The Hook-Up (Part Two)

Chapter 264

Bruno turned his head early in the evening from Lauren's small kitchen to see her door open and a bag thrown into the entry way. "Umph." she groaned walking in picking up the bag. "I'm hommeee..." she half sang quietly giving Bruno a half smile from the other side of the apartment. "Hi."

"Hey there." he said holding up bottles in his hand. "I washed them and have everything else ready for them." he said holding up small plates. "They should wake up soon." he said walking out of the kitchen. "I need to go. Phil said something about having ideas for the show." he lied to her.

"Oh. Okay." she said shrugging her shoulders. "I called the doctor. I'm going Wedsney afternoon. Like 3."

"Do you want me to go? I can..." he said forgetting that he was going to try to give her the space she wanted.

"I think I'll be okay. I will call you when I find out for sure, though. You're busy. You have so much to do. It's okay." she said pulling things out of her bag.

"I'm not too busy for you, though..." he said giving her a sad face taking the things from her bag putting them away without realizing what he was doing.

"It's fine. I knew it was going to be this way. It's not like I didn't know you were going to be doing these things." she told him not caring if she hurt his feelings.

"Okay, Laur. I'm busy tomorrow and then Wednesday." he said starting to leave the apartment.

"Okay." she answered him going to do something else.

**

"I don't even know what I'm doing anymore." Bruno said putting the glass down on the swanky table straining his voice over the loud music.

"You're doing what you need to do, bro." Phi said eying the crowd that was around Bruno and his friends.

"Yeah, dude. You're doing the right thing." Ryan told him sitting down next to them.

"But she's just pushing everything away. Everything I do she just says no to." he told them.

"It's been less than a week since all of this happened. It's going to take some time." Phil tried to reassure him.

"Can't I just skip this part where I give her the space and tell her I'm sorry?" Bruno asked. "I just want it all to be better." he said to them reaching for his drink almost finishing it in one gulp. Through the glass he saw some girls watching them. He smiled at the girls and waved and then turned to look at Phil. "And I could have any of these honeys right now and I all I want is my wife who is laying on the couch, watching Netflix, in her pajamas, most likely with a baby in one arm and container of ice cream in another. But it's the last thing I can do. The last thing I can do is take the baby from her so she can watch the last season of How I Met Your Mother without being bothered..." he rambled.

"Dude. Drink some more." Ryan said handing him another drink. "You whine like a little bitch."

After several drinks and more whining Bruno got in his car not sure if he was going to go home to his big empty house or to the cozy apartment that Lauren had moved into. His head was telling him to go home and leave her alone, but his heart wanted him to be with her. By 2:15 in the morning he had parked next to her car in the crowded weeknight parking lot of Lauren's apartment complex. Instead of getting out of the car to knock on the door, knowing that the twins would wake up, even through his half drunken state, he texted her.

Are you awake?

He laid his head back on the head rest waiting for her to answer. Not even two minutes later he got a response.

Now I am.

He could hear her tone through the text. It was frustrated and slightly angry.

I need to talk to you....

Did you drink tonight?

Maybe a little

Instead of getting a quick response from her he heard silence. Come onnnnn. He looked up at her apartment waiting to see what was going to happen next. He pushed the down button on his car to light a cigarette trying to decide if he was going to give up and go home or if he was going to wait for her to respond. Several puffs into the cigarette he saw the door of her apartment open and her walk down the steps to get to him. In one hand she held a baby monitor and in the other she clenched her fist in anticipation for whatever conversation they were going to have. "If you're going to get mad at me and yell at me you're not going to do it up there. They're finally asleep." she told him seeing him step out of the car.

"I'm not going to yell, Lauren." he said not reaching to touch her like he wanted to. He wanted to take her by the hand and kiss her. He wanted to kiss her sweetly and then tell her he was sorry.

"Oh. That's surprising. Because I thought by now you would have found a way to turn this whole situation around on me. It was my fault that you left, it was my fault that I might be pregnant again, it's my fault that you're smoking again and drinking again..." she started to ramble. He let her go on for a few more statements before stopping her.

"Is that what you stayed up to worry about? How I was going to come back and yell at you about all this?" he asked her. "You were scared weren't you?" he asked watching her bite her lip and tense her stance even more than she already was. She shook her head avoiding eye contact with him.

"I thought this was it. I thought it was it. It was over. No, it is over, Bruno. There's no reason for either of us to deal with this anymore. Just let the papers go through. Just let it go. We'll both move on. Everything will be okay when we're not together..." she said still looking down.

"I'm not giving up, Lauren...." he said finally reaching for her hand tracing the lines in her hand. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes waiting for him to say something else. "It's hard, Lauren. It's so hard. All this shit that I've caused us..."

"No, I did a lot of it too, Bruno." she told him.

"It all started with Rachel." he said upset at himself. "If I hadn't kissed her so long ago and just stayed yours..." he said puling her into his arms. "If I had just realized that I was the happiest when I was yours..." he got out. "I want to come to the doctor with you." he moved away from the embrace still holding her hand. "I want to be there whether you are pregnant or not. I want to be there when the doctor walks in and says, 'Well shit, I was wrong I guess you can have more kids,' and when we look at that ultrasound for the first time and see that little black dot that will change our lives all over again...." he said watching her move her eyes to his to stare at him. "It's not 2011 anymore, Elle. I have to realize that. We have to realize that. We're going to have a few nights every few months when we can go out and make bad decisions...." he said watching her close her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm tired." she said with a yawn.

"Let's get you upstairs. You have to be up in a few hours anyway..." he said taking her by the hand leading her up the stairs. He led her to bed laying her down covering her with the light blanket. Before her head hit the pillow she was asleep. He took the baby monitor from her hand placing it next to her on the pillow he sometimes used and where she kept it when he wasn't with her.

"You're not staying?" she got out through her sleep.

"No, baby." he said leaning down to kiss her head. "Good night."

He walked out of her room turning off the light she had on going to check on the twins. He bent down touching Everlee's cheek seeing her hand go up to grab his fingers. I know. I know, Evee. I'll be back. He thought to himself pulling his fingertip from her hand hearing her make a slight noise. Don't wake up...He thought to himself standing still for a few seconds before feeling comfortable that she wouldn't wake up to check on Ezra. He did the same to Ezra, touching the small curl that was out of place on his head. Ezra quickly turned his body feeling Bruno's touch.Don't wake up...don't do it..he pleaded with himself standing still the same way he did for his daughter before feeling comfortable that they wouldn't wake up. Bruno yawned and stretched as he walked toward the front of the apartment. Before leaving he picked up a bottle of water from the counter and a few of the cookies Lauren had left out from a play date event they had had while he was gone.