Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding 2)

Hearing Ramsey announce that it was none of her business whether or not she was going to tell Lexi set her off though. She couldn't just stand by and let him ignore her presence any longer. "Well it's my business," Lexi cut in, "and I think I have a right to know if you were ever going to tell me."

Ramsey stared down at his palm which was now flat against his desk and sighed. He hated having this conversation. He hated that Parker and Lexi were in the same vicinity. He hated that his past had caught up with him when it was the last thing that he wanted to drag Lexi into. He just wanted her to understand that she was it for him. "This doesn't have anything to do with our relationship," he told her brusquely grinding his teeth at the thought.

Lexi openly scoffed at him. How could he be so naïve to think that his past didn't affect his future? Lexi had realized long ago how big of a part your past played in your present. That would be like saying that her relationship with Jack had nothing to do with who she was today. It would be a total 100% lie. Jack had so much to do with who she was. He had changed her forever…for better or for worse. She liked to think he had done both, but sometimes she wondered.

In either case, Parker had done a number on him. Sure their relationship had been a far cry from what she had had with Jack, but if anything it had more effect because they had been together for real for so long. Not to mention their terrible practically catastrophic ending had only jaded him. He didn't trust people. He didn't let people in. He hadn't had a decent relationship before Lexi since he and Parker had broken up. The very idea that the situation didn't have anything to do with him and how he was acting now was absolutely ludicrous.

"Really?" Lexi asked nearly laughing out loud at him. "You lying to me has nothing to do with our relationship?"

Ramsey leaned against the desk heavily. He couldn't believe she was taking his statement that way. "No, Lexi that's not what I meant. I meant that Parker has no place in our relationship," he quickly amended.

"The fact that you have to clarify that is truly telling," she murmured turning away from Parker and Ramsey. She began walking the length of Ramsey's desk back and forth seething with anger. She didn't know what his current relationship was with Parker. She wanted to hope for the best, but really her past had always proven otherwise. And how could she trust him anyway? He had lied about their relationship once. They might both be hiding the state of their current relationship. She wasn't here all that often because of school so he could have been with her at that time. He could be hiding so much more from her without her knowledge.

"Look," Parker began clearly still undecided on her place in this conversation, "I really don't have a place in your relationship." Lexi looked up at Parker as she spoke. She hadn't forgotten that she was there, but she hadn't exactly expected Parker to address her. Not that her statement made any difference to Lexi. She was starting to doubt her trust of Parker even if Brandon had more or less confirmed her story.

"Yet you weaseled yourself in," Ramsey growled keeping Parker from saying anything further. He was thankful that Parker had the sense to agree with him, but it didn't excuse her insertion into his relationship. They had too much history for her to interfere the way she had. He still couldn't believe it himself.

Parker's head snapped so fast in Ramsey's direction that she got a crick in her neck that she knew would be sore the next day. She honestly could not believe he had just said that. She had done what she thought was right. She might have acted impulsively, but her head had been in the right place about the situation.

The last thing she wanted was for another woman to fall for Ramsey's age old tricks and get burned. She knew they were both in over their heads and that the secrets were never going to come out. If she had known what level he was capable of hurting her, she would have wanted to know from the beginning. Then he has the audacity to claim she was weaseling her way into his relationship. She couldn't stand it!

"It's not exactly my fault that I have to be around you all the time," Parker spat out without a second thought. Her venom carried years of pain and heartache over the man in front of her, and she hadn't even thought before spitting out the first thing that she thought.

Ramsey leveled his gaze on her. His green eyes could have burned a hole through her. His jaw was taut and usually full lips were pulled tight into a straight line. Tiny wrinkles across his forehead and around his eyes showed the true fierceness of his anger. Parker swallowed hard as she met that gaze. She knew what that look meant. She had f**ked up. Parker darted her eyes to Lexi and back hoping that she hadn't noticed. Parker wasn't that lucky.

Lexi stopped her pacing and turned back to Parker at the end of that last statement. Where had that come from? What the f**k was she talking about? Since when did they have to be around each other all the time? This was news to her. This was news that she had never wanted to hear. She had just been doubting their relationship, and here they were confirming that they actually still had some semblance of a relationship. She didn't know the extent of it, but clearly by Parker's last comment it was existed in some fashion. This was more than Lexi had been told about it though which didn't bode well for Ramsey.

"Wait," she cried holding her hand up to draw their attention back to her and keeping them from deftly changing the subject, "why exactly do you guys have to be around each other all the time?" Lexi eyed them both carefully. She knew they had their own language and she didn't want to miss anything that was going on between them. Hopefully she would be able to pull something from their sidelong glances that told her one way or another what was going and if they were lying to her.

"Uh…" Parker mumbled looking at the ground. She couldn't even face the two people standing before her. She hadn't meant to slip up, but she didn't know how to fix it. What she had almost revealed wasn't public knowledge yet and she knew that Ramsey wasn't ready to discuss it with Lexi. She would have preferred to get it all out in the open, but there were so few people who knew the details that Parker couldn't exactly blame him from excluding everyone except the people directly involved with the project. She just hoped that she hadn't done more damage even though she had been the biggest advocate for letting Lexi know about what was going on.

Ramsey couldn't believe how Parker had let that last bit slip. He didn't even know why she was so pissed about the whole situation. He was the one angry for her telling Lexi about their entire relationship before he had been ready. Yet she had nearly let another thing slip that he wasn't prepared to tell her. How could someone so intelligent possibly be so stupid? Ramsey tried to keep from openly glaring at Parker as she stood there stupidly, but she made it damn near impossible. At least she wouldn't look him in the eye or else his demeaning glare sure would have said a lot more to her. Though, he figured she knew that without looking.