Never Say Never

Chapter 16

"Camila!" Leo thuds into Camila's legs when she arrives at Lauren's apartment on Monday morning, the longest she's gone without seeing him since she'd started the job. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too, buddy." She musses up his hair as he beams up at her. "Did you have a good Thanksgiving?"

"Was okay," Leo shrugs, before he goes back to playing with his toys, and Camila chuckles, leaning up against the edge of the couch as she watches him.

"He liked the parade." Camila jumps at the sound of Lauren's voice – she'd been on the phone when Camila had walked in, and had completely ignored her arrival – whirls around to find her standing just a few feet away.

She's got a hand on her hip, and she's wearing a blue blouse that has one too many buttons undone, her black shirt clinging to her hips and honestly, it should be illegal to turn up to work looking like that, and Camila has no idea how anyone at the Jauregui Corp. office get anything done when Lauren's stalking around looking like a goddess.

She realizes she's staring, clears her throat and tears her gaze away, mortified when she feels a blush on her cheeks.

"I liked it, too. Did you, um, did you have a good weekend?" The last time she'd been here, Lauren had been very drunk, and before that they'd barely interacted directly for a while, and Camila isn't sure what is and isn't allowed, eyes Lauren warily once the question leaves her lips.

"Yes, thank you. Did you?"

"Yeah, it was nice to have everyone together." Lauren's gaze feels heavy, her eyes searching Camila's face, and she has no idea what she's looking for, waits to see if an explanation will come.

"Thank you, for getting me home safe the other night," is what she says, eventually, her voice soft, and Camila wonders if this is Lauren's attempt at extending an olive branch. "I'm sure I wasn't easy to deal with."

"You don't remember?"

"Bits and pieces, but not anything specific." It makes sense, then, Lauren's careful observation of her – she doesn't know if she said something she shouldn't have the other night, is trying to deduce what happened from Camila's reaction to her.

So it's not an olive branch, after all, it's just Lauren trying to save her own skin, and a spark of anger ignites in Camila's chest.

Well, let her wonder – Camila isn't going to tell Lauren what happened, or what she said.

Let her be driven mad by the possibilities, just like Camila had been, desperately trying to figure out what Lauren might have ended that damn sentence with.

"Well, you didn't embarrass yourself too badly," Camila says, keeping her voice purposefully light, and when Lauren's lips purse, she feels a flash of vindication.

She looks like she wants to press further, but seems to think better of it.

"I've been meaning to ask you..." Lauren's voice is hesitant, and it makes Camila curious. "The London trip next month, are you still available?"

Camila's availability isn't what she's really asking for – what she wants to know is if Camila still wants to come, but asking that means acknowledging the night at the bar and that is something that they definitely do not do.

"Of course, I'd have told you if I wasn't." Sure, the thought of being on a plane for several hours with Lauren and spending days in a city she's never been to doesn't fill her with as much excitement as it had when Lauren had initially asked her to go, but she isn't going to back out, not when she knows that both Lauren and Leo need her.

"I'm going to have Ally book everything today, I'll have her email the details to you." With that, Lauren decides that she's lingered too long, says her goodbyes to Leo and leaves the two of them alone.