Fool Me

Chapter Twenty Two

Fool Me
Chapter 22

Camila doesn't have time to linger on the whirlwind of emotions going through her head or the growling of her empty stomach when she returns to the office. Stella is back from her meeting by then and immediately demands a recap of the weekend before taking a copy of Camila's report. It's late afternoon before she can catch a break from her desk again and of course it's only so she can use the main level's mail machine before the day's post goes out.

An unexpected, yet very familiar voice causes her to halt on her way back to the staircase from the mail room.

"I don curr bout the rules, Sadie. Camila is coming down here or you are gonna let me up there. This is an emergency," Dinah commands to the receptionist.

"You have no authorized purpose to be in the building let alone -" Sadie begins to explain before Camila turns the corner and alerts them to her presence with a clearing of her throat.

"Is the conference room down the B wing in use by chance?" Camila asks, addressing Sadie first.

"Not at the moment," she confirms after running a finger down the daily schedule map for the building.

"I need to meet with Dinah for a few minutes. If Stella buzzes down for me, can you give her that room's extension, please?" Camila requests quickly before motioning for Dinah to follow her.

"Will do," Sadie agrees before returning her attention to a previous task she had been working on, designing her own business card.

Once Camila and Dinah are seated beside each other in two leather chairs surrounding a large meeting table, the purpose of Dinah's visit is revealed.

"I don't even know how you could do Lauren like this, Mila," Dinah admits with disappointment in her tone as she displays a picture from a tweet on her phone that shows Camila's hand in Ariana's at the restaurant hours earlier.

"Come on, Di, you know me better than anyone. The story that picture tells couldn't be farther from the truth."

"Then tell me what I'm not seeing," she insists, "because Normani was bout ready to flip a table when she called me."

Camila lets her fingertips dance against the table as she gathers up the nerve to tell her side of the events while simultaneously panicking that Normani has probably already told Lauren, too. This will mark the second time in three days that Lauren is catching her mingling with another woman when they're supposed to be convincing everyone they're wrapped up in each other. Partnered with the knowledge of how Lauren's last relationship ended, she feels like a complete asshat.

"Ariana must have put a reservation under my name. When the restaurant called about it I suspected it was something Lauren set up. If I knew what my ex was up to I wouldn't have showed. I didn't immediately leave when I saw Ariana at the table because I was really hungry and I thought we might have a civil conversation. Turns out she only brought me there to launch her coming out press story. That's why they picked a photo with that angle where you only get my side profile. If you could see my full expression, the story would be completely different."

Dinah listens intently to Camila's recap of the events and shakes her head in disbelief at Ari's audacity.

"I'm gonna be real with you. Normani's pissed and I can talk to her now that I know what went down. But Lauren...you better pray she picks up when you call cause if I was her, after seeing this I def wouldn't wanna be seeing you," Dinah explains with a sympathetic look.

Camila takes a deep breath before raising from her chair and pushing it back into place under the table.

"It'll be at least an hour and a half before Stella takes off. Can you find out from Normani if Lauren's willing to meet at my apartment when I get home tonight?"

"Don't you think neutral territory would be better?" Dinah suggests.

Camila shakes her her.

"No, neutral territory is where you go to break up with someone. Her and I, we'll fix this."

"I hope you do," Dinah replies sincerely as they exit the conference room and part ways so Camila can return to work.

Camila is stuck at the office later than expected, so by the time she reaches the floor of her apartment, Lauren is already standing outside the door leaning against the nearby wall while glancing down at her phone. She looks up upon hearing Camila's footsteps approaching and smiles weakly when they make eye contact.

"Long day with Cru-Stella?" Lauren jokes lightheartedly, easing some of the initial tension.

"Yeah," Camila confirms as she puts her key in the door and turns the knob so they can go inside.

Lauren takes a seat as Camila puts her stuff away and goes into her room to change. When she returns she immediately enters the kitchen and looks for the quickest snack.

"Do you want anything? I'm starving," Camila explains as she grabs a banana and a bag of pretzels.

"No thanks," Lauren declines. "Didn't get your fill at lunch?"

Camila is a little thrown off by the tone of Lauren's question but tries not to read too far into it as she decides to sit in the chair across from the couch rather than beside her on the couch.

"Eating lunch with an ex is nauseating. I didn't even stay long enough for them to bring my plate out," Camila reveals as she peels her banana and takes the first bite.

"Mani has Ariana's twitter alerts sent to her phone. When she forwarded a link to me at work, I thought nothing of it. Then I see this long rant below it blowing up my iMessages. Some major celeb gossip source is speculating about you being Ariana's girlfriend and she quoted their tweet with a heart eyes emoji. I felt ridiculous for not knowing you had plans to meet up with your ex, especially when Normani began to list creative ways for me to dump your ass."

Camila looks at Lauren apologetically.

"I would have told you if it was something I planned. Ari blindsided me just like last time when you saw her here. Now she's threatening my career if I don't corroborate whatever story she concocts about our relationship and UGH! She has no idea what she's actually ruined," Camila vents.

"Camila, I think we need to come clean," Lauren replies quickly, before she loses the nerve. It's the primary debate that's been on her mind since Normani sent the first text - whether they can recover from this or if they should just tell the truth.

"You mean like...tell them we're not really dating?" Camila asks as she feels a dropping sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"Exactly. Between what happened this weekend and what's happening now, it just doesn't make sense anymore. Why pretend to be with me when you have these other women throwing themselves at you? That sets you up to be an asshole and me to look like the fool. I've been there, done that, and I didn't agree to this so we could tell a story that I've already lived."

Camila's instinct is to find a way to disagree, to argue the opposing side, but apart from her developing feelings for Lauren she has been trying to repress, no good points for them to not break up come to mind.

"I think faking this relationship may have turned out worse than going out on real dates with other people would have for either of us," Camila surrenders with a frown.

"Karma...instead of playing our friends, it's more like we played ourselves."

"Lauren, for what it's worth, I've had a lot of fun going out together and enjoyed getting to know you. And I'm willing to take most of the blame when DJ and Mani find out about this, because it's entirely my fault everything got so fucked up," Camila offers without hesitation.

"Damn right it is," Lauren accuses while smiling, indicating a playful nature behind it although it's not entirely untrue.

"I deserved that," Camila concludes, finding Lauren's smile contagious as her own lips curl upward as well.

"Let's see if Mani and Dinah are free right now. I'll ask them to bring over dinner and we can all talk. I suppose even a homewrecker like yourself deserves to eat," Lauren teases, helping cover up her true emotions about the situation by addressing it with humor.

Any sign of bitterness could certainly give her feelings for Camila away, and that's the last thing she needs if they're going to be telling the others that friends is all they ever were and all they intend to be.