Miss Cabello

It Is What It Is

"Wahhhh!"

Camila roused from sleep when Luna's cries moved past the hallway towards her room. Without any lapse in time, Camila ran through her opened door and entered the nursery, only to be greeted with the spectacle of Lauren cradling her baby, holding the bottle containing her pumped breast milk. Once Luna was able to latch on to have milk, silence was returned by the evening wind. Camila walked closer to Lauren to wipe the pearl-shaped tears that remained on her baby's skin.

"I fed her not too long ago. I'm surprised at her appetite." Camila chuckled, seeing how Luna tried in all parts of diligence, to drink milk from the bottle.

"I think this little girl is going to grow up with an insatiable appetite." Lauren looked up at Camila, giggling.

"Our very own monster eater." And both of them were not aware anymore of the line that kept the distinct difference between 'our' and 'my'. Our Luna, our little girl, our baby.

Camila had breathed the words into Lauren's face. The face of the answer to every prayer she had uttered, the face of the lyrics of every song she had heard, and the face of the woman who had been the main piece, along with her daughter, in every beat of her heart.

When she had met Lauren, never had Camila seen in any versions of reality, a glimpse of a future memory where Lauren would be in it. But in a moment between 'Slut' and 'Camz', she had melted into the world that had been shaken and moved by her. Every moment was not only hers, but theirs. And Camila was loving every living breath in that world.

Camila was not the only one.

After finishing her bottle, Luna shed tears once more, the tears glistening in the light reflected by the moon. Camila led them to the small bed near Luna's crib, settling herself by the headboard. She unbuttoned her top, releasing her breasts from their restraints. Lauren handed the baby to her mother, relief offered not long after by the light brush of Camila's nipple to her small lips.

Camila turned her attention to Lauren, who sat by the edge of the bed, looking at her. Lauren's hair was ruffled into a small mess, her grin not showing any signs of vanishing soon, and the dark circles that hung evidently under her eyes. She remembered Lauren had not had the generous amount of sleep the past few weeks after Luna's birth, yet she still managed to drag her bones to work.

"You should get some rest, Lo. You still have work tomorrow."

Lauren merely smiled and shifted her weight closer to Camila, the small of her back against Camila's thigh. "I told my secretary I would abstain from the office for a couple of weeks."

"What for?" Camila was glad at Lauren's words, but she could not contain her curiosity.

Lauren's smile only widened. "Isn't it obvious? For Luna. For you."

With the passing of time, Camila thought she would grow tired of the heat that rose from her chest all the way to the rest of her body. She thought it would be exhausting to feel her heart dance wildly inside the boundaries of her ribcage. But every passing only made the heat grow in temperature, only made her heart more free. Her life without Lauren no longer interested Camila.

"Why do you do all of this for us? I haven't done anything for you. I don't think I deserve such kindness." Camila looked down. It was the kindness she had not been able to taste ever since the death of her father. She didn't want to be a burden, an obstacle in the path of Lauren's life and career.

"You stayed. And that's more than anything you can do for me. You stayed even when I was hurting you, you stayed even when I was pushing you away." Lauren placed her hand on the exposed skin of Camila's thigh, rubbing her thumb across it soothingly. "I should be the one asking you. Why, Camz? Why did you stay?"