Scarlet's Double Life

Carson Garner's mind was disturbed and that was how it had been for months since he lost his mother to cancer. It had been like his days had been covered with dark clouds. Nothing made Carson happy-- nothing and no one made him smile. He would come into his office, do the work for the day which included the signing of papers and such, and would leave silently through his private elevator behind the office's building.

So, that day like every other day, Carson got to his car park with his secretary trying hard to keep up with his long strides as Carson Garner was a tall man and was well built.

"Keep the briefcase on the backseat," Carson said in a low voice.

"Yes sir," Lexi Hunt responded sounding out of breath. 'I need to register in that gym around the corner,' Lexi thought to herself. But she had been planning to do that for about a year now -- upon remembering that, she shook her head at herself.

Carson pressed a button on the remote key of his matte black Cadillac and a beeping sound was heard. He got into his seat behind the wheels and placed his hand on the steering wheel.

"Boss," Lexi called solemnly after placing Carson's briefcase on the back seat, her voice was dripping with worry and concern for him.

"Are you sure you want to drive yourself?"

"Yes, Lexi," Carson responded through his teeth and with a little grind of his jaw, a little irritated that he had told Lexi the same thing several times already.

"But why?" Lexi questioned. This was the first time that her boss was going to drive himself and to top it all up, he had told her that he wasn't going to his house directly from the office. He wanted to drive around the city for a while first. Now, that was very much unlike Carson Garner and that made Lexi feel that she had every right to be worried. She was his Personal Assistant for crying out loud.

Carson cast Lexi a look that made the next statement or question that wanted to come out of her mouth get stuck. She swallowed.

"Better," Carson said. "Your questions were beginning to crawl on my skin."

Lexi's eyes blinked severally in a bid to hide the hurt that she felt as Carson's words stung. But she nodded and stepped away from the car.

"There is a meeting with the tiling company early tomorrow," Lexi Hunt said hurriedly and in a low tone as she brought out her iPhone from her pocket, expertly scrolling through the device.

"How early?"

"9 am sir," Lexi responded. "Should I tell the driver to be on standby?"

Carson Garner thought for a second and nodded. Then he pushed a button in the car and the engine started with a low sound.

Lexi Hunt stepped farther away from the car and watched as her boss drove away.

"Why is he stepping on the gas like that?" Lexi murmured to herself with a roll of her eyes. She cared about him but sometimes he could be a pain in the arse and was as stubborn as a mule. 'It's like he wants to go for some race or something,' she thought. But there was nothing she could do but the bidding of her boss, so, Lexi turned around and walked back to the office building, using the elevator that Carson had just used, making more arrangements and answering calls on behalf of the CEO of Energence Ltd.

As Carson drove around the city, intentionally missing the turn that was supposed to take him to his house, he continued straight ahead -- leading him downtown -- a place that he didn't frequent at all.

Carson looked around as the sight he was seeing around him took his mind off the unsettlement within. The place was unlike where he lived or where his office was situated. This place was poorly lit and the lights were dominantly red, green, or blue. Carson wondered why there were no street lights or why the buildings here didn't have decent white lights.

'At least for people to see where they're going,' Carson thought with a shake of his head in utter disappointment.

The sidewalks of the street that Carson was driving through were filled with people doing one thing or the other. Carson was confused as to what these people were doing as they were many of them -- some didn't even have decent clothes on and he soon concluded that most of these people were homeless or drug addicts.

As Carson slowed down, it seemed like he was sightseeing, he heard a voice call out from his right side. Using his rearview mirror, Carson Garner saw that it was a lady and she was fast catching up to his car with her brisk walk even though she was in heels. He slowed down more, almost stopping the car altogether.

"Psst, handsome," the lady said as she caught up to Carson's slow-driving car.

Carson was taken aback a little as he noticed that the lady didn't seem to be fazed that she was following a moving car -- and a stranger's car for that matter.

"C-Could you stop this fancy car?" she asked in a voice that had a little slur to it.

Carson pulled over and turned his head to the passenger's window as he watched the lady bend over to look into the car. He had already lowered the tinted window to hear what she had to say to him. Carson was confused as to whether the lady knew him from somewhere or had seen his car before because of the audacity she had used to flag him down.

"I thought you'd never stop," she said with a flirtatious wink and smirk on her face. Her eyes glistened with joy as if she had found what she'd been looking for all day.

"What do you want?" Carson asked with his usual straight face, totally clueless about the whole situation.