Another Reason to Love

chapter 6

A/N: Sorry for causing an uproar :)

"Come on, Camila. I need to know what's happening." Tears gathered in Lauren's eyes although she tried her best not to let them fall. "This is what you were thinking about last night, wasn't it?"

Camila gulped audibly. She took a deep breath and steadied herself, leaning against the post of the bed. The desperate tone in her wife's voice made what Camila was about to tell her that much worse.

"Lauren, listen, it's not what you think. I'll have to listen to that voicemail to make sure but I think the woman who was calling is Julie." Her name came out more harshly than Camila expected.

"It's not what I think?" Lauren asked. "I seem to remember another time you said that exact same sentence to me, and that situation just happened to include the exact same woman."

Camila winced as she noticed the wavering tone in her wife's voice. "Let me tell you everything," she said. "I want to tell you the whole story. I should have told you before any of this happened." Camila's eyes pleaded with Lauren's emerald ones. She moved to sit on the bed right in front of her wife. She reached out to touch her arm, but Lauren backed away.

Sadly, Camila was very familiar with this version of her wife. Her heart broke as she realized that she had been the only person to ever drive Lauren to that distant place.

"Go ahead. Tell me everything," Lauren said. It was amazing how in a matter of minutes the blood in her veins could turn to ice.

"Julie came to school to see me yesterday. She didn't come to cause problems, though. I promise. She only needed me to give her a recommendation for a job she wants."

Lauren studied Camila's face to determine if she was telling the truth. "Why would she need to use you as a reference for a job, Camila?"

Camila bit her lip, knowing the intensity level of the conversation was only going to go up from there. "The job that she wants is one at my school." She saw the look on Lauren's face and quickly moved on. "But listen! She's calling me because I went to the Principal today and told him that I couldn't work with her every day. I hope you don't mind, but I had to tell him about what happened in order for him to understand why I wouldn't give her a good reference. I'm sure the Principal just called her to tell her they weren't going to interview her and she must have known that it was because of me. She only needed to talk because she was mad at me. Please. Believe me." Camila whispered the last part and she wasn't sure who she said it for, Lauren or herself.

Lauren looked down at Camila's phone in her hands and pressed the speakerphone button. She let the message play one more time. Her hands shook as she held the phone out in front of both of them.

"Hey Camila, it's me. Give me a call sometime soon. I really need to talk to you."

"That's Julie?" Lauren asked with a shaky voice. Camila wanted nothing more than to hold Lauren's hand and steady her, but she knew from experience that her wife didn't want to be touched.

Camila nodded her head. "Yeah, that's Julie. I'm sure she was just calling to yell at me for ruining her chances at getting a job at my school."

"Why didn't you tell me what was going on before now?" Lauren asked, her voice slightly less shaken and it seemed as though she had calmed down a little after the initial shock.

"I didn't want to worry you, Lauren. I promise that's all it was. I know how much you hate talking about Julie and I didn't want to put you through that again." Camila looked Lauren straight in the eye. She decided this was a good of a time as any to come completely clean with how she was feeling. "Julie said something to me when she came to my classroom yesterday and it really made me think about how I handled everything in the past."