Avoiding Responsibility (16 page)

"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly.

Lexi arched an eyebrow. She had been too focused on trying to keep from giving away what she had been doing to even really notice Ramsey. His shoulders were tensed and his face looked weary. His own hands were clenched more forcefully at his side. She had no idea what this was about. "What? What happened?"

"Nothing Lexi," he repeated.

"Don't lie to me. Look at yourself, you're tensed for battle. Did he say something about me?" she asked the first thing that came to her mind. "Did he want me to leave?"

"Uh, no," he mumbled. "He honestly wasn't even expecting you."

"Well then what was he doing here?" she asked exasperated.

"Lexi please don't make me say anything. He asked me not to." She could see that he was visibly fighting with himself about what to do. "I just wanted to let you know that he was gone so maybe we could get some lunch," he suggested nodding his head towards the stairs. She followed him out of the room, but was unable to get the thoughts of Jack out of her mind.

"Can I have a hint?" she asked as she trudged down the stairs after him.

"No."

"Ramsey, come on. He came here for some reason right?"

"Yes Lexi, but he wanted to speak to me alone for that same reason," he said never turning around to directly address her.

"It can't be that important. He only has a week to the wedding, what could be so secretive?"

"Lexi I'm begging you to drop this. Just let it go. I don't even want to talk about it," he said shaking his head again.

She followed him to the kitchen and watched as he prepared lunch for them. It was nothing too fancy, but she had never liked him for his extravagance. Her mind was elsewhere anyways. All she wanted to know was what had happened between him and Jack. She could see the weight of Jack's words weighing down on Ramsey. Whatever the conversation had been about had been important at least. It hadn't been just some random discussion about what tie to wear or some last minute demand made from the groom. This was something serious, something Jack literally had been able to discuss with no one else.

In the past, she had been that person for him. And she found it hard to believe that Ramsey was that person for him now. Not with his knowledge of their involvement. Lexi never saw him interact with Jack directly. Then again she had always avoided him as much as she could so that wouldn't have been likely to happen. Yet, it just didn't sit with her right that Ramsey was somehow Jack's confidant. What could be so important that he had to run to Ramsey of all people for advice or confession, whichever it may be?

And however she tried, she couldn't just drop the subject. It was there in the back of her mind throughout lunch. He talked pleasantries about the weather and insignificant things that had occurred over the past month. It might as well have been falling on deaf ears as much as she paid attention. She did her fair share of participating, but her mind was elsewhere and he knew it.

"I think that's the third time you've agreed with me on something that you hate," he said sitting back in his chair and taking a swig of his beer.

Lexi blushed slightly at the statement. "Sorry I'm just out of it."

"Psh," he muttered eyeing her cautiously. "You've been like this since Jack left. Can't you just forget about it?"

A smile touched the edges of her mouth as she shook her head no. She really couldn't forget about it now especially after he had made such a big deal about it. She was desperately interested in what had happened.

"You're incorrigible. You know that right?" he asked taking a deep breath.

"Absolutely. So what was he here for?" she asked leaning her elbows against the kitchen table and resting her chin in her hands.

"I really shouldn't tell you."

"Probably not," she agreed cordially a teasing smile touching her features.

"Then why am I?"

"Because you know I'll never let it go."

He rolled his eyes at her persistence. "Damn you woman," he said standing abruptly. "I gave him my word. If I tell you, what will it be worth?"

"Jack's is worth nothing so I've no idea why you feel the need to protect him," she shot back standing to face him.

"I'm not protecting him," he said carefully, "just the fact that I told him I wouldn't say anything should be enough. You're likely the last person I would want to tell anyway."

Lexi's eyebrows shot up at the last statement. She could tell that he wished he could take it back, but it was too late. Something had happened with Jack and not only did Jack not want anyone to know, but Ramsey had some strong inclination not to let Lexi know in particular. This completely changed things. She had been persistent before, but this was a different story. This was somehow personal.

"And why exactly would you not want
me
to know?" she asked eyeing him reproachfully.

Ramsey scratched the back of his head thoughtfully as he stared at the beautiful woman standing before him. "You just have a long…history with Jack."

"As if that changes anything," she muttered under her breath.

"But it does," he said closing the distance between them and entering her personal space. She took a step backwards not wanting the force of his presence to sidetrack their conversation. But he followed her movements wrapping a tight arm around her waist securing her in place.

"Personal space," she muttered causing him to smile at their remembered meeting where he hadn't been able to avoid standing so close to her.

"This is where I like to be," he said leaning down and placing a kiss on her forehead.

Her eyes fluttered closed at the contact, but immediately opened back up to stare into his sparkling green eyes. "So are you going to tell me what he wanted?" she asked trying to stay on track.

Ramsey groaned tilting his head back to the ceiling. "He's getting cold feet," he said barely louder than a whisper.

Lexi's body froze at his words. The words hit her like a splash of ice water. She could feel everything begin to move in slow motion. She suddenly felt faint, but she couldn't let herself do that…especially not in front of Ramsey. Her hands which were gripping Ramsey's sides began to shake. She dropped them immediately and took a step back. She cleared her throat just so that she had something to do with her hands.

"See I knew I shouldn't have said anything," he said instantly regretting his actions.

"No, no it's fine," she said color beginning to return to her cheeks.

Ramsey rolled his eyes. "If you say so."

"Did you…did you talk him back into it?" she asked hesitantly not wanting to appear too eager on either side.

"I tried not to get involved, but he wouldn't let me. I told him to weigh the options and make a decision from there. He nodded along as if he had done that already, but I don't know what he's going to do. I told him that it's only a week before the wedding and that this is a normal feeling, but I've never been uh," he paused, "in this situation so I might have just been going off what people told me. But that if he thought he had been able to go through with it up until this point that he probably was just spooked."

"Yeah," she coughed to clear her throat again. "That's good advice."

"Please don't think too much into this," he begged and pleaded with her.

"Ramsey I'm not thinking into it at all," she told him giving him a smile that they both knew was fake.

Thanks to all of my awesome reviewers! you guys mean the world to me! Cupid's Psyche, jennalizing, XxSKYxLARKxX, LeAnn, WyldeLoneStar, Chocolatecath, helena33139, sunbeam07, Ms. Vengeance, LoveAlways03, Chocoberry, and Kelly Rogala.

K.A. Linde

I'll keep you my dirty little secret,

Don't tell anyone or you`ll be just another regret,

(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)

My dirty little secret,

Who has to know?

- All-American Rejects "Dirty Little Secret"

Chapter 8: December Eight Months Earlier

Lexi's phone buzzed noisily as soon as she exited the airplane. She rifled around in her traveling purse filled to the brim with items she couldn't fit in her luggage. After locating it, she pressed the green button and said, "Chyna, perfect timing."

"Perfect timing?" Chyna asked. "I've been calling you for an hour. Where the hell have you been?"

Lexi chuckled. Leave it to Chyna to forget that her best friend was leaving the state for over a week to spend Christmas with her family. "I'm in Atlanta. I just landed in the airport. Remember? We had this discussion."

"No we didn't," Chyna said cattily.

"Yes, we did. I told you I would be gone a week to visit family and Ramsey," she reminded her.

"We did not have this conversation. Where were we?" she demanded.

Lexi sighed as she moved through the crowd with her carry-on bag in tow. "We were getting manicures early in the week."

"Wait was that Wednesday?"

"Yes. See I knew you'd remember."

"Oh no, I just remember the manicure," Chyna said flatly. "And I had a date that night."

"You've been having a lot of those lately" Lexi said chuckling to herself. Not that it was any different for Chyna to have a lot of dates. It was just that normally she talked about them. She hadn't said a peep about the guys she had been seeing. Lexi found it refreshing not to have to listen to her talk about how good they were in bed…or how terrible. She had been so utterly satisfied with her relationship thus far, she was sure that she was playing the bad friend role by not wanting to hear about the single life.

"Not anymore than usual," she stated a bit more defensive than normal, but Lexi brushed it off assuming it was just another Chyna drama moment.

"So what can I do for you love?"

"Well I was going to have you come over to finalize the New Years plans, but obviously we can't do that," she said annoyed.

"Not my fault. I called to see if I needed to finalize anything and you said I didn't," Lexi told her hopping on a train to take her from her terminal to the baggage claim.

"What? No you didn't," Chyna cried emphatically.

"What's with you forgetting things lately?" Lexi asked.

"I'm not
forgetting
things," she snapped. "I just…never got a missed call. Anyway I suppose I'll do it all myself."

"Chyna you can email me the plans, and I can look over them. I'm going to be at my parent's house the majority of the time. It's not as if it's inconvenient," Lexi told her rolling her eyes. Chyna had gotten it into her mind that she wanted to throw the most lavish New Years party ever. Lexi wasn't sure why they couldn't just go to a party that was already being thrown, but Chyna had insisted. And when Chyna insisted, it was really better to just acquiesce than to argue. So Lexi had been going over all the plans with her. She had been involved in nearly every detail since her finals had ended. She wasn't sure what else Chyna could want from her.

"Oh I guess that'll work," she agreed finally just as Lexi stepped off the train.

"Great."

"So what are you doing with Ramsey when you're there? You haven't been together in a couple weeks because of finals. Should be a," Chyna coughed as if she couldn't find the proper word, "relaxing week."

Lexi laughed loving her best friend in that moment. "Yes, it should be relaxing. However, I have no idea what he has planned," she admitted.

"Well let me know as soon as you do. I want all the gushy details."

"Of course," Lexi said standing in front of the baggage claim.

"Oh and I'm going to send you some stuff. So if you could look at that and get back to me, that would be great," Chyna said. "Gotta go. Love ya chica"

The phone died in her hands. Lexi sighed and threw the phone back in her purse. Typical Chyna. She had been even more flighty than normal lately and Lexi hadn't been able to figure it out. She didn't mind that her friend had been kind of MIA, but she was curious as to the cause.

After acquiring her black suitcase, all thoughts of Chyna left her mind. She walked through the double doors of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and let her eyes strain for the familiar, sleek, black Mercedes. She knew there were probably a bunch of them gliding past the entrance, but she was always able to pick out Ramsey's.

Her stomach filled with butterflies as she searched for the car. She had really missed him in his absence. She was honestly surprised to find how much she did miss him. He had been busy with work while she was trapped in the law library nearly twenty-four hours a day. Neither of them had had the time to really see each other. She was distressed with how close they had gotten and wondered if the distance had changed him. She knew she shouldn't think like that. Honestly, they had waited so long to even be romantically involved that she knew that it wasn't logical.

Still a part of her wondered what he did while they were away. Yes, they were exclusive and she had told herself that she was only going to be with him. No more lies on her end…ever again. Yet, she had trust issues that she had to deal with when it came to Ramsey…or any male.

Just when she was about to move to a bench to further look for his car, a black Maserati pulled up in front of her. She gawked at the extravagant car. She never could figure out why someone would own one of these let alone drive it around Atlanta where the traffic sucked and no one knew how to park.

"Lexi let's go," she heard someone call.

Lifting her eyes to the driver's side of the Italian sports car, she found Brad staring back at her smiling and waving. Her mouth dropped as she realized that this was Ramsey's Maserati, and for some reason he had let Brad drive it around town.

"What are you doing here?" she couldn't help but ask as she hurried towards him with her luggage. He placed her items in the trunk before vaulting back into the driver's seat.

Lexi looked into the car hoping to see Ramsey's smiling face from the passenger's side, but he wasn't there. Her heart sank, but she tried to stay uplifted. There was obviously a good reason for him not in attendance.

Brad raced out of the airport as soon as she had closed the door. "Sorry Ramsey got stuck at the office."

Lexi narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She still didn't know exactly what Ramsey did. The urge to find out was eating at her. She wasn't sure why, but the topic had never come up again. "And where is that exactly?"

Brad glanced at her briefly his eyebrows knitted together. "B.E. obviously. Where did you think?" he asked.

Lexi breathed out a sigh of relief, but also frustration. B.E. or Bridges Enterprise was the corporation Ramsey's grandfather and father had built from ground up. They were extremely proud of their accomplishments, and not too thrilled with Ramsey's rebellion against all their hard work. Yet, he had rebelled and Lexi had no idea exactly what he did for the company or outside of the company.

"Can you take me there?" Lexi asked.

Brad remained silent for a minute before shaking his head. "Nah. I told Ramsey I'd take you directly to our place. He'd kill me if he found out I drove the Maserati anyway."

"Well then I'll tell him if you don't take me there," she told him easily manipulating the situation in her favor.

He sighed realizing he was beat and nodded. "I'll have to drop you off though. I don't want anyone seeing me in this thing."

"Now that's not something I ever thought I'd hear you say," she said with a sly wink in his direction. He just groaned as he pulled off the interstate and veered towards the tower in the distance.

When he pulled over, Lexi leaned across her seat and kissed Brad gently on the cheek. "Thanks so much."

"Just remember...I was not in the Maserati."

"What Maserati?" she asked coyly.

"Thanks. I'll take your stuff to the apartment. See your hot ass later."

Lexi rolled her eyes and slammed the door in his face. She watched him zoom down the street and through the winding traffic. Lexi made her way across the street and into the large glass building. She took a deep breath as she crossed the threshold, memories of the last time she had entered the premises clouding her vision.

It had been nearly five months since she had found out about Jack's engagement to Bekah in this very building. Five months since she had discovered Bekah's evil plot to destroy whatever she had with Jack. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't that long to get over everything that had happened with Jack. It wasn't long enough to erase her aching, and it wasn't long enough to erase her anger.

Yet, she put one foot in front of the other and held her head high as she walked into the place that had tore out her heart, stomped on it until it was in pieces, and then placed it back in her chest as if nothing had happened. She could do this. She knew it. Her life had changed and now she had Ramsey, her gorgeous boyfriend, who she was here to see. She couldn't feel anymore or any less for him based on his connection to a building. The building wasn't changing and it wasn't the building that had hurt her.

And beyond that, he wasn't Bekah. He wasn't anything like her. He was kind, caring, and compassionate. Where she was just pure evil. She might appear beautiful with her shoulder-length blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and Barbie-esk features, but underneath she was as plastic as the doll. If she was a Mean Girls character, she would have been Regina George. No doubt. How they had been raised in the same household and turned out to be complete opposites Lexi would never be able to figure out.

Sighing despite herself, Lexi meandered through the busy foyer and walked up to the first available representative. Lexi cringed as she noticed the tiny Asian woman that was standing in front of her. She had managed to get the same woman who had been absolutely useless to her when she had been here looking for Jack.

"Hello ma'am. How may I help you?" the woman asked politely

Deciding she might as well attempt to get some information out of the woman, even if it was going to prove to be fruitless, Lexi cleared her throat and said, "I'm here to see Mr. Bridges."

The woman nearly dropped the pen she was holding, she was taken so off guard. "Excuse me?"

"I'm here to see Mr. Bridges. Can you direct me to his office?"

The woman glanced over at the man who was working at the other computer and then back to Lexi. "Mr. Bridges does not take clients, unfortunately. What concerns are you having? Perhaps I can place you with another associate."

Lexi tried to keep from rolling her eyes. "Ramsey's here. I just need to see him. So if you would be so kind to tell me where he is, that would be fantastic," she stated dryly.

"Ramsey? Oh Ramsey! Mr. Bridges," she muttered putting the pieces together. "He does not take clients either ma'am."

"I'm not a client. I'm his girlfriend."

This seemed to send her for an even bigger loop. She sputtered clicking on her screen a few times more out of habit than anything. "I…uh…I'm not authorized…"

She was cut off mid-sentence, "Perhaps I can direct you."

Lexi swiveled around and found herself face to face with a familiar face though she couldn't exactly place where she knew him from.

"Mr. Calloway…" the woman sighed breathily leaning forward against the desk.

"I can take it from here Tiff, thanks," he said charmingly adding a wink in her direction. Lexi could tell that the woman was melting behind her. And with good reason. The man before her was handsome with classic, boy-next-door, good looks. He was nearly six feet tall with short, cropped brown hair stylishly spiked in the front and chocolate brown eyes. His teeth were perfectly straight and white, and the smile he sent her way was nothing less than friendly. He had a square jaw line with light stubble across it. He wore a crisp navy suit with charcoal pinstripes over a light grey button-up and red tie. She couldn't help but think that he could have been a politician. "Lexi right?"

"Right…you said Calloway?" Lexi asked following him to the elevators surprised that he knew her name.

"You don't remember me?" he asked hurt coming into his eyes.

"Should I?"

"Brandon Calloway. We met in the elevator. I gave you my business card," he said trying to bring back the memories.

Lexi gasped and reached into her purse pulling out a wallet filled with various cards. She rifled through them until she came across what she was searching for. "Brandon Calloway," she murmured softly. "You were so helpful. Thank you. Sorry I didn't remember you."

"No problem. I mean we only met once for all of five seconds," he said smiling at her charmingly again.

"Well I appreciate you taking me to see Ramsey," she told him stepping into the elevator.

"Why do I always seem to be taking you to see other men?" he questioned her leaning against the metal railing in the elevator.

Lexi blushed pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. She hated that someone else had knowledge of the last time that she was in the building, but she couldn't take it back. She wasn't certain how fast gossip passed through the building, but if it was anything like any of the other offices she had worked in, then he probably knew exactly what her visit to see Jack had been about. Nonetheless she held her head high, just like she promised herself she would, and smiled back into his endearing face. "I'm a popular woman," she teased.

"As you should be," he agreed his eyes flashing from her face to her bust to her hips and back. The elevator abruptly stopped and several people entered. Just as the doors were about to ding closed someone shot their hand out and stopped it.

"Calloway, you have those reports ready?" a man in his late forties asked.

"Uh yeah, they're on my desk," Brandon answered.

"Well go get them and take them to Mr. Bridges. He needs them today…now," he added hastily.