by K. A. Linde
She just needed to tell Chyna and hope that Chyna wouldn’t be a bitch about it. That would be great.
Lexi hailed a cab to head uptown. On a different day, she might have jogged to Chyna’s apartment, but she wasn’t in the mood. She needed to make things right, and she had too many thoughts swirling around in her head. Running would only make her obsess more about the situation. That was never a good thing.
The cab came to a stop in front of Chyna’s building. Lexi paid the fare and then stepped out onto the sidewalk. She walked up to the front entrance and saw Chyna’s doorman, Bernard, standing there.
“Hey, Mr. B,” Lexi said as she approached him. She liked that he was a constant staple of the Fifth Avenue apartment.
“Miss Lexi, it’s always good to see you,” Bernard said with a smile.
“It’s good to see you. Is Chyna up there…alone?”
“I feel like you ask me this every time you come over,” he said, his hand on the door. “Are you thinking she isn’t by herself in the middle of the afternoon?”
“Well, I just didn’t know if Adam was up there. That might not be the best thing for me right now,” she told him. Though she wasn’t sure why. She always seemed to divulge a bit too much information to Bernard.
“No,” Bernard said with a shake of his head as he pulled open the door. “She’s up there all by herself. Mr. Ward left earlier this morning.”
“And she’s still there, and she hasn’t returned my calls?” she snapped. She hadn’t meant it to come out so harsh, but it was so irritating. If Chyna was home alone, why couldn’t she just answer her phone?
Bernard certainly caught the irritation in her voice. “Have you done something, Miss Lexi?”
“No,” Lexi said quickly, running up the stairs and through the front door. She didn’t want to have this conversation with Bernard. She was already dreading having it with Chyna. “I’ll see you around, Mr. B.”
“Bye, Lexi.”
Lexi took the elevator to the penthouse suite, listening to the mind-numbing classical music as she went up. It dinged open on the top floor, and she walked down to the end of the hallway. She had a received key to Chyna’s apartment nearly three years ago, and she had never given it back. Under the circumstances, Lexi figured it would be better if she knocked.
Taking a deep breath, Lexi knocked on the door and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Nothing.
“Really, Chyna? You’re not going to answer the door?” Lexi called out irritably. “I’m here, and you’re not going to talk to me? How immature are you?”
And still nothing.
Chyna wasn’t leaving Lexi with any other choice. She needed to speak with Chyna. Lexi wouldn’t let Chyna stew any more than she likely already was. Lexi hadn’t come all this way for nothing. After knocking one more time without a response, Chyna pushed Lexi over the edge. Lexi procured the little gold key from her purse and slid it into the lock. Bracing herself for the conversation ahead, she twisted the knob and entered Chyna’s penthouse.
“Chyna!”
Lexi kicked the door closed behind her and walked through the foyer, which Chyna had already redecorated since she had gotten home from Milan. Her interior designer and resident gay best friend, Frederick, must have had his hands on the place. He was constantly redecorating Chyna’s apartment based on her ever-fleeting taste in décor. It all had once been white chic and modern, then it was black leather with a classic New York flare, and then Chyna had gone through this terrible leopard-print stage that Frederick definitely did not agree with. Now, it was decorated in muted tans and gorgeous reds, blues, and greens that popped from the rest of the subdued style.
The room still had the same collage of pictures from Chyna’s many travels. Lexi noticed a few new pictures that Chyna had added since returning home. One was of a landscape on a canal in Milan, and the second was of the coast. Lexi wondered if they had any significance. Why had she picked those two to bring back?
And just as she had the thought, the door to Chyna’s bedroom opened, and she walked down the hallway into the living room.
“What the fuck are you doing here, chica?” Chyna asked, crossing her arms over her thin body.
She wore nothing more than a lacy demi bra and matching lace back V-string underwear. Somehow, she managed to look even more beautiful than she did in some of her thousand-dollar designer dresses.
Lexi hated her every moment for it. How could her best friend be this gorgeous? It just wasn’t fair to the rest of the world. It certainly wasn’t fair to Lexi, who was so much shorter than Chyna. And Chyna was just supermodel thin and tall with perfectly perky breasts, sleek black hair, and gorgeous emerald eyes. Fucking ridiculous.
“What do you mean, what am I doing here?” Lexi asked. “I’ve been trying to call you all day, all week. You haven’t answered any of my fucking phone calls.”
“Oh, did you call?” Chyna asked, arching a masterfully groomed eyebrow. She tapped her finger against her arm. “I guess I missed it.”
“You’re not fooling anyone right now—certainly not me,” Lexi said, rolling her eyes. Why did Chyna have to be so difficult? Lexi had known that she was going to be, but standing here and seeing that she actually was made it more frustrating. “You’re angry at me. That’s why you haven’t returned any of my calls. You don’t have to pretend like you didn’t get them, Chyna. I know that’s not true. Why don’t you just admit you’re angry at me?”
“Fine. I’m angry at you.” Chyna shrugged. She grabbed a short silk robe out of a closet and tied it around her waist. “I mean, what the hell, Alexa? You had to hide things from me?”
“It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t purposely hiding things from you.”
“Oh, really? So, when were you going to tell me that you were seeing John?”
“I wasn’t seeing John.”
“Now, you’re going to try to play it off? Alexa, I know you way too well for that. I have known you for three years. I have seen all of the shit that you have gotten yourself into. I have seen Jack tear you apart. I have seen Ramsey tear you apart. I have seen you go back to both of them,” she said, ticking them off on her fingers. “Don’t try to act like I don’t know who you are. I know who you are. And you probably fucked John just because you knew he’d tried to sleep with me!”
Oh no, she had not gone there!
Lexi was near to bursting with anger. “Chyna! Are you fucking serious right now? I thought you were my best friend. I thought you were the person who—yeah, told me all the shit I’d done wrong and opened my eyes to what the fuck I was doing, but I didn’t think you were judgmental. I didn’t think you ever judged me.”
“Well, you probably shouldn’t have hidden things from your best friend then, should you?”
“Really?” Lexi asked solemnly.
Chyna just shrugged her little shoulders and looked away from Lexi. “So, what do you want?”
“I want to clear this up,” Lexi told her. “I don’t want to lose my best friend. I don’t even want to be with John.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before keeping everything from me.”
“Chyna, you were gone! You were in Milan. I’d just broken up with Ramsey. I was a hot mess. Adam and I were hanging out, and I met John. He didn’t seem like the person you’d made him out to be. He didn’t seem like a bad guy!” Lexi waved her arms dramatically. How could she get this into Chyna’s head? “I didn’t know how to bring it up with you because I know how you feel about him.”
“We’ve known each other for years. I would think you could just bring it up to me like you have brought everything else up to me. You hid it because you were scared, just like you hide everything else because you’re scared. The fact that it’s John is just icing on the cake.”
“So, what? I kept one thing from you, and now, you’re going to hold a grudge against me forever?” Lexi cried in disbelief. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
<
br /> “Sometimes, life isn’t fair.”
Lexi shook her head and tried to clear her mind. She couldn’t push Chyna any more than she already had. If Chyna cared enough to want their friendship to work, being the person that Lexi knew she was, then she would come around. If she didn’t, there wasn’t anything Lexi could do about it. It made her want to walk up to Chyna and shake her. Lexi just wanted to tell her to get over this nonsense.
It was just a guy! Sure, John had been the reason Chyna and Adam had broken up earlier that year, but Chyna leaving for Milan had been the reason they had broken up the second time. Chyna and Adam were back together now, but maybe she needed to look a little closer at herself before passing judgment on Lexi.
Either way, Lexi thought this whole thing was stupid, and she really wanted to move on.
The thought of losing Chyna was agonizing. It made Lexi’s heart feel like it was about to burst out of her. But she couldn’t show Chyna that. Chyna hated weakness. She had always hated it. She hated it in herself, and whenever Lexi had shown it, Chyna would try to slap it right out of her. And really, at this point, the last thing Lexi wanted was for Chyna to slap her. The only time that had ever worked was when she had fainted in Chyna’s penthouse in Atlanta. And even then…Chyna had been right.
“Okay. Fine,” Lexi said finally. She didn’t want to argue. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have hidden John from you. I admit it—I shouldn’t have even slept with him. It was stupid, and it’s never happening again—ever. I’m going to see him tonight to tell him it’s over and that there’s nothing between us. It was just a one-night stand, and it’s done. I’m with Ramsey again,” Lexi said. “Chyna…”
“You’re going to see him?” she asked, looking her straight in the eyes.
“Yeah, it’s kind of complicated.”
“Isn’t it always with you, Lexi?”
Lexi laughed and nodded. “Yeah, it really is.”
“So…why is it complicated? Is Jack involved?”
“Actually,” Lexi said with a stilted laugh, “no! Jack is not involved this time. Um…God, Chyna…John is working on the Bridges medical wing.”
“What?” she snapped, her hand flying to her mouth in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
Lexi walked over to the couch and leaned against it. She still couldn’t believe that this had happened, and retelling the story would make it feel more real. “Ramsey’s dad hired Global to work on the medical wing to get it completed within a year. They brought in a partner, and John is working with her,” Lexi explained.
“Oh my God,” Chyna crooned exaggeratedly, finally sounding like the old Chyna. “How the hell do you get into these kinds of situations?”
“I wish I knew,” Lexi said lightly. “So, um…Ramsey met John—the day after we walked out of the wedding, right after he’d found out I slept with John.”
“Oh fuck, Alexa. That’s bad luck.”
“Really bad luck.” Lexi couldn’t agree more.
“Anyway, when I saw John, I ended up talking to him privately for a few minutes. I told him what I just told you. I told him it was over. And he said, since we’re both going to be back in New York by the end of the week, we should meet over dinner and talk about it.” Lexi thought the abbreviated version of that story was probably best in this scenario. “So, I’m doing that. We’re meeting to talk, but I’m just going to tell him it’s over. It never was much—”
“Where are you going to dinner?” Chyna licked her lips and crossed her arms again.
Lexi breathed out heavily. It was clear Chyna didn’t like the idea of Lexi going to dinner with him. She had really hoped that Chyna wouldn’t have asked about dinner plans though. That was the worst question Chyna could have asked her. If she were upset at the prospect of dinner, she wouldn’t be any happier knowing where.
“Um…” Lexi stammered. “I, uh…” she hesitated, playing for time. She did not want this to go where it was already headed. She knew Chyna was going to be pissed-off.
“Lexi, where are you going?” Chyna suspiciously narrowed her eyes.
“Um…we’re going to Daniel,” Lexi whispered.
“You’re going on a date!” Chyna said, shock written all over her face.
“No, I’m not going on a date.”
“You’re going on a date. Alexa, you’re going on a date. I just can’t fucking believe you. You got back together with Ramsey. You let Jack get married to that whore. And you’re risking everything by going on a date with John?”
“I’m not risking anything because I’m not going on a date. I swear! It’s not a date.”
“You don’t go to a restaurant where it’s a hundred dollars a plate if it’s not a date. You just don’t. So, you should think about that. I just…I think maybe you should leave,” she said softly.
“Chyna…come on. I don’t want us to be broken. You’re the only thing in my life that hasn’t been!”
“Alexa, I just need…time. I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you. I need time to think about it. It feels like a deception…” Chyna said, trailing off and looking out across the apartment. “I have some things I want to talk to you about, but I guess I need some time to think about all of this.”
“Okay,” Lexi said with a sigh. It was pretty clear she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Chyna today. “I guess I’ll go. Tell Adam I said hi.”
“I will. Have fun on your date.”
“Chyna, it’s not a date!”
“If it wasn’t a date, then you wouldn’t be going to Daniel,” Chyna repeated. “Also, why are you going to dinner with him? Dinner, really? Couldn’t you just meet him for coffee to tell him to fuck off? Like, it’s really easy. Oh, I like my friends better than you, so fuck off. Right? No, you’re not doing that! You’re going to a hundred-dollar dinner and letting him woo you.”
“What would you do, Chyna?” Lexi snapped. She was not letting him woo her!
“I would not do that!”
“And what? You would lay out your best friend’s dirty laundry to a room full of people instead? You’d totally break girl code and rat on me when there was obviously a reason I didn’t tell anyone that Jack and I had slept together at his birthday party because…right, I should be better than that.”
“I broke girl code? You slept with John! After you knew how I felt about him.”
“How exactly do you feel about him, C? Because you’re acting like I stole your boyfriend,” Lexi snapped.
“Don’t even. You know he was an ass to me and then caused the breakup.”
“But now, you’re fine! And John is not bothering you anymore. I’m not happy that you told everyone about what had happened with Jack that night, but I’m willing to get over it!”
“Then, get over it. You’re always hiding things. If you just communicated with everyone else, then this wouldn’t even be a problem.”
“All right, whatever,” Lexi said in frustration. “I can’t be you. I can only be me, so I just hope you’ll forgive me.”
She looked at Chyna deliberately before turning on her heel and walking out. Lexi closed the door behind her before she let the tears come. She couldn’t lose her best friend over this. She just couldn’t…
It wasn’t a date.
It definitely was not a date.
There was no way she was going on a date with John—but that didn’t explain why she had taken a lot of time to pull the straightener through her long hair, making it silky smooth, or why she had carefully applied the makeup she didn’t normally wear, or why she had found a dress that had once belonged to Chyna that had somehow made it into Lexi’s closet with the price tags still on it.
Well, she had to still look the part. She had to still look like she was going to Daniel. They weren’t going to let her in if she was in an oversized T-shirt, running shorts, and tennis shoes. That was why she had put on her favorite pair of Manolos that Chyna had given her. There was no other reason—whatsoever.
It wasn’t a date. Th
at was obvious.
Lexi shook off her worries and finally left her apartment. She wanted to think it didn’t matter what she looked like, but it did. It wasn’t about the dress code. It mattered to her. She had to tell John it was over, but still, a part of her wanted to look nice for him.
John had wanted to pick her up from her apartment to take her to the restaurant, but she had refused. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea about what they were doing. This put some distance between them, and it helped to calm her down.
Nerves hit her full force as the cab driver pulled up in front of the restaurant after the short drive. A valet opened the door for her and assisted her out of the car.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
She walked across the red-carpeted entranceway that read Daniel in the restaurant’s signature design and in through the wooden double doors.
Lexi bit her bottom lip as she stared at the beautiful interior of the restaurant. She had always wanted to come here, but she had been intimidated by the luxurious surroundings. It had an all white interior with large columns artfully placed in archways that divided the rooms. Tables were evenly spaced throughout the room with crisp white tablecloths, sterling silver utensils, and bouquets of red roses. The lighting was dim and romantic. Daniel was a date spot, and Lexi knew it. Knowing it made her even more anxious. She wasn’t on a date. As far as she wanted to look at it, she was here on business.
“May I help you?” the maître d’ asked, stepping up to greet her.
“Yes, I have a reservation for two under Ward,” Lexi said. She fiddled absentmindedly with the deep purple clutch she held in her hand. At least she wasn’t pushing her hair behind her ear.
“Of course. Mr. Ward has already arrived. Allow me to escort you to his table.”
Lexi followed him across the main room, through a large archway, and into a smaller similarly decorated room. The maître d’ strode into the candlelit room and headed to the very back corner.