Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"What?" she asked, pretending to be confused by her friend's outburst.

"You know what."

"Don't act like that isn't important. You'll be in law and he has a trust. After hanging out with me chica, how can you live with anything else?" she asked bluntly. Chyna never refrained from discussing how important it was to find someone with similar means when you were dating. This went back to her standards of men's clothing as well as to his taste in alcohol, cars, apartments, and down the list. She approved of very few men for anything past the first date.

"Yes, well," Lexi said rolling her eyes, "he is supremely wealthy. And God is he good looking Chyna. If you had picked him out in a club, you wouldn't have even given yourself time to get a drink from him before dragging him off to your place."

"Watch yourself. I might have to come visit my best friend and do just that." Lexi knew that she was only half-joking. What Chyna wanted, she typically acquired. The only things in life she hadn't been able to control were her parent's separation and the fact that her gorgeous designer friend, Frederick, was one hundred percent playing for the other team. He was the only man she had ever met that was too g*y to sleep with her and it bothered her every day.

The delicious aroma emanating from the machine was mouth-watering. Lexi poured two mugs full of the hot brew. Then she leaned back against the counter to finish her conversation and wait for the coffee to cool down. "Well that's kind of the reason I called you. I need you here this weekend," she said forcing her hair behind her ear several times as she waited for Chyna to as the question she was dreading.

"Before I get onto the subject of why you might need me in Atlanta this weekend, you didn't answer my question. How good is he?" she asked for the third time.

"I didn't sleep with him," Lexi admitted reluctantly.

"Oh. So that's why you need me there this weekend," Chyna announced.

"What? No. I don't need you here to help me get with him. I could have if I'd wanted to, but there are a few uh…issues with that. Like a certain someone," she said sipping on her coffee.

"Alexa, what have you done?"

"Oh Chyna," she cried exasperated with herself, "I just need you here. I went to talk to Jack to get everything clear between us, but it didn't work out the way I had planned."

"Did you sleep with him?" Chyna shrieked into the phone.

"No. No I didn't."

"Don't lie to me Alexa Mae."

"I'm not lying. I didn't sleep with him. I promise Chy. But he wanted to. And we would have, if I hadn't stopped his advances. Now he's saying he wants to be with me for real this time, and I just don't know what to do Chyna. He's what I want. Of course, he is. And he says that he's made his decision, but I just don't want things to backfire in my face," she said, confessing all her fears.

"Oh baby, you shouldn't be doing this to yourself," Chyna cried maddeningly. "You know he's just going to hurt you. That's what he does. He hurts you. He drags you down."

"But he doesn't," Lexi eagerly protested. Though, she wasn't quite as certain about that as she let on. "He makes everything right with me. You've only seen the worst of the situation. You only saw what happened in New York. If I can make it right with us, that's what I want. That's what I've always wanted."

"Shit!" Chyna cursed.

"What?"

"I told you not to do that. God, he just completely changes you, doesn't he?" Chyna asked sighing heavily. Lexi could tell that she was starting to get pissed off. She heard Chyna take a few calming breathes before continuing. "You are absolutely right chica. I need to be there. I'll talk to daddy about using the jet. I should arrive in Atlanta in a matter of hours. I'll have a car pick me up at the airport, and then we can talk this all out together. Possibly a shopping spree to get our minds off of what potential disaster you are creating in your life."

"Chyna, you can't come down here thinking…" Lexi stopped mid-sentence and set her coffee mug down on the counter silently. She thought that she had heard something at the door. She had been pretty sure she had heard something, but she had been so heated in her conversation she had almost missed it. She strained her ears to listen for another potential noise.

"Thinking what?" Chyna asked snippily.

"Hold on one second," Lexi said listening more closely this time. Someone was knocking on the door. She jogged down the hallway and pressed her eye to the peep hole. Ramsey's face appeared distorted and warped by the curved glass, but it was definitely him. "Shit!"

"What?" Chyna cried surprised by Lexi's outburst. "What's going on?"

Lexi rushed back down the hall her heart leaping to her throat as she panicked. "Ramsey is here."

"Here where?" Chyna questioned her.

"Oh shit, shit, shit," Lexi mumbled under her breath pushing her free hand through her messy bed-ridden hair. She smacked her hand against her forehead wondering if her luck could get any worse.

"Alexa, calm down. Where are you? I thought you were at your parents," she asked trying to get a grasp on the situation.

"No I'm not. I really have to go," Lexi told her thinking about what she would have to do next.

"Where are you?"

Lexi sighed heavily hating that she had to admit this to Chyna. "I'm at Jack's place. I'll see you in a few hours chica."

"Don't hang up…"

Lexi clicked off the line before Chyna could even finish her statement. She paced in a circle once feeling more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by. The knock on the door forced her spring to action and she rushed down the hallway to Jack's bedroom. She burst through the door in a panic. Jack's head was buried under a mound of pillows when she walked in.

"You were gone too long. Come lay down," Jack said patting the bed beside him.

"Ramsey is here!" she cried hopping onto the bed beside him and yanking a pillow off of his head.

"What?" he asked jumping up like he had been jolted with electricity.

"Ramsey is at the front door," she repeated. "He's banging on the front door like a freaking maniac. Did you know he was coming over?" she asked frantic brushing her hair away from her face as she looked into his now frightened blue eyes.