The Diary of Lexi Ashford (Lexi Ashford: Part One) Read Online Free Page A

and see that it’s raining again, I backtrack to Miss Finikey’s apartment to beg her to let me borrow her car.
    I knock three or four times before the door swings open.
    Miss Finikey leans against the doorjamb with her arms crossed. “What do you want?” she asks me, tying up her silk robe.
    My eyes start to water from the smoke in the air and the strobe light flashing inside her living room. “I, um …” I trail off at the sight of Mr. Welford standing naked in the living room, holding a pillow over his man parts. On the television, a woman wearing a leotard and leg warmers is doing squats and counting backwards from ten.
    “Hey, Lexi.” Mr. Welford waves to me. “We were just, um … exercising.” He gestures at the television as if that explains everything.
    “Oh, sounds … fun.” I tear my attention away from the scene and focus on Miss Finikey and nothing else. Nothing else at all. “Can I borrow your car?”
    “Did that piece of shit of yours finally break down?” she asks with a snarky grin on her face.
    Sighing, I nod. “And it’s raining, so I’d really appreciate the favor.”
    I expect more of an argument from her, but she must be eager to get back to “exercising” because she grabs the keys from the table and tosses them to me.
    “I’ll probably be busy when you get back, so leave the keys under the mat,” she says before slamming the door in my face.
    Shoving what I just saw way, way into the back of my mind where I can never replay it again, I hurry out to her car. Surprisingly, I don’t run into any problems during the drive to Sophie’s, and the radio even plays my jam.
    By the time I’m knocking on her door, I think maybe my luck has changed.
    When Sophie throws the door open, she lets out an ear-splitting squeal. “I’m so glad you’re here!” She claps her hands together and jumps up and down.
    I jump up and down with her. “Me, too!”
    We jump up and down, holding hands and celebrating that I’m here.
    “Wait? Why are you so excited?” She stops jumping and her brows knit.
    I shrug. “That I’m here?”
    She motions for me to get inside then shuts the door. “I have exciting news.” Her voice gets all I-just-sucked-helium-from-a-balloon kind of high.
    I clap my hands together, so excited for her even if I have no clue why. “What is it? Did you get another promotion? Or that new bedroom set you’ve been wanting for forever? Oh, wait, did you finally try a blueberry muffin from Tamy’s Fantastic Bakery?” The last one’s a joke, but the blueberry muffins there are amazing .
    “A blueberry muffin? Really, Lexi?” She shakes her head and makes that disappointed face she always does whenever I’ve said something she thinks is ridiculous. “Like I would be this excited over a muffin.”
    I put my hands on my hips and give her a teasingly stern look. “Clearly, you haven’t tasted her muffins.”
    “Who’s tasting whose muffin?” Flynn strolls out of the bathroom, grinning and dripping wet with a towel wrapped around his waist.
    This is the second time I’ve seen a nearly naked man tonight, but this time, it doesn’t make me want to jab my eyeballs out with my fingers.
    I take a moment to discreetly check him out. Yeah, I know he’s my best friend’s boyfriend, but this is the closest I’ve gotten to a shirtless man in a year unless you want to count the cutey with all the tattoos in the gym that I gawk at every day on my way to work. I actually put a stop to walking by that place a couple of months ago after an embarrassing window-licking incident.
    “No one’s eating anyone’s muffins,” Sophie dismisses him. “Lexi just thinks she’s funny.”
    “Lexi is funny”—he winks at her—“especially when she’s trying to talk you into eating muffins.”
    Sophie rolls her eyes, but her lips twitch into a smile. “Anyway, I was just about to tell Lexi the good news.”
    “Yes, you were.” I motion for her to get a move on. “So hurry up