Beautiful When You Don't Try

Chapter 52

Camila and Lauren met up with Alex and Sinu for breakfast the next morning for a bit more of an intimate gathering. Clara would have been invited but she pushed the 'friendly' boundaries after the show. Lauren thought she and Sinu were going to end up in a smack down over something that everyone else was ignorant about. Lauren was fairly certain she knew what it was over but didn't want to push the envelope any further and kept her mother by her side when the five of them went out for dinner afterward.

But Clara offered to sit this meeting out. This was about Lauren and Alex and she didn't think she could control herself around the other woman. Now that the tears were done and the initial shock had worn off, the real relationships could form and shine. The breakfast had gone smoothly, with polite comments of how Sinu enjoyed the show, followed by Alex's critiques of the whole production. Sinu accepted blame for her critical eye. Stating she watched too many musicals at home.

But despite the polite surface, there was still that awkward tension between the two brunettes and Lauren was, by Camila's standards, paying too much attention to her and not Alex. Feeling the need to solve that problem, Camila left after breakfast to help Clara finish moving the furniture from Lauren's old apartment into the loft in Kim's building. Kim and Meg were already helping and she thought she could be needed there. This left a reluctant Lauren to tag along with Sinu and Alex as they explored the city, bonding without being distracted.

Lauren had bought Alex a small camera that looked like hers but wasn't nearly as complex, just a simple point and click. She was running around Central Park taking pictures of everything she could see, much like Camila had when they were in Miami. She couldn't wait to see a little Camila running around doing the same thing.

"You really didn't need to do that." Sinu said, pointing at Alex, as the women walked slowly along the sidewalk.

Lauren shrugged. "I wanted to. And if she breaks it, there's like, a three-year warranty on it. There's also an 8-gig card in there, so she'll never fill it up." The two women strolled in silence as the watched their daughter from a distance. "I want to thank you for allowing me to meet her. I know you didn't have to. You could have simply told Alex that I lived far away or that you didn't even know who I was."

"I wouldn't lie to her like that."

"I'm sure. I was just using that as an example." Lauren assured her, not meaning to offend the woman.

"Well, she was asking about you now and I just wanted to learn from my mistakes with Camila. I thought it would be easier for you to form a relationship with her after only ten years instead of any longer." Lauren mashed her lips between her teeth to keep her from saying something she was going to regret. No, she wouldn't regret it. She would only regret the impact that it might have on the possibility of seeing Alex in the future. "You're struggling, and I'm assuming it about my comment in regards to Camila."

Again, Lauren didn't say anything. She didn't need to.

"I understand you love her. But this is just what we agreed on, to appreciate each other from a distance." Sinu watched as the brunette unknowingly started shaking her head. "What?"

"A sixteen-year-old girl who had her heart broken agreed to that because it would make you feel better, not her. She didn't agree, she caved...for you. Just like last night. She loves to perform but she felt bad for you last night, because you wanted to be up there and she wished you could be. She felt guilty because her dream worked out and yours didn't."

Sinu stood still in confusion. "But she doesn't even know me. We've had maybe four conversations that never lasted longer than five minutes. Why would she care about me so much? Especially after everything I have 'done' to her."