The Hook-up

Chapter 224

"How was your date with Wes?" Caitlin asked Lauren a few weekends later holding onto Ezra playing with him on the floor.

"It was okay. He was fun. He's super interesting." Lauren answered a few days after she returned to work after the holidays and a few dates later.

"How so?" Caitlin asked.

"He's just got different interests. He really likes being outside. He wants to go to Runyon and go to the beach and run and play volleyball and go do all this outside stuff. It's so different."

"He has a nice tan." Caitlin laughed.

"Yeah. He does." Lauren answered. "But I know what you really want to know...."

"I wasn't gong to ask!" her friend exclaimed.

"Yes. And no. We did. Last weekend. But it may have been nerves or the first time type of thing but he wasn't good." Lauren answered. "I might have just been extra spoiled. That was one thing Bruno and I never fought about. The sex was good."

"It had to have been. Shoot." Caitlin said kissing Ezra's head.

"I'm going to give it another try though. And I like him. He's a nice guy." Lauren told Caitlin. "And he doesn't seem to care that I have all this extra baggage right now."

"Well that's good." Caitlin answered Lauren.

**

Bruno drug himself to the front door of his house digging for his keys. He opened the door and dropped his bags in front of his feet seeing the emptiness of the house that he and Lauren shared. He watched Geronimo wander through the house almost lost without Gigi in the house. He went to the back door scratching at the door thinking that she may be outside. He ran outside with Bruno watching to see him go to the corners of the yard frantically searching for his friend. "Geronimo, she's gone." Bruno said sitting down at the table reaching for a cigarette that he saw laying on the table, untouched by the weather. "She's gone and there's nothing I can do about it..." he said watching Geronimo laying next to him laying his head on Bruno's feet. He finished the cigarette standing up to go back into the house not tripping over toys or bags or shoes like he usually would. He went into the bedroom to see the empty made bed with half of the bed bare. "She took her pillows....." he said out loud a bit shocked by the amount of things she had taken. He laid down on the bed taking his phone out of his pocket to call her. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, he just needed to talk to her. "Lauren?" he asked hearing her answer the phone.

"Hello." she said almost in a mean tone.

"Can I see the babies?" he asked her. "I'm going to be home for like three weeks..."

"I don't know...." she said almost reluctantly.

"I'll watch them. You can go for a run, or go shopping, or whatever." he tried to bargain with her.

"She can't be there." Lauren started bargaining with him.

"She's in New York. She's not going to be here for a while." Bruno said. "It's just me, the dog and Ryan."

"I took their cribs. They don't have anywhere to sleep." she responded.

"I'll get them..." he said jumping out of the bed to look for his Ipad. "I'll get them by tomorrow."

"It's the middle of the week, Brunz. Can we do this on the weekend?" she asked starting to get a bit frustrated.

"That's okay." he said almost out of energy to argue with her.

"Are you coming over here or am I going to go over there? And I'm not going anywhere this weekend." she told him.

"I miss you Lauren." he said out of nowhere.

"Bruno, I don't want us to be like this." she admitted. "I don't want you out of my life. I get it I know. We were crap there for a bit. And we're better off not together. But you were right. You are my best friend and I can't not talk to you. So you can have them for the week. But I'm coming over every few days to check on them and you're not allowed to do anything crazy with them like teach them how to swim or walk or talk or anything." she said feeling some sense of comfort that she hadn't felt since they were together Christmas eve.

"Okay, Elle. I will talk to you later. Have a good night." he said laying on the couch to turn on the TV.

"Good night, Brunz." she said reaching for her mother's couch to do the same thing Bruno was doing.