“I never said I was innocent,” she said a bit confused by the abrupt shift in the conversation.
“Yeah, but you sure try to act like you are.”
“Jack, you’ve lost me,” Lexi told him her brow scrunching together.
“I know what you’ve been up to this week.”
“Um…what have I been up to this week? The only thing I’ve been doing is exactly what you asked me to do. I spoke to Bekah about our relationship. I played the perfect part in your stupid charade. I went to the Country Club, Ramsey’s stupid party, your birthday…what more did you want from me? I gave you everything you could want from me. I tried to give you everything, and it seemed like it was going to work out, but now,” she drifted off, “I guess it doesn’t seem like enough.”
He laughed. He actually laughed at the last statement. Lexi’s mouth popped open in surprise unable to fathom why he was acting so impertinent. “You actually want me to believe that you gave me everything?”
“Compared to you giving me nothing, yes, I’d say I gave you everything,” she spat at him.
“You’re ridiculous, Lexi,” he said shaking his head. “You think I don’t know what you’ve been up to?”
“Well, I don’t know what I’ve been up to so why don’t you tell me,” she said completely baffled by this point. She had no idea what he was talking about. She had come here from New York at his request to convince his dumb girlfriend that he could commit. She didn’t exactly believe it herself, but she had tried. As far as she could tell, she had succeeded as well. Bekah seemed to believe that they were going to be together. And up until last night, when Jack had left her all alone feeling used and violated, she had been certain that Jack was actually going to leave Bekah for her.
“Go ahead, play coy with me. I know what you and Ramsey have been up to.”
That really threw her off guard. “What does Ramsey have to do with any of this?” she asked trying to follow his line of reasoning but coming up blank.
He nodded his head a few times. “You don’t have to try and play me like this, Lex. I know you, and I know what’s been going on.”
“Then please fill me in, because I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said walking to the front of his desk and taking a seat in one of the client chairs. She crossed her arms and legs simultaneously and waited for another outrageous response from him.
“You think I don’t know that you guys met before this?”
“Of course we met before this. I told you that as soon as I saw him at the Country Club that we met there when I came up here with Jennifer,” she told him still confused as to where this was going.
“Right, that was a pretty good act. When did you become such a good liar, Lexi?”
“If you tell me what I’m lying about, I might know, because as far as I can tell you are the only good liar in the room.”
“Come on, Lexi,” he cried. “Now, I didn’t think you would ever play me like this, but I can tell that you are now. How long have you guys been together? Has it been since New York?” he asked placing his hands on the desk and leaning forward towards her.
“We’re not together,” she stuttered in disbelief.
“Oh, right. You don’t do the commitment thing. Have you just been fucking?”
“Excuse me, I’m going to pass right over the very ridiculous accusation that Ramsey and I have been fucking,” Lexi said her face clouding over only slightly at the thought that she had almost done just that last night. “And step right up to the plate and take the hypocritical route, jackass.”
Jack stumbled a step as he walked around the corner of her desk. He glanced up at her cheeky comment in surprise. “Whatever, Lexi. I know that you know Ramsey from New York. And whether you’re fucking or not, I know you guys have been together. I saw you kiss at his party. I saw it again last night. I’m not stupid, alright? I can tell that there is something going on between you two.”
Lexi stared at him in awe. So that was why he had been so angry and rough with her the night before. He had somehow deluded himself into believing that she and Ramsey were together. It didn’t make sense to her, but she figured if he looked at it from only one side, it might look like that. However, that didn’t explain why he thought she had met Ramsey in New York. “What do you mean I know him from New York?”
“You don’t deny that you and Ramsey have something going on?” he asked ignoring her question.
“We don’t have anything going on, Jesus. We did kiss, but we’re not together. I don’t even understand how you could think that.”
“I don’t think that. I know that something is going on between ya’ll. You’ve been fucking with my mind since you got here.”
“Excuse me? You’re the one who has been flip-flopping the whole goddamned time I’ve been here. You come home early to see me. Then you’re an asshole to me at Ramsey’s party. Then you want to be with me again and you’re going to break things off with Bekah. After that we have sex, and you’re just another asshole all over again. What the fuck, Jack?” she asked demanding his attention.
“It’s only because you’ve been playing me the whole time that I keep changing,” he told her his blue eyes stormy.
“I have not been playing you!” she yelled at him. “And I don’t know Ramsey from anywhere.”
Jack laughed again. “You’re good. You know that?” Lexi sighed exasperated. “You and Ramsey met in the club the night we got back together in New York.”
Lexi glanced at him in surprise. Her heart raced in her chest at the faint memory of a night long ago. She had met someone in that club. In fact, she had almost gone home with that guy. A series of flashbacks took over her mind.
A man in an Armani suit buying her drinks and barely glancing at Chyna as he offered to take Lexi home. A faint memory of Ramsey saying they had met somewhere previously before they kissed on his balcony. The way he programmed her number into his phone as if he already had it in there. Ramsey somehow knowing she didn’t drink Jack Daniels or Sex on the Beach. How familiar his lack of personal space felt. The way he had touched her last night, as if he had been waiting to do that for much longer than the week he had known her.
Her stomach plummeted, shock radiating out of every pore. Could Ramsey be the elusive Armani Guy? She had lost all the numbers programmed into her phone, so when Ramsey had given her his number it wouldn’t have been in there. He must have known all along, and he hadn’t mentioned it to her.
“See you can’t even deny it,” he said shaking his head as if he hadn’t really believed it himself until her confirmation.
“How did you find out that I’d met him?” she asked.
“I remember Chyna talking to you about some guy from Armani calling you when we were together. I knew you were at the club where Ramsey was that night, because I was the one he was supposed to interview.” Lexi’s heart jumped again. Jack had been there that night. In fact, when she had seen a guy that looked like him, that actually could have been him. She couldn’t believe all of this. “I know you’ve been seeing each other since then. He told me about this woman he met once in New York a couple weeks ago. He didn’t even know he was talking about you, and, honestly, until I saw the two of you together last night, I wasn’t entirely sure myself.”
Lexi’s hand rushed to her mouth unable to believe what he was telling her. “I knew Ramsey in New York,” she murmured.
“So you admit it?”
“Yeah. I guess I do, but he never told me that he knew me,” she said still in a state of shock. Why wouldn’t he have told her? It wasn’t like she had given him some reason not to trust her. Sure, she hadn’t exactly been up front with him about her reasons for being in Atlanta, but she hadn’t considered that something like this would happen.