The Hook-up

Chapter 44

"Lauren...I'll be home in a week..." Bruno said to his girlfriend on the phone.

"I know. I can't wait to see you...and then not for 3 months." She told him with a sad tone walking toward a tall building in Los Angeles. "I have to go baby, I have a meeting with Justin."

"You're meeting with him?" Bruno asked caught off guard by her statement.

"Yeah. I'm still going to work with him on this thing...." She answered.

"Lauren...why?" he asked her.

"It's my first job after grad school, Bruno. It will be okay. It's just work. And that's it." She reassured him.

"I don't...." he started.

"Stop. Did I get mad at you when you were working with Rita?" she asked him.

"No."

"Then that's your answer. Nothing is going to happen." She said. "I will talk to you later. Have a good show." She finished as she entered the building seeing a security guard point to the "No Cell Phones" sign hanging by the sign in sheet. "I know, I know." She sighed hanging up the phone. She signed in and then quickly walked to the elevator to get to Justin's office. She smiled at the receptionist who had no idea who she was.

"I'm here for the HomeMint meeting." Lauren said to the girl in the front.

"Are you a designer or a consultant?" the girl asked.

"Just tell them Lauren is here." She said inpatiently.

The girl rolled her eyes grabbing the phone calling Justin. "A Lauren is here..." she said with a bit of an attitude. "He'll be here in just a moment. Have a seat." The girl told her pointing to a cushy white chair.

"Yeah. Alright." Lauren said sitting down in the chair looking down at her bright red heels.

"Laur?" she heard Justin's voice. She looked up and smiled. "Come on. We have a lot to talk about." As they walked further away from the girl in the front he walked a little more slowly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Why?" she asked him.

"Your arm is still bruised. It's been two weeks." He pointed out.

"It'll go away." She shrugged entering the room seeing several people she didn't know. Justin introduced her to all the people she would be working with. She pulled out her ipad and started to type as they went on with the meeting. She would be the Director of Online Communications and would have a handful of people who would report to her. She would be in charge of signing off on the descriptions and all social media that the site did. She would be working with another person, Diem, the Director of External Communications. As the meeting wrapped up and Justin told them he would like to see them all in New York in October she felt her phone vibrate. She glanced over at Justin shrugging her shoulders. After finishing the meeting Lauren sat in the chair next to Justin waiting for everyone to leave. "He just gets so jealous." She told him handing him her phone showing him a handful of random text messages with the last one reading Call me.

"Lauren. He's unstable." Justin said bluntly.

"I know. But I think I know how to fix him." She told him.

"By leaving him, Lauren." He answered her.

"I'm not leaving him." She told him.

He reached over and touched her arm not sure how to respond to her statement. "I'll be there for you when it happens again."