Cable Guy's Fedora

Maya's summer gig as a cable installation assistant was everything she didn't want to be seen doing. Especially the hat—a crushed velvet fedora that made her look like she was about to bust out a magic trick instead of, you know, asking people if they'd tried restarting the router.

But it wasn't just the cringe factor. It was what the job turned her into: a spy.

Every house she entered with her uncle's cable crew revealed secrets. The supposedly perfect math teacher whose living room was wall-to-wall anime figurines. The quarterback everyone worshipped whose room was basically a shrine to K-pop. Maya started seeing through everyone's curated social media facades, and it was messing with her head.

"You going to Lila's party tonight?" her best friend Sam asked while they sprawled on Maya's bed, doom-scrolling through Instagram.

"Maybe?" Maya hedged. The truth was, she'd been in Lila's house yesterday to upgrade their cable package. She'd seen Lila's room—not the aesthetic wonder she posted, but a closet full of anxiety journals and a hamster cage decorated with tiny motivational posters. Lila was struggling, hard.

But admitting she knew that meant admitting she'd basically been spying on people's private lives through her cable job.

The party that night was exactly what she expected—loud music, red cups, people trying way too hard to look chill. Until she found Lila on the back porch, crying into her phone.

"Hey," Maya said, sinking into the wicker chair beside her. "Everything okay?"

Lila looked up, startled. "Fine. Just... relationship drama."

Maya thought about the hamster cage. The motivational posters. The way Lila's hands shook when she'd signed the cable work order.

"You know," Maya said slowly, "my job is basically professional spying. I see way too much. And I'm learning that everyone's doing way more pretending than actually living."

Lila blinked. "You saw my hamster, didn't you?"

"I saw your motivational posters," Maya admitted. "They're actually kind of...?"

"Cringe?" Lila laughed wetly. "Super cringe."

"A little," Maya grinned. "But also... brave."

They sat there for an hour, talking about everything real. No filters, no hashtags. When Maya finally left, the stupid fedora she'd stuffed in her bag didn't feel so heavy anymore.

Being the cable guy's niece wasn't the worst thing in the world. Not if it meant seeing people. Really seeing them.