The Hook-up

Chapter 227

"I wish I could go with you...." Wes said to Lauren holding onto her hand across the table at dinner on Valentine's Day.

"I do too. I know you have court. I think I'll make it." she told him. "Hopefully I'll make it back alive. We're going to be in the same place..." she told him. Bruno and Lauren had remained civil but were not talking unless they absolutely needed to. He had asked if he could have the babies a few days before Valentine's Day and she said no. He asked why she told him that she knew that Damaris was going to be Los Angeles and she did not want the babies around her, ever. He got upset and said that she was trying to keep them from moving their relationship forward. Damaris had met his sisters and, even though everyone was still attempting to figure out exactly what had happened between Lauren and their brother, they were trying to accept whatever he was doing.

"Elle, are you going to file papers? I gave you Kat's number..." he asked her.

"I want to wait a little bit longer. It will stress him out too much. He's going to Europe in a few weeks and he won't get them. So why rush?" she asked. "It's going to be simple. I don't need his money and all I need is a house..." she told him. "The apartment is small but it gets its job done for right now..."

"My house is plenty big for you three..." he told her.

"No. I can't keep moving them. I was talking to Amy about all this and she said that it really wasn't a good thing to keep moving them because it messes up their schedules and everything." she told Wes about her friend who was an early childhood interventionist.

"I understand." Wes said with a smile. "They're your everything. And I know how important they are to you..."

"They are. They're my everything. I don't know if I would be okay right now if I didn't have them." she paused to think for a second. "Not that they are like helping me cope or anything. They just help me forget how shitty their dad was."

"You know what, Laur?" Wes asked still holding onto her hand.

"What?" she wondered.

"I think that we should stop talking about him and talk about how delicious this cake is..." he said holding up a piece her to taste.

"Mmm." she responded taking a bite of the chocolate cake. I really do like him. He's so sweet and he's trying so hard. The sex has gotten a little better after I started showing him what I like....and I kind of like him pulling on me. It can be hot...

**

"Lauren....are you okay?" Estee asked watching her communication's director space out at dinner their first night in New York City. "Do you need to call your mom to check on the babies even though you talked to her like 30 minutes ago?" she asked jokingly

"No. No. I'm fine." she said looking down at her phone handing it to Estee. "Look at her balls..." she said as Estee looked at instagam photos of Bruno and Damaris out on Valentine's Day. "I just....I don't understand her. She knows she's won. Why continue to do that?"

"I don't know, Lauren. This is all new to me. I'm sorry this is happening." she told Lauren taking a bite of her food. "Have you talked to him recently? Does he know that you're going to file divorce paperwork?"

"I have plans to see him later tonight." Lauren said biting her lip a little nervous. "I really don't know what is going to happen." she said looking at her phone. "That's him. I'll be right back." she stood up to walk outside of the restaurant. "Hey."

"Hey, Elle. Where are you?" he asked sitting in the studio writing something that he wasn't sure would go anywhere, mostly about her.

"I'm with Estee. We're uptown. Where do you want to go?" she asked.

"Umm. I don't know. I'm still in Brooklyn." he told her.

"I don't want to go up there this late." she told him. "Do you want to get together after my shows tomorrow?"

"No. I can come see you." he told her. "What time?"

"Umm...whenever. I'm going to leave now. I'm just kind of tired. I don't want to go anywhere special. Can you just come to the hotel?"

"If that's what you want, Lauren. That's fine." he said running his fingers through his hair getting a little nervous about what they were going to talk about.

She returned to the table and finished dinner with Estee and quickly made her way to the hotel room to change into sweat pants and a cami. She put her hair in a bun and took out her contacts. After getting settled into her bed she stopped to think for a moment about what things she was going to say to him. You will be getting divorce papers by the first week of March. And all I want is a enough money to buy a house. And a little for the babies. You can have everything else...She heard a knock at the door pulling her out of rehearsing her demand for a divorce. She opened the door to see him standing in front of her with his hair was even bigger than she remembered it when she saw him two weeks earlier to get the babies. He had on the soft leather jacket that she liked to wrap herself in when it was cold in their home and wore a par of tight jeans with a gray shirt peaking from underneath, from the texture she imagined it to be she picked it as a wife beater. He had obviously not been doing much that day. "Hi." she smiled after catching her breath.

"Hi." he said walking past her to sit down on the bed. "How are you?" he asked. "Are you really tired?"

"Yeah. You would think it would be different because of the time change but I am like literally about to fall asleep." she said fake yawning.

"I thought so." he smiled reaching out to touch her hair pausing a little awkwardly.

"Bruno, I want a divorce." she finally got out. "We're not going to fix this." she paused watching his eyes go from content to sadness. "I'm sorry." she said almost frowning at his reaction. "You should have the papers by March 9th."

"Oh." he got out. "I didn't expect that." he said starting to stand up. "I guess we really don't have anything else to talk about." he said with his head down trying to avoid her eyes that would cause him to break down.

"Bruno?" she asked him as he neared the door. "Don't go yet. I want to show you something." she said reaching for her phone to show him some random picture of the babies. She tried to hold on to him as much as she could. That wasn't what I expected. I didn't want that to hurt as much as it did. He turned around with tears welling in his eyes.I wanted to fix it. I was going to stop. It was going to end. But she can't know that now. She wanted to fix it and I didn't. He took her phone smiling at the phone a little watching a video of the twins babbling. Halfway through the video of the babies the phone moved to Lauren reading something. He wasn't sure who was video taping it but she sat there for a good 15 seconds reading something intently chewing gum, running her fingers through her hair and taping the pen to something that he recognized.

"Lauren." he handed her the phone unable to handle seeing her completely normal, doing the things that he would watch her do and just made him fall in love with her all over again. All fifteen seconds of her sitting and reading made him fall for her again. He looked into her eyes seeing her trying to read him.

"What?" she asked running her fingers through her hair the way she had in the video. "I'm going to regret tonight." he told her standing up to pull her into his arms, the way she had been trying so desperately to forget. The light embrace with his lips lightly grazing her lips with the after taste of the alcohol she had so quickly forgotten about lingered in her mouth. The lingering scent had the same comforting effect on her. She felt her lips press against his and her arms rest on his shoulders against the leather jacket that she so fondly remembered. She closed her eyes forgetting the last month and a half melting into the moment that they would both would regret.