Avoiding Temptation

by K. A. Linde

  “Bekah and Jack’s divorce,” Parker told him.

  “Ah…the Bitch,” he said, nodding.

  “We were just discussing what we thought the real reason was for Bekah divorcing Jack,” Lexi said, smirking at his comment.

  “Lexi doesn’t think that Jack cheated,” Parker said.

  “Because Jack would never do anything wrong,” he said sarcastically.

  “He didn’t cheat on her,” Lexi repeated.

  “So, what’s your theory then, honey?” Brandon crooned.

  Her theory? Eesh. It was probably not the best time for any of that, but they were both staring at her now.

  “Personally, I think Bekah put in all the effort in the beginning while they were dating. She saw it as a competition. She saw it as just another way to win. She did everything…and I mean, everything to keep Jack, even when it was pretty clear that no one else knew why. Then, they got married, and she won,” Lexi said softly. “So, she had nothing left to fight for. Jack started putting in the effort to make the marriage work…to salvage the heap of shit that they walked into. She had nothing left to put effort into though.”

  Parker and Brandon stared back at her in surprise. Neither of them spoke.

  “The game was over.”

  Chyna latched on to Lexi’s arm as she stumbled forward. “You will not believe the things Adam can do with his tongue.”

  “I don’t have any desire to know what he can do, Chyna,” Lexi grumbled.

  “No, seriously, Alexa.” Chyna giggled as they walked forward out of the restaurant.

  “Please spare me the details of your love life.”

  “I never had to spare you the details before. You’re getting boring now that you have a job,” Chyna complained.

  “Boring? Are you kidding me right now?”

  “I can’t help it if your job and boy toy are turning you all domesticated. When you’re with me, chica, you get raunchy details, and we’re going to party like you never left. Have to make up for the lost time,” Chyna said just as her driver opened the door to her town car.

  They both stepped into the onyx car, and he closed the door.

  “So, we’re supposed to be meeting Adam at the usual spot. He’s already on his way,” Chyna informed her.

  At the moment, it seemed she had forgotten about the story she was telling. Lexi was happy to allow her to forget. She leaned her head back against the black leather interior and sighed. It was so nice to be back in New York. She knew so many people who liked the city, but they needed to be far enough away in the suburbs, in the country, out in the fucking cornfields to feel like they could breathe. But Lexi felt the exact opposite. It was like the three years that she had lived here had been instilled into her very existence. Atlanta was a big city, but it had a different energy than New York. And through the smog, the traffic, the noise, the smoke, and the waste—she felt like she could breathe. Every time she visited, it felt more like coming home than it did when she went back down South.

  Chyna’s driver pulled up in front of the club they always frequented, and they glided out. A mile-long line was already wrapped around the building, and Lexi was reminded of the first night when she had met Chyna. Lexi had been one of those girls waiting to enter the club, and Chyna had yanked her out of line after Lexi had bitched her out. Lexi had been sure Chyna had heard it a million times before, but it had been different somehow. And now, they were best friends and had been for four years.

  The bouncer recognized Chyna in an instant, and he swished back the rope to let her in. Lexi heard the venomous threats sent their way as both girls squeezed through the door and into the crowded nightclub. They took the stairs to the VIP lounge on the top floor where Chyna winked at the bouncer as he smacked her ass to let her through. Lexi only shook her head. Chyna would always be Chyna.

  Chyna pointed out Adam across the room, and they veered toward him. As they approached, they saw another body plant two drinks down before turning to look at the girls. A smirk crossed his face, and Lexi could see those hazel eyes staring straight through her in that moment. He was too damn attractive for his own good.

  “What is he doing here?” Chyna asked, crinkling her nose.

  “I don’t know. Adam probably invited him.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “I don’t talk to him,” Lexi told her.

  Except when she had to talk to him, when he was helping with the medical wing. She saw him at least once a week, but it wasn’t the same. He knew way too much about her life, and she had no clue who was filling him in.

  “Must have been Adam then,” Chyna grumbled. “If he fucks with my buzz, I will end him.”

  Lexi laughed and continued behind Chyna toward Adam and John. Chyna rushed right over to Adam, who promptly stood and wrapped her up in his arms. Lexi smiled at her friend. She was so happy for them. It was nice to see Chyna in some sort of a normal relationship. They had been going steady for over a year and a half, excluding their short time apart. Lexi knew a bit too much about what had happened when Chyna had been in Milan to completely discount that time, but neither of the girls tended not to bring that up.

  “Hey, babe,” John said, standing and offering Lexi a seat.

  “Hey,” Lexi said softly.

  “Vodka cranberry, right?” John said, shifting past her.

  His hand brushed against her arm as he passed, and she shivered.

  “Yeah. How did you know?”

  He just smirked at her once more. “Chyna, dirty martini?”

  Chyna glared at him. “Go fuck yourself.”

  “I’m not really into that.”

  “I bet your hand gets a pretty good workout,” she grumbled.

  Adam tapped her lightly on the arm and whispered in her ear.

  John just shook his head. Lexi could read all the thoughts swirling through his mind. She remembered what had gone down between John and Chyna so long ago. Chyna had a hard time letting go of grudges. It was clear the grudge with John was still perfectly intact.

  “Dirty martini, it is,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He reached out and squeezed Lexi’s hand, his thumb running along her palm, before he walked away.

  “I wouldn’t let him touch you, Alexa. Don’t know what you might catch,” Chyna said, glaring after him.

  “Chyna, back off. Jesus!” Adam said, pushing her into a seat. “He’s still my brother.”

  “And he’s still disgusting. Why did you invite him here tonight?”

  “I was hoping you would be able to grow up for one night,” he shot back.

  Chyna shrugged. “I guess not.”

  Adam shook his head and took a seat next to her. “You’re insufferable. It’s a good thing I really fucking love you.”

  “You mean that I really fucking love you,” she shot back, almost as a challenge.

  “If you guys start making out, I’m leaving,” Lexi said, plopping down next to Chyna.

  Chyna shrugged. “Where’s your boy toy tonight anyway?”

  “I already told you that he had to work.”

  The new medical wing was set to open in just two months’ time, and Ramsey was working around the clock. Considering that fact, Lexi was a little surprised that John was here at all. Lately, he had been in Atlanta nearly as often or maybe even more than he had been in New York.

  “That blows. It would have been nice to sit here and watch Ramsey beat John for eye-fucking you when we walked in,” Chyna said.

  “He was not eye-fucking me!”

  Chyna rolled her eyes. “Whatever, chica.”

  “Chyna, your phone is ringing,” Adam said, holding up the small clutch in his hand.

  “Ugh! Who is calling me at this hour?” she demanded. She fished out the small phone and stared down at the number. “That’s strange.”

  “What?” Lexi asked.

  “It’s international.”

  “Is your mom abroad or something?”

  “My mother doesn’t call me,” Chyna said,
staring down at the number curiously.

  “Just answer it,” Adam told her.

  Chyna shrugged and pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

  All of the color drained out of her face in the split second it took for the person on the other end of the phone to respond. Lexi had never seen Chyna look so mortified in her life. There might have been a twinge of green to her face in that moment.

  “What the fuck do you want?” she demanded, her voice like ice.

  Lexi and Adam both stared at her very carefully. Adam rested his hand on her thigh. Neither of them knew what was happening on the other end of that call.

  “Are you fucking serious right now? It’s been a year! A motherfucking year! And you have the audacity to call me after what you fucking did to me!” she nearly screamed into the line. Chyna stood up swiftly and started yelling louder, “You fucking blacklisted me, Marco! I haven’t had a goddamn modeling job in a year!”

  Lexi’s and Adam’s eyebrows rose in equal proportion. Marco. Now that was a name Lexi had not heard in a long time. He was the illustrious fashion designer and photographer that Chyna had worked for and become lovers with during last summer when she had been in Milan. He had made her a supermodel and had taken it all away when she had left him high and dry, taking the million-dollar dress she had worn at her spotlight gala with her. Their falling-out had shaken Chyna’s world after he had blacklisted her from the modeling world for theft.

  “No,” Chyna said icily. “You got the dress. I got the boxes of goodies you shipped me. I got everything! The answer is fuck no.”

  Chyna had called Lexi one day last fall, crying her eyes out over a box from Marco that had shown up at her house. Apparently, it had every article of clothing she had ever worn at a shoot for him, every sex tape, all of the rolls of pictures, and then everything she had left in Milan. The only thing missing had been the million-dollar dress.

  Two weeks later, a giant desk had shown up in her apartment. Chyna had thought that Frederick had it imported without her knowledge, but then she had realized that, in fact, it was from Milan. It was a desk from the dressing room in the opera house where she had been the star of a gala. Lexi didn’t want to know how much that had cost. The guy was fucking crazy.

  Lexi hadn’t really wanted to know the next part, but a nude picture of Chyna had shown up at her doorstop every Friday for three months. But as far as Lexi knew, Chyna had never actually spoken with Marco. Then, in March, everything had just stopped, and Chyna hadn’t heard from him again…until now.

  “I don’t give a shit about fashion week. I don’t give a shit about your fucking company. I left you, remember? And then, you fucked me over. Even Corsa, who had already offered me a job, rescinded her offer…so fuck you, Marco. Go fuck with someone else’s life. It looks like Ravenna is enjoying it,” Chyna said, throwing out the name of the girl that Marco had replaced her with.

  There was silence for another minute.

  “No. I’m done with this conversation. I don’t care if you say you’ll lift the blacklist, you motherfucker. I will never work for you again—not at fashion week, not in Milan, not anywhere. Get it through your head, and stop acting so desperate,” she growled out.

  Then, she pressed the End button and tossed the phone back on the table. She was still standing…and she was shaking. Lexi didn’t know if she was shaking from rage or embarrassment or sadness because she’d had to give up her career a second time over the same man.

  “Chyna,” Lexi said softly, reaching out to try to comfort her friend.

  “What’s going on?” John asked, appearing at that moment with a wary expression on his face and the girls’ drinks in his hands.

  “That motherfucker messed with my buzz,” she growled. “Gimme.”

  She reached her hand out for the dirty martini in John’s hand, and he promptly offered up.

  “I’m going to need like ten more of these. ’Kay, thanks.”

  “Chyna,” Adam said gingerly, standing next to her.

  Chyna had already started downing her drink.

  “What was that all about?”

  He plucked the drink out of her hand, and she glared at him.

  Lexi was pretty sure they both knew what that had been about. Chyna had made it pretty clear while shouting back at Marco. Luckily, the club was packed, and the VIP lounge was equally as crowded. Only a few people had stared over at them while Chyna had berated Marco for calling her.

  “Run along for another drink,” Chyna said, shooing John.

  He stared defiantly back at her, like there was no way he was going to do her bidding.

  “Chyna, talk to me,” Adam said. He rubbed his hand along the small of her back and kissed her shoulder lightly.

  It must be rough, dating someone like Chyna—explosive, a little too stubborn, a lot too strong-willed with the tendency to drink, exaggerate, and be dramatic.

  “Marco asked me to be the star of his fashion week show. He’s coming to the States to oversee his Fifth Avenue boutique and begin production for the new line.”

  “Why now?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I was too busy screaming at him.”

  “What does he gain from giving you a job and taking you off the blacklist a year later? It doesn’t seem to make sense,” Adam said.

  Oh no! Lexi saw where this was going. She was pretty sure Adam already knew the answer to that question, but maybe having Chyna admit it and getting it out in the open would help.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Chyna spat. She turned her head away from Adam and seemed to be staring off over John’s shoulder. “He wants me back. I’m the one who got away.”

  “Well, he can’t have you,” Adam said. He grabbed her around the middle and pressed her against his chest. “You’re mine. I don’t care who the hell this guy is.”

  “He’s actually a pretty nice guy. And he drives a Bugatti,” John said, placing Lexi’s drink down in front of her.

  Then, he took the seat next to Lexi. She was determined not to be fazed by his nearness.

  “And how do you know him?” Lexi asked.

  “I brought his clothing company to the States from Italy. He’s a Global customer,” John informed her.

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah,” Chyna said, shaking her head.

  Lexi saw that Chyna had known that, and she wondered if it had something else to do with why Chyna disliked John.

  “Well, really, none of that matters,” Adam said. “It’s not like Chyna is going to be working for him anymore. It’s not worth it.”

  “No, it’s not,” Chyna said wistfully.

  Lexi knew how hard it had been for Chyna to give up the one thing she been pretty amazing at, and had also really, really enjoyed.

  “Whatever. Maybe we should just get out of here,” Chyna suggested.

  “Where do you want to go?” Adam asked.

  “We should go back to my place. I’m sure we could get our own party together.”

  Adam shook his head. “Why don’t we just take a walk? Central Park?”

  “At night?” she asked, scrunching up her nose.

  “We’ll stay in well-lit areas. It doesn’t close until one.”

  Chyna shrugged. “You want to?” she asked Lexi. Chyna clearly did not care about John’s opinion.

  “Definitely.” Lexi knew that Chyna needed to get away from what had just happened to her.

  Drinking away her problems had always been her coping mechanism, but Lexi knew it wouldn’t really help Chyna. Maybe just trying to get her mind off of it would be better.

  They finished their drinks quickly and then exited the crowded nightclub. Chyna’s town car was waiting for them. Lexi forced John into the front seat as she scooted in next to Chyna. John told the man where to drop them, and they were whisked away through the city.

  Chyna snuggled into Adam’s arm, and Lexi left them to their private whispering. She didn’t need to hear what they were saying to know that Adam
was trying to cheer her up. Lexi stared out the window at the passing scenery. John glanced back at her once and smiled reassuringly. She shot her eyes back to the city lights and tried not to think about anything but the reason she was here…to hang out with Chyna.

  Things had been pretty hectic at work, and Lexi was really glad that she had gotten the time off to come visit. She wished Ramsey had been able to join her, but he had been so swamped at work. Sometimes, she felt like she saw Jack as much as Ramsey these days, which was so bizarre. It wasn’t really true, but Ramsey was unbelievably busy, working all hours of the day and doing everything he possibly could to get the medical wing up and running. Half of the time, she just wanted to tell him to take a break, to slow down. She hadn’t actually wanted any of this to begin with, and he was overworking himself to get it done. It made for a tense situation even if he hadn’t meant for it to come off that way. When he was always at the office in a tense situation, it was a struggle not to bring it home. Neither of them was succeeding at that. Though, they were trying to take it one day at a time.

  The driver pulled up to Central Park at East Seventy-Second Street and Fifth Avenue, and all four of them piled out. Chyna told the driver that they wouldn’t need him until later in the evening, and she would have Adam call to let him know when to return. As the driver left them behind, they walked down the well-lit entrance into the park.

  Chyna and Adam took the lead, and Lexi fell into step beside John. The park was pretty deserted at this time of night, and it made Lexi anxious, even on the lighted paths. She had heard horror stories of people getting abducted in the park. Thinking about that just then did nothing to ease her anxiety.

  “So, I didn’t know you worked with Marco,” Lexi said lightly.

  “I’m sure there’s quite a bit you don’t know about me,” John said. His answering smile was brilliant. It lit up his whole face.

  “That’s probably true,” she said, averting her eyes back to the path in front of her. “Like who the person is that is feeding you information about me. You always seem to know something…”