The Hook-Up (Part Two)

Chapter 263

Lauren got into the car, turned it on, pulled down the mirror from the visor and looked at herself in the mirror. She was completely confused by what had just happened. Before she knew it she felt big gobs of make-up fall down her cheek and a tear fall down her cheek. She closed her eyes, took a deep breathe and sat there for a few minutes before she opened her eyes. "Why?" she asked herself in the mirror. "Why is it now? This is the worst timing ever. It's worse than the last time. Like what the fuck?" she asked herself going from confused to angry. She looked down at the clock in the car to see how late she was going to be for work. "Okay." she sniffed reaching for kleenex in the glove compartment to wipe her eyes. She reached for her purse and took her phone out. She wasn't sure who she was going to call or what she was going to say. She just couldn't deal with seeing or talking to Bruno at that moment. She touched her phone dialing Caitlin setting it down to talk to her best friend on speaker.

"Hey Elle, how are you?" Caitlin asked her.

"Cait. We fucked up again." she said trying not to cry.

"What happened now? Did something y'all did get out too?" she asked. "Was there a video of him hurting you?"

"No. No. No." she almost cried. "I think I'm pregnant again."

"You what?" Caitlin asked shocked.

"That was my reaction." she said getting onto the main street to get to work.

"You missed your period for like three months earlier this year." Caitlin reminded her. "Are you sure that's not it?"

"I don't know for sure. But I wasn't feeling good Easter morning and then I've been really hot and feeling really gross. I just don't know...it could be wrong but it could be right."

"Are you going to go to the doctor before he leaves?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm going to see what I can do before he has to leave." she told her best friend.

"Is he going to go with you?" Caitlin questioned.

"I don't really care right now." Lauren answered. "I really just want to be away from him after all this happened in New York. I haven't even been to the office since all of it happened and I don't know how I'm going to react. This is just like a whole pile of crap that just keeps piling up."

"I know, honey. It's a big pile of crap." Caitlin reassured her.

"I mean. If I am there's nothing I can do about it. We're having a baby. Like nothing else is an option. But on top of everything else that is going on...And I feel like if I don't figure this all out by the 22nd then we're just not going to work at all."

"What do you want right now, Lauren?" Caitlin asked her friend. "Do you want to be with him forever? Right now at this very moment?"

"No."Lauren quickly answered. "I want him to go away."

"Then let it go. Let June 22nd come and go. And you're done." Caitlin said. "And you can have this baby and we can help you. It's not like we won't be anyway...."

"I don't knooowww." Lauren whined. "This is the most confused I have ever been in my life. Maybe I should talk to someone else."

"I can't decide for you, Laur. If I were you, though, I would have left him a long time ago." Caitlin responded.

"I know you wouldn't." Lauren told her friend.

"Call me later, Elle. I know you need to go and I have a meeting to plan a meeting to go to." Caitlin told her friend.

"Okay, Cait. Thank you for talking to me." she said.

"Love you, Elley Belly. I'll talk to you later." Caitlin said hanging up the phone.

**

Bruno sat on the couch un sure of what he was going to do with the twins. They were pushing toys around each other and babbling. It made him happy but then he suddenly thought of what Lauren had said to him not even a few hours ago. I'm pregnant. "Ugh. Ez. What are we going to do?" he asked picking his son up reaching for his phone to call his mother. He held onto Ezra balancing his phone on his ear. "Mommmmm...." he answered the phone when she picked up.

"Hello, Bruno." she said to him.

"How are you?" he asked her trying to get his mind off of what Lauren had said.

After a few minutes of small talk she asked about Lauren. "Is Lauren at work?"

"Yeah. I have the babies today." he said to his mother. "Do you want to see them? I can facetime you."

"Maybe later, Brunito." she answered. "It's too early." she laughed.

"Mom. She said she's pregnant again. And she doesn't want to be with me right now."

"Are you trying to kill me?" she asked him shocked.

"No." he said without any emotion. "It's not April, mom. She was serious. I don't know what to do."

"Give her the space she asks for, Bruno. She let you have your space. Let her think about it. She may not be in the right space, but it's her space. You know what I want to happen with the two of you, but if that's not what she wants..." she told him.

"I know, Mom. I know that I want to be there for her. That's all I want." he almost pleaded with his mother. "But I don't know what to do."

"Bruno, stop whining. You sound like you're like 5 years old. That's probably why she's acting the way she is." his mother told him.

"You're right." he said with a sigh. "I'll go home after she gets back from work." he said to his mother.

"I know it's hard, Bruno." his mother tried to sympatsize.

"I just want it all to go away. I just want it to be the five of us." he paused realizing he said five instead of four. "I mean..."

Bernie laughed at him a little before starting to talk. "For some reason I feel like you would be okay with it if she was pregnant."

"I don't know, Mom. I go from 'holy crap no' to thinking that it wouldn't be that bad. But I won't be there for her at all. And I already feel bad." he said leaning down to take a toy out of Everlee's mouth. "No, mama..." he said to her. "I'm so confused. The only thing that's for certain right now is that I'm leaving on the 5th and won't be back until the 18th and then if we don't figure it out by the 22nd I'm going to be divorced. That's all I know right now."

"You need to let it go, Brunito. Pray a little. You'll find the answer, son. You'll find the answer and it might not be what you want. But the answer is there. You just have to find it."

"Is there a map?" he asked his mother half joking.

"Yes." she told him. "You know what I am going to tell you." she said referring to her religion. "You need to read more." he listened to her feeling Ezra wiggle out of his arms.

"I need to go, Mom. Ezra is going to start drinking the water out of Geronimo's water bowl." he said matching her same sweet laugh.

"Call me later, Brunito." she said. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom. I will call you tonight." he answered hanging up the phone almost running to get Ezra. "Who do you think you are, little man?" he said sweetly picking his son up feeling the dripping water from Ezra's hands falling on his pants. "Gross."