"No, Lexi" he chuckled softly, "she wants to meet you."
This, however, was not something she had been prepared for. "Jack, I'm really confused here. I think I must have missed something. The girl that you are dating that you want to marry wants to meet me. Why? I'm so…insignificant," she said trying to be earnest and sincere. She couldn't even think about the different times her and Jack had tried to find the time to form some semblance of a relationship. Nothing had ever worked, and the last time… She stopped herself again from entertaining the thought. The hole that Jack had been left still ached when prodded, and she avoided irritating the wounded feeling that crept through her.
"Don't say that. You know you're not insignificant." She let silence settle between them not wanting to be the first to speak next. After awhile of listening to her breathe heavily, he spoke again. "Anyway, she got this idea in her head that she wants to meet every girl that I've dated for any significant amount of time. She wants to find out why I was unable to commit to them so that she can figure out why I'm not committing to her or so she thinks. And don't go saying that this doesn't apply to you either because we didn't date. I never mentioned you to her, but she heard about you from Kate."
Lexi recoiled at the mention of Jack's ex-girlfriend. "So by the way you say that, I'm guessing you actually went through with this insane decision. You are letting this girl pick and pry through your past just so that you don't have to commit to marrying her right now?" This was low…even for him.
"It's not like that," he stated defensively. "I let her talk to them, because I wanted to show her that I had nothing to hide. Well when Kate mentioned you and I didn't, you can guess that she wasn't terribly happy."
Lexi help nodding even though she knew that he couldn't see her. Of course, she wouldn't be happy. Any female would be unhappy with the description Kate had probably bestowed upon her. Knowing the way Kate felt about her, it probably went along the lines of temptress, devious, manipulative, conniving, two-faced whore with a few added expletives just for good measure. "So Kate told her what happened which is how she got my name, but we were never um…together," she said not certain if that was the correct word.
"She doesn't seem to care. She seems to think that since I didn't tell her about you, that you somehow must hold all the answers as to why I am the way that I am. I tried to tell her that the last I had seen or heard from you had been before we'd even started dating. This girl is almost as persistent as I am though. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I need you Lex," he said using his pet name for her. "I need you to meet Bekah and convince her that I'm worth keeping around."
Lexi rolled her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. She didn't even want to consider whether or not he was worthkeeping around. But, nonetheless, she mulled the idea over. She was, in fact, overdue for an Atlanta trip to visit her family, but she had never had the intention of seeing Jack, especially not if that included being forced to parade around with his fiancé-to-be while explaining their history. Pass on that. "You've failed to explain how any of this is my problem," she stated as firmly as possible. "It's not like I can just dash away from my busy schedule to take a wonderful jaunt in the park with you and your girlfriend or fiancé-to-be or whatever the hell she is. I have other things to do. I'm kind of busy or have you forgotten?"
She could practically feel him cringe through the phone. "I know you're busy, but I thought that maybe since school hadn't started, you might be able to take some time to come down and visit."
"Actually, I got an internship for the summer. I have been working my ass off trying to save up for my last year. I don't even know if they would let me have the time off. I've never seen anyone take time off, and I don't particularly want to be the first one," she stated telling only a partial truth. The other three interns had all taken time off throughout the program, but it had been at the beginning before things had really started to pick up. Lately, no one had had time to breathe let alone think of taking a weekend rendezvous out of the state. She may have had nothing planned for the day aside from her haircut, but that hardly kept her from being on call.
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize," he said quietly. "I guess I'll just have to tell her that you weren't able to take time off. Just, please let me know if you happen to change your mind. It really would help me out immensely."
He was always so good at making her feel bad for not making the decision that was of the greatest benefit to him. "I'd really like to help," she said, lying through her teeth. "There's just no way. I can't get the time off, and even if I could, there's no way I could afford a plane ticket down there," she said off-hand.
"I wouldn't have you buying your own ticket," he said quickly. "You'd be doing me a huge favor. Of course, I would take care of you…uh…it…the ticket."
"Oh," was all she could get out. The last time she had seen him he was just out of college, poor, and practically starving for a job. Of course he would be doing significantly better financially a year and a half later. Unlike her - sitting in a hundred thousand dollars or more of debt from school with a year left to go.
"But I guess I'll let you get back to your morning. Sorry for waking you up so early. You have my number now," he said as if that solved all the issues. "You can use it if you want."
"Right. Okay. Thanks," she stated callously.
"Later."
"Bye."
She hung up the phone closing it with brutal force. Somehow, she restrained herself from flinging the stupid thing across the room. Instead, she quickly added his name into her contacts despite the nagging urge to erase his number and all recollection of the phone call and of him.
Lexi ground her teeth in frustration. She couldn't believe that after all of this time that this was why he was calling her. He had called her because he was in love with another woman. Well he hadn't said that, but it didn't matter. Jack didn't contemplate marrying someone without due cause. She shook her head hoping she would wake herself from the nightmare of what she had just heard. When that didn't work, she pushed herself off the ground, careful not to put too much weight on her sore toe, and stalked out of her bedroom into what only a resident of New York City would consider a living room.
In all truth, the living room, dining room, and kitchen were all compacted into one puny space with two doors leading into the bedrooms on either side. Grimy yellow paint crusted the walls with navy smudges appearing more prominently in some places where the last occupant had been courageous enough to paint over. The crown molding was cracked and grungy. Her roommate's sofa, which luckily had a maroon cover to hide the seventies-esque pattern, took up the majority of the room. Two large bean bags, one brown, one turquoise, sat to one side, and a black Ikea table donned the other. A brown coffee table, left over from the previous owners, which Lexi had never gotten around to replacing, was cluttered with old newspapers, coffee stains, and seemingly endless dents from late nights playing quarters. The only thing that was remotely spectacular about the living room area was the 32 inch Samsung flat screen television her parents had given her as a move-in present. A Playstation 3 rested under it that her parents claimed they had only given her because they didn't think it worthwhile getting a Blu-ray player for only a hundred dollars less. She had known better than to argue.
Dusty wood floors creaked as she moved towards the kitchen to begin brewing the pot of coffee she so desperately needed. An off-white, not particularly energy-efficient refrigerator sat along the far wall closest to Lexi's door. A window was etched into the wall just above the aluminum-plated sink giving a glossy view of the street below. Lexi prepared the coffee and water, switched the pot on, and then leaned back against the cool counter running her fingers through her brown matted waves.
Her breezy Saturday had turned from encouragingly relaxing to a spastic panic attack in the span of a short fifteen minute phone call. She guzzled a cup of the steaming brown liquid as quickly as she could muster, before moseying back toward her room to take a shower. Despite drinking the coffee black, the caffeine had barely hit her. She knew by the time she was out of the shower, any signs of consuming it would be all but completely dissipated. She scrubbed her body vigorously with expensive cranberry liquid body soap. After applying only a tiny bit of shampoo through her long tresses and rinsed, she cut the shower off, dried off, and slicked her hair back into a high ponytail. She threw on a pair of red collegiate running shorts, a flimsy black tank that revealed an inch or so of her tan toned abdomen, and a pair of Nike Shox. Making her way back into the kitchen, she poured the remaining pot of coffee into a travelers mug printed with her University's logo and scribbled a quick note for her roommate since this was the one morning she had actually woken up before her.
Forgoing a cab, Lexi trekked on auto-pilot across town haphazardly knocking into eager tourists staring skyward. She remembered being one of those clueless people when she had first arrived in town two measly years ago. Now, she could navigate the city as well as any homegrown she knew, except her best friend, Chyna.
That was precisely who she was after as she meandered down Park Avenue on the way to the Upper East Side. Often she wondered why Chyna even bothered to hang out with her. Perhaps she considered her to be a pet project. After all, they were as close to opposites as they could get. Deep down Lexi knew that she meant more to Chyna than that. It was just hard to imagine anyone like Chyna hanging out with a nobody like her.
Lexi and Chyna had met nearly two years ago standing in line at a nightclub. Well, Lexi had been in line. Chyna was someone who absolutely refused to be subjected to waiting outside at a club, when there was fun to be had on the inside. Lexi was next in line wearing a low cut top, black mini skirt, leggings, and crocodile high heels. She had been freezing her ass off in the forty degree weather, which felt more like twenty, for the past hour. Chyna arrived at the front entrance of the same locale gliding out of an onyx colored town car, and directly through the rope, not even bothering to give the bouncer a complimentary kiss on the cheek.
Lexi, having seen one too many of these girls flounce in front of her, began throwing a fit screaming about another skanky whore taking her place inside. Surprisingly enough, Chyna stopped in her tracks, turned towards her, and began questioning her about her statements. Lexi repeated herself smiling through chattering teeth the whole time. The bouncer appeared as if he was preparing to kick Lexi to the curb, but Chyna put her hand out. After a few seconds demanded the bouncer allow Lexi inside the establishment. They had pretty much been inseparable after that night.
Lexi planted herself in front of the front steps to Chyna's apartment building, smiling at the doorman as he recognized her. "You're here early Miss Lexi," Bernard said opening the door for her signaling for her to enter.
"Yeah, I had a pretty disturbing morning to be honest, Mr. B."
"I'm sure it was nothing you can't handle."
"Thanks, but you give me too much credit," she said producing a smile. "Chyna upstairs?" she asked before stepping through the entranceway.