“So, as sad as this day is for me, as I am losing a part of myself with the loss of you, it is really just the beginning for me. It is like cutting off the spoiled part to get to the juicy center. So, I would appreciate it this time, if you did not try and contact me. Because, as I’m sure you know, I deserve much better. I want everything this time around, and I deserve it,” she said holding her head high as the cab came to a stop in front of the airport terminal. “Take him back to Bridges Enterprise,” Lexi commanded stepping out of the cab.
“Lex,” Jack called hopping out of the cab.
“Don’t call me that,” she cried turning around and facing him. As always Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was crowded with thousands of people destined to travel all around the world. Families were huddled together hugging, kissing, and saying their farewells to their relatives. Lovers were embracing as they came and went through the sliding glass doors. Business men and women carrying similar black luggage took hurried steps around the slower passengers. A few heads had turned at Lexi’s exclamation, but she was beyond caring.
“Fine. Lexi,” he said taking a more hesitant step closer.
“What do you want? Because all I want is you finally out of my life,” she spat at him.
“I know, and I’ll get out of your life. I’ll let you live yours. Can I make one last request?” he pleaded.
“Take, take, take. That’s all you do. What more could you want?” she beseeched him.
“Just a final farewell,” he said taking another step towards her.
“No,” she said her voice hitching as his hands reached out and lovingly cupped the sides of her face. “Jack, no. You are engaged,” she whispered.
“Just a good-bye. That’s all,” he implored.
His head dipped down slowly. Lexi felt as if she were watching him in slow motion as he descended towards her. She could almost feel the taste of his lips as energy radiated out of every pore. Her skin was on fire and she could feel her body impulsively reacting to his touch. Her eyes stared deeply into the cerulean orbs entrancing her.
Her heart remembered every moment she had given into him like this. She remembered her head feeling dizzy and light headed. Her heart racing along at a sprinter’s speed. Her eyes glazing over with desire and fluttering closed in anticipation. Her lips quivering as she wet them waiting for them to be covered with his own. Her cheeks flushing with warmth and desire. A wonderful ringing sound filling her ears.
She could remember every sensation she had ever felt with Jack in that instant as he demanded one last thing from her.
One last kiss good-bye.
As he was about to touch her lips to his own, she took a step backwards and smiled serenely. “Good-bye, Jack,” she said turning on her heel, walking through the sliding glass doors, and leaving him behind.
She felt as if she were walking on clouds as she ventured out towards the hanger where the private jet was located. All she had was her purse. No Jack. No weight on her shoulders. She felt as if she was breathing in new air. Her mind was buzzing with possibilities. Her feet carried her out to the hanger and across the cement tarmac to the waiting plane. As she approached, she noticed someone waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
The closer she got the more she realized that the person wasn’t dressed in a uniform of any sort. She knew the person standing there waiting for her. Her heart sped up in anticipation of what was to come. The lightweight feeling she had experienced left her with the prospect that she had one more conversation ahead of her before she left for home, one more conversation that she didn’t want to have.
“I’m glad I didn’t miss you,” Ramsey said walking confidently to her side and enveloping her in a hug. She sighed into his chest and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist. “Chyna told me this is where you’d be.”
Bekah and Jack’s words rang clear in her mind. At least one thing was certain, she had known Ramsey previously. The more she thought on that the more she realized that he had to be Armani Guy. She knew it was ridiculous to even consider since it was such a strange coincidence. But it would be even stranger if he happened to know things about her like he had since she got here. The thought that he was Bekah’s pawn in a game she was playing to hold onto Jack was harder to believe, but it certainly would explain a large majority of his actions.
Ramsey pulled back leaving only a rather small space between them, as usual ignoring any means of personal space. “You look different,” he mused out loud.
“Do I?” she questioned.
“I don’t know what it is,” he admitted.
“Bad?”
“You could never look bad.”
“Cut the act,” she said turning her head to the side, away from his endearing green eyes.
“I’m not acting. After the way you left my apartment last night, you look like a new woman. It’s very becoming,” he said eyeing her up and down.
“Well, thank you, but there is no need for your charade any longer,” she said taking a step back.
In typical Ramsey fashion, he followed her in a synchronized dance. “Why do you keep saying that?” he asked his eyebrows scrunching together.
“I know what’s been going on. They told me everything,” she said running her fingers through her hair and sweeping a strand behind her ear.
“They? Bekah and Jack?” he asked and watched her confirmation. “Those bastards.”
“So, it’s true?” she asked taking a step back in pure shock. She hadn’t really believed it until she looked into his face. For some demented purpose, he had played her. But it didn’t explain what he was doing here. “If it is true, then what are you even doing here?”
“If you don’t want to see me any longer, I would understand, but know that I still want to see you, Lexi. I didn’t know when I saw you again at the Country Club that you were my Alexa, but I figured it out pretty quick,” he told her using her first name rather possessively.
“I wanted to tell you, but there was never a right time, and I thought you might think less of me. I wasn’t really in a good place at that time of my life. I thought you would just see me as that guy who had gotten you drunk and tried to take you back to his place. And I knew you were better than that. I wanted to be that other guy for you,” he said rambling on like the first time when she had spoken to him outside of the bathroom at the Country Club.
“I don’t care about the fact that we knew each other that night. I was just using you to forget,” she steered clear of Jack’s name, “forget everything anyway.” Ramsey’s face changed in that moment. It was as if his worries about slipping up had fallen off of his shoulders. He even appeared taller which was really awkward for Lexi who already had to strain her neck to look up at him since he never left more than six inches between them.
“But they did tell you about that? I mean that would be it, right?”
“Sure, Jack told me that. I had the pieces in my mind already but I hadn’t knit them together. And I guess your explanation makes sense, but I would have rather you told me the truth.”
“You’re big on truth, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she stated simply thinking about how lying and deceit had ruined her life.
“Now that that is out of the way. When can I see you again?” he asked his full-watt smile reaching all the way up to his eyes.
She shook her head in disbelief. “Never. You’re a player, and you played me.” She tried to move around him to the stairs of the plane, but he reached out and grabbed her arm. He spun her around until she was facing him again.
“I…what?” he asked his lips parted and eyes stormy. “I’ve never played you.”