The Hook-up

Chapter 199

They got into her car and started to drive away to wherever he was taking her. Lauren looked at her phone and started sending e-mails that she was missing and catching up on conversations at work. "Gimmie that." he said reaching for her phone.

"Nu-huh." she said pulling away from him.

"Come on Laur. I just want it to be us." he said pleading with her.

"I get your phone then." she told him.

"I don't have anything on there that's going to piss you off." he said moving his body to get his phone handing it to her an an amicable exchange of phones. Before he knew it she was dialing a number with the phone up to her ear.

"Elle!" he fake cried.

"I'm just calling Desiree to make sure that she knows Larissa is going to pick them up." she said shooing him away. "Desiree, it's Lauren. Did my sister call to tell you that she was goig to get the babies? Oh good. Okay. Yes. Everything is fine. They'll be there tomorrow....oh. Yeah. Just give hm that and I think he should be okay....alright. Thanks. Call if you need anything. Thank you." she ended the call throwing the phone by her feet. "See. That's all I needed to do." she told him.

"Okay..." he pouted taking her hand. Ugh. What does he want? Does he want me to forget that I...we have kids? Like because that's not going to happen. It's silly to think I won't check up on my three month old babies...but I can't tell him that's how I feel because I know that it will just end up in a fight and me crying him and getting frustrated."Laur? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just wanted to make sure that they were okay." she told him avoiding the conversation she knew would happen if she told him what she was thinking.

"Lauren, I didn't want you to think that I don't care about them. They're my everything..." he said pulling into the parking lot of where they had their first date. He stopped talking waiting until he parked to continue what he was saying. "The three of you are my everything. And I want you to know that. Everything I do is for the three of you. And I think about being with you all the time. It's hard, Elle.." he turned to her to see her a bit caught off guard by his heartfelt statement. "I had to ask Eric how he does it with Liam. Because I get like..I don't know. I miss waking up in the middle of the night to feed them and to make sure they're okay. And seeing them change. And get bigger. I really do like it...." he told her watching he smile at what he was saying. He still wasn't sure if he was telling all the truth, because there were times when he just wanted to go back to the way things were, when they went out and hooked up and then woke up in the morning hung over. But feeling like that was the right thing to do was fading. It wasn't completely gone; there were times when he wanted to do those things. But, he really did like spending time with them.

"Bruno, you can call whenever you want. We only skyped a couple times. Just call. I'll do it." she told him.

"It's just that I'm so far away and the time..." he told her.

"It doesn't matter. Just call me. I'll wake up. That's what I'm here for. To talk to you and be there for you. I think you forget that sometimes..." she said making a sad face pushing a curl out of his face.

"I do. I'm sorry, Lauren. I forget that you're there sometimes." he admitted reaching for her ring playing with it. "Let's go eat. We can 'just talk' there..." he smiled letting go of her hand to lead her into the Thai restaurant that they went to on their first date.

"Hey, remember when you tried to kill me by suggesting we come here when I was pregnant?" she laughed at him as they neared the door.

"Let's forget that ever happened, Lauren." he responded matching her sarcasm.