Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding #1)(3)
He chuckled a little at her reaction. "I told her that I could see myself marrying her, but that I didn't want to commit to it just yet especially since we had only been dating for a year and a half. Luckily, she took that as a positive answer and didn't break up with me. Then comes the part of the story where you come in."
"Me? I don't see how I could possibly come into a story about you marrying someone else. What we went through wasn't exactly marriage potential Jack. It's not like I can tell you what you should do in the situation," she said jumping the gun before she would let him ask for any advice.
"No, Lexi" he chuckled softly, "she wants to meet you."
This, however, was not something she had been prepared for. "Jack, I'm really confused here. I think I must have missed something. The girl that you are dating that you want to marry wants to meet me. Why? I'm so…insignificant," she said trying to be earnest and sincere. She couldn't even think about the different times her and Jack had tried to find the time to form some semblance of a relationship. Nothing had ever worked, and the last time… She stopped herself again from entertaining the thought. The hole that Jack had been left still ached when prodded, and she avoided irritating the wounded feeling that crept through her.
"Don't say that. You know you're not insignificant." She let silence settle between them not wanting to be the first to speak next. After awhile of listening to her breathe heavily, he spoke again. "Anyway, she got this idea in her head that she wants to meet every girl that I've dated for any significant amount of time. She wants to find out why I was unable to commit to them so that she can figure out why I'm not committing to her or so she thinks. And don't go saying that this doesn't apply to you either because we didn't date. I never mentioned you to her, but she heard about you from Kate."
Lexi recoiled at the mention of Jack's ex-girlfriend. "So by the way you say that, I'm guessing you actually went through with this insane decision. You are letting this girl pick and pry through your past just so that you don't have to commit to marrying her right now?" This was low…even for him.
"It's not like that," he stated defensively. "I let her talk to them, because I wanted to show her that I had nothing to hide. Well when Kate mentioned you and I didn't, you can guess that she wasn't terribly happy."
Lexi help nodding even though she knew that he couldn't see her. Of course, she wouldn't be happy. Any female would be unhappy with the description Kate had probably bestowed upon her. Knowing the way Kate felt about her, it probably went along the lines of temptress, devious, manipulative, conniving, two-faced whore with a few added expletives just for good measure. "So Kate told her what happened which is how she got my name, but we were never um…together," she said not certain if that was the correct word.
"She doesn't seem to care. She seems to think that since I didn't tell her about you, that you somehow must hold all the answers as to why I am the way that I am. I tried to tell her that the last I had seen or heard from you had been before we'd even started dating. This girl is almost as persistent as I am though. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I need you Lex," he said using his pet name for her. "I need you to meet Bekah and convince her that I'm worth keeping around."
Lexi rolled her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. She didn't even want to consider whether or not he was worthkeeping around. But, nonetheless, she mulled the idea over. She was, in fact, overdue for an Atlanta trip to visit her family, but she had never had the intention of seeing Jack, especially not if that included being forced to parade around with his fiancé-to-be while explaining their history. Pass on that. "You've failed to explain how any of this is my problem," she stated as firmly as possible. "It's not like I can just dash away from my busy schedule to take a wonderful jaunt in the park with you and your girlfriend or fiancé-to-be or whatever the hell she is. I have other things to do. I'm kind of busy or have you forgotten?"
She could practically feel him cringe through the phone. "I know you're busy, but I thought that maybe since school hadn't started, you might be able to take some time to come down and visit."
"Actually, I got an internship for the summer. I have been working my ass off trying to save up for my last year. I don't even know if they would let me have the time off. I've never seen anyone take time off, and I don't particularly want to be the first one," she stated telling only a partial truth. The other three interns had all taken time off throughout the program, but it had been at the beginning before things had really started to pick up. Lately, no one had had time to breathe let alone think of taking a weekend rendezvous out of the state. She may have had nothing planned for the day aside from her haircut, but that hardly kept her from being on call.
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize," he said quietly. "I guess I'll just have to tell her that you weren't able to take time off. Just, please let me know if you happen to change your mind. It really would help me out immensely."
He was always so good at making her feel bad for not making the decision that was of the greatest benefit to him. "I'd really like to help," she said, lying through her teeth. "There's just no way. I can't get the time off, and even if I could, there's no way I could afford a plane ticket down there," she said off-hand.