Signs

Chapter 4

It was Wednesday morning and Camila was walking out of her favorite café with a vanilla latte in one hand, and a paper bag containing a cinnamon roll in the other. She shaded her eyes with the bag, noticing a familiar beige trench coat sticking out in the crowd.

It was Lauren.

Camila wanted to call out her name to get her attention, but knew that it was hopeless. Not being able to talk was rarely an inconvenience to Camila, the people closest to her knew sign language, and she could get by with simple gestures and written notes if she needed to. But then sometimes, like when she wanted to get a girl's attention, it was the most frustrating thing in the world to her.

Luckily for Camila, Lauren was walking straight towards her. As she got closer, Camila waved her hand holding her cinnamon roll, catching Lauren's attention. Lauren's face lit up when she realized it was Camila.

"Sorry, I was in a world of my own, I almost didn't see you then," Lauren said as she moved closer. Camila tried to reply, but realized she didn't have a spare hand to write with. She gestured to Lauren to wait a moment, clamping the paper bag between her teeth and pulling out her phone. She quickly typed out a reply and held her phone out to Lauren.

'I was just stopping for some coffee before work, I thought I'd say hi'

Lauren handed Camila her phone back. "I'm glad you did, it's been a terrible morning so far, I could use some cheering up," she replied with a grimace as someone walking past bumped into her. Camila took her by the elbow and steered her towards one of the tables outside the coffee shop, moving out of the way of the stream of shoppers and business people rushing down the street.

Camila waited for Lauren to settle into the chair opposite her before pointing at her and giving her the OK sign, figuring that Lauren would understand.

"Just family and work stuff you know," Lauren sighed, "my mom's in town for this business gala, which is a nightmare, and there's so much work to be done at the office, and so much planning to make sure it all goes well."

Camila recalled Maggie talking about the rebranding of Jauregui Corp, which Camila assumed was what the gala was for. She watched Lauren as she carried on ranting about the gala, realizing she spoke with her hands a lot.

'Why don't you just do what you want to do?'

Lauren laughed as she read the message, "Well that would be too easy now, wouldn't it," she said sarcastically. She sighed again, staring intently at Camila, like she was making up her mind about something.

"I don't know if you know, and well, you're still talking to me so I figured you don't know, because if you knew you probably wouldn't want to talk to me anymore," Lauren rambled, getting all flustered. Camila grabbed one of Lauren's hands and trapped it underneath hears on top of the table, taking and exaggerated breath in and out to make a point.

"Right," Lauren said, calming herself down, "well, I was adopted when I was younger by the Jauregui family, you might've heard of that name before because my brother owns Jauregui Corp, except now I've taken over because ... he's the guy who bombed congress last year." She looked at Camila, fighting back tears as she waited for her reaction.

'I know'

Lauren looked up from the phone, a crease between her eyebrows from the confused look on her face. "If you know then why have you been nice to me this whole time?" she asked.

Camila's heart hurt for Lauren. She'd been right, she was lonely. How many people had turned their backs on her after her brother had blown up all those people? How many people held her responsible? Did people not realize Chris had hurt Lauren too? It wasn't hard to imagine why she had decided to move to New York City and rebrand the company. She was looking for a fresh start.

'Because none of it's your fault, and I think you're hurting too, and it's not fair'

Lauren read the message and gave Camila a sad smile. "You know, you're the first person to tell me that, all of my friend's back home ... they wouldn't answer my calls, they stopped texting me, they just cut me off," she choked out, "sorry, I didn't mean to get all upset on you, but you're the only person who's actually had a proper conversation with me since I moved here."

Camila grabbed Lauren's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, giving her a reassuring smile.

'Well what are friends for?' Camila typed out, holding the phone up for Lauren to see. They both wore matching grins as they looked at each other, and Camila hoped she'd cheered Lauren up, even just a little bit.

Lauren reached forward and plucked Camila's phone out of her hand. "Well if we're friends now, you should at least have my number," she said as she typed it into Camila's phone, handing it back when she was done.

Camila smiled down at her phone, looking at the new contact in her phone. She laughed when she saw that Lauren had typed in her first and last name, as if there was another Lauren that Camila might know.

"And speaking of being friends, would you please come to the gala, you might actually make it fun," Lauren begged, biting her lip as she waited for Camila to answer. Camila nodded her head enthusiastically, beaming at Lauren, a matching smile spreading on her face too. How could she say no when Lauren looked so cute when she was nervous?

"Brilliant, I'll text you the details," Lauren said, glancing down at her watch, "but now, I had better be getting back to the office, I'll see you soon," she said, pushing her chair out from the table and standing up.

Camila waved goodbye and watched Lauren disappear into the crowd. Finishing her latte, she stood up and headed to work, hoping she wouldn't be late.

- --

She text Lauren as she walked to work, so she had Camila's number.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur of texts between her and Lauren, and Camila found it impossible to stop smiling, even when the head librarian, Miss Lovato, had scolded her for being ten minutes late to work.