Avoiding Intimacy (Avoiding #2.5)(33)

“Lexi...” Chyna cried. She never called her Lexi, but she just wasn’t thinking clearly tonight. Hysterics were taking over, and she couldn’t calm herself down. She needed her best friend.

“Chyna, are you okay?” Lexi asked.

“No, oh my God, no, I’m not,” Chyna told her, not able to stop the tears.

“What happened? Chyna, calm down.

It’ll be okay. Just tell me what happened,”

Lexi said reassuringly.

“I don’t know. I just...I don’t know where to begin,” Chyna said, wondering how she had gotten to this point. Had she really been all that wrong? She had told Adam everything.

“Just start wherever, C. Tell me from the beginning. Are you safe? Are you hurt?

Did someone hurt you? Do I need to call someone to come get you?” Lexi asked, nearing hysterics herself.

“No, no, I’m not hurt...not physically.

It’s just...Adam. Alexa, it’s Adam,” she whispered into the phone. It was physically painful for her to utter the words.

“Adam?” Lexi asked anxiously. “Is he alright? Did something happen?”

Chyna chewed her bottom lip and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, begging the tears to stop. She needed to tell Alexa. She needed her to know, and she needed her to understand what had happened. She couldn’t keep it all bottled up, and Adam hadn’t believed her. Alexa needed to believe her.

“Chyna, what happened?”

Lexi demanded.

As much as she wanted to tell Lexi, her stomach twisted at the thought, and her heart hammered in her chest wildly. “Oh, God, Alexa. I can’t talk about it. It’s awful. We got into a horrible argument, absolutely horrible argument. My chest hurts unlike anything I’ve ever imagined,”

Chyna whispered, her voice pained. “He was so calm at first, and then the floodgates opened. We both just screamed at each other. I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Oh, Chyna,” Lexi murmured softly.

“I’m so sorry. Did you guys break up?”

Chyna stopped to consider the question. Oh my God, had they broken up?

Was that what had just happened? “I don’t know. Yes. No,” she moaned, wishing she knew the answer. “Maybe. He was so mean to me. I don’t know what we are anymore…”

“Maybe it was just a misunderstanding,” Lexi reasoned. “Tell me what happened.”

Chyna sniffled a few times into the phone. She might as well start from the beginning. Here goes nothing. “Adam’s brother, John, lives in the city, but he’s a businessman who travels all over the world. He’s not here much, so I’ve never met him.” Chyna began setting the scene for Lexi. She wanted her to understand.

She wanted her to see what she had gone through—how he had been her type and how it had all gone horribly wrong.

“Well, he was in town for the weekend, and Adam wanted to introduce me to him. I thought it was a big step.”

Her tears renewed, and she broke down on the phone.

It had been a big step. Adam adored John, and he had wanted them to be around each other. He had forced them around each other, but John had taken it too far. Chyna sniffled a few more times before continuing.

“The three of us went out and had a few drinks. I tried to be low-key and handle my liquor. I wanted to make an impression,” Chyna said, summarizing the weekend for Lexi in one swoop.

It didn’t matter how much time they had spent together because she had tried to be smart about it. She had tried to be smart about John, but she had found out that he hadn’t wanted that from the start.

She had certainly made an impression on him, but now, it was clear that it wasn’t the right one.

Chyna took a breath before speaking again. “John turned out to be very similar to Adam. I mean they’re brothers, what was I expecting? Well, you know Adam.

He’s just a really nice guy. And well, his brother was exceptionally charming that night.” God, he was so charming all weekend. “I mean...not that Adam isn’t charming, but—” She broke off, not wanting to finish that train of thought.

Adam was gone. He had walked out on her.

“No, I get it,” Lexi told her.

Chyna’s thoughts fluttered back to John and the kind of person he had been when in Chyna’s presence. Lexi needed to understand that. Chyna hadn’t meant for it to go as far as it did.

“Anyway, John knew the right thing to say about everything. He was an accomplished businessman. He’d traveled the world. His family adored him. He’s such a smooth talker, and by the end of the night, he had me eating out of his hands.”

She had been eating out of his hands all along, but tonight had been the worst.

The kiss with Nitya…the tattoos…when he kissed her. She shuddered, not wanting to think about it, but she knew she had to continue.

“Oh, Chyna, you didn’t...do anything with him, did you?” Lexi asked, clearly terrified of the answer.

“What?” Chyna snapped, knowing how offended she sounded. She hadn’t done anything! John had done everything! She had done the right thing by stopping it before it went any further. She had told Adam, yet he had still left her! “No! I wouldn’t do that to Adam! That’s the point. Argh! That’s the whole f**king point, chica!”