YOᑌ ᗩGᗩIᑎ

Chapter 7

Days will pass and you will give up the things you were addicted to, you will leave someone and you will cancel a dream and finally you'll accept a reality. I have accepted mine. The minute I entered my house last night, I accepted the reality that Lauren and I could never be together no matter how much we tried. It was the most unrealistic dream which I was trying too hard to make it come true.

Austin was mad. He was way beyond angry and I never saw him that way before. He was burning with anger just because I took Allison along with me to spend some time with Lauren. He even got more furious when Allison told him how she liked Lauren more than her own father and for that I got a little upset too. I never wanted Austin to go miles away after a heated argument but he left our house without even saying goodbye and it had been thirteen hours since I last heard from him. He didn't call, he didn't pick up his phone and I was worried as fuck.

After I made Allison go to bed, I made sure to look up to the Maritza Petrova art gallery and gather some of the information about it from the internet. All I could see was the speech that Lauren gave that day and I couldn't help but watch it once again. Downloading the video, I saved it in my “Personal” folder which everyone knew was off bounds for them to open and began working on the information again. I was nervous. I hadn't told Lauren about Austin's sudden outburst and I wasn't even going to tell her, she would never want to see me again and I know that Allison would not talk to me if I don't take her to Lauren. 

Last whole night I was battling my inner self. I was trying to come up with a plan. I needed to be with Lauren and on the other hand tell Austin that I wasn't with her that way. It was the truth, I was only a friend in Lauren's eyes now and I wouldn't mind introducing my husband and my ex-girlfriend now. And I guess it was time that they finally meet since Austin knew so much about her. Maybe I'll arrange their meeting after I make things right with my husband. Today was a good day though, Lauren called me early in the morning and I woke up to a husky and a very raspy “Mornin'!” from the other end of the phone.

Turned out that Lauren asked Normani to ask Dinah for my number since the two of them were quite close now about which I had absolutely no idea about. I was sure that Dinah and I would sit around one day and talk about out lives. I didn't even tell her about my fight with Austin. Even though I don't tell my family matters to my best friend, this time I had to. I needed to know what to do now since now that Lauren was here I couldn't do anything to fight these feelings I had for her. After talking to Lauren on the phone and telling her about picking up Allison from the school I finally hung up, I knew it wasn't such a great idea to send Allison out with Lauren after last night but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to disappoint either of them.

After dropping Allison off at school and telling Miss Selena to send her off with Lauren today, I finally made my way to the art gallery. It was empty this early and now that it was not crowded, I thoroughly looked around and inspected every inch of it with my professional DSLR camera hanging from my neck. I made sure to click multiple pictures and look around as much as I could. Every minor detail was needed. I inhaled the scent, trying to memorize the smell of paint and clay which was such an amazing fragrance to smell.

Normani wasn't coming in today but she sent her assistant, Shawn Mendes, a very good looking white Canadian boy to help me look around. Shawn, the sweet guy that he was helped me around the art gallery, explaining me every minor detail about the art. I wrote down everything he told me. The two of us made our ways up to the office room where all the history and daily income charts of the art gallery were stored. I was not going to tell the world how much Normani and Lauren earned from the gallery but the usage of codewords could be useful.

As Shawn and I sat at the huge table with the files and our laptops in front of us, he began telling me how the Maritza Petrova was found and why was it named what it was named. Turned out that Normani's father wanted to make an art gallery but due to the money issues, they couldn't afford it. After his death, Normani made sure to fulfill his dream and Lauren was an upmost support of her best friend. Maritza Petrova was named after Lauren's great great great aunt who was indeed a very gifted and a very famous painter in Cuba.