The Hook-up

Chapter 221

Lauren! Put your son down you're going to ruin your dress!" Caitlin yelled at her friend sitting on Rose's couch.

"I am. I am!" she said clicking the heels that she had on walking out of the room drying off her hands. "Do I smell too much like baby?" she asked Caitlin bending down for her to smell her.

"It's a hint, but I don't think anyone will notice..." Caitlin answered pointing toward the door. "We're going to be lalte..."

"I know, I know. Where are we going exactly?" she asked her friend.

"You'll know enough people." Caitlin told her friend reaching for her purse. "I'm ready." she said yelling to her mother that she was leaving.

"Have fun, Lauren!" Rose yelled sitting next to her dog and a class of wine. "Me and Seacrest will be here waiting for you...."

**

"Lauren!" she heard heard her friend Teresa catch up with Caitlin and Lauren later that evening. "You're drinking?" she asked.

"Do you remember that episode of the Kardashians where Kourtney checked her breast milk for alcohol? That's me tonight. I need to get so wasted that I don't remember the last five months..."

"What?" Teresa asked. "I didn't know...."

"Oh..." Lauren answered taking a sip of her drink. "I need to be a bit more drunk to tell you the whole story, but to sum it up, Bruno can't keep it in his fucking pants and we're getting a divorce."

"You're what?" Caitlin asked. "No you're not!"

"I talked to my mom. She's going to call Roxy to file for me. I don't know. Maybe like January. I am done. Nothing that he can say or do will make it better." she glanced over to the side of the room seeing Justin and Jessica. She waved off the friends that she was with to go talk to him. They had an amazing friendship and nothing would ever happen between the two of them. They respected each other but still cared for each other. And everyone knew that they remained very close friends and colleagues.

"Lauren!" Jessica yelled reaching over to her to give her a hug. "Where is the boy?"

"He's not here." she said plainly.

"Oh. I thought you would be together tonight...." she said with a sad face.

"No. I didn't want to leave the babies. He's not here." she said trying not to reveal her emotions.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked her. "I mean...I know a lot has happened." She told him everything. He knew it all, except for Christmas.

"He picked her." she said through the straw for her drink. "He's with her now. And he had the balls to call me and tell me that he was looking for me while he was performing tonight..."

"Wait what?" Justin asked. "What happened? You said you two had moved passed all that."

"I can forgive him but I can't forget it. It was too much. And he said that I tried to change him..." she said carrying on a conversation with them as though they were standing in a normal room, not a space crammed with people ringing in the new year. "And I don't know if I want to do what he did to me....I don't know if I can handle that.." she finished after Jessica asked her if she wanted to get back at him. "Letting go is going to be the best revenge. Showing him that I can do just as well, if not better, without him."

"God. You are too mature." she laughed after Justin left to go talk to friends. "Because I know exactly what you need to do...."

"What?" Lauren asked.

"You need to kiss someone tonight..." she said pulling a friend of her's toward Lauren. Lauren had met the friend before and vaguely recognized him from past musical encounters. "This is Wes. He's J's lawyer. He's your date now."

Lauren smiled reluctantly taking a sip of her watered down drink. "Nice to meet you." he said holding his hand out to shake her hand. She looked into the tanned 6'2 man with dirty blonde hair and a somewhat country/surfer yet professional looking man that was the exact opposite of Bruno. She wasn't sure what to do. She hadn't done anything like that since she....I haven't done this since I met Bruno. "More to drink, Laur?" he smiled taking her hand toward the bar.

"Yes, please." she answered standing near him as they neared the bar cornered off for the VIP section.