Avoiding Responsibility (20 page)

Jack was getting married. She needed to get through that before anything else. Keeping her thoughts set on the horizon, Lexi exited through the back door and onto the porch where she had shared her first kiss with Ramsey. Lexi breathed in the humid summer air and pushed her curls off of her forehead. The weather was as sticky as ever for a Georgia summer night, and she could feel a light beading of sweat form across her hairline and the back of her neck. She missed the warmth and familiarity of the place she called home. Nostalgia washed over her as she leaned back against the wooden railing and stared up into the night sky. The stars were barely visible due to the lighted backdrop of the city, but it still comforted her to look out into space.

"There you are," Ramsey said shutting out the noise of his apartment as he drew closer to her.

"Oh so you aren't avoiding me?" she asked the bitterness from earlier gone from her voice.

"No, I was," he admitted freely. Lexi smiled at his honesty, but refrained from commenting. "Things aren't going exactly as planned."

"They never do," she muttered her head still hanging backwards and looking up into the darkness. She felt his hands lightly grip her waist when he drew closer to her.

"Sorry about the party." Lexi shrugged. "And about avoiding you."

"Please stop apologizing," she murmured.

"I'm sorry I keep apologizing," he said causing her to finally look at him with a smirk. His green eyes softened at the sight of her. She looked utterly beautiful. Her skin was incredibly bronzed and shimmered in the dim lighting. Her brown eyes were rimmed with charcoal and long luxurious lashes were extended by onyx mascara. The slight sheen across her skin made her look seductive as if she were wearing oil on the beach. Her pink lips were coated with a thin layer of chapstick and all he could think of doing was bending forward to kiss them. Instead, he brushed back a loose strand of hair from her face tucking it behind her ear.

The way he was looking at her was beginning to make her thoughts hazy. She sometimes felt as if he could erase everything from her mind when he looked at her the way he was in that moment. Blinking a few times to break the spell, Lexi returned to the thoughts that were milling around in her mind.

She wanted answers to so many questions in that moment. Everyone kept telling her that he had changed, but she had no idea how they could know that or what that even meant. She liked who he was, and besides few hiccups didn't think that he needed to change. If he had changed, would that affect the way that she felt about him. Could she still love someone who had changed? How could anyone know it was for the better?

She also had no clue what he had been planning before she had left town. Nor did she know how Brad and Jason's departure applied to the scenario. If he had been turning his world upside down for her, what would everything be like afterwards? And she couldn't figure out how that related to what he had been doing since she had been gone. Had he really missed her like he said? What else could he possibly be keeping from her? So many other things were floating in her brain but all she could get out was, "Who was on the phone?" It seemed at the time the most pressing issue, or perhaps just the least complicated. Though with Lexi, it seemed, everything was complicated.

Ramsey broke eye contact with her and cleared his throat. "Just uh…"

"Please don't lie to me," she said observing him closely.

"I wasn't going to," he told her defensively. She didn't tell him that his demeanor made it clear that he had been about to lie to her. That something about the way he had reacted to the question had triggered her.

"Just…don't get worked up okay?" Lexi nodded anticipation blossoming in her stomach. A list of names filled her mind, and though she feared he wouldn't list anyone on the short list, deep down she knew that he would.

"Parker called."

She had been right.

Lexi swallowed hard trying not to get worked up over the answer. She knew there had been a reason for him to avoid her, but she hadn't wanted to think about why. Parker was a whole new world of complications that Lexi wished she had never had to deal with. Jack was bad enough, but to have to consider both issues in one day was almost too much for her. She knew that eventually she would have to face everything that had happened, but she didn't want that to be today.

Taking a few steadying breaths, Lexi finally felt calm enough to reply. "And what did Parker want?"

"Just to talk about the wedding," he stated. "There are a lot of details that go into it that I don't care about, and I keep getting phone calls about it."

"Right," Lexi said not wanting to feel as queasy as she did. "Parker's going to be at the wedding."

Ramsey had told her that Parker was going to be there, but she had tried not to put too much thought into it. The fact that it was Jack's wedding had been enough to think about without the idea of Parker on the backburner. So she had tried to put the unfortunate news that Parker would be somehow involved in the wedding out of her mind. To be honest, Parker had been one of the only things Lexi
had
been thinking about since she had returned to Atlanta, and having a brief reprieve to consider other issues, namely Jack, had momentarily been a relief. She hardly thought so now.

"So you've been spending a lot of time talking to Parker then?" Lexi asked choosing her words carefully and trying to keep the bite out of her voice.

"Lexi," Ramsey said comfortingly, "please don't let this get to you. It is one week, and that is all."

"I know. I know," Lexi muttered though she sounded disbelieving.

"I don't have to see Parker again after this if it makes you happy. You are the only thing that is important to me," he told her staring longingly in her eyes.

Lexi wanted to believe him. After all, she had come to Atlanta in hopes of believing just that. But only time would tell if everything he was saying was true.

Thanks for all my wonderful reviewers: Cupid's Psyche, inspire-the-writer-x3, LoveAlways03, Fierce . Imagination, jennalizing, hayleytibbs, sunbeam07, WyldeLoneStar, ssolomon08, and Kelly Rogala.

K.A. Linde

"What a beautiful wedding!,

What a beautiful wedding!" says a bridesmaid to a waiter.

"Oh yes, but what a shame, what a shame,

the poor groom's bride is a whore."
"Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?"

No, it's much better to face these kinds of things

with a sense of poise and rationality.

I chime in with a

"Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?"

No, it's much better to face these kinds of things

with a sense of poise and rationality.

-"I Write Sins Not Tragedies" Panic at the Disco

Chapter 10: December Six Months Earlier

"Slow down. Slow down. Slow down," Lexi cried repeatedly as she tried to pry Ramsey's hands off of her. "Chyna is going to know if we fooled around beforehand."

"Yeah probably," he said pushing her dress further up her legs.

"I can't go all flustered."

"Why not?" he asked smiling devilishly as he captured her lips briefly.

Lexi pulled back from his eager advances and shot him a dirty look. "This is an important occasion for Chyna. She isn't going to want me to have just had sex while she's dealing with all this bullshit."

"Are you still talking about Chyna?" he asked letting his thumb rub circles into her inner thighs.

"Ye…yes," she stammered trying not to get too distracted by the proximity of his hands.

"She's hardly going to care."

"You don't know that. This is really important to her," Lexi contradicted him.

"Really? We're talking about Chyna, the girl who gets laid practically every night. She's not going to care. In fact," he began thinking better of the subject, "she's going to be happy about it…proud even." He resumed his earlier removal of her clothing.

"Chyna is not," Lexi began before Ramsey covered her mouth with his own. "Ramsey," she all but moaned against his lips.

Briefly breaking contact, he hoisted her up from where she was sitting on the couch causing her to gasp against him, carried her into her bedroom, and then tossed her effortlessly backwards onto her queen-sized bed. Lexi giggled taken in by his enthusiasm as he crawled onto the bed after her. "You're going to ruin your suit," was all she managed to get out as he towered over her.

He smirked at her obviously amused by the statement. "This is why I like you so much," he murmured softly.

"What? What am I doing?" she asked giggling obviously mystified by how her reactions affected him.

"Nothing, which is exactly what makes you so damn irresistible," he told her capturing her lips in a searing kiss.

Lexi giggled again throwing her head back against the pillows to break off their actions. "Wait, wait, what made you say that?"

"Oh Lexi, my Alexa, how can you not see yourself through my eyes?" he whispered softly laying down next to her and beginning to stroke her brown locks. Lexi just looked back up at him waiting for him to continue. "You just seem to make even the most ridiculous statements sound adorable."

"Ridiculous statements?" Lexi gasped. "Nothing I said was ridiculous."

"You're concerned about Chyna not being okay with us fooling around before a wedding she doesn't even want to attend, and my suit getting wrinkled. Those are both pretty ridiculous," he said staring at her tenderly.

Lexi sat up on her elbows to get a better look at him. "Well for one, Chyna
might
be upset about this. And two, your suit is already wrinkled," she said pointing out where the suit had bunched up around him.

"I'm still sticking to the fact that Chyna would
never
be upset about this. Since we first met, she wanted you to go home with me. And do you think this is the only suit I have with me?" he asked raising one eyebrow and looking at her hungrily.

"That was a totally different scenario. I was drunk and we were out clubbing. I wasn't responsible for my actions," she said stubbornly. "And about that suit, as far as I'm concerned it is the only one you
own
," she told him watching his face contort incredulously and then burst into laughter.

"You really are something," he murmured as he began to kiss from her throat to her navel. A moan escaped her lips giving away just how much she
really
wanted him to stop. He paused at the hem of her dress raising his head to make eye contact with her, "And as far as you're concerned, I don't need any suits."

"Why is that?" she asked breathily his eyes captivating her.

"Because we can just stay up here in your room until the New Year," he murmured against her stomach.

Lexi's head fell back against the pillow as Ramsey's fingers slid under her dress. She couldn't argue that point and she didn't really want to. She would be perfectly content forgoing their plans for the remainder of the evening, and staying in her apartment the rest of the night.

But she couldn't do that to Chyna. Her father was getting married that evening, and Chyna had been corralled into assisting the beast he was calling his fiancé. She needed moral support. And beyond that, Lexi had helped plan the big New Year's party for tonight, and would be expected to be there. Her presence would be one that Chyna needed around her. Though she could throw a spectacular party by anyone's standards, this would be her first full blown New Years bash, and she wanted it to have everything and more. Not to mention that Lexi had helped plan the whole thing…in the midst of finals nonetheless.

Feeling his fingertips lightly graze her silky underwear, Lexi had an even stronger urge to forget her best friend and all her plans. But still the nagging need to be there for her over powered her sex drive.

Lexi twisted sideways out of the reach of his hands and slid off of the bed. "No!" she exclaimed boldly. Ramsey's smirk only widened. "I know you don't hear that from me often."

"Often?" he asked chuckling to himself.

Lexi rolled her big brown eyes. "But we have places to be tonight. You didn't ditch work on one of the busiest nights of the years just so that we could stay in and have sex all night."

"Are you somehow proving a point? I'd ditch work for that any day."

Lexi let out a short breath and shook her head at him. "On any other day then," she told him wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm taking you up on that," he said standing and straightening out his suit. He reached out for her as she passed by him to finish her makeup. She wrapped her arms up around his neck and let him hold her close for a brief moment before breaking contact.

"Don't get all riled up again," she warned him as she ducked under his arm and walked to her dresser.

"Pointless request when I'm around you."

Lexi smiled brightly to herself as she put the finishing touches on her already perfect makeup. She then slid on a pair of heeled, knee-high, black boots and zipped them up feeling especially like Pretty Woman. Ramsey snatched up her black pea coat from the hook near the door and eased her into the warm material.

To say traffic was a nightmare would have been an understatement. New York traffic was always a force to reckon with, but on New Year's Eve it was just a disaster. The couple inched through the streets hoping to arrive at their destination early enough, but as time dragged on they were just hoping to make it there at all.

"Is there any way that you could drive just a little faster?" Lexi politely asked the cabbie leaning forward in the yellow car.

The man didn't even have the decency to answer. He just looked back at her through the rearview mirror as if she were an idiot. Obviously they were in wall to wall traffic on one of the busiest days of the year. There was literally nowhere to go to avoid the mess.

Lexi slumped back against the seats. "Great. What are we going to do? We're going to be late."

Ramsey wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently. "Can you walk in those things?" he asked nodding at her shoes.

"Sure," she mumbled. "Just not across town."

"Right," he said nodding to himself. "Hey buddy, what are the chances you're getting us to the Plaza in the next twenty minutes?" The cabbie again looked at him as if he was not only dumb but also blind, and refrained from answering. "Look I know that you understand what I'm saying so an answer would be appreciated."

The guy glared at Ramsey through the mirror and muttered, "No chance."

"How about I give you an extra hundred bucks if you get us there in twenty minutes?" Ramsey volunteered. Lexi jumped backwards swiveling in place to look at Ramsey. She couldn't believe that he was actually bribing this guy. Somehow she had never thought that something like that would happen in real life.

"A hundred?" the guy asked obviously in disbelief as well.

"And I'll double it if we're there in fifteen," Ramsey reaching for his wallet to show the guy that he was serious.

"Ramsey, why are you carrying around two hundred dollars in cash?" Lexi muttered softly next to him. She could feel her jaw slack at the prospect that he would throw about two hundred dollars on a cab ride as if it were nothing. She knew he had money. Of course she knew. His family fortune alone without his get rich scheme from the clubs made him the wealthiest person she had ever met, but he was generally so reserved about it around her. Sure he had done some extravagant things, but it was never something so completely pointless. Then again if the cab driver didn't make it to the hotel in twenty minutes he wasn't out any money.

"It's New Years," he told her, his green eyes sparkling as if that explained everything. The mischievous look on his face also told her that he was carrying a lot more than that.

"Aren't you afraid you're going to get mugged?" she breathed.

It was Ramsey's turn to look at her like she was crazy. "Have you seen me?" he asked gesturing to all his extreme height and fit build. No one was likely to mess with him.

"Two hundred in fifteen minutes?" the driver repeated eagerly.

"You bet," Ramsey told him as if the amount were pocket change. And to someone like Ramsey Bridges, it probably was. Lexi was having a difficult time wrapping her mind around that. Even though Chyna shopped more than any other human being and spent two hundred dollars on a cotton t-shirt, Lexi still couldn't understand Ramsey's decision. She hadn't been raised poor, but two hundred dollars was just not something you threw away on a taxi driver.

Regardless, that did seem to make the driver more adventurous. As traffic began to pick up, he swerved and maneuvered around other cars, racing down streets, and stopping abruptly. Lexi had to close her eyes for part of the ride because she was pretty sure that they had gone through several red lights and almost been hit a half a dozen more. And still they managed to make it to the Plaza in exactly twenty minutes. Lexi hadn't thought it was possible. Ramsey true to his word paid the cabbie their fair, then pulled two crisp fifty dollars bills out of his wallet, and handed it to the guy.

"Perfect timing," Ramsey said grabbing Lexi's hand and pulling her towards the ballrooms.

"Oh my God!" Chyna exclaimed rushing towards them as they approached the entrance. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Traffic's a bitch," Lexi told her apologetically.

"I thought I was going to slit my wrists if I had to spend one more minute with that woman. She is quite possibly the devil. I mean literally the devil," Chyna said throwing her arms in the air. "I think she gives Bridezilla a new meaning."

"Is she really that bad?" Lexi asked glancing around to see who else could be listening in on their conversation.

"That
bad
?" Chyna cried. "You have no idea. I have been asked if I've gained ten pounds fifteen times since I arrived. I was told that my face looks pudgy, my hips are getting rounder, and that there's no way my ass is going to fit into the dress she picked out. Not only that, but my complexion is all wrong, my hair color won't blend in, and my nails are overdone," she said thrusting her understated French manicure in Lexi's face. "And don't even get me started on what she says about my shoes," Chyna whined pointing at the beautiful black stilettos on her feet.

Lexi couldn't help but smile. "You look gorgeous," she told her leaning forward and kissing her cheek.

"Thank you doll."

"Agreed," Ramsey said pinching her arm. "I'm going to get us a seat."

"Okay," Lexi said nodding at him as he walked into the ballroom.

"He's adorable," Chyna said watching his ass as he departed. "He's way in deep with you."

Lexi shrugged noncommittally. "I hope so."

"Psh, whatevs. At least you don't have to deal with this bitch," Chyna told her motioning to the back rooms.

"I can't believe you actually agreed to this," Lexi told her.

"Me either. Who would have thought I would have to go through hell and back though? Right? I never thought it would be
this
much hassle."

Lexi smirked at her. "The first time you met the woman she told you that you shouldn't drink red wine anymore because you have
bags
under your eyes. How could you misinterpret her purpose in life?"

Chyna giggled at the memory. "True. Well at least I won't have to spend any more time with her after this goddamn wedding is over."

"Speaking of wedding don't you have a bride to finish getting dressed?" Lexi asked dodging out of the way as Chyna motioned to punch her.

"Don't fucking remind me," Chyna grumbled. "I'll meet you inside. I clash too much with her twit friends so I'm not going to walk in. She'd rather me just sit and then stand once everyone has come inside."

"Are you
serious
?" Lexi asked in disbelief. The dumb woman that Chyna's father was marrying was really crossing a line with that one. She had asked her to be a part of the wedding more to keep an eye on Chyna than anything as had become quite apparent. She had thus far put her in the ugliest dresses and forced her hair up in unflattering positions. Still Chyna had managed to look gorgeous. Lexi was pretty sure that had pissed the woman off even more. Then after all her efforts to keep her soon-to-be stepchild from being prettier than her, she was now forcing her not to even walk down the aisle. She couldn't bear the thought of anyone drawing away the spotlight.