Avoiding Commitment (58 page)

“Thank you very much. Here at Bridges
Enterprise we do everything we can to bridge the distance between
you and your troubles. Have a wonderful day,” she said hanging up
the phone before looking up at Lexi. “May I help you?” the woman
asked, a genuine smile crossing her face.

“Yes, I am here to see Jack Howard,” Lexi
told the woman hoping to make it see more of a demand than a
request.

The woman smirked and glanced down at the
monitor in front of her. She clicked a few buttons before returning
her eyes to Lexi. “Do you have a meeting with Mr. Howard?”

“Not exactly,” she admitted, “but I do need
to see him.”

“Mr. Howard is a very busy man. I hope you
understand when I say that you would have to have an appointment to
see him,” she stated firmly.

“Right, well, does he have a full schedule
today?” Lexi asked attempting to peer over the desk.

“He has the day marked off to be with Ms.
Bridges.”

“But he is in the office today,” Lexi
badgered anxious to get this over with.

“Is there anything I can assist you with?”
the woman asked dodging the question effortlessly.

“Not unless you can tell me what office is
his,” she said deliberately.

“Ma’am unless you have an appointment, which
you do not, then Mr. Howard is unavailable to you. However, there
are more trained professionals in his department that are free this
afternoon, if you would like to make an appointment with one of
them.”

“No, thank you,” Lexi said gnawing on her
bottom lip. What a waste of time. This woman would not be of any
more help…not that she had been much in the first place. Obviously,
Jack was here in his office. The only problem was she had no idea
where that was and the building was a million stories high with
hundreds of offices. She could search all day and never locate him,
but she didn’t have that time.

She thanked the woman and walked away from
the counter looping around towards the elevators. Hopping on the
first elevator that dinged open, Lexi stood between several men in
high quality suits. As she slowly approached the top floor, she
found she was finally left alone with one of the men. Putting on
the most girly look she could muster, Lexi cried, “Shoot!” She let
the Southern drawl, which she reserved for special occasions,
permeate through the word. The man glanced over at her in surprise,
but she could see it was also intrigue. He quickly faced the front
again not deeming it appropriate to intervene. “Um, excuse me,” she
cooed drawing his attention back to her.

“Yes, ma’am?” he asked, the perfect
gentleman.

“You see,” she began huffing a little in
embarrassment, “I have an appointment with Mr. Howard today.” His
eyes widened in surprise. “But I’ve forgotten where his office is,”
she told him casting her eyes down and hoping she could find some
semblance of innocence in the gesture. “I was wondering if you
could maybe point me in the right direction. The woman at the front
told me, but Lord, I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached to my
body.”

He marveled at her unadulterated beauty for a
second before answering. “Sure not a problem,” he said buying her
act. He pressed another button on the elevator and turned to
continue to make small talk with her from there.

“What are you seeing Mr. Howard for, if you
don’t mind me asking?” he asked leaning back against the metal hand
railing.

“Uh…” Lexi tucked a loose strand of hair
behind her ear. She hadn’t thought this far out with her plan and
had no alibi for seeing Jack. No doubt she had always been a
terrible liar so making something up on the spot wasn’t going to
work for her. She was amazed she had made it this far with
acting.

“It’s alright,” he said immediately reading
her discomfort. “You don’t have to tell me. We have a number of
people coming in with troubles that need to be solved. You’re lucky
you got Jack. He’s one of our best,” the man said admiringly. She
had completely forgotten that she was in a place where talking
about her problems was confidential business. At least something
was working in her favor.

“That’s wonderful,” she stated dryly, pleased
and displeased at the same time that Jack was doing so well for
himself. A part of her maliciously wondered how much Bekah had a
hand in that.

“Here is his floor,” he said when the
elevator landed. “All the way down the hallway and on the right.
Can’t miss it. His secretary should be here. Her name is Gwen. She
can take it from here.”

“Thank you so much, Mr…” she waited for his
name. He had been an invaluable resource.

“Oh, what was I thinking?” he asked smacking
himself on the forehead. “Brandon Calloway.” He pulled out his
wallet and extracted a business card. She took it from him smiling
to herself.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Calloway.”

“Call me Brandon,” he muttered huskily,
leaning against the elevator door to hold it open for her while
they chatted.

“Brandon,” she repeated placing the card
delicately into her purse.

“I hope everything works out for you. If Jack
doesn’t help, just let me know. I’m in office 2404. Stop in
anytime,” he told her invitingly.

“Well, uh, thanks,” she said stepping through
the door.

“No problem. What’s your name?” he asked
smoothly as she passed through the sliding doors.

“Lexi. Lexi Walsh,” she said. When she
glanced over her shoulder, he was still standing there staring
after her. Something had changed in his look and his mouth was
hanging slightly open. She wasn’t sure what that was about, but she
couldn’t concentrate on that now. He had played his part and now
she needed to bridge the distance between her own troubles.

She followed Brandon’s directions and found a
blonde, no surprise there, sitting at a desk in front of a large
corner office. “May I help you?” the woman asked looking up from
her computer screen. She had a British accent, impeccably white
teeth, and perfectly fake breasts revealed in her low cut
blouse.

“Is Jack in?” Lexi asked smirking at the
predictability of the woman’s appearance.

“Indeed. However, Mr. Howard is not taking
appointments today.” She looked down at her screen, scrolled
through a program, then glanced back up. “I believe I can squeeze
you in Thursday afternoon if that works for you, darling.”

Lexi scoffed. “Um, no. I leave this
afternoon, and I need to see him now.”

“I’m sorry that would simply be impossible.
Perhaps when you are next in town then,” she stated simply. Lexi
rolled her eyes and walked around the desk completely ignoring the
girl. “Ma’am, you cannot go in there.”

“Sorry. I need to see him,” she said rushing
to the door. “Jack, can I come in?” Lexi asked knocking swiftly on
the large wooden door. “You’re…uh…secretary said you were in,” she
took another glance at the leggy blonde behind her who was just now
getting out of her seat to stop her.

“Ma’am, he is unavailable,” Gwen said
standing with her hands on her hips in frustration. “You can’t
barge in there.”

“Oh, is it not locked?” Lexi asked smiling
devilishly as she turned the handle and the door popped open.

“Stop, you’re going to get me in trouble,”
Gwen cried rushing after her.

“Jack,” Lexi murmured seeing him sitting
behind his desk.

“Gwen, I thought I told you no visitors this
afternoon,” Jack muttered not even glancing up from his desk.

Lexi’s determination wavered at the sight of
him. He was wearing a tailored navy blue suit over a crisp white
button up. The top button was undone and his navy and silver neck
tie was pulled loose. His dark hair fell over his eyes as he
scanned through a report bound in a plastic cover with the Bridges
Enterprise emblem displayed upon the front. She couldn’t even look
past him to check out his amazing office as she was so utterly
bound by his appearance and commanding presence.

“Sir, I certainly did not let her in. This
young lady barged in demanding to see you.” Gwen gave Lexi a death
glare.

“Well, see her out,” Jack said still not
looking up. Gwen moved forward and latched onto Lexi’s arm. She
attempted to veer her out of the room, but Lexi wouldn’t budge.
When she started yanking on her arm, her long fingernails digging
into her skin, Lexi couldn’t take it any longer. Jack still hadn’t
looked up at her.

“Jack, honestly,” Lexi cried standing her
ground.

“Lex?” he asked surprised to find her
standing in his office.

“You know this woman, sir?” Gwen asked
dropping her hands and placing them behind her back promptly. She
looked between them with poisonous daggers shooting sparks at
Lexi’s back. She was not too pleased that he knew Lexi. Somehow
this didn’t surprise Lexi. She wondered if Jack had been sleeping
with this woman. The anger at the possibility of him diddling his
secretary reminded Lexi why she was there in the first place. She
and Jack had a score to settle, and it had to happen today, right
now.

“Yes, Gwen. It’s fine. You can go,” he said
dismissing her without breaking his gaze which was still set on
Lexi.

“Yes, sir,” Gwen said bitterly turning on her
designer heels and stalking out the door.

“The door,” Jack called out to Gwen.

She stepped back into the room and yanked the
handle slamming the door shut. “Well, she’s…something, isn’t she?”
Lexi asked smirking.

Jack rolled his eyes and set his papers down
on his desk. Lexi took that opportunity to really take in her
surroundings. Like the exterior of the building, the entire
perimeter of the office was cased in glass overlooking the city.
The view was spectacular and at night time, Lexi could only assume,
it would be even better. A large bookshelf was covered with
material pertinent to his work as well as the only picture frames
Lexi had seen in Jack’s presence since her arrival. One picture in
a metal frame of him and Bekah vacationing somewhere on the coast
stood out to Lexi. Another picture of Jack with the guys in Las
Vegas was framed. His diploma was mounted on the wall in a stunning
frame with a red, black, and white tassel displayed alongside
it.

Lexi’s eyes moved to the other side of the
room, which opened up to a bathroom. But what caught her eye wasn’t
the fact that he, in fact, had his own bathroom in his office.
Rather was the picture frame that took up the majority of the
opposite wall. Her heart clenched as she stared at the picture she
had described to Jack less than a week earlier. A picture he had
claimed to have gotten rid of, because he couldn’t look at it any
longer. The frame was different than the original and as she
approached wide-eyed, she noticed that indeed there were a few
minor tears in the print, but nothing that took away from the shot.
The black and white photograph highlighted the beauty of a small
creek with an old wooden bridge across the natural barrier.
Hundreds of pine trees as tall as the eye could see surrounded the
scene as the sun rose across the horizon.

Just as she remembered it. This was her
favorite picture. Jack’s favorite picture. He hadn’t been able to
get rid of it, despite everything.

“It’s still here,” she whispered glancing
back at Jack. He was shuffling some papers around on his large
mahogany desk, but glanced up at the sound of her voice.

“I had it reframed and brought up here from
Savannah earlier this week,” he told her attempting to keep the
emotion out of his voice.

Lexi shook her head unable to process the
many nuances of Jack Howard. Here she was in his office wanting to
be so
angry
at him for everything he had ever put her
through, and then he did this. One simple gesture that reminded her
why she loved him so much.

“Why?” she barely got out choking on her own
words.

“What do you mean why?”

“Jack, come on. You made it pretty clear last
night.”

“Last night I said what we did didn’t change
things. And, well, it doesn’t, Lexi. Sex never changed things with
us before.”

“Do you really believe that sex doesn’t
change things?” she asked taken aback by the concept. She wasn’t a
typical female who believed that sex necessarily meant an emotional
commitment on either side. She had had her fair share of one night
stands to prove that to herself, but Jack was not one of those men.
And she knew that sex did mean something to him whether he was
ready to admit it or not.

“I mean that it doesn’t change what I have to
do or the decision that I have to make. It doesn’t make any of this
easier.”

“A little birdie tells me it does,” she said
turning her back on the picture.

“Oh yeah, who’s that?”

“Who is not the appropriate question,” she
told him looking into his beautiful blue eyes from across the space
of his office.

“Well, you don’t have to tell me who would
tell you that things have changed between us, because I already
know,” Jack said triumphantly taking her off guard.

“I suppose you could guess,” she said
hesitantly not liking the change of subject.

“No guessing needed. I know what you’ve been
trying to do,” he told her staring her down.

She gave him a completely flabbergasted look
hoping maybe he could explain further what he was talking about.
Wasn’t she the one who was supposed to storm in here and demand
answers? Why was he the one completely confounding her over and
over again? Her mouth opened and she tilted her head slightly
trying to really assess the situation. The only thing she had been
trying to do all week was figure out what the hell Jack was doing
with his life. She wanted him…bad, but was only fueled onwards by
his obvious desire for her. If he had been aloof and untoward, then
she certainly would have done his bidding, hung out with her
parents, and then hopped on the first plane out of here.

But that hadn’t happened. He had flat out
told her that they were meant to be together. That after everything
they had been through, he knew what he wanted and all he had to do
was tie up some loose ends. Now he was saying that sex didn’t
change anything along with other unthinkable things, and honestly,
she was just lost.