The Hook-up

Chapter 61

He leaned in to her holding her tightly feeling her start to cry again. "I knew I was. It was probably just too early to tell...." She told him.

"I know baby. I knew, too." He said to her pulling away hearing laughs and screams from Lauren's nieces coming towards them. He wiped away some tears from his eyes looking at her. "Do they know?" he asked.

"No. They just know we got in a fight." She said to him.

"Okay." He nodded looking over at her. "Did you bring anything with you?"

"No. I need to get my purse and phone though. Stay there." She said standing up going into the house. He watched her get up turning to see Lauren's 6 year old niece, Ella, walking toward him.

"Bruno! Are you going to be here for a while? Alexa hasn't met you yet! Bruno say yes!" she exclaimed holding onto her. No. Not now. He thought to himself. Not now.

"I'm sorry, Ella, but your aunt and I have plans. But we'll be back, okay?" he said hugging her

"Aww. Okay." She frowned going back to her bike. "Will you bring me something from Brazil?"

"I will, Ella." He answered feeling Lauren behind him taking a hold of his hand.

"Quit bothering, my boyfriend, Ella!" Lauren laughed walking down the sidewalk with him.

"Bye, Lauren!" Ella exclaimed riding her bike away from them.

"Follow me home?" he asked her still feeling her holding onto his arm tightly. "Lauren, it will be okay." He told her trying to reassure both of them.

"I know. And yes. Follow you home." She responded. "But I'm hungry. Can we stop and eat?" she asked him.

"What do you want, mama?" he smiled at her.

"Ummm.....tacos." she replied.

"Let's go to that one place downtown. The real cheesy place." He said moving his hand to the car.

"Can we go home first?" she asked. "I need to change. And it's like dinner time. I can't..."

"You're fine the way you are..." he responded seeing her start to get a little upset. "But if it makes you feel better, yes...."

"Okay. Then I'll see you at home." She told him letting go of him heading toward her car.

"Lauren?" he turned looking at her.

"Yeah?" she asked holding onto her keys.

"I love you." He smiled at her.

"I love you, too., Bruno." She laughed. "I'll see you at home." She got in the car watching him start his car pulling away from the sidewalk.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Bruno gasped looking down at his phone seeing a blinking red light indicating her had new text messages. He looked down seeing some from Ari telling him what he had left at the house was amazing and that they were almost done finishing it. Below those texts he saw one from a 917 area code.

Will I see you in Chile?

He looked at the message again knowing that the text was from Damaris. He had seen her before he spent the month with Lauren. She understood him in a way that Lauren never could. He was able to say things to her that would shock Lauren and might even make her mad. It was comforting being around her. But, Lauren drove him so insanely crazy and made him fall in love with her every second of the day.

I don't think so.

He replied to her.

Oh come on. Just one drink before the fiesta.

He rolled his eyes as he sat in highway traffic turning to see Lauren a few cars behind him. He shook his head trying his best to resist his longtime friend. Things just changed. I can't do it.

No. I'm sorry, I can't.

Is it Lauren? She hates me.

No. She doesn't hate you. I just am going to be really busy this trip.

You know where to find me if you need anything.

After finishing the short conversation with Damaris he picked up the phone to call Phil. "What did you do with the song?" he asked impatiently. "It better be perfect."

"Hold your horses, Brunz. Come down to the studio. We've got it. It's all done. You just have to do the vocals." He said. "Are you coming now? Is Lauren okay? Is everything okay?"

"You want to do it now?" Bruno asked.

"The faster the better." Phil said. "But if you need time with Lauren...I mean...if that came after what you two were arguing about....you need to figure it out."

"I do." Bruno responded. "I need to talk to her." He said turning down the street toward their house.

"9 o'clock tomorrow morning." Phil told him.

"Okay. Nine." He responded hanging up the phone pulling into the driveway seeing Lauren pull up next to him. He took off his sunglasses seeing her stopping the car singing a song that was playing. He opened the door hearing her voice stop suddenly.

"No! You can't hear me sing that bad!" she told him watching him take her hand as she got out of the car.

"It was beautiful." He smirked wrapping his arm around her leading her to the house.

"Bruno?" she asked him as they neared the bedroom.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"Can we just order some Chinese? I still don't feel real well." She asked him. "And I'm really cold."

"Whatever you want, baby." He said squeezing her side. "Or babies." He smiled kissing her on the cheek grabbing her phone to look for a menu. "Go sit down. I'll order it." He said feeling his phone vibrate as he walked out the door to order their food and to smoke a cigarette. He called to order their food after glancing at his phone seeing Damaris's name pop up again. He opened the text message seeing a piece of cake in a picture with a candle on it.

It's Nana's birthday. We saved you a piece of cake.