The Hook-up

Untitled Part 103

Bruno sat in the chair in his studio glancing out at the bustling city at work while he struggled to find the right words to put on his notepad.

"Bruno...." Phil threw something at him.

"What?" he asked perplexed. "It's only been a few minutes...I got this..." he said throwing his paper at Phil.

"Hmm..." he answered adding on singing a melody along with the lyrics. "Don't you think this sounds like a chick?" he asked scrolling through his phone. "Like...like...for Alicia...who is down the street..."

"Call Jeff." Bruno said to his partner. "He's there today."

"What is it about?" Ari asked glancing at the lyrics. "Oh....I thought you two were done with that."

"I can't kick it." Bruno said to his friends. "My sister sent a text to everyone in my phone about the shower and Damaris responded and it just brought everything back. I am trying so fucking hard and she means nothing. Nothing at all. All I can think about is Lauren at home all alone crying about it. I can just see it." He said with lots of emotion. "I just want to say I'm sorry. Over and over and over again. Can I call this album I'm sorry I fucked up. Please marry me, still?" he asked.

"No. You can't call it that, Bruno." Phil said.

**

Lauren stared at the computer screen with soft music playing behind her glancing back and forth at the products she had to write about. "Ugh. Blah blah blah." She sang to herself closing her Word document opening Google Chrome to see what was going on in the world. She read through Google News scanning the Mideast crises, health plagues and gadget updates. As she started to close her browser finding a moment of inspiration she heard a familiar knock on the door and a hello. "Lauren? Can I talk to you?" she heard Justin peek into the room.

"Sure." She said closing her laptop watching him close the door. "Did you want to go to your office? It's bigger..." she said pushing around the items she was writing about.

"No, no. It's more personal..." he said to her.

"What?" she asked confused since they had not shared anything with each other since the fight earlier the year before.

"We picked a day, Lauren." He told her.

"You did! Oh my gosh." She exclaimed. "Did she pick a dress? Who is invited? Where? J! I'm so happy!"

"Umm..I don't know about all that yet. But I just wanted to make sure that you're okay with that. I mean....y'all are engaged and everything I didn't want there to be all this drama because both of us getting married around the same time..."

"Justin, we never even talk about it. I think it's the last thing that he's thinking about and honestly, after every day when all I can feel are these giant ball of babies and the nausea they cause...putting on a big white dress before Jessica does it the last thing on my mind." She said honestly. Shit. I have to get married before him. I wasn't thinking about it until he brought it up anyway....She continued to hesitate as he looked at her.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "People will ask you. I know they will."

"Justin. We're friends right? I'm happy for you. I am glad you two are getting married. You are cute together. I have someone now too. I am not even worried. We may have our ups and downs, but we're getting there. Someday, hopefully sooner rather than later we'll be exactly where the two of you are. And I will be even happier for myself than I am for you." She said. "Now, unless you're going to help me write about these god forsaken boots that Diem had to have....I have work to do...." She joked watching him reach for a pen.