"You want me to go as your boyfriend?" he asked skeptically.
"You don't have to. I just…uh…it's for Chyna. She's really beat up and she got roofied tonight."
"What? Is she okay?" he asked flipping out.
"Yeah. She's just crashing right now. I just need to make this right for her."
"I'll get out of work and be at JFK as soon as I can Saturday," he said altering his decision immediately.
"Oh thank you so much," she said honestly grateful that she wouldn't have to search for another guy to go with her.
"Hey Lexi…"
"Yeah?"
"It's really good to hear from you."
Lexi smiled to herself. "Yeah, it's good to hear from you too."
"Even if you don't have everything together, I'm really glad you called."
Lexi couldn't help but think how glad she was too.
* * *
K.A. Linde
Best News
The present's just a pleasant
Interruption to the past
And you don't want to look much closer
'Cause you're afraid to find out all the hope
That you had sent into the sky by now had... crashed
And it did because of me
- Something Corporate "Konstantine"
* * *
Chapter 3: Present
"You know I like Ramsey, right?" Chyna asked sighing as she fell backwards onto her plush, king-sized bed. The comforter had recently been changed into a maroon and gold ensemble with massive quantities of matching throw pillows of every size and shape imaginable covering the pillow top.
Lexi looked up from where she had been digging through her backpack and smiled. She knew exactly how Chyna felt about Ramsey. He was one of the few guys who had ever bypassed her appearance for her personality. Chyna found that type of behavior extremely appealing, and it didn't matter to her whether or not they ever hooked up from that point on. If he made it a point not to be interested in her, then she could respect his obvious devotion to Lexi. Chyna always had a weak spot for loyalty.
There had been a number of occasions where she had stolen men right under Lexi's nose. It was never on purpose exactly, but men just gravitated towards her. So when she found out that Ramsey had zero interest in her, they had gotten along even better.
"Yeah, I know," Lexi told her reaching back into her bag and pulling out her laptop and power cord.
"Then you also know that I think you're an idiot," Chyna remarked staring up at her ceiling. Lexi could hear her sigh of discontentment which only broadened her smile.
"Yeah, I know," she repeated popping the top on her laptop, pressing the power button, and waiting for the system to warm up.
Chyna shot up from her place on the bed and stared down at Lexi. A broad smile had formed on her face. Lexi knew that look meant only one thing. Chyna was up to something devious. Lexi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and waited for Chyna to let loose her revelation.
"You know what?" Chyna asked.
"Nope."
"You could always just…not go."
"Wow, what a revelation," Lexi muttered sarcastically rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Oh, come on," Chyna cried throwing herself back on the bed. "This is not good for you. I thought after everything that had happened, you wouldn't put yourself through this all again."
"This isn't like Jack," Lexi muttered defensively. She hated associating the two together even though they were interrelated. When she was with Ramsey in the beginning, she forgot about everything else that had gone on with Jack. He was a brief reprieve from the heartache that she kept locked up. Sure she had left Jack behind, but that didn't make it any easier to really leave him behind. And just when she thought she was starting to succeed on that point a little more each day, everything had come crashing back down around her.
No this wasn't like Jack at all. Jack took over her world, and she had to force herself to push him out bit by bit. Ramsey had forced himself in her world bit by bit and filled a void she hadn't known existed. And she knew all too well what it felt like being with and without Jack. Ramsey was something altogether different. The emotions he elicited from her were foreign, and thus, incredibly vivid because they had never been tamed, harnessed, or numbed over years of self-torture.
So, no this was nothing like Jack.
"This is exactly like Jack," Chyna muttered under her breath.
Lexi closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. She didn't want to have this argument right now, because she knew she would think about it all night. Ramsey would be picking her up shortly and she didn't need those thoughts on her mind. By allowing him to come visit, she was taking a huge leap of faith, one that she wasn't entirely comfortable with.
But she wholeheartedly hated the thought that he was just another Jack in her life. No matter what had happened between them over the past year, Ramsey was a different man. She didn't completely approve of him or his choices, but no one was perfect. And honestly, she wasn't entirely willing to give up on him just yet.
"Can we talk about something else?" Lexi pleaded opening her eyes and fixing them on the computer screen in front of her. She pulled up a blank webpage and directed it to her inbox. A confirmation email was highlighted at the top of the screen with information about Ramsey's flight into JFK airport. If everything went alright, he would be landing in only twenty minutes giving her just enough time to mentally and physically prepare herself for their evening together.
"Sure," Chyna replied, her tone snarky. "How about the fact that you still haven't given me Mystery Man's name yet?"
Lexi gulped hard, a tentative smile spreading across her face as she looked up at Chyna. "Why are you so desperate to know?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you never hide anything from me. Maybe because I've never met him. Maybe because I have to wrestle information out of you. Do you want me to keep going?" Chyna asked arching an eyebrow. She flipped her feet to the other side of the bed, rested her elbows on the comforter, and leaned over to get a better look at Lexi's reaction.
"Well, it's nothing, that's why it doesn't matter," Lexi stammered out under the intense scrutiny of Chyna's stare.
"Or maybe it's because it's a huge f**king deal and that's why you keep it a secret," she hypothesized her green eyes taking in every movement that might tip her off to what was going on.