Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(61)
Author: K.A. Linde

As the dessert dishes were whisked away, Bekah stood once more. "Now I know it’s me and Jack’s night tonight, but we personally," she said smiling down on him, "wanted to give a special announcement. This is known to very few people, and we thought we would share it with our dearest friends and family first and foremost."

For some reason, it was like Lexi could feel Bekah’s eyes on her. She had no idea why. The room was dark with a spotlight on the front table. Therefore the likelihood that she was speaking directly to Lexi didn’t make any sense. Why her eyes would find Lexi in this crowd of people when she spoke made no sense to her. Bekah had done her damage with Jack a year ago. She knew that they had mutual distaste for the other, but whatever this announcement was Lexi couldn’t see how it would have to do with her.

"Ramsey do you mind coming up here?" Bekah asked. Ramsey stared forward at Bekah in confusion. His eyes narrowed calculating what he could possibly have to do with any of this. "Come on," she sing-songed forcing her hand as the bride-to-be.

Ramsey stood slowly hating that he had to do as she said. There were too many other people that would cheer him onward if he didn’t immediately follow his sister’s orders. "Of course." He nodded walking toward hers. His head turned once just once and met Lexi’s gaze. She had no idea what to expect in that moment. She was holding her breath unsure as to what Bekah had in mind. Warning bells hadn’t started going off yet. She was still too confused.

"Now you all know my dear brother," Bekah said a little too cheerfully. "He’s been off running his own business and being a star." Lexi knew for a fact that him running his own business had never made his family think that he was a star. They all hated that he owned the clubs. "But we’re thrilled to announce that he is finally coming home and taking on as the position as vice president for Bridges Enterprise’s newest company."

Lexi’s mouth dropped open in shock. She had heard not a single word of this. She had lived with him for two months. All of this had to have taken longer than the month she was gone to put together. Why hadn’t he told her any of this? Was this was Lola had meant about Ramsey making it all up to her? Was this why Brad and Jason had been so secretive about him doing all of this for her? Was this why they had been forced to move out? Did this announcement somehow answer all her questions? She couldn’t see how.

She just couldn’t understand. Ramsey hated the idea of working for his father…for the company. He had bucked the status quo for so long that she had no idea why he would possibly want to do this.

Bekah’s voice cut off Lexi’s train of thought. "I’m pleased to announce along with this new development that the new wing of the company is going to be a full-time medical wing, and to head up our medical wing with my brother is none other than our own Parker Mackenson. Parker come up here!" Bekah shrieked excitedly.

* * *

K.A. Linde

Rashomon

The scars of your love remind me of us,

They keep me thinking that we almost had it all,

The scars of your love, they leave me breathless,

I can’t help feeling, we could have had it all

-Adele "Rolling in the Deep"

* * *

Chapter 20: July One Month Earlier

It was easy to pretend like nothing had happened. Lexi’s father ended up staying in the ICU for longer than anticipated, and she kept making the excuse that she had to be with him. No one could ever question her decision to stay in the hospital for extended periods of time. She still went into work, but she was distracted. Her earlier fervor for the company had slackened. She was certain her bosses noted the change in her work ethic. And she knew it was a stupid risk on her part to let herself fall behind. She honestly needed the job that she had. It paid well and she could tell they were leaving open a job for one of the interns in the fall, and up until that dreadful conversation with Parker, she had been gunning for that job. But there just wasn’t anything she could do about her lack of caring. The program would be over soon and they would have to make their decisions either way. She just couldn’t give them the truth. How could she tell her bosses that she was afraid she didn’t know her boyfriend any longer? That wasn’t something that they even cared about.

So she gave them the same excuse that she was giving everyone else since it had happened…that her father’s heart attack had really shaken her. That she was terrified his condition might worsen and she needed the time to be with him. The company had allowed her the time however reluctantly, but there wasn’t much time left and they were going to want her to complete the project she had been assigned. That had become her back up excuse when it was brought up that she was spending too much time at the hospital.

Lexi knew Ramsey’s schedule by heart now and found herself showing up at the apartment when she knew he wouldn’t be there and leaving before he awoke the next day. She couldn’t help it. She knew that she should just ask him about what Parker had told him. Yes, that would be the logical thing to do.

After all Parker could have simply made the whole thing up. She had been friends with Bekah since birth, Lexi wouldn’t exactly put it past her to do something horrible like that. But who was she kidding? Parker just wasn’t Bekah. As much as she wanted to hate her, Lexi just couldn’t. Parker had never done anything to her. If everything she had said was true, she had honestly done her a huge favor.

Yet, Lexi couldn’t seem to bring it up. She had been doing everything in her power to avoid her own boyfriend. It had been over a week, and she just couldn’t bring herself to ask the questions that she had lingering on her tongue. The last thing she wanted was for him to confirm the story or even worse for him to lie about it…again.

She had barely been sleeping what with hospital visits, work, and trying to avoid seeing her boyfriend. When she trudged down the stairs the next morning at the crack of dawn, she knew that the only way she would survive the day was a pot of coffee…a large pot of black coffee. Lexi poured herself a mug of the pot she had just made and leaned forward against the counter as she drank. She wore a light grey skirt suit with her hair pulled up into a tight ponytail. She had to be in to work soon to finish conducting some research for the project she needed to complete even though she still wasn’t fully awake.

Lexi closed her eyes and hung her head. She hadn’t been sleeping and the hours were beginning to catch up with her. She could feel her body beginning to give into sleep while she was standing up. The coffee was having next to no effect on her so far, and all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed for another couple hours.

"Tired?" Ramsey asked as he descended the stairs.

Lexi spun around quickly sloshing a bit of the coffee down her front. "Damnit!" she cried pulling her jacket off and tossing it onto the table. Luckily her blouse was untouched.

"Sorry I didn’t mean to surprise you," he said with a smile. "You’ve been getting up so early I haven’t had a chance to see you. I thought I’d catch you before you left."

"Oh," was all she managed as she wet a towel and tried to salvage her outfit for the day. After a second of dabbing at the fabric, she decided it was a lost cause and would have to take it to the dry cleaner later today.

"Coffee?" he asked walking up to her and pouring himself a glass.

"Yeah," she mumbled sitting down in one of the dining room chairs.

Ramsey added some cream and sugar to the coffee before taking a sip. "I still don’t know how you drink it black."

Lexi shrugged. "That’s just how I like it."

"So I was thinking," Ramsey began setting his coffee down on the counter and turning to face her again. "I know you’re busy with work stuff, but I thought maybe we should go do something tonight. You haven’t really had a day off what with everything that happened with your father. I thought it might be nice to just get away."

"Don’t you have work?" she squeaked out dropping her eyes to her coffee mug.

"I can take a night off for you," he said smiling.

"I guess let me see how far I get with my work today and then I’ll let you know," she said reluctantly never pulling her eyes from her drink.

"Are you okay?" Ramsey asked moving to stand in front of her. "I know that you’re sad about your dad but everything is going to be alright with him. He was released and everything right?"

"Yeah he was," she said. She desperately wanted to tell him about everything Parker had said, but she just didn’t know how to bring it up. She had no idea if any of it was even true. All she wanted to do was go back upstairs, crawl into bed, and forget that this past week had happened.

"Well then maybe it would be a good idea to get away from it," he said bending down and resting his hands on her knees.

Lexi stood up abruptly letting his hands drop back to his side as she towered over him in his crouched position. "I’ll see about work," she said sharper than she had intended.

Ramsey stood slowly watching her closely the whole time. "Alright," he said his eyes following her every movement. "How about this? I’ll be at the club in my office finishing up some work, if you want to go out after work just swing by."

"I’ll do that," she agreed diverting her eyes as she moved to walk away from him.

Ramsey’s hand darted out and grasped her by the elbow. The light pressure on her arm sent shivers up her back. "Please come by," he whispered softly pulling her into him and kissing her softly on the lips. "I’ve missed you."

Lexi pulled away from the kiss still feeling the warmth of his mouth on hers. Her breathing was ragged. She felt like she could barely swallow. Her pupils had dilated at even the lightest of touches. Ignoring these most basic instincts, Lexi took another step away from him, gave him a curt smile, and disappeared back up the stairs to change into an outfit that didn’t have coffee stains on it.

Work was practically mind numbing that day. She knew that she had to go see Ramsey afterwards, and she knew she couldn’t hide what had happened from him for much longer. This morning had been the first time they had really been alone. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like going out with him. She was a terrible liar and an even worse actress. She couldn’t convince someone like Ramsey who noticed her every move that the only thing that was bothering her was her father’s heart attack.

He would know that something else was up with her. She would have to tell him what Parker had told her. Then she would have to get the truth out of him. She wasn’t sure if she was even ready for that. What would he say? Would he confirm all her fears or deny them? She didn’t even want to think about it. And so of course she thought of nothing else.

All the while she was conducting research for her firm, making phone calls, and digging through files, she felt distracted. Her mind was lost on the words that Parker had embedded into her skull forever. Ramsey had lied. He had hidden an entire relationship from her. She could care less that all of that stuff had happened in the past. The past was the past. If anyone should know that it was Lexi.

She had a past that she knew she couldn’t hide from. Everything always seemed to catch up with her. Why should Ramsey be any different? How could he think that he was any different?

It was just childish to think he could hide it from her. What could he gain from that? All of his friends knew the situation or at least most of it. They knew that they had been together…for years. They knew that they had been in love. They knew that they were practically destined for one another. And Christ, they at least knew that Lexi looked like Parker. Yet, she was never mentioned. She was never brought. He acted as if nothing had ever happened between them beyond the physical. No wonder he had freaked out when she had been left alone with Jessie and she had said that Parker and Ramsey looked like a cute couple.