The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  It always came back to that.

  Ramsey slung an arm around Lexi’s shoulders and smiled down at her lovingly. She caught Parker staring up at him, but when she noticed Lexi looking, she turned away abruptly. If Lexi weren’t so suspicious, it would almost make her feel bad for Parker…almost.

  The speech concluded, and everyone applauded. Music filtered in through the speakers, and that was the signal for everyone to begin dancing. Ramsey handed her a drink, and she took a relaxing sip of it. This was how things were supposed to be—easy and relaxing.

  Parker waved at her, but she didn’t come over and say hi. Instead, she turned and walked toward Bekah. Lexi didn’t blame her, and she was glad that Parker had gotten the hint.

  “Dance with me?” Ramsey whispered.

  Lexi nodded, setting her drink down on a table and falling into his arms. The music had a hip-hop beat, but they didn’t care as they swayed back and forth in each other’s arms. Lexi rested her head on Ramsey’s chest and closed her eyes, savoring the sweet smell of peppermint.

  They stayed like that for three more dances before Ramsey was pulled away to discuss business with some associates who would be leaving soon. She remained at his side through the entire boring interaction though, and when he was finally able to walk away from them, he was carried into another conversation. They were swept around the room in a different kind of dance as they sought to accommodate all the guests who wanted his attention. The room started emptying out as the people who had to be into work the next day saw the hours ticking away. Ramsey said good-bye to one couple and then moved to say something to the person behind him, but he stopped dead in his tracks.

  Lexi had been staring elsewhere, but she felt the shift in his mood immediately.

  “What are you doing here, Elisa?” he growled.

  Elisa. Fuck!

  Lexi had never met her in person, and Elisa was every bit of what she had expected. She was average height, a couple of inches taller than Lexi, with bleached out blonde hair and a rail-thin frame. Lexi could see some of her ribs in her chest. Her lips were pinched together, and she looked like she might attack. How she had ever gotten inside wearing a skin-tight pink dress that barely touched the top of her thighs was beyond Lexi.

  “How dare you not return any of my text messages or calls! How dare you threaten to sue me, Ramsey! How dare you say that all the things I said were a lie!” she said, rearing back and slapping him clear across the face.

  The crack across his cheek silenced the people standing in their vicinity. The DJ blasting music through the speakers drowned the rest of the room out.

  Lexi’s mouth dropped open at the sight, and Ramsey looked ready to backhand the girl right back.

  Ramsey grabbed Lexi’s wrist and pulled her behind him slightly, blocking her view.

  “Elisa, you need to get out of here now,” he said, his voice deathly serious.

  “I’m not fucking leaving until you tell me what the fuck you’re going to do about all of this shit! My lawyer dropped me because of your fucking bullshit. He said he couldn’t prove that what I’d said was true, but fuck, I know that I had your dick up inside me without so much as a condom between us, baby. I had your cum inside me, and you fucking fired me as soon as you were done with me!” she shouted.

  Lexi gasped—as did almost everyone else nearby. She tried to wiggle out of Ramsey’s death grip, but he wasn’t having any of it.

  “Let’s get your facts straight,” Ramsey said through barely contained hatred. “You were a stripper. You took off your clothes for money. I never, ever would have touched you or any other girl in my establishments. You can ask Lola. You can ask any other stripper who worked for me. I wouldn’t go anywhere near you, especially without a condom.”

  “You fucking say that now when you’re working for your daddy,” Elisa said with a snort. “In front of all these people who didn’t know who the fuck you were back then.”

  “Oh my fucking God,” Lexi cried.

  She yanked on her wrist, but Ramsey wouldn’t let go.

  “Who is that? Your new pussy?” Elisa spat.

  “Get out of here, or I’ll call the police.”

  “Hiding your little kitty-cat from me? Afraid she’ll see the truth when we’re talking?” Elisa purred.

  Lexi wiggled free in that moment and walked around Ramsey to glare at the bitch who had made her miserable for the past two months.

  “Just leave,” Lexi said fiercely. “Just get out of here. You’re only embarrassing yourself. You’re fighting a losing battle, and the only thing you’re going to get out of this is a restraining order if not something more severe.”

  “What? You think you’re a fucking attorney or something, kitty-cat?”

  “Yes, actually, I am. And you’re nothing more than a stripper who got knocked-up by someone other than my boyfriend. You’re nothing more than an embarrassment. You can’t keep crying wolf and expecting people to take you seriously. My advice is to get far, far away from me, Ramsey, this facility, and the entire Bridges Enterprise, or we will take legal action,” Lexi said. “There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If you keep harassing us, then I’ll take you to court myself. And I don’t lose.”

  “I bet you don’t,” Elisa said, rolling her eyes.

  Lexi could see a shift in her demeanor, a sense of unease.

  Elisa took a step back as if she were going to walk away peacefully, but then she grabbed a drink sitting on a nearby table and threw the liquid at Lexi. Luckily, it missed her face, but it landed all over her brand-new dress.

  Lexi’s mouth dropped open in shock. Had Elisa really just thrown a drink at her? The liquid sank into the material, and Lexi felt sticky all over at once. Lexi knew almost immediately that the dress was ruined. Another expensive beautiful dress was ruined at a party…and this time, it wasn’t even for something fun.

  People rushed forward as one. Parker was at her side, and then Cierra was there, too. A few other people ran over with napkins and towels to try to clean off the dress, but Lexi knew it was useless. When she glanced up, Ramsey was walking with two muscular bouncers. They had picked up Elisa, who was kicking and screaming, and they were now carrying her out of the building.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Lexi said, shaking people off of her.

  But she wasn’t fine. Her hands were trembling with anger. She was trying desperately to hold it together in front of all these people.

  Lexi walked over to a table and held her hand up to keep people at bay. Everyone stayed back, except for Bekah. For some unknown reason, she thought Lexi might actually want to talk to her. She had thought Bekah was the last person she wanted to see, but she was pretty sure that, for now, that spot was reserved was Elisa. Jack hovered just off Bekah’s side—not really involved but not really out of it. He didn’t seem to know where his place was.

  “I can’t believe you treated her like that!” Bekah said.

  “What?” Lexi cried.

  She was covered in some type of liquor, and Bekah was chiding her for how she had acted?

  “Ramsey had it under control. If you hadn’t said anything, she would have just left. Why do you always have to have the last word?”

  Lexi’s mouth dropped open. “Are you joking?”

  “Just because you can’t handle something that happened in Ramsey’s past doesn’t mean you can ruin the entire party with your antics,” Bekah threw the words at her.

  They landed all over Lexi’s body like a punch to the gut.

  “Why don’t you just shut the fuck up?” Lexi snapped.

  She couldn’t hold back her anger—not now, not after what had happened with Elisa. Lexi visibly straightened and glared at Bekah. Lexi’s dress was soaking wet from the crazy lunatic who was trying to tear apart Ramsey, and Bekah had the gall to yell at Lexi.

  Lexi just couldn’t take it.

  “You didn’t even care that your fiancé had cheated on you before he proposed. You don’t get to be involved in this
at all,” Lexi said, her voice barely above a whisper but so threatening that it might as well have been deadly. “So, why don’t you just go scamper off and worry about your marriage or something equally useless?”

  Bekah’s eyes were on fire, and she was visibly seething. “You don’t get to talk to me like that, you little bitch. You weren’t good enough for Jack, and you’re certainly not good enough for my brother—”

  “Bekah,” Jack snapped, moving in between them, “just leave her alone.”

  “What?” Bekah nearly screeched. Her nose was scrunched up as she stared at Jack in shock.

  “I said, leave her alone. You don’t need to attack her like this right now. It’s bad enough that someone wrongly accused Ramsey, and she’s dealing with the aftereffect. You don’t need to lay into her, too.”

  Lexi and Bekah both just stared at Jack. When had he ever stood up against Bekah? When had he ever kept Lexi and Bekah from each other’s throats? Lexi didn’t know what to say to that. She just wanted to thank him because him speaking up had actually shut Bekah up…and that was all Lexi had wanted at this point.

  “Come on, Bekah,” Jack said, taking her hand, “just walk away.”

  So, she walked away.

  And Lexi stood there, speechless.

  PRESENT

  How fast had she run out of that apartment?

  Jack’s lips had hovered so close to hers. His eyes had been drunk with more than whiskey. She could practically hear his heart beating out of his chest. Or had that been hers? The heat rising between them had been like a blazing inferno threatening to overpower them both.

  She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t look into those blue eyes and give in to the feelings he always stirred in her. They were friends now…just friends. And if he felt otherwise, then maybe she should stay away from him.

  But her head knowing that didn’t seem to connect with the rest of her body begging and pleading with her to stay—just stay, just one moment, give in. Give in to that smirk, those eyes, the pheromone-spiking smell of sex, to the heat and desire and passion that consumed them inside and out. All she would have had to do was close her eyes. It would have been that simple.

  Jack knew what she wanted. He had always known. And it would be no different now.

  No different.

  No…it certainly wouldn’t be different than any other time they had gambled their relationships away. No different than all the other times they had drawn a line in the sand only to cross it over and over and over again. No different than any of it.

  “Then, I should go,” she had whispered into the stillness.

  His hand had come down hard on the doorframe to steady himself, and she had thought for a split second that he would cross that line they had drawn more than two years earlier.

  “Yeah…yeah, you should.”

  “Your hand is still…” Lexi had gestured to the door where his hand had been covering hers.

  He had withdrawn his hand with a sigh, and Lexi had turned the knob.

  “Hey,” he had whispered.

  Taking a deep breath, she had turned back to face him one more time. He had reached out and tucked another lock of hair behind her ear.

  “I’ll miss you.”

  And then, his lips had landed softly on her cheek, way softer than she had thought they would, considering how much alcohol was in his system. She had swallowed, yanked the door open, and bolted from the apartment.

  Her hands shook as she fished out her car keys. She dropped them once and cursed loudly before picking them up and pushing a key into the door. Once it was open, she fell into the front seat and slammed her hands down repeatedly on the steering wheel.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” she cried, the tears threatening to let loose. “No. Please, no.”

  She leaned forward, pressed her forehead into the steering wheel she had been abusing, and let the tears fall. She didn’t even know how to articulate what was ripping through her chest, but it hurt like a motherfucker.

  She just wanted to claw her way through her chest and make all the pain go away. How could he say those things to her? How could he say those things when he knew it didn’t matter, when he knew that she was marrying someone else? How could he put her in that position?

  The tears ran hot down her cheeks as the roller coaster of emotions unleashed all around her. And she couldn’t stop them from falling because she didn’t even know the true source of her pain. Was she angry that he had said those things to her at all…or that he had said them too late?

  “So, let me get this straight,” Chyna said, pacing her flat.

  Lexi sat with her feet scrunched up underneath. She had just told Chyna the whole story from start to finish, and she was waiting to hear the backlash.

  “Jack told you that he loved you and that you should leave, and you actually walked out of his apartment?”

  Lexi nodded solemnly.

  “Chica, I’m shocked. Have you actually grown up? Do you have a temperature?” Chyna asked, walking up to her and pressing the back of her hand to Lexi’s forehead.

  Lexi brushed her off. “No, I’m not sick, you crazy person.”

  Chyna laughed and backed away when Lexi swatted at her again.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. You did the right thing. Jack was drunk and acting like…Jack. I know he hasn’t been that way for a while with you, but that doesn’t mean that the man isn’t still inside of him. I guess the divorce is just getting to him.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Chyna asked, walking back to Lexi and sitting down.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean…now that Jack is getting a divorce…he’ll be free again,” Chyna said softly.

  “So?” Lexi said, looking at Chyna suspiciously.

  “Stop looking at me like that. I know you love him.”

  “I don’t…”

  Chyna leveled her with a stare that stopped Lexi right in her tracks.

  “Don’t even try that with me. I know how you are with Jack. You two might have been friends since he got married, but that doesn’t mean you love that man any less. Whether or not it’s stupid is not the question. It’s completely idiotic, but that doesn’t change the fact, not one bit.”

  Lexi bit her bottom lip. “I’m not going to do anything. I’m getting married at the end of October,” she whispered, pushing the ring out in front of her as if Chyna didn’t know or hadn’t seen it.

  “I know. I’m your maid of honor, remember?”

  “I know you are. Speaking of being maid of honor, am I supposed to be doing anything in these last couple of weeks besides planning the bachelorette party that you’ve already planned?” Lexi asked, batting her eyelashes up at Chyna innocently.

  “No. Speaking of bachelorette party, what do you want to do for yours?”

  “I don’t know,” Lexi said with a shrug. “Isn’t that your job?”

  “Have you even found a dress yet?” Chyna asked, ignoring her question.

  “For the bachelorette party?”

  Chyna rolled her eyes. “Don’t think you can fool me. You still don’t have a wedding dress, do you?”

  “Um…”

  “Alexa, you need to get one. We’re only six months out!”

  “Six months is a long time!”

  “I had my designer on that aspect of the wedding, like, two days after Adam proposed. I wanted her to have enough time to do the dress justice. That was before I even knew I was going to be part of fashion week that year and had to add a six-month extension on to the wedding. She breathed a sigh of relief when I told her she had six more months for it. Eighteen months, chica. Not six!”

  “Well, I’m not having a big-time fashion designer put together my dress. I’ll buy that shit off a rack and have them tailor it. Can’t take that long,” Lexi said with a shrug.

  “Sometimes, I wonder how we’re friends.”

  Lexi chuckl
ed at the differences between them. They certainly had drastically different backgrounds, but it had never mattered to Lexi. They worked just the way they were. Lexi was sure Chyna wouldn’t want a friend who mooched off her, and just as likely, she wouldn’t want someone with as much money as her. Most of the other people in the latter category were even more self-absorbed than her best friend, not that she would have Chyna any other way.

  “Do we need to go out and look for a dress for you?” Chyna asked, standing quickly at the prospect of shopping.

  “Um…no. It’s not a big deal. I’ll find something.”

  Chyna dramatically rolled her eyes. “Can we at least go look for a bridesmaid dress for me or something?”

  “Aren’t I supposed to be here to help you with your wedding?”

  “Yes, but my wedding is planned. You just need to show up.”

  “Then, what am I doing here?” Lexi asked, exasperated. She had gotten out of work for this.

  “Because you needed to get away from Atlanta.”

  Lexi opened her mouth to protest.

  “Away from that divorce, by the looks of it. Maybe away from Ramsey for a bit, too.”

  Lexi sighed heavily and rested her head back against the couch. “Isn’t this supposed to be the happiest time of my life?”

  “I think a lot of people find wedding planning to be insanely stressful. And while the day of is supposed to be spectacular since it’s one big party…it’s usually pretty nerve-racking and stressful, too. I don’t think it’s strange that you’re freaked-out by this,” Chyna said thoughtfully. “I mean, especially because you freak out about everything.”

  “You must have me confused with someone else.”

  “Try and tell me that half of this anxiety doesn’t come from Jack’s imminent divorce.”

  “Not half—”

  “And the other half doesn’t come from shit with Ramsey—the past of lies, that Elisa bitch…what happened last summer.”

  “Let’s not talk about that,” Lexi snapped.

  “Okay, fine,” Chyna said, throwing up her hands. “Live in your delusional life right now, but one day, you are going to have to face up to all of these anxieties. Wouldn’t it be better to just tell me about them, so you can move on, rather than sitting in your head and obsessing over everything? I’m here for you. I know the stupid shit you’ve done. You know the stupid shit I’ve done. I’m not going to judge you. What do you want, Alexa? What makes you happy through all of this?”