The Hook-up

Chapter 213

"Ughhhhh." Lauren moaned hearing the baby monitor get noisy.

"Let me get them..." Bruno answered her. "You've had to take care of them too long..."

"Fine." she answered moving herself to let him out of the bed. She quickly fell back asleep not waking up until he came back into the bedroom with Everlee in his arms babbling,

"Oh...I slept too late." she jumped up seeing the clock read 10:45.

"No, you're fine. Ez is in the bouncer and I've got her. Go back to sleep if you want to." he told her.

"No. I can't." she answered him sitting up holding her arms out for her daughter. "Plus we have to go shopping for them today." she told him.

"Oh. You're right. We do need to go shopping." he said with a smile. "Or you need to go shopping..."

"I am not going without you." she told him.

"Why not?" he asked still smiling.

"Because. I just can't. I want to get big stuff too." she told him.

"But, babe. I'm your big stuff. Right here...." he half joked.

"That's not what I was talking about!" she c him playfully.

**

After several hours of shopping, with rarely being noticed Lauren sat down on a bench holding a soft pretzel in her hand. She looked up at Bruno, wearing jeans, a hat covering his hair, without sun glasses. It may have been that he pushed the twins in their stroller the whole time they where shopping that kept him out of the eye of sometimes eager celebrity spotters at the mall during the holiday season. "I love this..." Lauren said with her mouth full handing him the pretzel.

"I'm trying to watch my figure..." he said pushing it back.

"Bruno! Come onnnn..." she tried not to whine too loudly pushing it back toward him. "I'm done. I'm not going to eat anymore of it. And I have the caramel dipping stuff.

"No, thank you." he said with a genuine smile. "I wasn't lying!"

"Fine. Then I'll throw it away..." she told him standing up to throw it away.

"Hey..." he said starting to push the stroller full of bags and two sleeping 4 month old babies.

"Hey what?" she asked walking next to him reaching for his hand.

"You know where we should go next?" he asked raising his eye brow moving his eyes to the Victoria's Secret store.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him. "You saw the real thing..."

"They got nothin' on you..." he said still walking toward the store.

"I can't." she told him. "I just don't think I'm ready."

He leaned over to her whispering in her ear. "Please."

"Ugh. Bruno!" she said a bit to loud catching people turning to look at them. "Don't look up..." she said to him with a slight laugh to diminish any attention they had drawn to themselves.

"So was that a yes?" he asked her hearing one of the babies start to wake up.

"Yessss..." she groaned walking toward the bright pink store. "What do you want me to get?" she asked him picking up a pair of bright green sweat pants. "I like these."

He dramatically took the sweatpants away from her picking up a pair of short shorts. "This is a starting point."

Bruno picked several different things for his wife to try on without thinking about Damaris. There was something about the way Lauren distracted him from everything, seeing him as him, not as Bruno Mars that helped him relax. Even though he was still confused, he was finding the quality time spent with his small family enjoyable, even if the end product of the day would be to have his wife wear lacy underwear that she would never have worn if he hadn't suggested them. He sat on a pink chair holding one baby on one knee and the other on the other knee while waiting for Lauren to decide on what she wanted to buy. "Babbyyyy.." she whined after a few minutes.

"What?" he asked not getting up from his chair.

"II don't know which one." she answered.

"Which ones do you like?" he asked. "I mean..."

"The purple one or the green one...or maybe the Christmas one..." she told him.

"Just get them all." he told her.

"Are you sure?" she asked opening the door of the dressing room seeing her twins' eyes widen and their faces start to smile.

"Yes. All of them. " he said looking at the pile of clothes she had in her hand.

"Okay. But you don' get to see the one I like the best until Christmas." she said winking at him as they walked toward the front of the store.