Come Back, Be Here (Camren)

Chapter 5

"Take it." The man grabs Lauren's right hand that is resting on the counter and flips it over. He places the ring on her palm and closes her hand around it. "You aren't paying for something that's already yours."

Lauren clutches the ring tightly in her hand and offers the man a grateful smile. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." The man nods, a small smile escaping his lips. "Now go place it back on your wife's finger where it belongs."

"Thank you. So much." Lauren wipes a tear away and offers the man another smile before making her way back to the rental car. When she gets in the car, she immediately takes off the chain from around her neck and slips the ring on it, watching as it slides down the chain before coming to rest alongside the pendent that has her and Camila's wedding date engraved on it.

She spends the rest of her morning apartment hunting. Four apartment complexes later and she still isn't pleased. None of them spoke to her. The first apartment she bought with Camila spoke to her and she knew when she toured it for the first time, that she wanted to live there with her girlfriend.

Flashback

"Lauren I swear if you let me fall I will murder you with my bare hands." Camila mumbles as she walks forward, one of Lauren's hands covering both of her eyes.

"C'mon Camz don't you trust me?" Lauren chuckles as she shuts the car door with her free hand.

"You? Yeah. Do I trust myself to walk without sight? No. You know I already trip over thin air and that is with both of my eyes uncovered." Camila sighs and she attempts to reason with the green-eyed girl who has one hand covering both of her eyes and the other on the small of her back. "Plus, yesterday we flew 12 hours on a plane so I'm still a bit jet-lagged. We all know that a jet-lagged Camila is a tired Camila and a tired Camila is an accident prone Camila." The green-eyed girl shakes her head and just chuckles at her girlfriend's dramatics.

"I won't let you fall baby." The artist promises as she leans around to plant a kiss to the brunette's cheek. Camila sighs and lets Lauren be her sight for the next couple of minutes. After a couple of steps forward, the older brunette brings them to a stop. "Okay Camz, just one staircase and we will be there."

Leading Camila to where she wanted her to go turned out to be easier than she thought. The hard part was making Camila keep her eyes closed while Lauren drove them from the hotel to here. The two were supposed to be looking for a place to live together, but yesterday when Camila was out job hunting, Lauren took it upon herself to go apartment hunting.

The younger girl groans, but doesn't protest.

"Okay take a step." Lauren encourages and watches as her wife picks up her Converse clad foot and places it on the step in front of her. Then she brings the other foot up to join and once both feet are on the first step, Camila continues the process and the two brunettes slowly ascend the staircase. "One more babe you're doing great." The green-eyed girl praises the girl in front of her. After Camila conquers the last step, Lauren breathes a sigh of relief. The older girl leads Camila a couple of more steps to the destination and then once Camila's feet are pointing at the door in front of her, Lauren leans in and positions her lips close to her ear. "Open your eyes."

As soon as the words register with Camila and she feels Lauren lift her hand from her eyes, she slowly blinks her eyes open and her gaze falls upon a red door with the number 202 on it. Tears form in Camila's eyes when she realizes what she's looking at.

"Is this..." She chokes out as she turns around and faces her girlfriend.

"Our apartment." Lauren finishes her abandoned thought. The tears finally spill over the rims of Camila's eyes and she leaps into her girlfriend's arms.

"Our apartment." The younger brunette sighs as she tightens her grip on the green-eyed girl. "Our. Apartment." She squeals before pulling back and looking into her favorite pair of green eyes.

Lauren nods and brings her pale hands up to rest on her girlfriend's tanned cheeks. She uses her thumbs to wipe away the tears that are cascading down her olive skin. Camila laughs through her tears and leans in to capture the green-eyed girl's plump lips in her own. The brown-eyed girl remembers a thought she had a second ago and quickly pulls away from the kiss, startling Lauren. Camila furrows her eyebrows as she looks around at the other entrances to the apartments on the second floor.

Lauren notices the confusion on her face. "What's wrong babe?"

"Why is our door the only one painted red?" The brown-eyed girl scans the 3 other apartment doors on their level and notices the grayish color they wear. When Lauren doesn't answer, Camila locks eyes with the green ones before her.

"What?" She chuckles as stares at a smirking Lauren.

"Think Camz." Lauren smiles fondly at her girlfriend and watches as realization washes over Camila Her smile widens as she watches her girl's eyes grow wide.

"You didn't!" Camila screams as she spins around and allows her eyes to scan the red door in front of her once more. She traces her fingers over the paint as butterflies invade her stomach. "I always liked being the girl behind the red door." She whispers, effectively quoting one of her favorite characters from one of her favorite television shows.

"You always gush about how cute it is when Lucas paints his door red for Brooke so she would feel more at home in his house." Lauren shoves her hands in her pockets as she watches her wife slowly turn around and lock eyes with her. "This is our first apartment together. Our home and I want you to feel at home here. So that's why I painted it red."

Camila attacks her wife again with kisses, effectively transferring the butterflies from her own stomach to the green-eyed girl's. After a few minutes of tender kisses, Camila pulls back and rests her forehead against Lauren's.

"You better love me for this because it was quite hard for me to paint the door red because you know I'm a Leyton girl and this is such a Brucus thing. I felt like I was betraying my ship." Lauren huffs and Camila chuckles as she pulls back.

"Wow I know this must have been extremely hard for you." Camila playfully puts one hand over her heart as she tries to keep a straight face.

"It was! But you see, as I was painting, I remembered that my ship was endgame and that made it a whole lot easier." Lauren smirks and Camila rolls her eyes.

"Ugh don't remind me. I'm still not over it." Camila pouts and Lauren leans in to kiss it off.

"You know what other ship is endgame?" Lauren asks as she reaches for her girlfriend's hand.

Camila cocks her head to the side and waits for Lauren to inform her.

"Camren." The green-eyed girl answers as she places the key to their first apartment in the palm of Camila's hand.

End of flashback

She smiles fondly at the memory and plugs in the second to last apartment complex address into her phone. After touring that particular one for 30 minutes, she has a smile on her face because so far this has been her favorite one. It is a cozy one-bedroom apartment and it is not too far from downtown. The complex also has a swimming pool and workout room so that's a plus.

"So what do you think?" The woman asks as she shows Lauren the inside of the apartment.

"Well I really love it, but I still have one more apartment complex to check out before I make my final decisions." The green-eyed girl offers her a hopeful smile. "Can I get back to you?"

"Of course. Just-" The lady is interrupted by the ringing of her phone. "I need to take this, but just come back by if you decide you are interested." She smiles before walking into the bedroom of the apartment to answer the call. The green-eyed girl whips her phone out and starts to plug in the address of the last apartment complex as she exits. She only looks up from the device when her body collides with something. Well someone.

"I'm so sor-" The words die on her lips as she looks up and her eyes meet her favorite chocolate ones. "Camz. Hi."