Avoiding Commitment (17 page)

“Ahh,” she said admiring the crystal clear
cut. “Well, this is a small world, isn’t it? I’ve known Matt since
childhood. He actually used to be a pretty good friend of my
brother’s even though he spent the majority of his time in Las
Vegas. I’d heard he had just gotten married and was in town running
his daddy’s company. My apologies that I couldn’t attend the
wedding.” Bekah smiled sweetly. “Will you tell him that I said
hello and that he needs to visit.”

Krista had one eyebrow arched. “Sure thing,”
Krista said diplomatically. “Hey, Lexi, I’ve really got to be
going. It was great seeing you. If you can, you should stop by the
gym,” Krista said wrapping her in a hug. Just as she got close, she
whispered in her ear, “How is Jack with her?” Lexi giggled finding
it hard to believe herself. Krista slipped her a business card,
grabbed her brown paper cup, and made her way towards the door.

“Well, that was interesting,” Bekah said
rubbing her finger around her pearl earring.

“Yeah, I guess,” Lexi said standing awkwardly
now that the comfort of Krista’s presence had dissipated.

Bekah turned to face her. “I heard what she
said you know.”

Lexi stared at her uncomfortably. She wasn’t
sure which part Bekah was referring to, but with her luck it had to
be the part about her and Jack. “Uh...what?”

“That she figured you and Jack would be
married,” she stated simply.

“Uh huh.” Lexi wasn’t sure what Bekah wanted
her to say. She hadn’t seen Krista in years, and after all, Jack
was the reason that she knew Krista in the first place.

“I just want you to know that I don’t think
any less of you.”

Lexi gawked at her. “Um, what?”

“I mean, that girl was so vulgar. I have no
idea how Matt... you know what? Just never mind. Let’s not go down
that road,” she said running her French manicured finger nails
through her pin-straight hair. “I just want us to be open and
honest with each other. I heard what she said about you and Jack
and it made me a little uncomfortable.”

Lexi could tell Bekah was waiting for her to
say something, but she didn’t know what she was supposed to say. So
Bekah had eavesdropped on their conversation? Lexi didn’t give a
shit. She had told Krista that they weren’t together. She and Jack
had never been together
together
, in fact.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Bekah
chirped. “I found us a table.”

Lexi had no idea what to think of this girl.
She was all over the charts. She wanted to be completely honest one
minute, and then her best friend the next. Lexi wasn’t sure if she
could handle this anymore.

Lexi plopped down in the booth. She twirled
her hair around her finger several times before shoving it
carelessly behind her ear.

Bekah faced Lexi. “I think we got off on the
wrong foot.”

Lexi forced a smile. “Why do you say that?”
Lexi could have given a million reasons why she could never...would
never like this girl. She still wanted to hear what Bekah thought
on the subject.

“It’s just...we were supposed to get this
over with in the morning, and then I half-dragged you to meet my
family. I just don’t want those things to cloud your view of me,”
Bekah said twirling her earring again.

“Oh...um, ok,” Lexi said noncommittally. Sure
the Country Club experience made being around her more difficult.
However much that bothered her, nothing bothered her more than just
the plain fact that she was dating Jack. This girl, who seemingly
had nothing in common with Jack, this girl, who he hadn’t even
wanted to date to begin with, this girl, who was practically
forcing him to propose to her so she wouldn’t be cut off from
daddy’s money, was who he had picked over her.
Somehow
, she
just didn’t think their friendship could recover from that.

“Well, either way, I suspect you know why
Jack asked you here,” Bekah said smiling sweetly.

Lexi fixed her with a blank stare. Was this
girl serious?

“But I just…I really don’t want this to be
awkward, you know?”

Lexi didn’t know. She already thought this
was awkward enough.

“So, I thought we could just get to know each
other a little bit. I mean, I know I wouldn’t confess…or tell a
perfect stranger about my past, especially not my love life.”

“I have a hard time talking to anyone about
my love life,” Bekah said easily blushing at the statement.

“Uh huh,” Lexi finally added in.

“It’s just that I make a good judge of
character. Jack obviously liked you at some point.” Lexi couldn’t
even form words for
that
statement. “Ramsey seems to know
and like you. Though, he isn’t exactly the best judge of
character...or the best character, but regardless. I mean not to
mention, you put up with Jennifer for at least a year, and nothing
short of a miracle can make a person go through that.”

Lexi’s mouth dropped. “You don’t like
Jennifer?”

Bekah’s crinkled her little nose. “She’s a
little much for my tastes.”

“But I thought Ramsey said you were
friends.”

“Friends is such a loose term. Our parents
are friends so she was always...around,” Bekah said shrugging her
shoulders. “What I’m saying is that I know nothing about you.”

Lexi hated how sincere Bekah was being. She
was supposed to hate the girl. She was supposed to think she was an
annoying Country Clubber like everyone else, and go home with a
semblance of closure. “Yeah, I don’t really know anything about you
either,” Lexi admitted.

“Right. Well then, tell me about yourself,
Lexi,” she said immediately returning to her diplomatic demeanor.
Lexi hadn’t exactly been prepared for the shift. “You don’t mind me
calling you Lexi, do you?” Bekah asked politely, her smile strained
at the edges.

Lexi returned her fake smile. “That’s my
name.”

“Oh, of course. I didn’t know. I thought,
perhaps, it was a nickname of some sort. I’ve never met a Lexi
before.”

“Well, it’s sort of a nickname. Birth
certificate says Alexa. I never much felt like an Alexa though, if
you know what I mean,” Lexi said trying to fall back into Bekah’s
more personable character.

Something about her statement must have
worked, because this time Bekah’s smile was sincere. “Yes, I think
I do. I’ve never felt much like a Rebekah. Now, please, tell me
about yourself. Jack has not said a word about you besides that you
went to college together and as soon as you graduated you zipped
right off to New York City. Of course, I know some other things,”
she said her eyes shining mischievously. “But as a whole, he has
left you a complete mystery to me. And I do love solving
mysteries,” she commented folding her arms across one another at
the table.

Lexi didn’t even know where to begin. She
knew that Jack hadn’t told Bekah about her in the beginning, but he
hadn’t told her that Bekah knew
nothing
about her. How
awkward! He hadn’t even bothered to prep Bekah with the basics
about their um…relationship even after Kate had run her mouth. So,
thus far, Bekah had only heard terrible things about her.
Great!

“Um...well, what do you want to know?”

“Just, whatever you want. It’s up to you. I
can tell you a little about myself if you like.” Lexi just stared
at her. Bekah, taking that as an affirmative, said, “I graduated
summa
from Duke with degrees in business and psychology.
Let’s see. What else? I currently work for my father as a Senior
Vice President of Bridges Enterprise. He wanted Ramsey to run the
business, but well...Ramsey always has his own ideas about things.
I’m sure there’s more, but I’d really like to know about you.”

“Oh, well, I’m at NYU Law, about to start my
third year. I worked all summer at a criminal law firm in the city.
Anyway, that’s really about it,” she said.

“I’ll be the one to judge that,” Bekah
stated. Lexi smiled weakly. “Did you want to go into criminal law
or did you have something else in mind?”

“Oh, I’m really not sure,” she told her
honestly. “I’ve been doing a good deal of alternative dispute
resolution cases in class. You know mediation, arbitration, and
negotiations.” Bekah nodded along even though Lexi wasn’t sure she
knew what she was talking about. Though if she had been raised in a
Bridges household, then maybe she did. “But a part of me wants to
go into a big corporate firm working seventy hours a week making a
ridiculous amount of money. I don’t know why. It sounds awful, but
once I do that, I really think I could do anything.”

“Hmm…interesting. I would have pinned you
more as environmental law or public interest work.”

Lexi laughed heartily. “Um…no. It’s not that
I don’t care about those things. I just couldn’t see me
concentrating in anything like that.”

“Well, if that’s what you’re into,” Bekah
said with a shrug. “Oh…hold on. There he is.” Bekah waved at a
tall, lanky, disheveled looking man who immediately veered towards
them.

“Rebekah,” he said as she hopped out of her
chair. He gathered her up in a hug. “You look fantastic. You’re not
in here enough. You need more coffee for that stressful job of
yours.”

“You know perfectly well that it’s not
stressful. And anyway, I don’t really drink coffee, Connor,” she
reminded him.

Connor was over six-feet tall with wiry brown
hair and dull brown eyes. He’d obviously had acne problems when he
had been younger. His nose was a bit too large, but it kind of fit
him in a strange sort of way. He wore brown corduroy pants with a
faded green coffee-stained, deeply wrinkled button-up, and tweed
vest. This was not someone that Lexi would have ever in a million
years pictured Bekah knowing let alone hanging out with.

“Oh, I’m so rude,” Bekah said tearing her
eyes from Connor. “This is Jack’s uh…friend, Lexi. Lexi, this is
Connor. He owns the coffee shop.”

Lexi was able to put the pieces together.
Bekah seemed to only know people who were important enough for her.
If this guy owned the shop, then he must be rolling in money, even
if his appearance didn’t give that away. “Nice to meet you.”

Connor took their orders and let them know
that the drinks were on the house. As soon as he left, Bekah got
right back to business. “So, I don’t really know where to begin
with you, to be honest.” Lexi didn’t know what that meant. “I had a
plan when I talked to Danielle and Kate.”

Lexi rolled her eyes and then let them wander
around the shop. She had completely tuned out what Bekah was
saying. It’s not like she really wanted to talk about this. She
just wanted to get things out of the way.

“Did you hear me?” Bekah asked, touching
Lexi’s arm lightly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I spaced out.”

“I just asked how many serious boyfriends
have you had?”

“Well, two since high school.” Hearing the
words out loud really made Lexi want to crawl into a hole. She
hadn’t thought about the fact that she hadn’t had a serious
boyfriend in so long. Sure, she had dated, and she had been in
strictly uh…sexual relationships, but she didn’t count those. So
her number still stood at two. Two guys in six years. Pathetic.

“So one other than Jack?” Bekah asked lacing
her fingers together.

Lexi swiftly glanced up trying to read
Bekah’s expression. Was this girl clueless? “Um…no. Jack and I were
never together.”

Bekah narrowed her eyes. “What are you
talking about?”

“You already met Jack’s two serious
girlfriends: Danielle and Kate.”

“Right,” she said leaning forward in her
chair. “But ya’ll
were
together. I mean I talked to
Kate.”

Lexi blushed at the accusations that were
clear in her tone. “I wouldn’t believe
everything
Kate told
you.”

Bekah twirled her earring contemplating what
Lexi had just told her. “I realize Kate is probably biased to a
degree. But she said that ya’ll were together so I just took her
word for that. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not sure why you’re sorry. You claim to
know nothing about me. And anyway, it’s an easy thing to
misconstrue. You heard the conversation I had with Krista. I
haven’t seen her in years, and she thought Jack and I were
together. But it simply isn’t the case.”

Connor reappeared with their drinks. “Okay.
So you and Jack weren’t together.”

“Nope.”

“I guess that clears up why he didn’t tell me
about you,” she said under her breath. Lexi decided to just pretend
like she was deaf. “So, how did ya’ll meet?”

Lexi desperately shoved her hair behind her
ears. She hadn’t thought that a simple question could seem so
difficult...so terrifying. So much of what she and Jack had gone
through had been covered up and hidden for so long. The thought of
peeling back the layers and revealing it to someone else
constricted her. She reached out for her coffee, realizing for the
umpteenth time that morning that she was desperate for the
stuff…maybe even something stronger.

“Sorry,” Lexi said smiling weakly. “I haven’t
really talked about Jack to anyone in a long time. Our
uh...situation wasn’t exactly healthy, to put it nicely.”

“What do you mean by that?” Bekah asked
sipping on her chai tea.

“The reason we were never together was
because every time we tried, things or uh...people,” she said
averting her eyes, “just kept getting in our way. For the longest
time, I thought that Jack and I really were going to end up
together.” She could feel her skin warming with embarrassment at
the statement. “But some shit went down between us, and we just
stopped talking. Pretty much end of story. I’m not sure what else
you want to know,” Lexi stated bitterly.

Lexi could feel Bekah’s piercing gaze
evaluating her. It wasn’t a comfortable look, and the silence that
followed was even worse. “I get that ya’ll aren’t together and
haven’t been for quite some time. I mean, I’d at least surmised
that much,” she said giggling. “Jack and I have been together for a
year and a half, and he’s never mentioned you before.”