Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(129)

All she knew was that she had to talk to Ramsey, and she had to talk to him now. Waiting around for over a week had been a terrible mistake. All her emotions were like a shaken up bottle of coke ready to explode at a seconds notice. The confirmation of the facts from Brandon had just solidified her determination which she had been lacking before. She hadn't been able to face him, because she wasn't sure if she could believe Parker's tale. Even though Lexi knew it was impossible to truly fake the kind of emotions Parker displayed, she still hadn't wanted to believe her. Then Brandon had said, albeit in a more concise fashion, the exact same story. Now she knew she had to talk to him. Though it didn't mean that she was dreading it any less.

She wished, not for the first or last time that summer, that Chyna was still in the country. She would know what to do and say in that moment. She would know how to calm Lexi down and how to approach the situation. But she didn't have her best friend there for her now. She still had a couple weeks before she returned from Milan. So Lexi was on her own. She would have to face down her demons all on her own.

Taking a deep breath, Lexi punched in the code to the back entrance that Ramsey had given her and stepped through the large black door. She trudged down the long hallway and stood in front of his closed office door. Staring at the big door for awhile didn't give her any more motivation to push through it. She knew she needed answers, but her stomach was in knots at the prospect of what was to come. Pushing back her hair a few times to calm her nerves, Lexi knocked twice and then opened the door to Ramsey's office.

Ramsey turned around sharply at the interruption. His eyes were narrowed and he looked furious at the distraction until he realized who was standing before him. "Lexi!" he said with surprise jumping to his feet. "What a surprise! I didn't think you would be here until after work."

"Honestly I hadn't planned on coming at all," she told him stepping into the room and pushing the heavy door closed behind her.

Ramsey stopped in his tracks and examined her more closely. Her hands were shaking at her sides. The black circles under her eyes were more pronounced, and she looked as if she might have been crying earlier. She had already tucked nonexistent strands of hair behind her ear three times since walking through the door. She couldn't even stop biting her bottom lip. "Why not? What's wrong?"

Lexi's eyes dropped to the floor. "I need to talk to you."

"Are you breaking up with me?" he whispered into the room. Those words alone sounded like heartbreak coming out of his mouth. It was almost too much for Lexi to bear to hear.

"No," she said quickly. "Well I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" he asked sitting down heavily on the corner of his desk. "Tell me what's wrong. How could you not know something like that?"

"It…it all depends on how you answer my next question," she whispered letting her eyes drag upwards and meet his very confused green-gold eyes.

"I'll answer anything," he said desperately.

Lexi took a deep breath to calm her hammering heart. "What is your relationship with Parker?"

"What?" he asked standing at the mention of Parker's name.

"You heard me," Lexi whispered.

"Parker?" he asked. Lexi nodded. "We've already had this discussion Lexi. I told you over spring break what my relationship is with Parker."

"Let me rephrase. What was your relationship with Parker?" she asked directing his attention to the past tense.

Ramsey ran his hand back through his hair and a small blush crept up onto his cheeks. "What are you driving at Lexi?"

"Just the truth. That's all I want," she told him resting her hands against the chair in front of her to steady herself.

"The truth?" he asked hesitantly. "Well we slept together. I told you that, but there's nothing going on between us now. I promise."

Lexi hung her head. "I believe you. I don't think anything is going on now."

"Well then what's the problem?" he asked moving towards her and grabbing her hands from the top of the chair. "I'm not cheating on you Lexi, if that's what you think."

"I didn't accuse you of cheating me," she said angrily pulling her hands from his.

"Alright," he said miffed. "What are you accusing me of?" He threw his hands up in the air and walked back to his desk.

"Isn't it quite obvious?" she demanded.

"If it was, wouldn't I have already guessed it."

"You're lying to me!" she yelled more forcefully than she had even realized she was going to say it. She had bottled all of her emotions up so much that she could feel everything begin to explode out of her. She was furious with him. How dare he stand there and even try and tell her that nothing happened with Parker…that they had just slept together. It was obvious to everyone that there had been something more, and now she had been told by two people that that was the case…three if she included Jessie. He didn't even have the balls to tell her the truth about that.

"What am I lying about?" he asked her snapping his head around to look at her.

"You and Parker dated! You were together for years, high school and college sweethearts. You were in love with her. You were going to marry her," Lexi said letting the truth spill out of her. Ramsey remained silent waiting for whatever else she was going to say. "Parker told me herself. How could you think that you could just keep that from me? All of that time you've told me that you never dated anyone that you never loved anyone, but it was all a lie. I'm not special to you. She was special to you. You couldn't even tell me that to my face. You had to hide it. I don't know why you thought I wouldn't find out. Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"