Fresh Temptation

narrowed her eyes and looked Cara up and down. “Well, well, well. Victor must be slumming these days.”
    Cara put her fist on her hip. “Again. Excuse me?”
    “You heard me.” Alexis scoffed. “You don’t really think you have a chance with him, do you? What man in his right mind would pick you over,” she gestured to her small frame, wearing a tight blue dress, “this?”
    Her jaw firmly set, Cara looked in her eyes. “He didn’t seem to have a problem with it last night.” She grinned. “Or this morning. Or yesterday—”
    Alexis stepped forward. “Do you really think you can please a man like him? He’s used to a different class of woman. A higher class.”
    “A higher class? You mean, the kind of woman who gets another woman fired just to assert her power?”
    “You got yourself fired. You’re the one who broke the rules with your cell phone that night.”
    Cara’s jaw dropped. “Are you really that petty? You think I deserved to be fired because I took five seconds to find out if my son needed emergency surgery?”
    Alexis shrugged. “Rules are rules. If he was sick, you should’ve been home with him. I’d never do that if I had a sick child at home. Never.”
    “I’m sure you wouldn’t, because if you had a child you’d just pawn him off on one of your nannies and forget about him. You’d be too busy with your little fundraisers and your designer clothes to worry yourself with actually raising a child.”
    Alexis shook her head. “You’re pathetic. You know, when I first heard you were working for Victor, I thought maybe you’d planned the whole thing at the benefit dinner that night. Maybe he already knew you somehow. Knew you’d get fired. He wanted to paint me as the evil ex-fiancee in front of our friends. But no. I see what happened now. You got fired, fair and square. He felt sorry for you. And now, you’re using that precious little boy of yours to win him over.” She squared her shoulders. “Because honey, that’s all you got. Trust me.”
    “Are you kidding me? Are you so out of touch with reality that you think a man like Victor Barboza could be won over by a single mom? Do you know how hard it is to date anyone, at all, when you have a child?”
    “Well, I can think of no other explanation for why he’d hire someone like you.” Alexis shrugged. “Maybe that’s what he wanted all along. A child. An insta-family. That’s the only thing you have that I don’t have. A cute kid he can play with.” She let out a loud huff. “I’m sure Victor just loves to go to your house in Newark for a home cooked meal and let your kid play with his car. But it’ll get old. You’re like a new toy to him. He’ll move on soon enough.”
    “Wait. How’d you know about any of that?”
    With a smug grin plastered across her face, Alexis said, “It’s a small world. For all you know, maybe Victor told me himself. Maybe he came running to my house after he left yours that night.”
    In her anger, a million thoughts raced through Cara’s mind. But there was one question on her mind. If she had the answer, maybe all of this would start to make sense. “Why did you and Victor break up?”
    Alexis chuckled to herself as she walked around to the door of her car and opened it, staring at Cara over the roof. “He cheated on me.” Alexis then put her sunglasses back on and slipped inside her car. Her tires squealed when she pounded the gas pedal.
    Dumbfounded, Cara stared at Alexis’s car until its taillights disappeared.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    Cara drove home in a zombie-like state. Her altercation with Alexis felt like the world’s biggest slap in the face after the euphoria she had experienced when she was out of town with Victor.
    She tried to call Victor several times on her way home, but every time, his voicemail picked up. This was not unusual for him. She had heard Gary mention that Victor turned off his phone when he was with a client, to give them his undivided attention. Cara thought best not to leave a voicemail. For one thing, she didn’t even know where to start with such a message.
    Also, what if she became frantic and sounded as crazy as Alexis?
    But what if Alexis wasn’t crazy? What if she was completely sane, and she met Cara in that parking lot simply to warn her?
    Cara’s emotions went from angry to doubtful to everything in between. How dare that rich witch think she’s so much better than me?
    But what if she’s right? What if I’m fooling