It Takes As Long As It Takes (Camren)

Chapter Eleven

Notes:

Did you guys notice in the previous chapter just how bad of a hider Lauren is? She just hid the books in the same place (the back of the closet) across time and space (2 years apart in London and the U.S.). No wonder Camila could always find her gifts, am I right?

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Camila waited patiently at the café counter for her coffee. She was at a different café today, a new one she had never been to, and for a very different purpose than her usual weekly café outings.

She looked around the place while waiting. It was a small, quaint café with an interesting, eclectic décor. The walls seemed to be filled with posters and memorabilia from different science fiction and fantasy worlds. And this was a neighborhood where she didn't visit often. She had purposely picked a new café farther away from where she lived to do this because, well, it wasn't going to be a pleasant thing, and she would rather not be reminded of it every time she wanted a cup of coffee.

Four mason jars lining the counter in a row caught her eyes. The sign on the wall above the jars read, "Which house will win the Hogwarts House Cup this week? Tips = House Points." Each of the four jars was labeled with one of the houses, in their respective colors.

Camila was amused and impressed with the ingenuity and attention to details, so she reached into her pockets to pull out some change. Her coffee came just as she was dropping the money into the Gryffindor jar.

She found a small table in the corner with a good view of the door to wait. She had arrived a little earlier than the scheduled time for the date. If you could call it a date, she thought. She came early because she wanted this to be over as soon as possible. This was never a fun thing to have to do.

Her heart began to thump rapidly as memories of the last time she did this flashed through her mind with frightening vividity, and her body almost shivered as if she were there again, standing in the rain, drenched to the bones, saying words that she knew would hurt the other person.

She forced herself to take a deep breath in order to control her emotions. She did not want to be emotional when she did what she had planned to do.

She had debated about this. Not about what she was doing, no. That, she was sure of. She had been putting it off for a while, forcing herself to hold on to the false optimism that this thing with Shawn, whatever it was, might go somewhere. But for a reason she couldn't really quite explain, she had suddenly come to the conclusion that it was the right time to do it now.

What she had debated was how she was going to do it. And in the end, she decided it was only right to do it in person, since they had been semi-dating for more than a month and he was a friend of Jorge. Shawn was not a bad guy, and he deserved more than a brief text message or an awkward phone call.

So here she was, waiting to do this awkwardly in person instead. She was rather dreading it.

She looked up just in time to see Shawn walk through the door. She saw him glance around the café before his eyes landed on her and his lips widened into a smile. Camila winced internally.

"Camila," he said, as he made his way over and sat down. "I was very excited to get your call to meet here. I have been a little worried that this was more one-sided on my part."

She took a deep breath and decided to jump right into it. Here we go. "About that, Shawn . . ."

It wasn't painless - these things never were - but it also wasn't as painful as she feared either. She had originally planned to make it quick and simple, perhaps falling to old clichés like "It's not you; it's me" and "I need to work on myself" (both of which actually hit closer to home for Camila than clichés usually did).