pretty girl (Lauren/You- first person)

chapter forty three.

"You have our numbers written down?"

"Are you kidding me, Lauren!?" I chuckled as I overheard the conversation happening in our living room between my wife and my best friend.

"I'm just making sure!" She defended herself, sounding exasperated.

"It's okay pretty girl, Normani and Dinah have watched her hundreds of times." I said as I walked into the room, stopping right behind Lauren and wrapping my arms around her tummy. She whined quietly as she leaned back into me, her hands covering mine.

"I'm stressed." She confessed, and Normani and I exchanged a look that said "no shit."

"Lauren, she's gonna be fine. We'll go swimming, probably take a nap, and eat lots of candy." Dinah said as she came down the stairs with a small stack of folded beach towels in her hands.

"Don't let her swim right after she's eaten. And make sure she has sunscreen on. And don't let her eat too much candy and maybe try to get her to brush her teeth. And-"

"Lauren." I interrupted, making her stop rambling instantly. "It's alright." I squeezed my arms tighter around her, pulling her as close as possible and resting my chin on her shoulder. She sighed defeatedly, but still leaned into my hold.

It had been a full week since we had come home with Delilah, and fortunately or unfortunately, we still had jobs that we needed to get back to. For Lauren, since it was summertime, she was only teaching two art classes a week, and she was lucky enough to have the opportunity to schedule them for the same days. Which meant she'd only be out of the house two days a week, and would only be gone for less than six hours, though the way she was acting right now you'd think she was leaving for three days straight. The past week had been difficult on us, for some reason, knowing we had a PPO and that Anthony or Ally were legally not allowed to even be on our street made us just short of paranoid, instead of bringing the relief that I expected. If we would walk outside, Lauren was always looking over her shoulder. If the phone rang and it showed an unknown number, I'd sit and stare at the screen until it went to voicemail, holding my breath until they left a message, if there was any. It had been a telemarketer every time so far, but you can never be too sure. I noticed times that either one of us would follow Delilah into the kitchen, not because she needed to be supervised getting a Capri Sun from the bottom shelf of the fridge, but because that's where the patio door was located, and if something awful were to happen it would be over before Lauren or I had any inkling of something going wrong. So, maybe we were paranoid.

Snapping back to reality, I gave Lauren a squeeze before letting her go, turning and grabbing both of our purses. I held hers out, which she accepted with a grateful, yet hesitant smile. "If I get time, maybe I'll come see you for lunch." Her smile relaxed and brightened up, but her eyes still portrayed anxiousness.

"That sounds really great, actually." She admitted, grazing her knuckles against my cheek. I leaned into her touch, closing my eyes before closing the distance between us and giving my wife a tender, meaningful kiss.

"I love you. Today's going to be just fine, I'm bringing you lunch." I said as I reluctantly broke away. If I hadn't absolutely maxed out my time off for the entire year just in the past month, I might say fuck it and tell everyone we were all going upstairs and back to sleep, deciding that the real world can wait another day for us. But unfortunately, I really did need to leave for work. "When Lilah wakes up she can call me if she asks to or anything." I said to Normani and Dinah, who had made themselves so comfortable in the living room I had almost forgotten they were here. They hummed and nodded in response, Dinah looking at her phone while Normani tilted her head halfheartedly in my direction, at least acknowledging me.