Free Avoiding Commitment by K. A. Linde Page A

was the reason
that you wouldn’t commit to her?” she asked finally.
    He let out a puff of air. “Not exactly, but
you didn’t help anything either.”
    “Me?!? You were the one…”
    He cut her off. “I said , let’s not
talk about Kate.”
    She quieted, her chest heaving up and down in
a familiar burst of anger. “Fine.”
    “What are you going to tell her?” he
asked hesitantly.
    She shook her head deep in thought. She still
wasn’t sure herself. At first, she had been certain that she was
going to tell his girlfriend how Jack was an awful terrible person,
and that Bekah better get out before things went downhill. After
all, that was what she had told Chyna she was going to do. That’s
what she had screamed at Jack in the hallway. But, after finally
being in his presence, Lexi wasn’t sure if she could do it. “I’m
not sure yet.”
    “There’s just so much you could tell her,” he
stated vaguely. Lexi could tell he seemed a bit anxious about the
whole situation.
    “I know.” And she did. Their history went
back for six years and the fact that they hadn’t been together made
the whole story juicier.
    “Did you mean what you said in the bedroom?
That you were going to tell her not to make the same mistake you
did.”
    “I did when I said it,” she offered. “But I
was angry, and now I’m not so sure.”
    “I guess that’s a good thing,” he said,
optimistic to the prospects. She could tell he wanted to ask more
questions, but he held his tongue. Lexi was grateful for that. She
didn’t really want to have that conversation.
    Lexi pushed her hair behind her ear again
before asking the question that had been nagging at her since Jack
had called the first time. “Why didn’t you tell her about me? You
had to know Kate was going to say something.”
    He ran his hands back through his hair
several times thinking the question over. He adjusted his position
so that he was lying with his head back against the armrest before
addressing her. “I didn’t want her to know about you. I...” he
paused collecting his thoughts once again. “I met Bekah shortly
after you and I…well…you know. I had no interest in dating anyone.
But when I told you she was about as persistent as I am, I wasn’t
lying. After a few unremarkable dates with her, I called the whole
thing off.”
    Lexi looked over at him surprised. She had
assumed their relationship was picture perfect. It was refreshing
to hear that it wasn’t. “Why? What happened?” she asked
curiously.
    “She wasn’t you.”
    Lexi gulped. She wanted to just scream at him
for not calling her afterwards, for not calling a month later, a
year later. They could have worked things out if he hadn’t run out,
if he had just come back to her. But instead he had been with
another woman. Now the distance between them was unbearable.
    “Bekah doesn’t take no for an answer,” he
continued. “I was pretty messed up after I left New York, and she
slowly brought me out of all of that. I stopped trying to see you
in her, and I found that things went much better. I found I could
like her. Soon we were together all the time. The relationship
progressed rather quickly from there.”
    Lexi sighed heavily. The way his eyes lit up
at the mention of their relationship pained Lexi. She could tell
Bekah made him happy...happier than she had ever been capable of
making him. Their relationship was everything she had hoped for
with Jack, but had never been afforded.
    “I don’t know how much more you want to know,
but Bekah wanted to move in with me when her lease ran out. Her
parents are pretty well-off and have been helping her financially.
They told her they would cut her off if she moved in with her
boyfriend before she got married. That’s pretty much where we are
now.”
    “So, it’s not because she wants to get
married so desperately? It’s about money and moving in with you?”
Lexi asked trying to process this new information. Jack had made
Bekah situation