Professor C (camren)

33 - Leslie

***This is ugly. I'm bound to edit this in the future. Short chapter. Two or three chapters to go. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

A sense of tranquility embraced Camila as she leaned against the pillar, arms crossed and eyes set on Lauren. It was like staring at an animated picture of the past, Lauren in the kitchen, making them a meal like she'd done countless times before in a studio apartment they shared.

She was still so fatally beautiful that Camila swore she'd lived a million lifetimes just staring at her. Her smile was a curse. Her laughter an enchantment. Her touch a wildfire.

And her soul beckoned hers that time and distance were nothing but numbers. Because they were twined in a wild knot with no way of unravelling.

Camila took a deep breath, smiling. The prick of nostalgia was no longer able to hurt her, cushioned by her reality.

Lauren was there with her, and no matter how long and bumpy the road, it still led them to each other. And being grateful for what she had made it easier to overlook the longing for those years they were without each other, and the anguish from it intensified the desire to keep their love burning.

Two months had done wonders to her tired heart, her broken soul. And she'd have been lying if she said Lauren had nothing to do with it.

And as Luca promised, sixty days later, the petition was filed and it wasn't long until their marriage was dissolved.

For years, her chances at starting fresh had always been nothing but a flicker kissed by the darkness of her past, consuming all the oxygen that should have nursed it and set it ablaze. It was just like the ember at the end of her cigarettes. No matter how much she savored each stick, it would always end up stomped on, squashed or just tossed away.

This time, it felt different.

It didn't feel like running away.

The first time they made love after laying all their cards on the table, there were tears in their eyes. There was nothing like honesty in every caress and truth to every breath. Writing promises at the tip of their fingers, making vows with every kiss.

Camila gave herself to Lauren, wholly, unabashedly once more. She reintroduced herself with a lifetime of lessons embedded in the fiber of her being. She was the woman that emerged from the seventeen-year-old girl whose smile hid the agony of her clandestine life of a family who refused to accept who she was.

Best of all, she was not disguised as Luca's wife.

Since that night, they had not spent another without each other. Even as Lauren's leave of absence expired, she still went home to Camila, only making short trips to her apartment to bring more clothes.

But she'd never brought anything back.

That morning they woke up skin to skin, bright and early for Camila's annual doctor's appointment, the very one Luca mentioned to Lauren. Shame nearly forced Camila to push her away, to shelter her from her reality but Lauren had already taken a dive in it, and didn't leave her any other choice.

It had taken all her strength to leave Lauren in bed to get ready for the appointment, her eyes lingering on her frame of ivory skin and dark brown mane tangled in their sheets. And when she stepped into the bathroom, she stood in front of the sink, staring at the woman in front of her for the very first time. She was almost surprised at who she found. Tracing minute lines at the corners of her mouth, on her forehead, under her eyes. Marveling at the change on the structure, her slimmer cheeks, sharper jaw.