It's About Time (GMW - Joshaya)

Chapter 84

Maya's POV

After hours worth of work on the cake, the end was finally in sight.

"You know you can leave if you want?" I said, piping the icing to create a flowery look on every other tier of the cake.

"I know. You told me about six times Maya," he laughed.

"Well. I was just making sure that you knew you could go if you want. I don't wanna hold you up here," I looked up from the cake for a moment to ensure that he knew I would be okay here.

"I don't want," he said flatly, opening up the package of edible pearls that I needed to finish the cake. 

The crinkling of the package echoed slightly in the quiet of the room.

"You really are talented, ya know?" he admired my work closely, glancing at the sketch I had drawn earlier in the week for comparison.

"Well, let's just see how it tastes tomorrow. Presentation is only half the cake." My cheeks burned from his compliment.

"Well as a person who hates red velvet, presentation is all I need," Josh justified his previous statement.

"Right..." I wagged my finger and pursed my lips as if I had forgotten about his unpopular opinion. "You're weird."

"So is this what you wanna do?" he changed the subject.

"What do you mean? Like for the rest of my life?" I asked, looking for clarification to his question.

"Yea. I mean, you seem to be doing a good job. And you seem to enjoy it," he said separating the pearls by shapes and sizes.

I'm not quite sure if it was OCD kicking in for him, if he was trying to help, or if he was just trying to alleviate some nerves by organizing the pearls.

"Thanks. And I do enjoy it, but as a hobby. Not as a career," I shook my head, not even looking up from finishing the piping on the cake.

"Why not?" he challenged.

"Because I want my career to make a difference in this world. Don't get me wrong. I do love doing this and I have respect for people who do this for a living because I know first-handedly that it's hard work."

"Oh come on, think about all those hungry people out there with a sweet tooth. You'd be making a difference in the lives of those people," he reasoned.

"What? By giving them diabetes or a heart attack?" I laughed, putting down the piping to get a look at any places that needed touch ups.

I stood up and walked around the cake to examine it closely.

"Okay, fine," Josh conceded. "What is it that you wanna do?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Well, have you thought about it at all?"

"What?!" I pretended to be shocked. "You're supposed to actually put in effort and thought about a career. I thought if I just showed up to college and got a degree, everything would solve itself. What's the point of paying to go to school in college if they aren't gonna do all the work for you?"

"So what are you thinking about doing then?" he countered, handing me the pearls I needed to decorate the tier I was working on.

"Well, I have an art degree and I definitely wanna be able to do something art-related with that. But I want it to be influential like I said. And there just so happens to not be a huge market out there for art majors right now," I clenched my jaw as I spoke not wanting to accept this truth.