Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(45)
Author: K.A. Linde

"Come on," Jessie said tugging her towards the deck which overlooked the ocean.

Lexi let herself be dragged away as she stayed lost in thought. The last thing she wanted to do was overreact. She just had to reminder herself that it was perfectly possible for Ramsey and Parker to have a platonic relationship which is what brought them together. Before she had a chance to think on it further, Jessie slapped a cigarette in her hand. "Here ya go."

"Uh thanks," Lexi said reluctantly. She had never smoked a day in her life. Just when Jessie went up to light it for her, Lexi’s phone buzzed in her purse at her hip.

"Hold on," she said handing back the cigarette. Jessie shrugged and lit her own. Lexi dug into the bag, retrieved the phone, and pressed it to her ear. "Hello."

"Lexi…" Chyna blubbered through the other end of the line. Instantly Lexi was on edge. Chyna never ever called her Lexi. From the first time they had met, she had always been Alexa to Chyna. Just hearing her name come out of Chyna’s mouth sounded odd. Not to mention the fact that it seemed Chyna had been crying rather hysterically actually.

"Chyna are you okay?" she asked immediately stepping out away from Jessie to a more private spot.

"No, oh my God, no I’m not," she cried falling into another fit of tears.

"What happened? Chyna calm down. It’ll be okay. Just tell me what happened," she said reassuringly.

"I don’t know. I just…I don’t know where to begin."

"Just start wherever C. Tell me from the beginning. Are you safe? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you? Do I need to call someone to come get you?" Lexi asked nearing hysterics herself. She was terrified for her friend.

"No no, I’m not hurt…not physically. It’s just…Adam. Alexa, it’s Adam," she whispered into the phone as if it were physically painful to mutter the words.

"Adam?" Lexi asked anxiously. "Is he alright? Did something happen?" Lexi stomach was in knots. She was pretty terrified of what she was about to hear. Her friend had been so happy for the past couple months since Adam had entered her life. If anything happened to him, or if anything happened to them, she wasn’t sure how Chyna would ever recover. She never wanted this to happen and yet she had feared that it would.

"Oh, God we got into a horrible argument. My chest hurts unlike anything I’ve ever imagined," Chyna whispered her voice pained.

"I’m so sorry. Did you guys break up?" Lexi hated asking the question.

"I don’t know. I just…I don’t know," she moaned dreadfully.

"Maybe it was just a misunderstanding. Tell me what happened," she told her hoping with all she had that it wasn’t a break up.

Chyna sniffled a few times into the phone before continuing. "Adam’s brother, John, lives in the city, but he’s a businessman who travels all over the world for much of the year. So I’d never met him." Lexi wasn’t sure what this had to do with anything, but let her continue without interrupting. "Well he was in town for the weekend so Adam wanted to introduce me to him. I thought it was a big step." She took a second to sniffle a few more times before starting up again.

"We went out and had a few drinks. He turned out to be very similar to Adam except exceptionally charming. I mean…not that Adam isn’t charming, but…"

"No I get it," Lexi told her.

"Anyway John knew the right thing to say about everything, and by the end of the night he had me eating out of his hands."

"Oh Chyna you didn’t…do anything with him did you?" Lexi asked terrified of the answer.

"What?" she snapped. "No! I wouldn’t do that to Adam. That’s the point. John seems to get whatever he wants, and it soon became apparent that I was what he wanted. Adam refused to see it. He loves his brother so much that he was blind to him…blind to his arrogance and f**king stupidity.

"Tonight Adam left us alone for just a short period of time. John was smooth, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. Before Adam, I would have gone for him any day of the week." Lexi figured that went without saying. "Anyway, he had his hands all over me, and when I turned him down he got furious. When I told Adam about it, he just wouldn’t believe me. He said I was being a drama queen and I had probably just misinterpreted what had gone on.

"But I didn’t misinterpret anything! We got in a terrible argument about it. He wouldn’t believe anything I said," she cried hearing a fresh wave of tears coming on. "We just stood there yelling at each other until he got so angry he just stormed out on me."

Lexi held her breath hoping there was more. This didn’t sound too uplifting. When she realized that Chyna was finished with her story, she spoke up, "I’m so sorry. I think you’ll just need to give him some time, then it’ll work out. He really cares for you. I know he does. He’s going to want to work things out. I don’t know his brother or anything, but the way you talk about him makes it seem that Adam probably idealizes him if I had to guess. Once he sees how much of an idiot he was, he’ll come around."

"You think so?" Chyna asked hope in her voice for the first time since Lexi had answered the phone.

"Yeah I do," Lexi told her. She didn’t want to give her false hope. She certainly wasn’t sure that Adam would come around. She had never seen Chyna in a functional relationship. Her entire affair with Adam was new to everyone. But her friend had been happier with Adam than she had ever seen her, and she had to believe that counted for something. That one hiccup wouldn’t ruin everything for them. They could get through this.

"Alexa I still don’t know. I don’t know how to handle any of this. I wish you were here. I need you," she groaned.

"I can be home if you need me. You know I’ll always be here for you," Lexi told her soothingly.

"You’d end your vacation early for me?" she asked her voice in awe. "I know you don’t get to see him all that often."

"You’re my best friend," Lexi told her as if that solved everything. "Let me talk to him and I’ll see what I can do."

"Thanks…I’m so sorry. I hate taking you away," she said the sniffles coming back.

"No need to be sorry. You had no idea this was going to happen. Hopefully I’ll be with you soon girl," Lexi said saying good-bye and hanging up.

"Everything alright?" Jessie asked stamping out a cigarette and coming up behind Lexi.

Lexi shook her head. "My friend is having some guy trouble. I need to go find Ramsey." Lexi pushed her way back through the crowd until she reached Ramsey’s side again. The first thing that she noted was that Parker was absent from the group. But she couldn’t worry about that right now.

Ramsey could tell something was off as soon as she was next to him. "Is everything alright?" he asked concerned.

"Chyna and Adam got into a huge fight," she confessed. Lexi tucked her hair behind her ear and anxiously chewed on her bottom lip. "She’s kind of hysterical."

"Did they break up?"

"She’s not sure, but she’s really flippin’ out," Lexi told him sighing heavily.

Ramsey seemed to realize instantly where this was leading. "Do you want to go?" he asked motioning towards the door. Lexi nodded without another thought. The two waved goodbye to their party and rushed for the door.

"I’m sorry I’m making us leave early," Lexi said as she jogged to catch up with him in the crowd.

Ramsey held the door open for Lexi and she pushed her way past him. Even though the walk back to the beach house was only a couple minutes, Ramsey clearly didn’t want to waste any time. He hailed a waiting cab and allowed her to enter first. When he sat down, he said, "You don’t have to apologize Lexi."

She smiled and nuzzled into Ramsey’s shoulder. For the minute ride, she sat there perfectly content in his arms. All her earlier worries were gone, and it felt right again. Just the two of them together in proper fashion. But soon the ride was over. Ramsey tossed a bill at the cabbie and exited behind her.

Throwing her clothes quickly in her bag, Lexi rushed to get everything together. "Don’t worry about the rest. I can bring it back with me."

Lexi nodded her head looking around to make sure she had everything of importance, and then grabbed her rolling suitcase. Ramsey took it from her hand and veered her away from the entrance to the house. She narrowed her eyes, but let him lead her through a door they hadn’t entered before. "What’s this?" she asked. As she walked through, she realized that they were entering a garage. She hadn’t even known that they had a garage for the place. They had taken a cab from the airport and hadn’t need to drive anywhere the entire trip.

She looked at the sleek Mercedes sitting in one of the slots and realized that it looked very similar to the one she was used to riding around in throughout Atlanta. This was just a slightly older model from the look of it. "Is this yours?" she asked surprised. Somehow she had been here nearly a week and never realized that he had a car waiting for them.

Ramsey popped the trunk and deposited her bag. "Yeah. I keep her here since I got the my new one," he said snapping the door closed and coming around to the side of the machine.

"You keep her here? But why do the owners of the beach house let you keep it here?" she asked unable to put two and two together.

He stared at her over the roof of the Mercedes and sighed. "This is my house Lexi," he mumbled. "I wanted to tell you. I did. I just wasn’t sure how you’d react." He was stammering like the first time she had met him. Sometimes she couldn’t help but feel that he was the most adorable when he was like this. "You get all funny when I display…well…when I show that I have money. I didn’t want you to think that I was cheating you out of a promised vacation by not really paying for us to come out here."

"Ramsey."

"I would have paid for us to go somewhere else, but I was more worried of taking you out of the country. I just wanted you to feel like I was taking care of you, and I thought this was the best way."

"Ramsey."

"So I didn’t mean to keep it from you. I didn’t want to…"

"Ramsey would you shut up," Lexi cried finally getting a word in. He snapped his mouth closed staring at her intently. "I don’t care about the house. Why didn’t you just tell me? It would have been fine." She opened the door and slid onto the cream leather seats. She actually found it a bit funny that he owned a beach house since it had been one of the first things she had ever thought about him with his beautifully tanned skin.

He sat down next to her. "I just didn’t know how you would react."

"Perhaps next time, you can let me react before making assumptions," she said with a shrug.

After a second, he said, "You’re right." He backed out of the driveway and made his way out towards the highway.

"Thanks for taking me," she murmured to break the silence.

"Of course. I know how much Chyna means to you."

"Ramsey," she stammered out, "can I ask you a question?"

"Sure what’s up?" he asked merging into traffic.

"Were you and Parker ever…uh…together?" she asked turning to face him in the car. "I mean I know you said that you never had a girlfriend, but you guys looked…comfortable together. And Jessie said…"