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Chapter 4

"We agreed. No googling!" Camila talked at her phone as it rested on the back of her couch. She folded another t-shirt into a square and patted it down on the rest of the stack. She had talked to Lauren a few times in the last couple of weeks. It was never very long. A little like checking in with a good friend that had moved, so it was mainly sporadic phone calls filled with mundane details of the day. It was nice. It was comfortable. It was weird.

Not weird in a bad way. Weird that she craved it. Getting a call from Lauren was the happiest surprise of her day. Which is why she couldn't keep the smile off her face, even as she scolded Lauren for bringing up the g-word.

"I think I was drunk the night we decided that."

"Nope."

"Are you seriously saying you haven't been tempted to find out what I look like?" Lauren asked. "Not at all?"

"Of course, I'm curious," Camila answered. "But we agreed."

"Can we amend the agreement?"

"Is that some type of religious practice?" Camila stopped folding and looked at the phone like it would give her answers. "I'm not Catholic, Lauren."

The other woman chuckled knowingly. "Change, Camz. Can we change it?"

"I'm not so sure I want to."

"Why?"

Camila rolled her eyes. "You sure are determined."

"Or you're completely shallow and want to make sure I don't look like Gollum or something."

"I'm not shallow," Lauren started, but after Camila snorted, she knew she probably wouldn't get far. "I'm not that shallow."

"Uh huh," the brunette obviously didn't buy it for a second.

"Okay," Lauren started, "when I picture you, I see...sunshine, and rainbows...and unicorns munching on heart-shaped cotton candy. You're so sweet and bright. I'm dying to know what that looks like personified."

"Bright?" Camila questioned. "I haven't been called bright many times in my life. Like ever."

Lauren let a few moments pass before saying, "That's a shame, Camila, because I think you're one of the brightest people I've ever talked to."

Camila took a seat on the couch, grabbed her phone, and took it off speaker. "Do you want to know what I see when I picture you?"

"I don't know, do I?"

"When I picture you, I picture a lounge singer on a piano in a smoky bar in the 40s. Or possibly the 20s, I was never good at history. You're mysterious...and addictive.".

Camila gave Lauren a few seconds to take it in before the other woman replied with, "Good addictive or bad addictive?"

"I'm not sure yet," the brunette said honestly. "Maybe you're a bubblegum-flavored cigarette."

"Can I be a cigar instead?"

"Anything you want," Camila told her sweetly.

"Anything?" Lauren asked in a tone that was a little more than PG. "Am I a hot lounge singer? Because in reality, I'm dead sexy."

"Shallow!"

"Oh, c'mon."

"Why is this so important?" Camila asked.

"It's not." Camila didn't believe her for one second. The 'hm' spoke volumes. "Okay, obviously, it's important. Can we leave it at that, I want to see who I'm talking to and not have to analyze it any further?"