As discreetly as she could manage, Lexi pushed back her chair, walked around the outside of the circular tables, and slipped out the back entrance. Leaving the overcrowded room filled with expectations nearly made her dizzy. She breathed in the restaurant air and headed quickly for the bathroom. Lexi pushed open the door and walked quickly to the mirror. She stared forward at her reflection and sighed heavily. To a stranger she would appear all but flawless, but Lexi could tell that she was off. Her tan skin was too pale and if she looked too closely had a tint of green from where she had felt sick. Her lips were pursed in distaste. Some small beading of sweat was splattered across her hair line and under her nose. She snatched a paper towel out of the dispenser and quick blotted her face dry. She wasn't any more satisfied with her reflection, but it didn't matter.
Taking a deep breath, she did the one thing that she could think of even though she knew this wasn't going to be good for her either. She picked up her phone and dialed Chyna's number. The line was eerily quiet for a Friday night when Chyna answered. "Hey chica," Chyna said happily into the phone. Lexi had no idea what was going on. Last she had checked, Chyna was normally out partying and drinking every weekend since she had returned from Milan. Lexi couldn't understand why she would be somewhere quiet already.
"Chyna, it's so good to talk to you," Lexi said more exhausted and desperate than she had intended.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Chyna asked dreamily seeming to read her mood. Lexi quickly filled her in on the situation at hand. She told her about Jack doubting the wedding, about the bachelorette party, about Ramsey having been with Maddie, about him agreeing to this company with Parker. Chyna listened the whole time without a word. Lexi didn't know what to make of it. After she finished, Chyna sighed heavily. "You're determined to get yourself in trouble aren't you?"
Lexi paused and actually thought about what her friend was saying. She kind of was determined to get herself in trouble. Why was she always in these miserable situations? Was it more her fault than anything? She didn't want to contemplate it. There was too much to think about. "I guess so."
"I knew this would happen," Chyna said with a dramatic sigh. "I told you not to go see him, not to go to this wedding."
"I know."
"You know but you don't listen. You never listen Alexa," she said exasperated.
Lexi knew she was right, but it didn't make it any easier to hear. "I guess."
"No, you know," Chyna chided her. "You know he's bad for you or at least that he lied to you on multiple occasions just like you knew that Jack was a philandering ass. You let these guys use you up until there's so little of you left I can't even find my best friend." Lexi nodded mournfully even though she knew that Chyna couldn't see her. "It's worse this time because you know better. Ramsey is not Jack and yet you allowed him to do this to you all the same."
"I know Chyna," Lexi said sadly. "I know I did."
"Now you can't just walk away from it all. You put yourself in this position and you are going to get yourself out of it. Do you love him?" she asked abruptly throwing Lexi off guard.
"Yes," she answered without taking the second to think about it.
Chyna sighed again, but different this time. She seemed almost resigned to Lexi's inflexibility, to her determination when it came to men that were bad for her, men that she allowed to hurt her. "Then you can't run away from this Alexa."
"I wasn't…"
"Yes you were! Don't you dare lie to me!" Chyna said barely raising her voice but somehow making it more commanding than Lexi had ever heard before. "You were calling me for a way out. Well I don't have one. You need to talk to him! You need to get your answers. Just don't do it like you did with Jack last year."
"I wouldn't…it's not the same," Lexi said meekly.
"No it's not," Chyna agreed willingly. "You're not infatuated with Ramsey. The element of obsession is out of the picture which might be the best thing that could happen for you. If you really love him and not the way with Jack where he infects your very being, then you need to clear the air. At least then you'll never have to wonder. You'll never have to think about what it could have been."
Lexi knew she was right…hated to admit that she was right. She wanted to run. She wanted to high tail it in the opposite direction and not look back. The last thing she wanted to do was face down the man that she loved to find out once and for all why he had done this to her. Why he continued to lie to her. Why he continued to put her second best in his life. She wanted to be the strong confident woman that she knew she could be, but it was so difficult. The thought of confronting all of her fears left her frantic.
"I can practically hear your brain working over the line. What are you going to do?" Chyna asked.
Lexi sighed heavily circling the rather clean bathroom. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to fly back to New York and binge on chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with her best friend for the next couple days. But she also knew what she needed to do. She needed to stay and see this thing out. Wasn't that the whole reason she had gone through all this mess this week to begin with?
It wasn't going to be like the time with Jack. She couldn't possibly imagine Ramsey doing anything so terrible as proposing to Parker or something equally as ridiculous. She didn't trust Parker. She didn't particularly prefer them to be together, but Lexi didn't think they were at that stage. If there were any more secrets that she didn't know about, she wasn't sure how she would be able to handle it. But she knew now that she had to handle it.
"I'm going to stay," Lexi said with a note of finality in her decision.
Chyna let out a deep breath. "Thank God. I don't have to cancel the airlines tickets."
Lexi laughed at that statement. Chyna had so much money that she would probably just never get around to canceling the tickets. She wasn't concerned with that at all. However, this was the first Lexi had heard about her having airline tickets. "Where are you going?"
"Atlanta silly. You thought I was going to make you go through that wedding alone?" Chyna asked as if this was the most ridiculous thing she had ever considered.
"You're coming here?" Lexi asked loving how well her best friend knew her.
"Yes, well, I guess I should tell you the news," Chyna said almost hesitantly. Lexi waited anxiously for Chyna to explain. "Adam and I are kind of trying to be more serious again," she almost whispered.
Lexi's stomach dropped straight out of her body. She gulped hard taken off guard by the sudden revelation from her friend. Her and Adam had decided not to date once she had gone to Milan, and Lexi had more or less thought it was over between them. Chyna clearly still had a thing for him even if she hadn't admitted it, but she hadn't thought they had been seeing each other since they had been back. Chyna had been back to her old self of partying and random guys every couple nights. "Re…really?" she stammered out. "When…uh when did you guys start talking again?"