golden hour

Part two - Simple times

Hours after her show ended and her family left, Layla is out with her friends and celebrating the end of her tour.

They had decided to go to an arcade that had a bar, and in between dancing with her friends on just dance and playing random arcade games, she's been getting grilled by her friends for the details about her relationship.

Very drunk at this point, she's become almost an open book. "He bought me an engagement ring, and I told him I wasn't ready" she's nearly sobbing to Mike, Kelsea and her friend Hailey, "if I didn't turn him down, I never would've been hurt by Tyler and we could've had babies by now"

Mike, being the sober friend with all the wisdom, pats her on the back and gives her advice she'll definitely forget by morning.

While Layla has been mostly an open book, it's when the group of people are outside waiting for Ubers or heading to their designated way home that Mike asks the question everyone has been dying to know.

"So what's the deal with your man and your dad? That's was some intense stuff earlier."

Shrugging her shoulders, "they have issues that go way back. Like 12 years."

"And those are?" One of her other guy friends asks. "My dad and his dad were best friends and his dad died while they were flying from a freak accident. My dad took care of Bradley afterwards and when he signed up for the naval academy, my dad pulled his papers. It set him back years in his career and they haven't spoken since he was 17"

"Damn that's dark" Mike says. She agrees with him and climbs into his car after saying goodnight to her friends.

Layla found herself smushed between Bailey and Hanna in the back of Mikes rental car, him being nice enough to drive them to their respective parents houses (and maybe because he was crushing on Hanna a bit).

"You better come over the house tomorrow, we need all the details! Not just the drunken stories" Hanna tells her.

They make plans, Layla easily agreeing because she misses her Uncle Ice and she would already be out towards their home since she would be getting breakfast with her dad.

After arriving at her house, Mike helps Layla up to front door and lets her in quietly. From there she's on her own. Her mom knew she would be coming in late, so she stayed up to make sure she got in safe.

After being guided to her room with some help from her mom, Layla walks into the en suite bathroom and takes her makeup off before stripping and climbing into bed.

In her drunken state, she had forgotten she asked Bradley to stay and she's met with his hard body, accidentally waking him up when she flops onto him.

With sleep thick in his voice, he turns to her and mumbles to her, "Layla? You okay baby?" Immediately sobering up enough to feel guilty, Layla pulls herself together a little bit. "Sorry baby, I forgot you were staying."

"It's all good" he says, pulling her into him. When he's met with her bare skin, he asks "are you naked?" She drunkenly giggles, "sorry I couldn't find the clothes. Too drunk"

"Do you need help? Or anything else? Trash can?" She shakes her head and curls into his side, kissing his chest. "I'm just happy you stayed, sorry for waking you"

He couldn't be happier that she asked him to stay, he doesn't know if their time together is limited and there's nothing more he wants in the world than to be with her and make up for lost time. Pulling her into the crook of his arm, he places a kiss to her head and pulls the fluffy duvet up to cover her shoulders.

——
Waking just after 9 am with a major migraine, Layla is all alone in her bed now. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she sees a bottle of water and some aspirin on her bedside table with a note.