The Workaholic's Wife

5. Billboards And Barbies

Scarlet

There are two main disadvantages of having a chubby, baby face. First, you can never look hot; cute maybe but never hot. Second, no matter how much you try to lose weight, your face will make you look bigger than you are.

That's what I deduced as I observed my face in the mirror. Today was just another day. I woke up, put on my favourite jeans and sweatshirt and pulled my hair up in a pony.

Locking the door of my apartment, I made my way down the building to the parking lot where Liam was already waiting for me in his car. After I lost my car last year to pay the rent, Liam took the duty of driving me to Biscotti every morning.

"Morning, sunshine." he said as I settled on the passenger seat.

"Morning," I smiled at him.

He drove the car and soon, we were on our way. I passed him the egg sandwich that I had made for us for breakfast and he ate it with one hand while kept the other hand on the steering wheel.

Due to the traffic on the road, he stopped the car and I looked outside the window. A certain face on the billboards caught my notice and that's when I huffed angrily.

"What happened?" Liam asked, noticing my obvious discomfort.

"Look at Mr. Hotshot, staring back at me with his perfect hair and perfect jawline." I grumbled under my breath.

It would be a lie to say that the first time I saw Cara's father three days ago, my lungs didn't stop working. He was handsome, too handsome for his own good. From dark hair that was styled with perfection to his piercing blue eyes, from a set of royal nose and thin lips to a very sharp jaw, from the suit that hugged him perfectly to the tall built that caused him to tower over me, everything about him screamed perfection. And that arrogant son of a bitch knew it.

Language Scarlet. I reminded myself.

"Evan Parker." He read his name on the billboard. "Is it Cara's father?" he asked.

"Yep," I replied.

"He may be a dick but at least he is hot." Liam said and earned a scowl from me. "What? I'm straight but certainly not blind." As much as I hated to agree, he was right.

"Let's not talk about him and ruin our morning." I said and changed the topic of our conversation to introducing a new signature dessert in our bakery.

.........

Right now, I was sitting in front of Catheryn Parker in my bakery. Cara was playing with Liam in the kitchen as he taught her how to make icing for the cupcakes.

"I can't tell you how ashamed I am. I didn't know he would behave like that." she said, grief dripping from her voice.

"It's okay. It was not your fault." I passed her an assuring smile.

"You didn't have to return the money." she said. She had transferred me a hefty amount of money which I had transferred back, except the three thousand that I had already used for rent.

"I had to," I whispered. "And I'll return the rest as soon as possible."

"I wish you could have married him," she sighed defeatedly.

"I wish I could say the same." I replied and then realised I was badmouthing someone so I silenced myself.

"He wasn't always like that." she said and brought the cup of coffee to her mouth. Her face visibly relaxed on taking a sip. Liam's coffee often had this kind of effect on prople. "After Eliza's death, he just lost himself."

"Eliza?" I asked.

"Cara's mother." she said and her mention grieved me. "He couldn't handle her death so he distanced himself from everyone and drowned himself in work."

Losing the possible love of my life was my worst nightmare so I couldn't imagine being in his place. It was probably the worst kind of pain, knowing you met someone you wanted to spend your whole life with and then they left you behind to suffer for the rest of your life.

"Scarlet, can I ask you something?" Cara's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Sure, baby." I smiled.

"Did you tell my Dad that you don't want to be my mother?" she asked as her bright eyes flickered with sadness. "Is it because I eat sweets?"

My heart crushed in small parts on hearing this and I couldn't bring myself to look in her sad eyes. "No sweety, I would never say that."

"Oh," she whispered as the corners of her lips turned downwards.

"I shouldn't have told her about all this before everything was confirmed." Catheryn said, observing her granddaughter in a lamented manner. "I just thought... It would work out."

"It just wasn't meant to happen." I consoled her and she passed me a sweet smile.

"Say Goodbye to Scarlet, Cara." she said to her.

Cara's smile widened at this and she turned to me. "Goodbye, Scar."

"Goodbye, Cara." I replied and leaned forwards to kiss her on the cheeks.

"Your cupcakes," Liam appeared out of nowhere and gave her a box containing two cupcakes with pink icing.

"Aww, did you decorate it yourself?" I asked as I noticed the disfigured figure made on the cupcake.

"Yes. It is barbie." she said and I grinned when I tried to make out the barbie from the pink mess.

Holding the box close to her chest, she wrapped her palm around Catheryn's finger and made her way out.

____________________

How will Evan and Scarlet meet again? :D