Touched By You

"I missed this. I missed us."

"I'm taking another couple of weeks to work through my shit before I decide to get back into the art world." Lauren bit into her piece of toast and Camila's eyes watched every chew, the older girl's lips chapped and littered with crumbs but never having looked more inviting.

It'd been months now since Camila had kissed those lips, since before Lauren left for her art debut, and all the younger Cuban wanted was to leap across their dining table and plant her lips on Lauren's and once again familiarise their lips with one another. She missed the way they danced as if having done so through a thousand lifetimes.

"Camila."

"Huh?" Those brown eyes met green and a tense frustration settled in the lower half of the younger girl's body.

"I said I accepted a threesome with Dinah and Normani." Lauren smirked, her eyes dancing with mischief that simply enticed Camila even more.

"Fat chance," The brunette scoffed, taking a hold of her coffee mug and tentatively sipping. "Dinah tries to cover Normani up at the beach and you think she'll let you see her naked?"

"You're right, I'd have a better chance at catching Ally stripped down," The green-eyed girl mused, placing her toast down. "I said I'm gonna try to get back in touch with some galleries soon, I think it's about time I get off my ass."

"Hey, you said it, not me." Camila put her hands up in defence. "Does that mean you've decided to talk things out with Vero?"

It was a topic the pair had been avoiding because Camila knew Lauren hated being on bad terms with her best friend's wife and Lauren knew she'd gone about her grief in a selfish way. She should've been there for Vero, it's what Lucy would have wanted, but instead she focused on herself and her pain.

She'd disregarded the fact that everyone else had been grieving too, especially Vero.

Now Lauren had no clue on what to say to make up for it.

And where Lauren was absent, Alessia was not.

Lauren didn't quite know how it came about but a week ago Alessia had showed up and managed to not only befriend Vero, but also helped her find a new place, move into that apartment and the pair had been spending more and more time together.

Camila tried explaining it to Lauren, something about Alessia wanting to say goodbye to Lucy but none of it really made sense to the older girl and she didn't dare try to understand it. It wasn't that she thought Alessia being around was bad, she liked the girl when they were in high school and she saw how much Alessia had been there for Lucy, but there was something about Lucy's wife and ex-girlfriend becoming chummy that didn't sit well with her.

If Maddy hadn't turned out to be a psychopath and had showed up at their front door eager to befriend Lauren, there would be alarm bells ringing everywhere.

Camila was right though, Lauren did have to talk to Vero because she owed it to her best friend to make sure her wife knew that Lauren backed her. Because Lauren would always be there for Vero, it was a silent promise she made to Lucy upon letting her go. There wouldn't be a day where Vero didn't have someone to turn to.

"Yes," The green-eyed girl stated. "But that means you get to entertain Alessia because there's no way she's gonna be an audience to me apologising to my best friend's wife."

"Are you gonna beg for her forgiveness?" Camila mused, eyes wide and smile even wider. "I bet you'll do that thing that you did with me and get on your knees and plead with her to be your friend again."

"Fuck you," Lauren scoffed. "That was Lucy's idea, I just figured it would be an easy win for me. And look at us now, we're married. I played you good, Cabello."

"Oh cool, so you manipulated me through our entire relationship and now I'm stuck in a forceful marriage. Thank God I had you unknowingly sign a prenup."

"And you think you could have snuck a document that important past me? Camz, I read irrelevant pamphlets dropped in our mailbox from front to back in case I miss anything."

"Paranoid much?"

"I missed this." Lauren's tone changed as her eyes locked with Camila's, once filled with mischief and now growing softer. "I missed us."

"Me too," The younger girl bowed her head for a moment, trying to hide the light blush on her cheeks. Because she thought Lauren had somewhat lost interest in going back to how their marriage used to be; decided that civil is the best she could hope for. "How are you feeling?" Camila decided to delve a little deeper in her wife's thoughts.

"Like...I won't ever get over losing her," The raven-haired girl spoke softly. "Like she took a huge chunk of who I am with her and I think she did because she made up a very big part of me." It was liberating to be so candid with her wife, to be able to finally put everything into words. "She wasn't just my best friend, she was my sister; my ride or die, you know? So yeah, I'm still trying to work out how to handle life without her. But I've got you. And you make up a very big part of me too." Lauren got up from her hair and walked over to her wife, crouching down before her seat and taking Camila's hands in her own. "I'm sorry I dropped the ball for a while there, Princess. But I'm trying to get back to you, okay? I'll come back to you."

A soft smile graced the younger girl's lips and she brought their intertwined hands to her lips, kissing her wife's knuckles gently; each kiss feather-light and meaningful. "All I ever wanted was for you to know I was here, that I would always be here. Take your time, Laur, heal a little and it's more than okay to keep her close. But you're here, you're alive, so let yourself live, okay?" Camila was pleasantly taken by surprise when Lauren lifted herself from the floor and placed their lips together for the first time in what felt like lifetimes.

And it was the same as they both remembered; graceful and soft. Two dancers moving in perfect synchronisation to one another, never missing a beat, never slipping up. Behind each of their eyes they saw the stars, millions of lives they were sure they'd shared with one another, millions of lives they had yet to share but were eager to. Because in every life both were certain; they would find each other. They were soulmates. And despite Lauren's inclination to reject things like fate, she knew better than to reject who Camila was.

When two souls were so perfectly intertwined with one another, no other term would suffice. They were soulmates.

They pulled away together, Lauren's hand caressing Camila's cheek and the younger girl's eyes still closed in utter bliss.

"I love you." Lauren worried that she wouldn't find it in herself to say the words again but she spoke them so freely it was hard to believe she ever thought them to be gone.

"I love you too." It was easy for Camila to reciprocate. She'd been waiting to hear those words and she knew she'd always wait for them. "Now go make up with Vero, you know you miss her."