Beautiful When You Don't Try (Camren)

Chapter 11

She reluctantly let the woman take it from her. She still wasn't used to this family feeling anymore. Her tie since high school had been spent in relative solitude except for Adrianne and what Camila was now referring to as the 'Random Dozen Romps'. The count was probably closer to two dozen, but she decided not to remind the diva she said 'a dozen or so', with the emphasis on the so.

"So," Alejandro began as he took Camila's bag from Lauren as well and began their trek to the exit. "How was the flight? Better than the long car drive I assume?"

"And always will be." Camila swore through her unfaltering, beaming smile. "The best part about finally making it, is the ability to choose between first-class plane seats and a nine hour car ride." The diva trailed a few steps behind her parents and took Lauren's hand in hers. Lauren mirrored her shy smile. She was ready to cast her vote too. This just felt so right.

Her parents loaded the bags in the trunk of the car while Lauren opened the back door for Camila. The diva glanced back to her distracted parents and then gave her a chaste kiss in reward for her chivalry. They were progressing quickly but still unnoticed. This made Lauren smirk like a little kid getting away with doing something they were not suppose to be doing.

"Now how did you two meet back up?" Sinu asked turning around in the passengers seat to look at the girls as they pulled away from the airport, confirming that they did know who she was in Camila's past.

"Lauren is that hot new photographer who photographed Camila for that magazine I was telling you about." Her husband informed her as he looked back to Lauren, and she nodded.

Sinu looked her over with a critical eye. "You would have struck me as a model more than a photographer. Anyway, who would have thought that two old classmates from Miami, would end up working together in New York City. It's amazing how fate works, isn't it?" The two women pursed their lips in attempts to lessen their grins as they nodded their heads. "Are your parents still in town, Lauren? Are you planning on seeing them while you're here?"

Lauren glanced to Camila who seemed unmoved by the question, motioning with her hand to answer as she pleased. "They're still here...I think. I, um, haven't seen them since graduation, nor talked to them since just after."

Sinu's face drew taunt, not with disapproval, but concern. "Bad blood?"

She nodded. "There is a lot in our past that kept me from allowing myself to remain in a position where it could all happen again."

Alejandro huffed a laugh. "I understand. I have had the 'privilege' of meeting your father through work. Mike Jauregui, right?" Sinu gasped and shifted an anxious look between her husband and the raven haired, apparently aware of some horror stories from the workplace.

"That would be him. I can only assume he hasn't changed in the last seven years?"

Alejandro nodded and hesitated before looking at her in the rearview mirror. "He does, however, praise you and your accomplishments to the whole town." Lauren's eyes widened and her jaw went slack. "He even has a magazine article about you framed by his desk. If you were to ask anyone who doesn't know you, they would say you are the apple of his eye and call home often, but your success keeps your schedule too hectic for you to visit."

She huffed a ragged laugh of disgust. Such a difference from the disappointment he wouldn't acknowledge in high school. "That's alright. I have a secret up my sleeve that will get him to shut up. I'm sure by this time next week it will be as if I don't even exist to him." Alejandro and Sinu tweaked their eyebrows in interest but didn't push as Lauren shifted her stare of aggravation out the car window. The also thought nothing of it when Camila took her friends hand to comfort her.