Lexi blinked as her eyes adjusted to the flashes of lights ricocheting off of the mirrored walls. The night was young, and Chyna and Lexi’s hotspot was crammed with couples grinding on the dance floor.

Still holding tight to Chyna’s hand, Lexi followed her up a winding set of stairs marked for VIP clientele only. Without even batting an eye, the bouncer pulled back the rope and allowed them into the exclusive upstairs bar. Lexi felt that she would never be able to get used to this life with Chyna. Only a month earlier she had been waiting in endless lines hoping for just a peek inside the most illustrious clubs, and now she was drinking for free in the VIP areas with an array of hot celebrities. She couldn’t believe this had happened to her. A young NYU Law student didn’t get to live this life.

Chyna shimmied to an available couch and gingerly sat down on the red leather pulling Lexi down next to her. “This was such a good idea,” she cooed into Lexi’s ear.

“It was your idea.”

“Alright. This was a perfect idea!”

Lexi smacked her playfully. “My idea would have been perfect if you weren’t such a snob.”

“Me? A snob?” she asked sticking her nose up in the air, her voice thick with sarcasm. “If I’m such a snob, you can pay for your own drinks today, skank.”

“Did you just call me a skank?” Lexi asked placing her hand over her heart as if wounded.

“I call ‘em like I see ‘em, honey.”

Lexi gasped. “How dare you!”

“You’re so silly,” Chyna said through giggles. “Like you’d pay for a drink yourself looking so smoking hot.”

“It’s only due to your brilliance,” Lexi commended her.

“Yes. I know. It’s amazing what designer jeans can do to your ass. You should really let me take you shopping so I don’t have to keep forcing you into my clothes when we go out.”

Lexi just shook her head. “I’m not getting myself into any more debt.”

“You wouldn’t have to pay for anything. Te amo mi amor. That’s all the payment I request,” she replied, affectionately sweeping Lexi’s hair behind her ear.

“Oh, please,” Lexi said brushing aside her hand.

“Fine. You’ll come around. But for tonight, let’s find a gorgeous someone who wants to pamper us senseless,” she said allowing her eyes to crawl across the room.

Lexi sighed happily and turned to play her friend’s favorite game. Under normal circumstances, the game went as follows. Whoever found a hot guy that met Chyna’s standards and got offered a dance and a drink first would be able to choose who the other person had hook up with.

“Oh, what about him?” Chyna suggested pointing out a tall blonde in a sleek business suit.

Lexi assessed his features from behind enjoying the view. “We need a look at his face before a final decision can be made.” Just then Blonde turned around and brought his beer to his mouth. Lexi nearly gagged as she got a look at his face. “I’ve never seen a nose like that before. It looks like it’s been broken in three places.”

“That’s because he’s a professional hockey player,” Chyna said quickly, but Lexi could see the disgust written on her face.

“I don’t care what he does for a living. That nose is atrocious.”

“Okay, so Hockey Guy isn’t for me. Moving on.”

They pointed out a few other good looking men, neither of them really satisfied with the selection. Chyna spoke up again, “Oh, him!”

Lexi looked to where her finger pointed out a man wearing dark jeans and a bright blue button-up. Her heart froze as her eyes traveled farther upwards to the shaggy dark brown hair. She couldn’t see his face, but her body couldn’t resist allowing the butterflies loose in her stomach at the possibility. She could feel the blood draining from her face, and her jaw going slack with fear and anticipation that he might be here. Short puffs escaped her mouth, her chest expanding and contracting with each movement. She tilted her head in hopes of catching a glimpse of Mr. Blue Shirt’s face.

“Alexa, sweetie, are you okay?” Chyna asked placing her hand on Lexi’s forehead which was already clammy to the touch. “You look really sick all of a sudden. Do we need to get out of here?”

“No, s…s…sorry. He just looks like this guy I used to have a thing with,” she mumbled recovering.

“That Jack guy you were telling me about?” Chyna asked bluntly.

“Yeah. Jack. He strongly resembles him.”

“If he looks anything like this guy, then he’s probably sexy,” Chyna couldn’t keep herself from mentioning as she took another glance at the Jack look-a-like.

Lexi managed a half-smile. “Yeah, he is sexy, but I just…I don’t know. I haven’t really seen him in awhile, and I haven’t been thinking about him much either. It caught me off guard.”

She was lying of course. She thought about him every time she walked around in New York. There were so many dark haired men in blue shirts. It was disconcerting. Not to mention the enormous amount of coffee shops. She was expecting to walk into the store one day, and there he would be standing behind the counter, handing her black coffee, while she studied for her tests. But college was over, and Jack wasn’t in New York. Jack wasn’t in her life. She didn’t have time to talk with anyone, especially Jack. She could lose herself in conversations with Jack for hours if she let herself. Law school didn’t exactly permit that kind of freedom. No, Jack was part of her past, and she needed to accept that. She couldn’t keep letting herself get so worked up over some guy in a club who resembled him.

“Well, don’t think about him. There’s no need to when you have so many other men to choose from,” Chyna said, speaking like a person who would never have a real relationship. Not that Lexi was one to talk. Her and Jack had never really been functional.

“You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”

“I know it, chica, but you can keep telling me. If you don’t want him, I’m going to go see if I can get my obligatory drink and dance out of him. I’ll find you someone to kiss when I get back,” she said prancing off after Mr. Blue Shirt.

Lexi slumped back against the sofa and massaged her aching temples. She hated that she kept having these ridiculous reactions all the time. She had always been such a strong and independent woman that this gut reaction in regards to Jack was driving her mad. Flashes of him touching and kissing her kept cascading through her vision. Memories of long lost afternoons tucked away in his sheets, wrapped up in his arms as they talked the day away, enjoying each other’s company…forgetting that there was a whole other reality that they were supposed to be living in. Those days haunted her day in and day out for the terrible things she had done to the people that cared for them. But even through her despair, she still missed him. She still craved him. He was still on her mind.

Even as she risked massive intoxication, she thought of him. But at least then it didn’t matter, because she wouldn’t remember it in the morning. That’s the state she was hoping to obtain, when she suddenly stood to patrol for a willing donor to her cause. Her eyes traveled the length of the bar as if she were checking out merchandise on a clothing rack. Her head tilted slightly as one attractive man replaced another in a stool before deciding to proceed.

He was tall…really tall and blonde. Two things she rarely went for, but then again she wasn’t searching for a date. She was searching for someone to get her hammered, and this guy fit the bill. She knew an Armani suit when she saw one, thanks to Chyna’s scale of men’s approved clothing, and this guy was wearing one. That was a step in the right direction.

Lexi sauntered purposely towards his side of the bar. “Oh,” she squealed, her heel conveniently faltering right as she passed him. He reached out to steady her, making sure she wouldn’t fall. She placed her hand on his chest resting it there long enough to feel the definition under the soft material. His hands were firmly planted on her hips as she righted herself in the four inch Manolos Chyna had forced on her feet. “I am so sorry. I just can’t seem to keep my balance in these things,” she purred.