“Yes, I’m still here,” Lexi told him not able to keep herself from glaring.
“Can we talk?” he asked looking at least mildly apologetic.
“No,” she said turning from him and walking through the double doors. “Taxi please,” she told the attendant on duty.
“Come on, Lex,” Jack pleaded.
“Just don’t,” she said holding up her hand.
“Your cab, miss,” the attendant said as the yellow car pulled up in front of the colossal set of stairs.
“Thank you,” she said sliding into the seat as he opened the door for her.
“Lexi, you have to listen to me,” Jack said following her into the taxi.
“I’d rather not,” she said emotionless. She would be happier if she never saw Jack again, if she never had to hear his smooth voice or listen to his charming words. She would certainly be happier to go about the rest of her life knowing she had received the necessary closure she had so desperately been seeking while in Atlanta. “Get out of the cab,” Lexi demanded pointing her finger towards the door.
“Hartsfield-Jackson,” Jack said to the cab driver throwing a few twenties across the seat to keep him from opening his mouth.
Lexi glowered at him as the cabbie followed his instructions. “What the fuck is your problem? What are you even doing here? You have a fiancé inside. There is no need for this conversation. I got the gist of it with the diamond,” she growled.
Jack looked apologetically at the cab driver who was glancing backwards through the rearview mirror anxiously. “It’s not what you think, Lex.”
“First, don’t ever call me that again. I hate it,” she said crossing her arms over her chest. In fact, she had only ever liked it when Jack said it. The way it came out of his mouth made it sound so sexy. But that was the last thing she wanted now. “And second, waste your time with someone who wants to listen to you like your fiancé, or your secretary, or hell, even your apartment attendant. They all seem very interested in you.”
Jack colored slightly at the accusation, but, Lexi noted, he didn’t deny anything. “I know you probably never want to speak with me, but I can’t end it like this.”
“Oh, you can’t? Well, I don’t give a fuck. If you didn’t want it to end like this, then you wouldn’t have fucked me in the hallway at Turner Field less than twelve hours before proposing to someone else,” she said not caring that the cab driver or anyone else was listening.
“I know,” he said nodding his head.
“I don’t think you do or you would have taken the slap in the face to mean stay the fuck away from me like it was meant.”
“I told you I can’t leave it like this. I was blinded by my jealousy over you and Ramsey. I couldn’t even believe you when you said nothing was going on. We said we’d never lie, but neither of us trusts the other.”
Lexi kept that fact that he had been lying to her all along to herself. He would disagree with the statement and there was no need for him to try and convince her otherwise. He was right. She would never believe him. He wouldn’t have chosen Bekah over her in the end, if he had really wanted to be with her. He would have cut his loose ends. He would have tried to make it work. He would have loved her the way she deserved to be loved. No, he had lied all along and she could never trust his word again. It had been broken once before, when they had first begun, and she had been stupid to believe in him to this day.
“You don’t trust me, right?” he asked mournfully.
“Stupid question,” she quipped.
“Right. Well, I guess you have no reason to.”
“Yep,” she said popping the final sound and staring out across the city.
“I really couldn’t help it though.”
“Oh, this should be good,” she said sarcastically. “You’re going to tell me how you couldn’t help but propose. Wonderful!”
“No, I was going to propose. Can you just look at me, please, Lex?” he pleaded.
She turned and glared at him. “Do not call me that. Why did you string me along if you knew you planned on proposing?” she asked.
“Well, I knew before you got here that’s what I was planning to do, but then you showed up and I couldn’t think about doing that.”
“Then why the hell did you drag me down here? I was supposed to be here to convince Bekah you were ready to commit to her. You told me you wanted her off your back and that you had no intention of doing it. If you really were ready to commit, then why didn’t you just fucking tell her that and leave me out of it?”
“Because she found the ring,” he cried throwing his hands up in the air in defeat.
“I might hit you again if we continue talking about this,” she threatened.
“She found your ring,” he said more calmly.
“Yes, I fucking realize that moron. The ring that is now currently on her finger. The ring that was meant for my finger,” she said waving her left hand around in the air. “Is nothing sacred, Jack? Go ahead. Please try to explain to me how her finding my ring has anything to do with me being down here.”
“Because she flipped out and was shrieking, jumping up and down, going insane when she found it,” he told her deflecting the glares she was shooting his way, “and then I crushed her when I told her it wasn’t for her.”
“Guess you changed your mind,” she muttered angrily.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Jack, get out of the fucking cab,” she told him. “Sir, can you pull over right here?”
“Ma’am, we’re on the highway.”
“He can walk,” she told him.
“That’s illegal. I cannot let you out of the car until we are off the interstate,” he said zooming down highway 85 towards the airport.
“I’m not going anywhere anyway,” Jack told her.
“Then I’ll get out and hail another cab,” she told him turning back towards the window.
“Lexi, it’s a duplicate,” he told her reaching out and turning her head towards him. She yanked her face out of his reach.
“A...wait…what?” she asked staring in the blue pools of his eyes.
“A duplicate. I had another one made, because I couldn’t give her your ring,” he said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a rather familiar black box. He flipped the top up and Lexi stared down at the wedding ring he had almost given her once. It was as exquisite as she remembered with every detail cut to perfection.
“How do I know this isn’t the duplicate?” she asked staring down at the ring and knowing that no one could really duplicate this. The ring itself had an old timey appearance and was completely unlike anything else she had ever seen.
“Why would I go to the trouble of getting you a duplicate?”
“To cover your ass?” she guessed.
“No, to show you that, no matter what happens, you truly will always have a place in my heart,” he whispered tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The cab pulled into the line of traffic in front of the airport.
Lexi pulled her gaze up from the dazzling ring and met Jack’s look. “I appreciate the fact that you have one redeeming quality, Jack, but that is all it is. Just a hint of redemption with six years of disappointment.
“No matter what you do, it will never make up for what happened between us. I will never trust you. I will never again be comfortable around you. I will never look at you or think of you without considering the destruction you have train wrecked through my life.
“I wish you the very best in your future, because without you in my life I think I might finally have a future. And as angry as I am with what you have put me through, I am so very glad that we are now at this moment. This moment means I can move on to bigger and better things without you constantly weighing on my shoulders.
“I will never again turn a corner in New York terrified that I will run into you and even more terrified that I won’t. I can go into any coffee shop I want. I can hope for love again. A love that will be more than anything you ever attempted to give to me. Because the love I am looking for will be reciprocated one hundred and ten percent. There will never be another someone to distract our affections, because you will not be in the picture.