The break upper

11-12

Lauren considers her words and nods in idle agreement. "Well, maybe if you had someone to share it with. Someone you loved. Then it might be different." Camila looks at her with wide, sincere eyes and the blonde realises what she just said. "I mean, hypothetically," she tries to salvage quickly.

Camila nods solemnly, but there is mirth in her eyes. "Hypothetically."

The credits roll, but Camila makes no effort to turn the lights back on. They stay there, lying on the bed, Camila's arm around Lauren's shoulders and the blonde's head resting on it, nose buried in the brunette's shoulder, both pairs of legs tangled together, and Lauren's right arm draped over Camila's belly, clutching at her side tenderly. The silence is comfortable, soothing even, and it feels good to breathe this moment in and shut everything else out for some minutes.

Camila breaks the quiet, eyes still trained on the screen. "I don't want to make you hurt."

Lauren unburies her nose from the brunette's shoulder and looks up at her, gaze tracing Camila's silhouette in the dark. Long forehead, elegant nose, plump lips, delicate chin. She brings up a hand to run the back of her fingers over sharp, but curiously smooth, cheekbones. "You would get hurt too, Camila," she whispers back. "And if this goes well, we might not have to get hurt at all."

Camila smiles faintly, her gaze locking with Lauren's for a moment, then averting back to the television. "I can't believe we are actually doing this," she says, and Lauren detects a hint of fear and wonder. "I will technically be cheating on Nate. But at the same time, I will not, because he supports us." Wide green and smiling blue lock once more. "He supports, us Lauren." Oh, how beautiful her name is in Camila's lips. "He actually wants us to be together."

"That's fucked up," Lauren chuckles, though a thought seeps graveness back to her voice. "If we're together, you guys won't be."

"We have a deal. We marry, Skysafe is accepted into Command, then after a while we get a divorce."

"That's not a bad deal. And it would allow us to be together," Lauren realises, and leans up a bit to look at Camila better, gaze hardening. "You don't want that."

Camila sighs. "I have another idea," she admits. "Actually, I have two. If we do not stay married, both our companies will suffer from the backlash of everyone understanding just the purpose of our union, so the first idea would be to stay together, at least for another decade."

Lauren bites her lip. This clashes with everything they are working towards. "And idea number two?"

A glint of something Lauren thinks she recognises as guilt flashes in Camila's eyes, but it is gone in an instant. "Idea number two is... crazy. It also depends on too many factors working my way," the brunette confesses. "But if it works out, it is undoubtedly the best possible outcome."

Lauren nods, as enlightened as the dark bedroom about this so-called idea, but decides to drop it. She picks on a different matter instead. "And where do we fit in?"

Camila bites her lip, chewing on it a bit, eyes lowered. "Somewhere in the middle."

There is more, so much more, Lauren can tell. Yet this is not the time to ask.

"If we are together by the end of the three months, will you keep your promise?"

"Lauren," Camila breathes, and once again her emerald gaze is so open that it is almost too much to look at, "if my plan works out, I will not even need to keep my promise."

Lauren's jaw sets, doubt suddenly gnawing at her. "I don't know if that's enough."

It also worries her, because her team has a plan, and she and Camila have another, and now it turns out there is a third. Too many "genius" plans for everything not to go wrong.