Our Mistake (Laurmani)(COMPLETED)

Dinner

Normani's  P.O.V

After I get off the phone with Lauren I become incredibly nervous. I could hear the excitement in Lauren's l voice even though she did her best to hide it, I still heard it. That was the first real conversation I've had with Lauren in years. I don't know what to say or how to act. I just really hope this goes well.

The next morning I take Maya to school as always and on the ride there I tell her about Lauren.

"Really?" Maya says excitedly when I tell her.

"Yes really, she's meeting us there."

"Awesome!" she says and I chuckle.

"Why do you like her so much? You barely know her."

"I know but she seems really cool. And she's different."

"How is she different?" I ask.

"I don't know yet. But I know there's something about her." She says with conviction and I shake my head with a smile.

I'm glad she likes Lauren so much but I don't get why. I park and walk Maya to class. Since I have the day off I decide to see Dinah.

"Oh, Mani this is great!" Dinah says excitedly, after I tell her I talked to Lauren.

"What did you say?"

"I just apologized for acting like I did and asked her to get a pizza with us."

"That's great. This was definitely a good first step."

"First step to what?"

"Involving Lauren in Maya's life."

"Right. Yeah I guess. But to be honest I'm really nervous. Like really nervous." I say while biting my lip.

"What, why?"

"Because…this whole situation. It's so awkward you know?"

"Yes. I understand and while it may be awkward in the beginning, the more time you spend together the easier it will be."

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have to sit through the awkwardness." Dinah puts her hand on my knee and says.

"Mani, it'll be okay, just relax. Keep the focus on Maya. She talks enough so there won't be any awkward pauses okay so don't worry about it."

"What if…what if Lauren wants to talk about…us?" I say and Dinah sighs.

"She probably won't want to talk about that. Her entire focus will probably be on Maya and I'm sure she's just as nervous as you are. Just relax and everything will be fine."

"…I hope so but…"

"But what?"

"It still doesn't feel right. Being around Lauren…after what she did…"

"Normani….I know it's hard but you have to forgive her one day. But don't forgive her for her, do it for you. You can't keep letting what happened hinder you."

"I know but…it's just hard."

"Maybe it's because neither of you ever got any real closure."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after…you know, you just left. You two didn't talk. You two didn't properly end the relationship. You just haven't spoken to each other in almost 8 years. That isn't closure."

She's right. I never got to tell Lauren how much that hurt. We never had that conversation. I just left. I couldn't deal with what happened and even after years I still couldn't bring myself to talk to Lauren.