But seeing his face on the front page made her heart skip a beat. Quickly, she rolled the paper back up and tossed it into the trash, not wanting to read another slanderous thing about Hunter or Vincent Drake.
She was just fishing the last piece of cereal out of her bowl when Hope came barreling through the door. “Good morning, Hope. Come on in, make yourself at home.”
Her friend stared at her in her flannel pajama bottoms and cami with her hair piled up on her head and asked, “What are you doing? You have a presentation in two hours and you’re gorging yourself on sugared breakfast cereals?”
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Lexi mocked as she stood up and tipped her empty bowl in Hope’s direction. “Besides, I’m not going to the presentation. I told Vincent yesterday he could handle it without me.”
“You did what?” Hope was flabbergasted. “You went to work every day this week because of how important this client was, how important it was for you professionally to be a part of this campaign, and now you’re just stepping aside after all of the work you put in?”
“Pretty much.” Lexi set her empty bowl in the sink and hopped up on her kitchen counter, her legs swinging beneath her.
“Interesting,” Hope said a she leaned against the counter beside Lexi. “I never figured you for a quitter.”
“What?”
“You’re a quitter. You’re giving up on your job, your future in advertising. Hell, you’re giving up on Vincent too, hiding out in the apartment.”
“I’m not avoiding anything. It’s called self-preservation.”
“No, it’s called being a coward. Don’t you enjoy your job? Isn’t it everything you ever wanted?”
“Of course,” Lexi snapped.
“Then why aren’t you fighting for it? Because some losers are talking about you in the papers, or because you would have to be in the same room with Vincent for, what, an hour? You deserve this, Lexi. This is your chance to shine in the profession you love.”
“There will be other presentations.” Lexi shrugged and picked at the flannel of her pajamas.
“Let me ask you another question. What about Vincent?”
“What about him?”
“Well, are you going to give him a chance or have you decided what he broke can never be fixed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you any closer to a decision? Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t care which decision you make. I think he was a complete prick, and I support you either way. But ask yourself, what do you want? Vincent or a fresh start?”
Lexi chewed on her lip and thought about Vincent. She wanted to try. She wanted nothing more than to jump into his arms and forget the last week, but then, after a few minutes of happy thoughts, the darkness came back and she remembered the awful things he accused her of. Then she wanted to run far, far away. Her heart was in the middle of a massive game of tug of war, and no team was any closer to winning the battle. Instead her heart felt like it was closer to splitting in two.
“It’s not that easy,” Lexi said, wiping away the tears that always came if she thought about Vincent too long.
Hope rushed over to her friend and hugged her. “I know it’s not easy, honey, but you can’t stay in limbo forever. I won’t let you. You already did that once. You have to pick a path and take a step forward, even if it’s a tiny one. Like I said, I don’t care which one you take, but you have to do something. Life won’t stand still for you. It keeps moving, always changing, and time is the one thing you can never get back.”
Now Lexi was the one wiping Hope’s tears as her friend continued. “We both know that there comes a point when you run out of time. It happened to us with our parents. I just don’t want you to wait too long and then realize what you missed out on if you do want to be with Vincent. Mistakes are part of life, Lexi. We all make them. God knows I’ve sure made some doozies. Should you forget about them? No. But learning from them helps us grow, makes us wiser, stronger, and better people in the end. Vincent knows he screwed up with you, and I have no doubt that he will move heaven and earth to make this up to you. The questions is, can you forgive him?”
“Forgiving him isn’t the issue. I already have. Loving him is.” Lexi buried her face in her hands and took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can love him without losing myself. Sometimes it actually hurts to love him. He can lash out and be a jerk one minute, then kind and loving the next. I feel like we are constantly taking one giant step forward and then two baby steps back, and I don’t think I can take it anymore.” Lexi’s eyes were sad and full of heartbreak. “And then the stress of this whole fiasco at Hunter and the mole bullshit is just making everything worse. I feel like we’re living our lives under a microscope.”
“Do you still love him?” Hope’s simple question cut to the chase and managed to make Lexi smile.
“So much that I can’t breathe.”
“Is he worth fighting for? Or would you rather cut ties now and start making a life without him in it?”
The thought of a life without Vincent made Lexi feel empty and incomplete. Before she could answer, her cell phone chirped. Hope glanced over at it on the counter and smiled. “Speak of the devil.”
Lexi peeked at the phone, then looked away. A second later her eyes were back on it, her curiosity getting the better of her, even as she tried to play it off like she was wiping a spot off the counter.
“Go ahead, look at the message. You know you want to.”
“No, it doesn’t matter.”
“Then why do you keep staring at it like it’s the last piece of food on earth?” “It might be important. It might be about the presentation.”
“You mean the one you’re not going to?” Hope made an indignant huff. “What do you care what he needs for that? It doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Lexi’s eyes rolled. “I know what you’re doing. I took Psych in college too.”
Hope laughed. “Good, then pick up the damn phone and see what loverboy wants.”
“He’s not my loverboy.” Lexi took the phone from Hope’s hand.
Lexi Traffic is bad on the bridge. Make sure you leave a few minutes early.
Her eyes narrowed as she read his words. He knew she wasn’t going to the meeting. She had made that abundantly clear yesterday afternoon in the office. Her fingers began texting as fast as possible while Hope watched on.