lady named Smackle, who looked after most of his injured athletes, Zay was just starting to be a sports agent so he had plenty. The two of them weren't in love but after 5 1/2 years they had grown to be best friends that absolutely adored each other.

"Maya I hate to tell you, but Fiona's bus arrived 10 minutes ago." Maya was pulling on her sweatpants under her skirt and was unbuttoning her stiff shirt. Zay had seen her in every state of undress except for bare-naked so she didn't even care that he was seeing her running around in a bra.

"Zay I know! Now help me fine my Zeppelin shirt!" He rolled his eyes at her and went to search the apartment. She unzipped her skirt and pulled it over her sweats and then continued to run frantically around her house looking for her shirt.

"Found it Maya!" She sighed and ran towards his voice that was coming from the kitchen.

"Thank God!" She reached out for her shirt and he held it high above his head.

"You'll get your shirt when you slow down and say thank you Zay for being the most amazing perfect best friend in the entire world." She slipped on the slippers that were sitting beside the kitchen table and reached out for her shirt again.

"Zay I love you but I do not have time for this!" He relented and handed her the shirt he was clutching. She pulled the shirt over her head.

"Lock up when you leave!" She screamed as she ran out the door and towards the stairs. She quickly hopped down the stairs praying not to miss one. Finally she reached the ground level and she sprinted out the door. She immediately took a sharp right out of her building and took off down the street towards her daughter's bus stop. It was incredibly cold out since the sun was beginning its dissent so the combination of short sleeves and cold air meant Maya felt the cold biting her skin. Finally she saw Margo's blonde teased up hair from over the bushes so she knew her baby was close. She quickly turned the corner and she instantly relaxed as she saw Fiona. Margo turned around and smiled in relief as she saw Maya. She mouthed thank God and tapped Fiona on the head. Fi whipped around and her face brightened.

"Mama!"

"Baby!" Fiona took off and sprung off her chubby little legs into her mother's slender toned arms. Maya kissed her cheek and the top of her head and nuzzled her nose into the side of her face. Fiona wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and giggled as her mother kissed and nuzzled her.

"Mama can we go home?" Fiona exclaimed but Maya's mass of hair and her too big t-shirt muffled it.

"Of course we can baby." She kissed the top of her head again, and carried the bubbly 6 year old off down the road towards their apartment.

The walk home took a little longer with the six year old constantly stopping and pointing at pretty flowers and cool bugs, Maya could not relate to that one, she stopped to pet all the dogs and she even made her mom stop to talk to the gangsters in their neighborhood. The gangsters were surprisingly nice to the mother and her daughter, they did a magic trick that wowed Fiona and of course they hit on Maya, but when she said stop they did which is more than most guys do. Finally they got home and Fiona bounced into the building eager to be home.

"Mama come on, let's go. Mama come on, come on!" Maya scoffed at the little girl and quickened her pace to keep up. Fiona ran to the opening elevator and jumped up and down right in front of it. She bounded in and urged her mother towards her.

"Fiona sweetie you can't reach the buttons!" Maya yelped as she sprinted so that her daughter wouldn't end up alone in the elevator. Just in time she stopped the closing doors and stepped in.

"Yes I can mama! See!" She stood on her tiptoes and pressed the highest button she could reach, 3. They lived on the 7th floor but Maya didn't say anything she just pressed 7 when the kid wasn't looking. The doors opened and closed, and Maya kept a tight grip on Fiona who would have bolted out of the doors. She held on until they reached their floor and once they did Fiona practically dragged her to their apartment. Maya dug out her keys as the restless child tugged on her mother's arm.

"Mama!" She dragged out the -a and pouted up at her mother. At least one person is shorter than me! She thought to herself. Finally she got the door open and Fiona ran inside. She jumped right on to the couch and sank into the cushions with a blissful look on her little face.

Maya quickly moved into the kitchen to grab Fiona's peanut butter sandwich that she had made before she got dressed earlier. She cut the sandwich into four triangles and arranged them on her plate so that the sandwich looked like a butterfly. She took the plate into the main room and set the small plate in Fiona's lap so that she could enjoy her snack. Happily the little girl munched on her sandwich laughing as the peanut butter stuck to the roof of her mouth.

"Mama can Uncle Zay come over tonight?" The little girl started the get excited again, and Maya could not handle the hyper active child so she quickly replied.

"We can call him right now baby I'll get the phone you stay there." The little girl cheered and sat up on the couch. Maya preferred to use the landline so she ran into the kitchen and picked up the old phone. She raced back into the main room and jumped onto the couch making Fiona bounce involuntarily. She dialed the number for the apartment above hers, one of the only numbers she had memorized, and listened to the dial tone start.

"I wanna hear mama!" Maya turned it to speakerphone and put it in her lap. Fiona eagerly leaned in to try and hear the conversation.

"Heyllo." Zay's signature welcome made Fiona even more excited.

"ZAY!" The child yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Is that Ms. Fiona?" He said teasingly.

"Yeah Uncle Zay it's me!"

"Well to what do I owe the pleasure?" Fiona looked up at her mom confused, and Maya chuckled at the odd wording and her daughter's confusion.

"The nugget wanted to see if you could come over tonight! So can you?"

"I wish I could," Zay said regretfully, "I have an old friend visiting tonight, and I have no clue when he'll show up so I should probably stay up here tonight."

"But Zay!" The little girl screeched.

"I'm sorry princess! How about tomorrow I make you pizza bagels for a snack?"

"Mama can he?" Maya was looking forward to having to make one less meal.

"Of course he can baby! See you tomorrow at 3:10 sharp Zay!"

"Ok see you then gorgeous! Bye cutie-pie!"

"Bye!" The two girls sang at the same time. She heard the telltale click of a hung up phone and the turned her own off.

"Mama I want to Zay to come over!" The 6 year old complained.

"It's just fine baby tonight can just be a mommy and Fifi night is that ok with you?"

"Yay! Mama what's for dinner?" The little girl pulled at Maya's sleeve eagerly and jumped up and down.

"What do you think about," Maya pretended to think for a second, "chicken fingers for dinner?" She said excitedly with a comically large smile.

"YAY!" Fiona took off into the kitchen to open the freezer.

The two of them began to thaw the chicken tenders and decided that mashed potatoes were the best side. Of course microwave potatoes. Once the chicken tenders had thawed Maya let Fiona set the two timers and then sent her off to pick a movie.

An hour or so later Maya was settled on the couch with her child settled into her side. They had old foldable trays in front of them so that they could eat their dinner while they watched The Wizard of OZ. The mother daughter pair devoured their dinner while laughing and singing along to the music. They even began to bounce around the room and make up their own dance routine. By 8 o'clock Fiona was completely tuckered out. She was draped across her mothers lap acting like she was asleep.

"Fi do you know what time it is?" She shook her head as her mother moved her bangs out of her face. "It's bath time sweetie." The little girl immediately perked up, she has always loved bath time it was her favorite thing behind her mama and Zay.

Fiona giggled and shifted off her mother's lap. The little girl was tired so she slowly, but surely, made her way towards Maya's room, which inconveniently was the only bathtub in the apartment. Maya slowly lifted herself off the couch because she was getting pretty exhausted herself. When she, finally, made her way into the bathroom Fiona had already taken off her clothes and was sitting in the tub. Maya chuckled and began filling the tub. Fiona swam, as best she could, around in the tub collecting bubbles from soap and shampoo and blowing them throughout the bathroom. She pushed her rubber ducky through the murky water and giggled as Maya washed her hair, which somehow tickled. Once she was completely rinsed off Maya scooped her up and rapped her in a fluffy light purple towel.

She carried her to her bedroom and picked out the girl's pajamas for the night. She basically fell asleep in Maya's arms as she pulled on her baby's unicorn onesie. She settled the child under the covers and lightly kissed her forehead.

Maya trudged her way to her own bedroom, which was only a few feet away but it felt like miles. Slowly she stripped off her sweats from the rest of the day, her room was always too hot so she couldn't sleep in sweats unless she wanted to boil to death. She pulled on an old pair of far to short shorts and as she pulled her way too tight bra off she felt absolute bliss. She picked out a random tank top and pulled it over her head and then fell straight into her bed. She burrowed under her layers of comforters and blankets until she had a cocoon of comfort around her to slowly ease her into sleep.