night after night (camren)

9.

Lauren finished the rest of her whiskey, then glanced at her clock.

"Got somewhere to be?" Lucy asked.

Damn. She was caught checking the time again, a habit she had recently picked up since her phone call with Camila while she was waiting for the girl to join her in California this weekend. She should get out of this bar and head home, Camila would be arriving tomorrow. And tomorrow evening couldn't come fast enough.

"Yeah. Bed" Lauren replied back dryly. Lucy was her best friend Alexa's sister, and her friend too. The three of them had known each other since college. Lucy was one year younger, but followed in her sister's footsteps, attending the same university.

"I remember when you used to be out until all hours" Lucy teased, shooting her a knowing smile as she ran her fingers through her brown locks. Similar colour to Camila's hair Lauren thought but not as gracious. She was a pretty woman, always had been, but there was nothing between them. Not since they had shared a kiss at a drunken college party one night. A kiss that was never repeated, and Lauren had chalked it up to Lucy being sad that specific night over the anniversary of her and Alexa's parents' death, and needing some kind of comfort or connection. It was understandable. Completely understandable.

"Hardly" she said, because she wasn't the party-girl type, but then again she wasn't the first one to leave either. Tonight, however, needed to end early because tomorrow was the evening she wanted to last all night long. So she called the check, fished for some bills out of her wallet and paid for both their drinks.

"Why are you leaving so soon?"

"Because the glass is empty. I'll get you a cab" Lauren said, walking out with Lucy, the neon lights of the diner across the street flickering behind them.

"Do you want to ..." Lucy had started saying, but trailed off as her words were silenced by the sounds of sirens down another street.

"Want to what?" Lauren asked when the noise faded.

Lucy swallowed, then spoke quickly, faster than usual, "Do something this weekend? Dinner, maybe?"

Lauren shot her a look like she wasn't making any sense as she hailed the first taxi she saw. "Alexa is out of town" she said. Her and Lucy didn't have dinner together. Drinks, definitely. But dinners were something the three of them did together, and Alexa was off in London for a few months, directing a production of The Tempest that Lauren had set her up with.

"Yeah. I know" Lucy said, "That's sort of the point"

"Point of what?"

Lucy shook her head at the point, ridding herself of spending the weekend having dinner with Lauren. "Nothing. It was nothing" she told Lauren and something about her tone off.

"You okay?"

Lucy nodded quickly. Too quickly. "I'm great" she said as Lauren held open the cab door for her, "Anyway, you probably have big plans this weekend"

"I think it's safe to say I'll be tied up" Lauren said, though as she watched the cab driver speed off, she realised it was more likely the other way round. That Camila would be.

She hoped she would be, at least.

---

Lauren had woken up a four-thirty, went to the gym at five, and made a start to the office by six-thirty. She'd skipped lunch, and reviewed a contract for a new sci-fi flick a movie director who she repped was working on. She sent in notes to the producers, a list of items and points that needed to be changed. If they weren't , her client wouldn't be happy, and Lauren was all about having a stable full of happy clients.

Her junior partner at the firm, Zayn, popped his head in around mid-afternoon. "Hey. I got a lead about the Bainbridge's looking for new representatives" Zayn said, his light brown eyes wide and grinning. A pair of British brothers, the Bainbridge's had been bank rolling some of the most successful films in the last couple years, including ones based on bestselling books.

"We need to lock that up" she said, and she was sure the glint in her eyes matched Zayn's. Four years older and not at all experienced, he was eager as hell to grow his role at the firm, Lauren had hired him fresh out of law school after finishing at a much later age to everyone else due to his infinite gap years as a troubled teen. Zayn had become invaluable, pulling above his weight in helping Lauren land top clients and sweet deals, benefiting the both of them. They'd seen eye-to-eye on just about everything, with the exception of one minor rough patch around a year ago when Zayn had reeled in a client on his own - a big time comedy film director.

A client they lost.

"No kidding" Zayn said, tapping the side of the door twice for good luck. Zayn was like that, always crossing his fingers, and knocking on wood. "I'll get some more details and aim to set up a meeting with them hopefully next week"

"Perfect. The Bainbridge's are huge cricketer's, so if you have to schedule a game time, you should" she said, and it was so much a suggestion as it was an order, and one she knew Zayn, a former college cricketer, would jump at.

Zayn imitated throwing a bat, "It's a shame I hate cricket so much"

"All right, get out of here. I need to finish up so I can take the weekend off"

"I'll email you when I hear more"

"I'm not answering emails this weekend" Lauren said, making it clear in her tone that this was a do-not-disturb kind of weekend, "You can update me on Monday"

"Fair enough"

Zayn left, and she checked on Camila's flight, pleased to see it was landing on time. She ran her fingers through her hair, not bothering with a brush because Camila was the kind of girl who would have her fingers sliding through it in seconds, messing it up the way she wanted. She said goodbye to her receptionist, letting her know she could close up early too, and slid into the town car waiting outside her office. On the way to the airport, she worked her way through her west-coast calls, ending them just as the car pulled up to the terminal.

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wow it took me a while to write this im sorry, I was just really busy during the day but I still promised myself I would upload today.

also idk if this is only confusing for me or im just making it confusing, but chapter seven was the phone call in Laurens pov but not narrated by her and the chapter 8 was the phone call in camila's pov so you could get a bit of her background, and chapter 9 is the continuation of day to day life that happened after the phone call before they actually met at the airport.