Page 44 of The Model

“You’re so lame, dude. Since you don’t follow the_lovely_lana, here’s what she posted.” He handed his phone over to me.

I took it gingerly, like the surface was as hot as the sun, and stared down at a picture of Lana and me on a couch with her on my lap as she kissed my cheek. Her title read: Living my best life with this man. There were five emojis, all with heart eyes, that made me sick. I closed my eyes, trying to get rid of the image, but when I did, all I saw was Lexie with tears in her eyes from when we parted ways in Rio.

I should have known Lana was up to something when she turned sweet as pie halfway through the shoot and asked to borrow my phone. Why was I so stupid?

“Do you think Lexie saw this?”

“Why do you think she changed her phone number?”

Throwing his phone at him, I glared at Parker. “Lexie wouldn’t change her number because of me.” At least I didn’t think so. I at least deserved the chance for her to hear me out. “When I first met her, her ex…” I broke off thinking of all the things she’d told me about Ben. He was unstable, and who knew what he’d done since I’d last talked to her. Did she change her number because of him? Had something more happened? Was she okay? He could have hurt her again, and I wouldn’t even know it. My head spun with questions. Maybe once I was finished here, I’d find someplace with internet and google her.

Parker cleared his throat, and I tried to shake off my worry for the time being. “What happened with her ex? It can’t be good if she changed her number because of him.”

No shit, Sherlock.

I’d never mentioned it to Lexie, but every time I saw what her ex had done to her, I wanted to fly into a rage. I knew if I touched upon it, she would have felt self-conscious about the mark, and by the time we left Rio, it had been looking better. Now I wasn’t sure what state she was in.

“I don’t know if you noticed she had a long scratch on her neck.”

“Of course, I saw it, but I wasn’t going to say anything about it.” Thank God for that. He finally used his brain.

“That was why she met me in Rio. It happened a couple of days before, and Lexie was scared. Her ex seems deranged, and now I don’t know what’s going on with her or the situation with him.”

“So, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to give up on that little hottie photographer?”

I hated him calling her that, but Lexie was indeed a hottie, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“I don’t want to, but what can I do? I don’t have her number, and I’m out of the country until the end of November?”

“Go see her when you get back to The States. Explain what happened and beg for forgiveness. Get down on your knees if you have to, do whatever it takes. You don’t want to let ‘the one’ get away.”

“What makes you think Lexie’s ‘the one’?” I thought maybe it had all been in my head after she stopped communicating with me. She never seemed to want more, and I never asked. Maybe if I had…

I stopped that train of thought. I knew I couldn’t go down the ‘what if’ train or my mind would be reeling with questions.

“What makes you think she isn’t?” Parker fired back.

“When we left, Rio I thought she was, but now…”

“Now?”

“I still think she is, but what do you do when your person hates you?” Because Lexie had to hate me after seeing that damn picture. The next time I saw Lana, I was going to…hell, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was too pissed off to even think straight when it came to her, and it made me realize why Lexie felt the way she did about Lana.

Parker put his hand on my shoulder. “I think in a couple more months she’ll be cooled down and ready to listen to what you have to say.”

And if she wasn’t?

As if he could read my mind, Parker gave me a sad smile. “Do what I said. I only saw you two together for a short time, but I believe you’re meant to be together. The way you looked at each other when the other wasn’t looking. Hell, even when you were looking at each other.” He shook his head. “I knew then you had it bad.”

I had it more than bad, and it had been eating away at me that Lexie wouldn’t talk to me. At least now I knew why, and I could work with that. I’d find a way to get her to listen to me, the circumstances of how the picture was taken, and what happened to my phone.

“Ryder Williams.” A woman in a bright white pantsuit called my name from a door down the hall.

I stood, and Parker clapped my back. “Go lose this job.”

“I’ll do my best, so you’ll get it.” Halfway down the hall, I turned back and looked over my shoulder. “Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.”

He gave me a chin nod. “Glad I could help.”

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