The Hook-up

Chapter 161

"Bruno...." She paused lifting her fork taking a bite of her food. "Come back with me when we're done..." she proposed to him.

"I have to go to the studio. But after." He said to her finishing his food placing a fork on the plate.

"Is everyone else going to be there?" she asked trying to find a way to satisfy herself.

"Yes. Everyone is going to be there. I will call you." He said dropping his credit card on the table as the waiter walked by. The waiter quickly grabbed the card heading toward the inside of the restaurant. They sat across from each other without saying anything until the waiter came with a piece of paper to sign for the meal.

"She doesn't look at your cards?" Lauren asked watching him sign the paper.

"If she does she doesn't question it." He shrugged throwing the pen on the table standing up waiting for her to stand up with him. He touched her back with an affectionate touch walking out with her. "I'll text you, okay?" he said walking in the other direction as Damaris.

"Okay." She said not making eye contact as she faded into the crowd.

**

"When is he going to be done?" Caitlin asked holding Ezra in her arms as Lauren moved Everlee around her chest to make both of them comfortable as she started to feed her.

"Never." She said in a serious tone. "I don't even know when the last time we spent more than two hours together, awake, was." She said with a sad tone. "I know it's a thing And it will be done soon. I just hate putting up with it." She admitted to her friend. "I think it's like him putting up with me being pregnant. Those are my babies and this is his baby...."

"I hate to break it to you, Laur, but they are his babies too." Caitlin answered placing Ezra next to her to sleep.

"I know that. And he's doing an amazing job. I don't think that any father can be expected to be with his newborn babies as much as their mother...." Lauren justified. "I just wish that when he was here the sun was out. You know?"

"Yeah. I get that." Caitlin said reaching for her phone.

I swear on my life I just saw Damaris.

Caitlin gasped to herself throwing her phone down quickly trying not to react to the text that their friend Genevieve had sent her . "I'll be right back, Elle. Someone from work called and you know how they are..."

"Yeah. Okay." She said not responding to her friend's frantic move to the backyard.

Caitlin grabbed the phone frantically calling Genevieve. "You saw her? Where? When? Oh my god!"

"She was leaving a restaurant. I don't know anything else. But I spotted her eyebrows a mile away." Genevieve said sarcastically.

"But she doesn't know that you know Lauren, does she? Like if she saw you she wouldn't have yelled at you?"

"No. Nothing happened. I just saw her. I don't know what she's doing here." Genevieve answered.

"Oh god. I don't even know what to do. She's in there with the babies thinking he's at the studio when he's really somewhere with that homewrecker." Caitlin said in a sad tone. "I'm going to call him right now." Caitlin said hanging up the phone before Genevieve could say anything else. Caitlin flipped through her text messages finding texts from him asking about Lauren and the babies the day before. She pressed the call button unsure of exactly what she was going to say. "Where is she?" she asked him after he said hello to her in a friendly tone.

"Who?" Bruno asked completely confused by her question.

"Don't bullshit, Bruno. You know who I'm talking about. Have you slept with her already?" Caitlin demanded. She could hear the music in the background fading hearing his feet shuffle.

"Don't tell her, please, Caitlin. Oh my god." He pleaded. "Please don't."

"Tell me what you've done." Caitlin responded in an upset voice. She waited for a response. "I'm waiting." She snapped in the same way Lauren did. "Bruno!" she yelled in a soft voice only hearing his breathing. Only knowing him as her best friend's husband she couldn't feel the remorse in his silence.

"She's here now. I'm making her leave right now." He said to Caitlin ashamed of his actions.

"Oh, don't make her leave on my account." Caitlin said sarcastically. "No. Don't worry. Go ahead. Do whatever you want." She thought about hanging up on him because she was so upset, but decide to end the conversation with a stinging remark. "But maybe think about your wife at home with your three week old children." She threw the phone down on a pile of towels they had left out from a night outside a few days ago.

Bruno leaned his head against the wall of his studio listening to the speeding cars that passed the building glancing at a soft patch of grass that brought back memories of the evening when they had yelled at each other about the babies for one of the first times. Thinking of that moment when he stormed away from Lauren at the beginning of the year he unconsciously started playing with his wedding band. Laying his head in silence, looking out into the bright evening Los Angeles lights, he reached for his cigarettes and lit one.

"Bruno?" he heard Damaris's voice come up next to him.

"Here...take one..." he handed her the cigarettes looking at her wearing his jacket to warm up. She reached for it bending over to light the cigarette.

"Are you going to come back inside after that? You're really tense." She responded to his readable emotions from the conversation he just had.

"I need to go." He said to her looking away in the opposite direction feeling the flashback of his and Lauren's fight months ago. He remembered their tears and how they ended up back at his house falling asleep in each other's arms.

"I'm not going to be here again until next year..." she whined.

"Then I'll see you when I'm in the city." He said taking her half completed cigarette stomping it out seeing the tint of her lipstick against the concrete.

"Okay." She said confused about his feelings following behind Bruno. They didn't say anything to each other as he hid the shame that he had for his actions. "I'll call you." She said to him getting into her swanky rental car.

"No. Don't. I'll text you when I'm ready, DeeDee..." he said affectionately closing her car door. Bruno went back into the studio turning off the lights and locking the door. He double checked everything getting into the car seeing that it was almost 1 in the morning by the time he recovered from the conversation he and Caitlin had.

He pulled up to their house not seeing any cars in the big driveway. He walked into the house seeing many of the familiar baby items missing. "Lauren?" he asked several times exploring the house seeing more than just a few baby things missing. He went into the closet to see a handful of her clothes missing. He quickly reached for the part of the closet where the placed their bags to see several of hers missing. He sighed heavily finding his way to the bed laying down almost starting to cry as his cell phone reached his ear to call his wife. The phone rang several times and eventually went to voicemail. "Please come home, baby. Nothing happened."