The next morning was rough on me. Not only did I have a mild headache from drinking, but my right thigh was hurting like crazy. I knew that the game yesterday had been kind of brutal and I had sustained a little injury. Until this morning, the pain had been extremely subtle though. I had assumed it would have been gone by the next day.
It turned out to be quite the opposite. Sitting up in my bed, I massaged the aching part of my leg but flinched immediately. An injury was about the last thing I needed right now. I made sure to move slowly and limped to the bathroom to wash up. The kitchen was definitely further away but I managed to make some coffee and settle on the couch in the living room.
Sighing in relief, I heard a door opening and another closing. It was probably Lauren also going to the bathroom. My pulse quickened the second I thought about last night. I was hoping to God that things weren’t going to be awkward now. After all, it had been great to have her at the apartment even if it hadn’t been long. I didn’t want her to leave because she felt uncomfortable.
My train of thought was interrupted when the other brunette walked by and smiled sleepily.
“Morning”, she said in a groggy voice.
“Good morning”, I replied calmly. “There is some coffee if you want.”
“Perfect”, her smile widened and the older one was off to the kitchen only to return a few moments later with a mug in her hand. As she sat down on the couch next to me, my heart began pumping a little faster.
“How did you sleep?” she turned her head and met my gaze for a brief moment.
“Fine”, I responded and cleared my throat to hide the fact that I was nervous for some reason. “How about you?”
“I slept like a baby because I was so tired”, Lauren admitted and grinned. “But last night was fun. Thanks for inviting me. I definitely needed that to take my mind off things.”
Emily, I said in my head. To take her mind off Emily, she meant. Releasing a small sigh, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that our kiss might have been just that: a distraction.
“I’m glad you had fun”, I said so I wouldn’t be suspicious and took a big sip of coffee. “I guess your talk with Emily didn’t go well?”
“As well as can be expected”, Lauren shrugged mildly. “I’m still extremely angry so I didn’t want to talk to her at all. Of course, that wasn’t possible because she kept trying to apologize. I don’t know…it was weird. In an instant, everything was different. She wasn’t the person I thought she was so I need to move on.”
“It’s probably not that easy to do when you’ve been living together”, I voiced carefully.
“Sure”, she nodded.
“This may sound stupid but I feel like I don’t really know what you’ve been doing for the past two years”, I admitted with a shy smile. The green eyes focused on mine and I noticed her smiling as well. She pulled up her legs and took a more comfortable sitting position while slightly turning her body to me. Apparently she was about to share what had been happening in her life since our break up. I was reminded of Dinah’s words from last night; we should probably get to know each other better before jumping into anything. This seemed like a good start.
“What do you want to know?” Lauren asked coyly.
“Just anything really”, I took another sip from the hot beverage as I noticed her taking a deep breath.
“Well, the first year was pretty uneventful”, her raspy voice began. “I finished school and still played for the Boston Breakers until graduation. That took up all of my time. I was kind of lost after school because I didn’t want to work right away. One of my friends suggested this charity project and I immediately fell in love with the idea. I went to Haiti for six months to rebuild schools, houses or hospitals – whatever was necessary. Ever since the earthquake, there is still so much devastation and I thought I could combine my willingness to help with my pursuit in architecture. It was the most gratifying thing I have ever done.”
