Free Avoiding Commitment by K. A. Linde

hair
behind her ears several times.
    “Why are you so nervous?” he asked, resting
his arm across the back of the couch and fixing her with an
attentive gaze.
    “I’m not nervous,” she mumbled.
    “You’re doing that thing with your hair,” he
said pointing it out just as a lock was placed behind her ear. She
caught herself doing it and quickly snapped her hand down to her
side. “It’s kind of endearing, but you always do it when you’re
nervous or anxious.”
    “Well…I haven’t seen you in a long time. I
just can’t believe I’m actually here.”
    “I can’t believe you’re actually here
either.”
    Lexi’s eyes made their way back to him. “Hey,
that shirt!”
    He looked down at what he was wearing.
“Yeah?”
    “Oh my God, you’re wearing the carnival
shirt,” she said seeing the worn outline of a Ferris wheel.
    “Oh, yeah. I guess it is. It’s the most
comfortable thing I own.” She stared longer, her mind whirling. “Do
you still have yours?”
    She giggled then sprinted to the guest
bedroom. When she returned, she had a flimsy green shirt in her
hand. The material had several tiny tears. It had been washed and
worn so many times it was practically sheer. He nodded his approval
with a smile. She tossed the shirt onto the back of the couch and
returned to her earlier position.
    After a brief pause, Lexi spoke up again.
“So, what did Danielle and Kate tell the new girl? I mean I’m
guessing that’s who she talked to.”
    “Yeah, she met both of them. It was almost as
strange as calling you. Well, maybe not quite that strange.” Her
eyes narrowed when he winked at her. “Anyway, Danielle agreed
immediately. Thankfully, she had no qualms about meeting Bekah. Her
and I broke up on good enough terms, you know, for it not to be an
issue.”
    Lexi giggled. “That’s not how I remember
it.”
    “Luckily, that’s how she remembered it,” he
said sighing. “I haven’t spoken to her much since then, but her
sister lives in Atlanta now so she came and stayed with her for the
weekend.”
    “Does she still live in Savannah?” Lexi
thought it was humorous that she was able to have this conversation
at all. When she had first found out that Danielle even existed,
she was so furious that she was certain she would never talk to
Jack again, let alone spend time with him.
    “Yeah. She’s married now to some redneck that
dropped out of high school the year I graduated. He’s a real
winner,” he added smugly. “She’s raising his two kids from a
previous marriage, and she’s pregnant with another. You could only
just tell when she was here. Anyway, she told Bekah our story; that
we dated in high school and my first year or so of college. The
distance thing,” he stated vaguely, “didn’t work out for us, and so
we broke up. End of story.”
    “So, nothing about me then?” Lexi asked just
trying to get all the information she could.
    “Uh...I never told her about you,” Jack said
shifting uncomfortably.
    “Oh, well that’s probably for the better,”
she said trying not to convey her emotions too strongly. There had
been plenty of reasons for Jack and Danielle breaking up. The
distance and Lexi were just two of the many. But if Danielle hadn’t
said anything about the others, Lexi wasn’t going to be the one to
bring them up. “What about Kate? Obviously she brought me up, so
I’m sure her story was interesting,” she stated sarcastically.
    “Ugh,” he groaned. “Do we have to talk about
Kate? I know how you feel about her. I know how she feels about
you. And now Bekah knows how Kate feels about you. And let’s just
say, it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to be present for.”
    “Oh,” Lexi replied slightly taken aback. She
hadn’t really thought about what Kate might have said about her
beyond the usual. Lexi had been so concerned with what she was
going to tell Bekah, that it hadn’t even crossed her mind what Kate
might have said about her. “Did she claim that I