Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

Jack stumbled a step as he walked around the corner of her desk. He glanced up at her cheeky comment in surprise. "Whatever Lexi. I know that you know Ramsey from New York. And whether you're f**king or not I know you guys have been together. I saw you kiss at this party. I saw it again last night. I'm not stupid alright. I can tell that there is something going on between you too."

Lexi stared at him in awe. So that was why he had been so angry and rough with her the night before. He had somehow deluded himself into believing that she and Ramsey were together. It didn't make sense to her, but she figured if he looked at it from only one side it might look like that. However, that didn't explain why he thought she had met Ramsey in New York. "What do you mean I know him from New York?"

"So you don't deny that you and Ramsey have something going on?" he asked ignoring her question.

"We don't have anything going on, Jesus. We did kiss, but we're not together. I don't even understand how you could think that."

"I don't think that. I know that something is going on between ya'll. You've just been f**king with my mind since you got here."

"Excuse me? You're the one who is flip-flopping the whole goddamned time I've been here. You come home early to see me. Then you're an ass**le to me at Ramsey's party. Then you want to be with me again and you're going to break things off with Bekah. After that we have sex and you're just another ass**le all over again. What the f**k Jack?" she asked demanding his attention.

"It's only because you've been playing me the whole time that I keep changing," he told her his blue eyes stormy.

"I have not been playing you!" she yelled at him. "And I don't know Ramsey from anywhere."

Jack laughed again. "You're good. You know that?" Lexi sighed exasperated. "You and Ramsey met in the club the night we got back together in New York."

Lexi glanced at him in surprise. Her heart raced in her chest at the faint memory of a night long ago. She had met someone in that club. In fact, she had almost gone home with that guy. A series of flashbacks took over her mind.

A man in an Armani suit buying her drinks and barely glancing at Chyna as he offered to take Lexi home. A faint memory of Ramsey saying they had met somewhere previously just before they kissed on his balcony. The way he programmed her number into his phone as if he already had it in there. Ramsey somehow knowing she didn't drink Jack Daniels or Sex on the Beach. How familiar his lack of personal space felt. The way he had touched her last night as if he had been waiting to do that for much longer than the week he had known her.

Her stomach plummeted shock radiating out of every pore. Could Ramsey be the elusive Armani Guy? She had lost all the numbers programmed into her phone so when Ramsey had given her his number it wouldn't already be in there. He had known all along and he hadn't mentioned it to her.

"See you can't even deny it," he said shaking his head as if he hadn't really believed it himself until she had just confirmed it.

"How did you find out that I'd met him?" she asked.

"I remember Chyna talking to you about some guy from Armani calling you when we were together. I knew you were at the club where Ramsey was that night, because I was the one he was supposed to interview." Lexi's heart jumped again. Jack had been there that night. In fact, when she had seen a guy that looked like him, that actually could have been him. She couldn't believe all of this. "I know you've been seeing each other since then. He told me this woman he met once in New York a couple weeks ago. He didn't even know he was talking about you, and, honestly, until I saw the two of you together last night I wasn't entirely sure myself."

Lexi's hand rushed to her mouth unable to believe what he was telling her. "I knew Ramsey in New York," she murmured.

"So you admit it?"

"Yeah. I guess I do, but he never told me that he knew me," she said still in a state of shock. Why wouldn't he have told her? It wasn't like she had given him some reason to not to trust her. Sure she hadn't exactly been up front with him about her reasons for being in Atlanta, but she hadn't considered that something like this would happen.

"Right," he said in disbelief resting back against the corner of the desk and turning to face her.

Lexi quickly stood brushing the cobwebs out of her mind. She took a turn around the room trying to process what this new information meant besides the fact that it seemed everyone was lying to her in some way. What more could she find out to make matters worse? She finally settled her mind, walked back to Jack, and stood before him. "I don't know how we got onto this subject, but Ramsey is not the reason I barged into your office to speak with you."

Jack waited. "So what's the reason then?"

Lexi took a deep breath before starting. "I'm leaving tonight for New York and I need to know what's going on…with us," she said the last part unsure if she really wanted the answer. At the same time, she knew that she would never be able to leave Atlanta happy without answers.

Jack sighed heavily and buried his head in his hands. "Always back to this conversation."

"It's the only one that seems to matter," she said standing her ground in front of him.

"Lexi I have a whole life here. I have more than a few loose ends to tie up."

"What about everything you said?" Lexi asked her voice quavering.

"What do you want me to say Lex?"

"What about the goddamn truth?" she cried throwing her hands in the air. "Do you want to be with me? You said that you did. Was that all a lie too?"

"It wasn't a lie. I just…I want to be with you when I'm with you, but when you're gone I doubt everything. We have too much history, Lex. You know that. I don't know what's been going on with us lately, and," he took a deep breath, "I don't know if I can just leave my life behind."

"So this is it then?" she asked, their history the only thing keeping her from collapsing.

"I don't know…"

"No, don't f**king do that. Just make up your mind already," she cried rushing forward and pressing herself against his chest.

He instinctively wrapped his arms around her body and held her against him. She breathed into him pushing her hands up his chest and around his neck. "We just have to figure this stuff out."