Page 50 of The Model

“Are you sure it’s enough time? We could call off today and maybe start tomorrow an hour earlier than had planned,” a cute brunette said from beside the man I’d met outside. With the shock of seeing Lexie and the news I couldn’t quite wrap my head around, I couldn’t remember his name.

“That should give you enough time.” He nodded as if all this made perfect sense to him.

Enough time for what? My head to explode?

I wanted to ask questions, but my mouth wouldn’t work as my mind spun with my new reality. Tears streamed down Lexie’s beautiful face. Her eyes were full of anger and questions. Grabbing onto my arm, she pulled me out of the room and down the hallway to the elevator. We were silent the entire way. I watched her hit the button for the twenty-fourth floor and then move to the other side of the elevator, where she stood looking at the doors. She didn’t even want to look at me. If that was the case, why did she go to all this trouble to bring me here?

I realized at that moment, it could have all been a trick. Was Angie in on this as well? Was Lexie so angry at me for what she thought happened with Lana that she brought me here to rub it in my face she was pregnant with another man’s child?

When the doors opened, I followed her out and down another hall to what I assumed was her room. Was her boyfriend in there waiting for me? I didn’t think Lexie had it in her, but did I really know her?

Slipping her keycard in the door, she stepped inside and waited for me to enter before she went to the bar and poured a drink. She held it out to me, and I gratefully took it. I had a feeling I was going to need it. She pulled out a water bottle for herself and drank half of it. I had a feeling she wished she was drinking what I had instead of water.

Her eyes traveled my body and stopped on my clenched hand at my side. Slowly she walked over to one of the couches and sank down onto it. Pulling her knees to her chest, Lexie motioned for the chair across from her.

Downing my drink, I sat the glass down on the bar before I moved to sit across from her. “Are we alone?”

Her brows pulled together before she nodded. While she was no longer crying, wetness still brimmed in her dark blue eyes. Her voice was soft and full of sadness when she finally spoke. “The whole point of coming up here was for us to be alone so we could talk without a room full of people hanging on our every word.”

“I wasn’t sure if someone was going to step out of one of the rooms and announce he was your boyfriend and baby daddy.” Leaning back in the chair, I closed my eyes as I said my next words. “This isn’t how expected the next time I saw you going. I thought you’d be fuming and demanding answers.”

She cleared her throat. “I do want answers as I’m sure you do as well. I…this isn’t how I saw this going either. I didn’t think you’d look at me the way you did, and I’d be so…devastated.” Her voice broke on the last word.

What did she have to be wrecked about? I just found out the woman I loved was carrying another man’s baby. If she wasn’t with someone and that was a big if, I wasn’t sure it would matter or if we could move past this.

Taking in a shaky breath, I opened my eyes and asked her. “Who's the father?”

Wrapping her arms around her legs, Lexie rested her chin on her knees. “Is that why you’re looking so…” she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth before letting it go, “heartbroken?”

A dark laugh built up in my chest and filled the room. I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition than she already had. “Just answer the question.”

Straightening, Lexie’s eyes hardened as she took me in. “No matter what you think, I’m not a slut. I know we jumped into bed after only knowing each other a handful of hours, but that’s not who I am.”

“Who are you, Lexie? Because I tried calling you when I could, I tried to get a hold of you on social media, and I was shut down at every turn. It seems to me that you were done with me and didn’t have the balls to tell me.”

A tear slipped down her cheek, and even though I was mad as hell at her, I wanted nothing more than to pull her in my arms and make everything better. Instead, I sat on my hands to keep from reaching out to her.

“I declined one phone call. One.” She jutted her chin out at me. “After I saw that…that picture. When I tried to call you back, you had changed your number or some shit.”

“So, you had to change yours?” I shot back. My hands clenched into fists under my legs.

“Yes, I had to change mine, but not because of you. I changed it because Ben was…he was making my life a living hell, and I couldn’t take it anymore. The only way I saw to keep him from his constant threatening voicemails was to change my number.”

I hated hearing that Ben was the reason. I had been worried he might have been the cause. What were the odds we’d both have to change our numbers and not be able to contact each other?

Resting her head on her knees once again, she continued. “Once I couldn’t reach you, and I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to come up with a plan to see you again, or at the very least, get your new contact information. Only your agent is a huge bitch who seems to hate me and refused to give us your information.”

Angie did hate Lexie. One time I’d accidentally let it slip that it was Lexie who had given me the advice to be smarter on the jobs I took and that I was going to slow down next year. After listening to her tirade, I knew I couldn’t mention Lexie’s name to her again without an epic meltdown.

“How did you get me here then?”

“We came up with a fake company name, and I built a little website to make it look legit. Even with all that, Angie wouldn’t give us your contact info.”

I gritted my teeth and barely got the words out. “That’s an awful lot of trouble to go to just to let someone know you’ve found someone else, and you don’t want to hear from me any longer.”

Lexie’s head popped up, and her eyes were wide with shock. “Have you been listening to a word that’s come out of my mouth? There was only one time I didn’t want to talk to you, and it was after Raine showed me the picture Lana posted. You know how I feel about her.”

Yes, I most definitely did know how Lexie felt about Lana, and after the shit Lana pulled, I understood why she felt that way. I never knew a person could be so devious.

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