“Alexa, sweetie, are you okay?” Chyna asked placing her hand on Lexi’s forehead which was already clammy to the touch. “You look really sick all of a sudden. Do we need to get out of here?”
“No, s…s…sorry. He just looks like this guy I used to have a thing with,” she mumbled recovering.
“That Jack guy you were telling me about?” Chyna asked bluntly.
“Yeah. Jack. He strongly resembles him.”
“If he looks anything like this guy, then he’s probably sexy,” Chyna couldn’t keep herself from mentioning as she took another glance at the Jack look-a-like.
Lexi managed a half-smile. “Yeah, he is sexy, but I just…I don’t know. I haven’t really seen him in awhile, and I haven’t been thinking about him much either. It caught me off guard.”
She was lying of course. She thought about him every time she walked around in New York. There were so many dark haired men in blue shirts. It was disconcerting. Not to mention the enormous amount of coffee shops. She was expecting to walk into the store one day, and there he would be standing behind the counter, handing her black coffee, while she studied for her tests. But college was over, and Jack wasn’t in New York. Jack wasn’t in her life. She didn’t have time to talk with anyone, especially Jack. She could lose herself in conversations with Jack for hours if she let herself. Law school didn’t exactly permit that kind of freedom. No, Jack was part of her past, and she needed to accept that. She couldn’t keep letting herself get so worked up over some guy in a club who resembled him.
“Well, don’t think about him. There’s no need to when you have so many other men to choose from,” Chyna said, speaking like a person who would never have a real relationship. Not that Lexi was one to talk. Her and Jack had never really been functional.
“You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”
“I know it, chica, but you can keep telling me. If you don’t want him, I’m going to go see if I can get my obligatory drink and dance out of him. I’ll find you someone to kiss when I get back,” she said prancing off after Mr. Blue Shirt.
Lexi slumped back against the sofa and massaged her aching temples. She hated that she kept having these ridiculous reactions all the time. She had always been such a strong and independent woman that this gut reaction in regards to Jack was driving her mad. Flashes of him touching and kissing her kept cascading through her vision. Memories of long lost afternoons tucked away in his sheets, wrapped up in his arms as they talked the day away, enjoying each other’s company…forgetting that there was a whole other reality that they were supposed to be living in. Those days haunted her day in and day out for the terrible things she had done to the people that cared for them. But even through her despair, she still missed him. She still craved him. He was still on her mind.
Even as she risked massive intoxication, she thought of him. But at least then it didn’t matter, because she wouldn’t remember it in the morning. That’s the state she was hoping to obtain, when she suddenly stood to patrol for a willing donor to her cause. Her eyes traveled the length of the bar as if she were checking out merchandise on a clothing rack. Her head tilted slightly as one attractive man replaced another in a stool before deciding to proceed.
He was tall…really tall and blonde. Two things she rarely went for, but then again she wasn’t searching for a date. She was searching for someone to get her hammered, and this guy fit the bill. She knew an Armani suit when she saw one, thanks to Chyna’s scale of men’s approved clothing, and this guy was wearing one. That was a step in the right direction.
Lexi sauntered purposely towards his side of the bar. “Oh,” she squealed, her heel conveniently faltering right as she passed him. He reached out to steady her, making sure she wouldn’t fall. She placed her hand on his chest resting it there long enough to feel the definition under the soft material. His hands were firmly planted on her hips as she righted herself in the four inch Manolos Chyna had forced on her feet. “I am so sorry. I just can’t seem to keep my balance in these things,” she purred.
“It’s no problem,” he said still holding onto her hips. “Did you twist you ankle or anything? Did you need to sit down?”
Lexi paused sucking her bottom lip in between her teeth and giving him a doe-eyed expression as if she were contemplating the question. “I’m not sure,” she conceded.
“Here. Take my seat. Do you need ice or something?” he asked not taking his eyes off of her as she slid past him and occupied his stool.
“Oh no, I think if I just sit a minute, I should be fine.”
“At least let me get you a drink,” he said flashing her an award-winning smile.
Lexi giggled checking that off her list. “That’d be great.”
“What’s your guilty pleasure?” he asked, his voice laced with seduction. “You seem like a Sex on the Beach kind of girl.” Lexi blanched at the words. Sex on the beach. No, she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Jack. “Or are you more of a whiskey girl. I hear a Southern accent in there. Did you want a SoCo or a Jack and Coke?”
Lexi gulped hard. This guy was supposed to be helping her forget Jack. Not continuing to bring him up even if it was an accident, even if he had no idea who Jack was. She sighed and pushed the thoughts out of her head. He was flirting with her, and if she had been in a different mood, then the comments might not have bothered her. She needed to just relax and know that he wasn’t attempting to make her stomach knot.
From the way his green eyes were boring into her brown ones, she could tell that was certainly not on his mind. He had the look of a guy who always got what he wanted. His head tilted in a way that was almost a poker tell on him. He was thinking that this was going to be easy, and soon enough he would be heading out of here with her drunken ass on his arm. Even as drunk as she was feeling, she wasn’t prepared to lose herself in some guy. She couldn’t do that while her mind was clouded with Jack Howard.
“Shots,” she yelled over the music that escalated in the room.
“Do you care what of?”
“Anything but Jack,” she stated firmly.
He smirked at her answer, and then nodded his head. A minute later two shots were placed before them. More replaced that round and then another round after that. Lexi melted into Armani Guy as all thoughts seeped out of her mind. The alcohol was taking a toll on her tiny body, and she was very pleased with herself for accomplishing her mission so quickly.
“So,” she slurred, “what do you do?”
Armani Guy looked at her glazed eyes and leaned in closer to answer her. “Live off a trust right now.”
“Oh?” Lexi asked dryly, immediately unimpressed. She never understood why people didn’t work themselves. Who cares if your parents left you a fortune? She one hundred percent believed in making your own way in life.
“Yeah. Not really my thing, but it helped me when I was in a pinch,” he answered shrugging nonchalantly.
“Well, what are you doing here, Mr. Trust?” she asked giggling at her alcohol infused humor.
“Daddy’s work,” he said coldly. “Just trying to get a feel on a guy they’re thinking of interviewing for a job, and he’s in New York. I happened to already be in New York. It was a win-win for them.”
“Oh,” she said nodding along as if she cared. “Where are you supposed to be meeting this guy?”
“Here, actually. I tend to feel more comfortable in clubs, but he hasn’t showed yet,” he said his eyes leaving her for the first time to scan the VIP area one more time. “Guess he got caught up.”