Visitor (Normila / Laurmani)

Chapter 11

A/N: Be sure to watch my latest Laurmani video above. 

Monday morning went routinely, but with Camila staying in her room long after Lauren left for work. She wanted to give Normani her space to digest what she saw the day before. Normani eventually left the house; that's when Camila took the opportunity to go to the kitchen and stock up on food.

She spent some time going through the messages that were sent to her during her trip across the Milky Way Galaxy. Most of the messages came from her family and almost all of the rest came from former classmates and researchers at her university. There was one from Dr. Cowell before he passed and another one from a person she did not know. In the middle of trying to contact this person, she was interrupted by the sound of Normani and Lauren coming home at the same time.

Camila could hear Normani speak to Lauren. "Can we talk?" After that, she heard their bedroom door close. Camila proceeded with sending an email to the stranger who contacted her. She really needed to use Normani's phone, but she waited for her to finish whatever conversation she was having with Lauren. Camila was typing away when a loud noise that sounded like a slap made her jump. Soon after, she heard her hosts' bedroom door open and Lauren call for her.

"Camila, can you come out?"

As Camila rushed out of her bedroom, she saw Lauren walking quickly to the dining room leading Normani by the hand. All three of the women sat at the table. Lauren looked a bit angry while Normani seemed scared. Camila stared at her as she hung her head down.

"Guess what happened with Normani today," Lauren said to Camila. Camila shrugged her shoulders in response. Lauren continued, "Normani was fired today for being a no-call, no-show yesterday. She didn't think it was important to let her supervisor know that she would be skipping work to have a water fight."

Camila immediately became afraid for her friend. She looked over to her, but Normani kept her head down. Camila had a clear view of the left side of her face which looked a little red.

"I have come to accept that Normani will never be an independent, responsible adult. Being that I made a commitment to spend the rest of my life with her, I will be responsible for taking care of her. Can you believe that? If I stay with Normani forever, she will be the only person I've ever had sex with," Lauren commented.

"That's normally a beautiful thing. Normani, is your eye swelling?" Camila asked.

Normani kept her head down and didn't answer Camila's question.

"Did you hit her again?" Camila asked Lauren.

"So," mentioned Lauren avoiding Camila's question. "I hope you didn't expect to stay here for free forever. You're going to have to find a job and pitch in."

Normani interjected, "She has no identification. How is she going to find a job?"

"Undocumented immigrants do it all the time," said Lauren.

"It's okay, Normani. I believe I already have a job," Camila assured her. "When checking my messages, I came across one from a colleague of Dr. Cowell's. Apparently, Dr. Cowell tasked a Dr. Reid with taking over our project when he became terminally ill. He's a medical doctor at the University of Texas Health Science Center here in San Antonio."

"Alright, so how does that translate into a paycheck?" asked Lauren.

"Well, the plan was for me to be paid for my contributions to the project so that I could have spending money during my time on Earth," explained Camila.

"How much are you going to be paid?" Lauren inquired.

"I don't know. Dr. Cowell and I had negotiated for $2,000 a month, but I was going to stay at his house for free," answered Camila.