Beautiful When You Don't Try

Chapter 49

"No, Scott. It's just a sore throat, nothing to worry about. I just need to rest it for forty-eight hours just to be safe. I'll be back for Saturday's show...I know that makes four missed shows in two weeks but this can't be helped...I was actually thinking along those lines too...We'll talk about it then...Bye."

"Everything alright?" Clara asked as the pair walked towards Kim's building, somehow managing to rid themselves of the camera crew for the excursion. Camila believed it was because they got what they were wanting at dinner when they recorded her and Lauren's conversation. Lauren didn't show it if she was pissed that she forgot to turn the mic packs off, but she was at least thankful that the cameras weren't in her mother's face. Still, it was nice to be without them today though.

"Yeah. Everything is fine. We were just thinking that I might want to look at some of the offers I've been given away from Broadway."

"Why? I thought being a star on Broadway was your dream."

"It is." Camila assured her. "But I've already accomplished that and life has taken a different track for me now. A Broadway schedule is no longer conducive for where I am at and where I want to be right now."

"She's not going to let you give it up. You know that, right?"

Camila forced a smile as she looked up the address again and pointed to the next building. "Doing eight shows in six days a week, every week, just isn't making me happy anymore. I want to spend more time with Lauren, but her telling me she doesn't want me to quit isn't going to make me any happier at work. I can take some time off and then go back when I'm ready."

"But is that what you truly want to do?"

Clara was pressing but was only wanting Camila to think about it carefully. "It is. I'm not saying I'm not going to miss it, but it will give me an opportunity to do all those other things that I've wanted. Most people don't understand what it's like to not be able to go out to dinner with friends whenever you want because you work every night. You don't have to opportunity to go out to the movies or on a romantic, impulsive date. I can't even tell you the last time I was able to go to a show just to watch as a fan. Do you know that I have done over three hundred shows this year? It's getting a little old."

"How much longer to you have to go?"

"I have eighty more shows. I'm ready for a break that is longer than just a few days." The brunette woman nodded her head as they entered the building. She would be too after having to do the same show over and over hundreds of times.

The loft was nice, set up almost identical to Kim's, just reversed. The kitchen was on the left, the bathroom on the right. "It's definitely smaller than your house in Miami and Lauren's apartment." Camila noted. She liked it, she just wasn't sure it was for Clara.

"I don't need big. I need manageable. And this is it."

"So, you like it?"

Clara nodded her head as she looked around the kitchen. "I do. And it is nice to know that Kim is just two floors below. I hadn't thought it would make a difference, but it really does. I don't feel alone at all. That should ease Lauren's mind."

The diva smiled lightly as she made her way up to look at the bedroom. "She's just worried about you. She knows that your life has changed drastically over the last month and it's all because of her. I tried to tell her she needs to relax before she gives herself a heart attack. You'll be taken care of."

The older woman also made her way up to the bedroom and looked down over the apartment, loving how the morning light filtered through the tall windows. "She's not just worried about me, you know. She's worried about how you are going to handle everything on Sunday." Camila's seemingly permanent smile faded slightly and she rested her elbows on the railing next to Clara. "I don't know much about what is going on." The brunette confessed. "All I know is that Lauren is meeting her daughter and that she was adopted by your birth mother. I know there's more to it, but she didn't fill me in with all the details."