Page 30 of Bodied

“Yes,” Lauren snapped and then felt bad again. “I mean I had a bodyguard I was comfortable with, and I thought I’d be jogging with him this morning. But apparently, my mom doesn’t want me to be comfortable.”

“Sorry.” Ben shrugged and looked genuinely sympathetic.

Lauren sighed. “It’s not your fault. You’re just doing your job, and actually, I should thank you for that, shouldn’t I?” She sat on the bench and slouched. The jog suddenly seemed like too much work for the amount of energy she had. “Have a seat,” she said to Ben.

He sat tentatively.

Lauren held her head in her hands and groaned. “She really is going to meddle with everything just long enough to ruin my whole life, isn’t she? I’ll have to fake my death and change my identity to get away from her. I’ll have to wipe my digital footprint and move to somewhere more unplugged. Say goodbye to New York, Lauren,” she lamented. “Say goodbye to America. I mean, that’s the only way to deal with someone who just doesn’t listen, right?”

Ben fidgeted, clearly unsure what to do with the information he hadn’t asked for but was being given anyway. “I’m… not sure,” he said at last.

“Don’t worry about it.” She stood and stretched. “Let’s finish the jog anyway. And don’t worry so much about hanging back.”

Back at the apartment, Ben insisted on riding up with Lauren and sweeping her home. It felt strange to have anyone other than Wesley looking under her bed and in her closet, going out onto her balcony to ensure no one was waiting out there. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but he wasn’t who she wanted to protect her. She was furious that such an important decision about her current life wasn’t even hers to make.

When he was finished sweeping her place, Lauren thanked him and sent him on his way. Then she made herself breakfast and proceeded to mope for a good part of the morning. She felt awful and angry. She wanted nothing more than to confront her mom about this, but she resisted the urge.

After several hours, though, she couldn’t resist any longer. She picked up her phone and dialed her mom, who couldn’t even be bothered to answer her cell. She probably had it on silent or do-not-disturb like always. Lauren paced around her apartment for several more minutes before she finally decided to call her mom’s office. Someone picked up right away. It was her mom’s assistant.

“Anne Bartlett’s office, this is Maria speaking. How can I help you?”

“This is Lauren Bartlett. I want to know what the hell is going on with my personal bodyguard. He didn’t show up this morning.”

There was some shuffling of papers while Maria checked over the information she clearly had. “I don’t see a no-show in the books here. Are you certain security wasn’t there? Maybe he was just extra discreet. We requested that the company’s most reliable man be assigned to you. If he didn’t show, we should let his boss know, so she can check in on him.”

“Security wasn’t a no-show,” Lauren clarified. “Wesley Pierce was. He was supposed to be my bodyguard. Instead I wound up with some guy named Ben.”

“Ah.” More papers shuffled in the background. “Yes, Ben has been assigned to you during the day from now on. Wesley has been reassigned. We’re sorry it didn’t work out with him.”

“It was working out just fine!” Lauren shouted into the phone. “Mom just freaked out because I liked the bodyguard too much. I want him back, please.”

Maria took a deep breath. “Ms. Bartlett, I wish I could help you here, but you have to know that these decisions are not mine to make. You’ll have to contact your mother about it.”

“That’s what I’m doing right now,” Lauren said, her frustration becoming more and more audible in her voice.

“I mean her cell, Ms. Bartlett.”

“Just call me Lauren, will you? I’m not my mom, and every day I’m more grateful for that.”

Maria slowed her speech as though she were talking to a misbehaving child. “Lauren, then. Your mother has requested that she not be interrupted with calls today, and she gave me no exception to that request. If you want to speak to her, I recommend calling her directly. I’m sorry. There’s nothing more I can do.”

She was right, of course. It was about time Lauren stopped taking her anger out on someone who didn’t have the power to help her. But after she hung up with Maria, she started pacing again. It wasn’t right to just blame her mom for Wesley being reassigned. Maybe he had requested it. Maybe he didn’t like her as much now that she had let their relationship out of the bag.

Well, wondering about it all afternoon wasn’t going to do much to confirm her suspicions or comfort her. She picked her phone back up and called Wesley. It took him way too long to answer for her liking, considering the flips her stomach kept doing with every second that passed.

“Howdy, Lauren,” he said when he picked up the phone.

“Wesley. Hi. I had kind of a weird morning. I missed you on my jog, for one. Was wondering whether you know what’s going on. I have my suspicions, but I wanted to ask you just to be sure we’re on the same page.”

“Well…” His voice was quiet, subdued, and far too serious, which worried her more than a little. “I mean, it’s probably exactly what you think it is. I’ve been reassigned to your mother. I’m on Anne Bartlett’s personal security detail, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed.”

Lauren was shaking. “How could she?” she murmured, mostly to herself, but she had no doubt Wesley had heard her. First, Anne had sabotaged Lauren’s acting career, and now she was sabotaging Lauren’s love life. Did she not want her daughter to have any future at all? No chance for a career or a family even? “I can’t believe it,” she added.

“Believe it,” Wesley said. His voice was colder than she’d expected it to be. “Seriously, Lauren, what did you think was going to happen? I told you this would be bad. I’m just grateful I was only reassigned rather than fired. This could have been so much worse.”

Lauren’s heart sank. More than ever, she wanted to straighten things out and apologize. She hadn’t meant for him to suffer consequences like this. It had been thoughtless, careless for her to act the way she did. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am. You were right, and I should have listened to you. I shouldn’t have trusted my mom to be reasonable about any of this. Why did I? She hasn’t been reasonable in the past. It was… so stupid of me.”

“I’m not going to argue with you there,” Wesley said, and his tone made her want to cry. She supposed he was trying to sound angry, but to her, he just sounded hurt.

---