Jack & Lucy

Jack

I get a notification as I'm leaving my first class that Lucy Halloway has uploaded a new video on her channel LucyBakes. I tuck an airpod in and immediately click on the post. It's a short video, obviously recorded last night, of her making a single serving of cake in a mug. The video isn't as colorful or as bubbly as they normally are but she seems in her element. Watching her mix in the few ingredients and telling her viewers that baking doesn't have to be done in batches, that single girls with no roommates can enjoy warm cake at midnight too makes me smile.

I go to the comment section and type, "Glad to see you baking again. I missed your videos." I hit submit and see it posted from bakerbuddy123. Lucy refused to tell anyone close to her about her baking videos when she started posting them. I only found out when her power went out in the middle of her recording a video on how to make some fancy icing. She called me to beg to use my kitchen because Stella was out of town and she was worried all of her batches would go to waste if her power was out for too long. I had no idea how much she put into the little cookie creations that she left in Maggie's office for the staff to enjoy until I watched her take over my space. That's when I realized baking was her passion. She was confident on camera and poured love into what she was doing. She finally told me about how baking helped with her anxiety and how it was therapeutic when the pressure of her parents and dance became too much. That Stella grew her love of baking into a baking channel and in between classes and bartending, she was a Youtube star. She told me I wasn't allowed to subscribe or watch because she didn't want me to tease her, but I immediately ignored her request and secretly subscribed and followed her across social media. She needed to know she had a fan and a supporter and I knew she'd never take me seriously.

I close out of Youtube and walk into my second design class of the day. Lucy may have baking but I have drawing. My passion lies on paper and creating sustainable designs. I'm lucky to be able to take my love of doodling and make a career out of it. It also helps that my dad and uncle have supported my passion by encouraging me to follow in their footsteps. They have a lucrative architecture company that focuses not only on commercial and residential architecture, but interior design as well so I could wander into any branch I wanted to. Nepotism at its finest.

It wasn't until last year while on a trip to Costa Rica that sustainability became interesting to me and decided I wanted to focus on experimenting with new materials and use of space. Now, I am in my last months of schooling and the realization that I will be leaving both bartending and spending my days at the lake to work in an office to draw all day is a bit overwhelming. I knew I couldn't fuck around forever and that I'd have to get serious at some point. 

Now, at twenty-eight, I realize the time is now and I'm ready. I'm ready to focus on work. I'll have the degree, I'll have the job, I have the home, now I just need the girl.

I ignore my monotonous design teacher all through class as I think about wooing Lucy. It usually doesn't take much for me to get a woman's attention, but Goose is different. I want something more from her than just sex and it's a new feeling. I haven't encountered this hurdle before. I can't just tell her I'm in love with her because she'd probably just laugh in my face. I once told her she was my favorite person on the planet and she replied by telling me that that was like saying my favorite flavor of ice cream was vanilla. That there were other flavors in my life far more interesting. I asked her what was wrong with vanilla and she said no one picks vanilla unless it's the only option or paired with something else. It broke my heart that that's how she saw herself. Plain and undesirable.

I also know I'm not her favorite person at the moment and she made that apparent when she scrubbed her face off immediately after I told her she looked good. I don't know if she's ready to date yet, so I don't want to ambush her either. Maggie made a comment that she's not interested in men at the moment, but maybe she'd let me be the exception. Maybe I can show her that I am not a jackass and am really the man of her dreams. That she's desirable. That she's not vanilla.