TENACITY

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Thursday, June 23rd, 2016

Melissa's House

20 weeks...

Lexi sat on the couch; her feet propped up on the coffee table. Groaning and huffing in frustration—as she'd been doing for the past few minutes—she pulled her feet down and stretched out on the couch, deciding to have a little nap.

She closed her eyes, allowing sleep to take over and was on the brink when the doorbell rang, jolting her awake. It made her head hurt.

The doorbell rang again. Once. Twice. And irritated, she continued to ignore it, hoping the person would take the hint and leave so she could go back to sleep.

"Lexi?" Melissa yelled from upstairs. "Would you get the door for me please?"

"Fine." Alexandra shouted back, got off the couch gingerly and slipped her feet into slippers. She shuffled her way to the front door, huffing in annoyance when the doorbell went off again. "I'm coming!" she snapped.

She opened the door and found Trey on the other side. He looked good in rainbow sweats paired a white t-shirt and NB sneakers. When he smiled, albeit hesitantly, it undid her. She just about managed to remain sour.

"So, you're the one ringing the doorbell like a maniac. I'm not even surprised," she muttered with a yawn, looking him over. He looked beautiful, and she almost said that out loud. She was used to appraising his style.

She looked back up when he let out a soft chuckle. "No one was answering, so I uh. . ." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, "I was worried something was wrong."

When convinced herself that he was being honest, she asked, "What are you doing here?" He opened his mouth to answer, but she waved it off. "That was a dumb question. Don't answer that." She stepped aside and held the door open. "Come in and I'll go get Melissa for you."

Trey stood rooted to his spot, wondering why she would think he was here for Melissa. He liked that she was calmly addressing him and wondered if they would be able to talk about their situation sometime soon. But still, it baffled him why she thought he would be here for his sister and not for her.

And who's fault is that?

"Are you going to come in or are you going to stay over there and stare at me?" She asked impatiently with a brow raised, a light blush coating her cheeks. "I could just slam the door on you and go back to my nap—which, I am dying to."

Trey winced. Adding 'dying' in her sentence reminded him of the threats she and their babies faced. 'Bad choice of words,' he thought. Taking in a deep breath to clear his head, he asked, "How are you doing?" he asked her with a small smile after she had closed the door.

She stared at him for a bit, seeming surprised. "I'm good, and the babies are good too," she replied. "I'm pretty sure you asked just because of the babies so I've saved you the trouble of having to ask," she hurried to explain, turning to hide her flaming face.

"Believe it or not, I actually want to know how you're doing," he replied, shrugging lightly. "But of course, I understand where you're coming from so it's fine. I brought this on myself."

"Okay..." Lexi whispered slowly. She cleared her throat, saying, "Let me go get Melissa for you."

He grabbed her hand when she turned to leave. "Actually, it's you I want to talk to." Lexi swallowed, looking anywhere but at him. "Please," he practically begged.