Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had a rough night with the job interview. Since he probably didn't get the job, he was probably just irritated with that. There was no need for her to make it worse for him. "I'm sorry. It was just a rough night."

"I know what you mean," he whispered.

"Sorry I didn't get to my phone. I'll remember to take it with me next time," she apologized.

"Actually, we need to talk."

Warning signals began blasting off in her brain even worse than this morning. Those words were never a good sign. Nothing good could come from saying that. Her stomach plummeted as nerves took over her body. What could he want to talk to her about? Had something happened? She could feel her dehydrated body begin to shake from apprehension. "About what?" she managed to get out.

She could hear him take a deep breath. "Can I just come over?"

"Of course you can come over. You're here all the time," she mumbled knowing it had to be bad if he had to ask to come over. She wasn't sure why she was so paranoid about what was going to happen. After the voicemail last night, she couldn't get over the nagging feeling that life was going to take her in a negative direction.

"Well I have to take care of some...stuff here and then I'll be over so we can talk. Alright?"

She nodded swallowing heavily. Then she realized he couldn't see her and said, "Yeah that's fine."

"Bye," he said hanging up the phone quickly.

Lexi shut her phone and tossed it back into the mess on her desk. She yanked her hair out of the ponytail on the back of her head and let her mass of curls fall around her face. Brushing them out of her face with her fingers, she could feel some of the tension release from her body.

The events from the past twelve hours were replaying in her head. Where had things gone wrong? They had been...perfect at the party. God, they had been about to leave to have sex...make love until they had been interrupted.

The interruption.

What had Claire said about him leaving? That she had seen him exit the premises with some drunken blonde chick on his arm. Lexi could remember the look of disbelief in Claire and Chyna's eyes when she had explained about the interview. They both had the same expression.

Their brows creased together, their eyes narrowed in on her, and their mouths were set with skepticism. They hadn't believed that he would have an interview this late. Truthfully, who administered interviews at such an hour on a Friday night? It didn't make sense. But she had been there when he had taken the call. Jack's reaction matched what would happen if an unexpected person called about an interview. She hadn't been able to hear the other side of the conversation, but she didn't think that she had to. It was obvious that it was someone calling about an interview.

After all, he'd never lied to her before, why would he start now?

She gasped as she remembered the conversation. Had he been lying to her? He had been dubious of her easy acceptance of the situation. But there was no reason for him to be concerned about her reaction if he was really going to an interview. She never cared about any other interviews that he had gone on, and some of them had been pretty random. Her heart hurt at the thought that he might have lied to her. After everything, he had to know that was the most important part of their relationship...or whatever they were. She couldn't figure out if he cared for her so much, and he obviously did because he had told Clark that they were together, why he would just start lying to her?

She shook her head not able to comprehend that concept. Her body hurt from running, lack of hydration, and chronic worrying. All she needed was a long hot shower and to chill the f**k out. No use worrying over something that she had no idea about. Everything her imagination was conjuring up was only successfully making her more worried about what had happened last night, and why he now so desperately needed to talk to her.

Taking the time to thoroughly wash away any lingering doubts, Lexi took extra long in the shower. She scrubbed every crevice washing away the sweat and grime from her run twice with her cranberry body wash. She lathered and rinsed her hair until it was silky smooth. When she cut off the water, the bathroom was thick with steam and the mirror completely obscured by fog. Typically, Lexi wasn't the type of girl who primped, but today was not like other days.

After towel drying her hair, she blew it out until every long strand was dry. Then she pulled a straightener down until all the curls were gone and her hair hit her lower back. Black eyeliner rimmed her eyes and a layer of mascara touched her lashes. After adding a hint of rouge to her pale cheeks, she figured she had spent enough time in the bathroom. She was just amazed that no one had bothered her already. With only one bathroom between four people it was usually only a matter of time before someone came banging on the door.

As Lexi walked out of the bathroom, she did hear a knock coming from the door. She wrapped her skimpy white towel tightly around her body and scrambled towards the front door. "Jack," she cried as she opened the door. "I thought you had stuff to do."

He looked at her as if he were looking at her for the first time. The way her silky hair shined as the hallway light hit the strands. The way her side swept bangs fell neatly into her enormous brown eyes which only looked larger and more beautiful from the make-up she had careful applied. Her pale skin contrasted with the bleach white towel giving her a sun-kissed look. A smile broke out across his face as he took in the sight of her partly exposed body.

Lexi was glad she already had rouge on, because the way Jack was looking at her was sure made her blush. Even though she was worried about what had happened and he had seen her in much less, she couldn't help but go red in the face.

"It's been over an hour," he commented.

"Oh has it?" she asked embarrassed even further. She couldn't remember ever taking over an hour in the shower. "Well are you going to come in?" she asked stepping aside and hugging her towel tight to her chest. She could feel it slipping out of place.

Jack stepped through the doorway allowing Lexi to close it behind him.

"I'll just go change," Lexi said walking swiftly towards her bedroom. Jack followed behind taking a seat in her desk chair. She turned to face him without moving to get clothes out of her closet. "So what uh...stuff did you have to do?" she asked leaning back against her desk.

Jack averted his eyes to the floor. "Just had to get things taken care of. It's no big deal."