Fifty Shades Greener (Laurmani)

11

"Yes, I'll go"

She smiles and bites into her sandwich "Good, I'm glad. We'll have a lot of fun" she giggles slightly with a mouth full of food, causing me to do the same.

After she says that my phone rings. I reach in my pocket and it's Lauren. I put my finger up to Victoria, before scrambling off to talk in private.

"Hello?"

"You assured me you wouldn't go out," Lauren grunts, her voice cold and hard. My heart sinks for the millionth time this day.

Shit. How the hell does she know?

"I went out to get something to eat. I'm in here for hours, one sandwich wasn't going to hold me over. Are you having me watched?"

No wonder I felt so paranoid - someone was watching me. The thought makes me angry.

"This is why I didn't want you going back to work," Lauren snaps.

"Lauren, please. You're being" - So Fifty - "so suffocating."

"Suffocating?" She whispers, surprised.

"Yes. You have to stop this. I'll talk to you this evening. We still need to talk, about a lot."

"Normani, I don't want to suffocate you," she says quietly, appalled.

"Well, you are. I have go. My break is almost over. I'll talk to you later." I hang up, feeling drained and vaguely depressed.

After our wonderful weekend, the reality is hitting home. I have never felt more like running. Running to some quiet retreat so I can think about this woman, about how she is, and about how to deal with her. Maybe NewYork will be my escape. Spending sometime with someone other than her. And since Dinah is still somewhere laid under Camila, why not?

On one level, I know Lauren's broken - I can see that clearly now - and it's both heartbreaking and exhausting. From the small pieces of precious information that she's given me about her life, I understand why. An unloved child; a hideously abusive environment; a mother who couldn't protect her, whom she couldn't protect, and who died in front of her.

I shudder. My poor Fifty. I am hers, but not to be kept in some fucking cage. How am I going to make her see this?

The day goes on and now I find myself showered, changed and ready to leave. Victoria comes to stand by me at my locker scrolling through her phone "So I got the tickets, hotel, everything is set"

"Cool" I smile "This is going to be fun"

"Yeah. Don't go all ghost on me and make me waste my money" she laughs "Got plans for tonight?"

"Yes," I twist my lips.

"Your girlfriend?"

"Yes"

"Oh alright." Her face twists "I know she's filthy rich and all but what does she exactly do?"

"She's in business"

"That's very vague," she frowns at me.

"Well, she's in telecommunications, manufacturing, and agriculture."