Chapter 23

• Cara was seated quietly on her couch, legs folded under her and a glass of wine in her hand. The room was well-lighted and she was occupied with staring at the bottle of wine on the table as if she could read her future in the dark-colored liquid encased by the transparent glass of the bottle. Lisa had gone to bed - she had seen to that only minutes ago - so she had no company other than her thoughts. And they were mostly centered on the events of the last 40 hours or so.
• The morning of the previous day, she had woken up as usual with a broken heart, but by afternoon, she had patched it up temporarily and was ready to move on through the day. When evening came, the biggest blow was made to her bandaged heart when she saw Lance outside that grocery store, but somehow, he had managed to make everything better. Her inner self wagged a threatening finger at her as her mind touched on what they had done at the store and the possibility that they might have been seen. But she shrugged it off and queled it with a long sip from her wineglass. There were more important things to think about, namely the fact that Lance needed to become his own man, but what exactly would he do towards that goal? The life of their "relationship" would depend heavily on this, just like she had told him. She was tired of playing hide and seek. The last two weeks had taught her the dangers of that, and now, she wanted all of him or none of him. His mother's ire and any other consequence be damned!
• Suddenly, there was a sharp knock at the door and Cara gave a start. Who must it be by this time of the night? Or was it Carol who had come with the intention of making trouble, after finding out that she had not really broken up with Lance? Her heart sank at this thought. Obviously, she wasn't fully prepared to damn Carol's ire just yet! Or even face it!