A/N: ayo here's the next chapter! I know it's been a hot minute, but I haven't had much motivation to write so forgive me lol. also sorry if this is a bit short, I'm trying to make the chapters longer.
Lauren's POV
"You're weird. I didn't think that after yesterday you'd be literally pulling me by the arm to get inside that place," Dinah mumbles as we approach the saloon. My heart is pounding. I had told her earlier of mine and Camila's plan to sort of sneak me in, and she snickered goodnaturedly.
My friend continues through the swinging doors of the building, while I follow the rickety brown wall to the back. When I round the corner, I enter a narrow and somewhat dark alleyway. I take cautious steps through the passage, paranoid about stepping into muck or worse, perhaps a body. Who knows? Someone could've died here, for all I know.
I reach a small door that seems to sag off of its hinges and carefully knock on it. After a few silent moments, the door crackles open and I see a woman in a dirt-colored plain dress, wiry hair tied back into a bun. Her face holds traces of wrinkles, and her eyes are dull. But maybe it's the bad lighting in the alley, as well as the dimly lit staircase behind her that ascends and disappears behind the corner.
"Hello, you must be Lauren," she greets in a soft voice. I smile, and together we go up the steps. The passage is so small that I feel like the walls are pressing in on me. I'm starting to get immensely uncomfortable, when I finally step into a hallway a little similar to the one above Ally's shop.
"The door on the right," the woman behind me informs and then disappears in one of the other rooms.
Upon entering the room, I realize that it's not big or possibly fancy like I thought at all—probably about the size of mine, with a window wall opposite me, a bed right in front of me, and another doorway on the left wall, which I'm guessing leads to the main part of the saloon. Next to the bed sit two trunks.
And there Camila is, lying on said bed, reading a newspaper. She doesn't react in any way upon my arrival, so I clear my throat to signify I'm here. She looks over happily. "Hey." She sits up, folding the newspaper and tossing it on top of one of the trunks.
"Come," she says and pats the spot next to her. I sit down gingerly next to her, biting my lip out of nervousness. The bed creaks beneath our movements. A thought begins to slip into my head that nobody likes a loud bed, but I quickly shut it out. I'm getting too ahead of the situation here..
"So uh, why'd you have me come here?"
"I just wanted to hang out with you," she replies earnestly.
"But why here, and now, instead of another time at, say, the haystack or whatever?"
"And what if I told you I couldn't wait to see you for that long?" She tilts her head slightly, with a rather mysterious but frisky smile. I can't decide if she looks cute or hot as fuck like that. I feel my cheeks beginning to burn, and since I'm beginning to feel like she's teasing me a lot lately, I try to do the same. Two can play this game, Cabello.
"Oh yeah? Why so? Wanna have a taste of these lips?" I notice her glance fleetingly down at my mouth, and I'm about to give myself a mental pat on the back when she flops back down onto her back and takes a deep breath.
"In denial?" I chuckle. Camila turns her head sharply, eyes narrowed. "What's up with you insisting that I'm into you? Afraid of unrequited love?"
"Well, maybe there was a brief period in time when I wanted you..." She turns on her side and lifts herself up on her elbow, head resting in her hand; this makes her shirt slide up a little, exposing a strip of caramel skin. I swallow and avert my gaze.
"And now? What happened now?" I don't think I can take it anymore. I can barely resist the urge to just jump on top of her, connect our lips, feel her pulsating heat so close to me. So I act on my impulses.
I move so fast she doesn't have time to register what's happening before I'm straddling her, holding her wrists above her head, and kissing her hotly. Fireworks go off in my head. Her lips feel far better than I had even imagined, and her hips buck slightly into mine as she tries to wriggle from my grasp.
Suddenly she starts to resist, pushing her hands against mine and kicking up her legs. She turns her head, abruptly ending the contact of our lips. "Get off." Her change of tone sends me completely off her and to the side in fear, yet I can't tear my eyes away from her. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath.
"Wh–what did I do wrong?" There's a pause. The only movement is our breathing bodies. I can feel the tension building up in the room.
"Why did you do that?" Camila asks quietly, refusing to look at me, which to me feels worse than yelling. When I don't answer—because I'm so shocked by her unannounced change of heart—she continues anyway. "I didn't invite you here so you could... take advantage of me like that. I... I'm not ready."
"The fuck do you mean, you're not ready? You've had plenty of experience with... with those disgusting pigs!"
"That's exactly the point!" The other woman sits up swiftly, turning towards me. "They're pigs! I don't care about them! They're... they're nothing to me!" She pauses to catch her breath. "I opened up to you earlier today. I was vulnerable. We literally just met weeks ago! And for you to just... jump me like that?" Her voice is lower now, gentler. "That's low. Is that all you care about?"
"Isn't that what you also want though? Don't think I didn't see your eyes getting dark and pooling with desire! Besides, have you forgotten the random acts of affection you've given me? Like, say, a kiss?"
Camila starts to get visibly frustrated. "I already said that was a sign of friendly care. But I want you to mean something to me. And with every passing day, you do. I care about you. But what am I to you?" She looks me in the eyes. "Because it better not be a sex object like they see me."
"Sounds to me like you're the one afraid of unrequited love," I grouch under my breath.
"What was that?" She admonishes me with her dark eyes. I don't reply. A heavy silence settles down on us, and I take this time to think about Camila's remark. When I thought of her, what did I feel? Butterflies in my stomach? My heart swelling? Maybe... probably. But in front of all that, it was lust. The fact that I even have to think about that is already enough for me to understand what she's trying to say.
"I don't want you to be another one of my "clients."" The older Cuban disrupts the quiet bubble, but her tone is softer. "Do you think I do them because I want to? No, Lauren, I have to make money! I want this with you, but I want it to be genuine, understand? It's called making love for a reason. I want whatever it is between us to be honest and trustworthy, even if it's just as friends. And if you're not ready to build that foundation, and you're not able to be friends with me without wanting to get your hands in my pants then..."
"...we shouldn't see each other," I finish for her. "I get it. No, yeah, I fucked up. I took advantage of you, and I didn't even think about how you were feeling, and I just thought you wanted it too because of—"
"Shh," she puts a finger to my mouth. "You're rambling. See? I don't want you to associate me with... with that. I mean, yeah, that's all I'm good for here, essentially," she lets out a dry laugh, "but I hope that you see the other side of me, the real me."
"I'm sorry," I nearly whisper, a sob breaking through my body.
"I think you should go. I think it's best we spend some time apart."
Nodding vigorously, hoping that would somehow alleviate the situation and show Camila how sorry I am at this moment, I get up from the bed and walk to the door, not bothering with any last glances.
Camila's POV
I don't see Lauren the next day around town, or at night at the saloon. I don't see her the day after that, or the day after that. I begin to subconsciously think that I overreacted. I saw the regret in her face that night, and I wholeheartedly believed her when she apologized. Would I have allowed it, even enjoyed it, if it hadn't been for my "job"? Even though it reduced sex to something carnal, with no emotions attached, I like to think that it would be different with her, since sometimes I do catch myself thinking what she looks like naked, how she would feel against my own bare skin. Because when it's with someone special, it's supposed to feel that way. However, before we get anywhere close to that, I want to give our weird friendship a chance first, but only if we know each other's boundaries.
One night I go down to get a drink and mingle. While I wait for my usual order at the bar, I hear two guys next to me talking about something, and they don't seem very pleased about it.
"—she literally robbed us of our money! We've waited how long? Nearly a month, Frank! Who does this bitch think she is?"
"Um, excuse me?" I speak up. Are they complaining about how they've been in line for me for too long? They both look over at me with angry little eyes. When their expressions don't change, I come to realize that it's not me they're talking about. Or maybe they're just gutsy.
"Who are you talking about like that?" I ask, eyebrows raised.
"Oh, just some chick we saw at the supply shop weeks ago. Weeks! We even paid her extra! She should know it's not good to keep a man waiting," the other man huffs. Frank nods. Fear begins to spread through my body as I connect the dots to Lauren. I remember her asking me how to get out of a deal one day several weeks ago. And she lives at the shop...
"Well, why do you bother with her anyway, when you've got me?" I try to steer them away from her because I can't imagine what that would do to her otherwise.
"You're too mainstream," Frank scoffs. "We want something that's for us only, you know? Fresh meat." My blood is boiling. Fresh meat? I'm absolutely positive this is not what Lauren came here for. But I play along, figure out how they plan to act next, so I can warn Lauren, as well as Dinah and Ally, about these predators.
"So it's like that, huh? I mean, no hard feelings," I chuckle. "How are you planning to obtain her? She seems to have been purposely avoiding you."
"Well, we don't have much patience, Bill and I here. We'll give her maybe a few more days, in the midst of which we'll start coming down with regular reminders. We did not make this deal just for it to go down the drain like that... with our hard earned money, no less! Not only that, but she managed to escape me with the help of her fucking friend," Frank snarls.
My entire being itches to jump from the stool right this second and run to Lauren and warn her, but I remain put. After second thought, what could I do at this moment that could help the other woman? I decide it's best to think it through first, but think fast. For all I know, they could begin their run of daily reminders tomorrow, or even tonight.
I bid the evil men a good night and get up with my drink in hand and start towards the stairs. Someone stops me by putting a hand on my shoulder, but I tell him off, saying that I need a couple days for myself to "regain energy for more fun later."
The following morning, Lauren is the first thing on my mind when I wake up. I instantly begin to think of ways I could somehow get around this situation, or places where Lauren is guaranteed to be safe. I don't know how to proceed, so I go to Normani's place to talk it out.
Normani is engrossed in grooming one of the horses in the stable but immediately puts the brush down when she sees me enter with a worried expression on my face.
"Mila, what's wrong?" She rushes to me, her fingers brushing my arms.
"Lauren's in danger."