More Than Just A Friend (A Bruno Mars Fan Fic)

Chapter 9

Mon 6 weeks together

3 days later

She has finally gotten through all the mail and she walks over to the other side of the office to where boxes are waiting to be opened which Bruno asked her to do, which was strange as he usually opens them himself and Leila shrugs the thought off and opens the first two boxes and finds two pairs of sneakers from Nike with his name on the side of one pair and 24K Magic on the side of the other pair and moves onto the next to find 3 track suits from Tommy Hilfiger and moves onto the last box to find another box inside it and she opens it to find a Victoria's Secret box and she sees a card and she opens it and reads, I can't wait to see you in all of these and rip them off you, Bruno xxx and she looks at the 12 sets of bras and matching thongs and she turns to Bruno who is watching her smiling and he tells her, I owe you some thongs and Leila laughs and shakes her head at him and tells him, yeah you do, but that's because you keep ripping them off me, thanks for these, they're great.

He knew he can't put it off any longer and asks Leila, you know I told you about playing basketball with the band yesterday afternoon and she tells him, yeah Bruno, you said it was good and your team won and he tells her, yeah it was, look, they kept bugging me about you so I told them to drink water and mind their business about what's going on between me and my girlfriend... that's what I want you to be.

She is surprised and feels panicked and she asks Bruno, why do we need to label what and who we are to each other, we're happy as we are and he interrupts her and asks her, so what are we doing if you can't commit to being my girlfriend Leila and he tells her, I know i'm serious about us and he asks her, what about you, I don't understand how you can have a working relationship and a friendship with me as they're fucking labels, but you don't want the label of being my girlfriend.

She can see and hear that Bruno is angry and confused and she tells him, I am serious about us Bruno, I wouldn't have put our friendship at risk if I wasn't and I thought we were dating and she gets no further as Bruno interrupts her and with his voice raised he tells her, so dating me is fine which is another fucking label but anything more is off the fucking table and he asks her, does that also mean that we're not exclusive and we can date other people too.

She swallows the lump in her throat and feels hurt and angry at the thought of Bruno dating other women and she tells him, I thought we were exclusive but if you want to date other people, that's up to you and Leila watches as without another word Bruno picks his phone up from his desk and storms out the office slamming the door shut behind him which brings Geronimo out from under her desk and he looks at the door and then at her with what Leila would swear is accusation in his eyes and she tells him, don't look at me like that G, I feel bad enough right now and she rubs Geronimo's head and for the rest of the day she doesn't see or hear from Bruno and as he was pretty angry with her when he left, Leila stops herself from calling him and hopes that they can talk later when he's cooled down but she's worried as although they have disagreed in the past they have never argued or fallen out before.

It's almost 10pm and still not hearing from Bruno she tries to call him but it goes straight to his voice mail and Leila hangs up without leaving a message hoping that he's ok and that he's not out with another woman because what she hadn't told him earlier is that if he was to date other women, it would be over between them.

He had driven around aimlessly for hours and he's been at his brother Eric's house for the last 4 hours talking and taking advice from Eric and his wife Cindia over what he should do about Leila and they both think that the reason Leila doesn't want to be Bruno's girlfriend is because of her ex and the same questions nags at him, why doesn't Leila want to be his girlfriend and where do they go from here and Bruno wishes he could take back what he'd said to her about dating other people because he really doesn't want that and the thought of Leila seeing another guy makes him feel jealous and angry and Bruno knows that would destroy what is between them as he's not willing to share her with another guy.

He has been parked outside Leila's house for almost an hour, wanting to see her and talk things through and work things out with her, but Bruno just can't bring himself to do it because every time he starts to get out of his car he remembers what they had said to each other that day and now with Eric and Cindia's thoughts in his head that maybe it's because of Leila's ex that she doesn't want to be his girlfriend that he now has doubts that she really wants to be with him and that despite Leila telling him that she hadn't loved or been in love her ex Damon, maybe she misses him and with that thought in his head Bruno starts up his car and goes home.