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Chapter 4
That Monday morning,Ruth was running late, which was very unusual for her. Usually, she was up early and just killing time until eight rolled around. But today she had overslept and had gotten out of bed closer to seven, but she hadn’t wanted to get out of bed then either.
Even now she didn’t know how many whiskeys she’d had the day before, but it was more than she could handle. The afternoon had been fun, and the three of them had turned to a few more because Mia had invited her cousin Amanda Nordskov, the same woman whose car had been stuck Friday night. Not that Ruth had cared, but it was just getting to be a lot of people for a small gathering. But instead of leaving like she usually did, she stayed.
Amanda had taken the time to thank her for helping dig her out of the snow and then explained the entire scene to the group, only she had made it seem far funnier than it had been. Apparently, Amanda had noticed Ruth hadn’t been wearing a jacket that night, and Ruth still couldn’t tell her exactly why. Nor did she mention the sexual tension between Amanda and Hue—that was something the entire group would find out…eventually.
Besides Amanda, Natalie Beckett from the library and a local girl Hazel May had crashed also. They had come separately, and once they saw the other was there, both nearly bolted. Years before, there had been an accident involving them both when they were teenagers. Ruth did remember the accident, but she hadn’t really known anyone who had been involved at the time. From what Mia had insinuated, the women were still affected by it and had not spoken to each other in years. Ruth had noticed they didn’t say anything to one another in the café either.
At Mia’s insistence, whiskey had been brought out, and everyone had a shot or two to take the edge off. Since nobody ended up leaving, it worked. Soon everyone was relaxed, even Ruth. After that, the group had chatted, mostly about the books they had read and wanted to read. Nothing was brought up about the town drama, which was a relief.
They all decided that the club would meet in two weeks again, and Ruth hoped everyone would come back. It was decided that they would each would read a different book and then compare and contrast. The next meeting would be at Ruth’s since they all decided that they wanted to drink, and Mia really wasn’t supposed to have drinks at her café even when it was closed.
Heading down the steps at five after eight, Ruth slipped into the office. At least being late had taken her mind off falling into a snowbank over the weekend with her boss and all the embarrassment that entailed. Walking over to her desk, she slid into the seat and cursed. Coffee. Getting up again, she poured a cup for her boss. It was a tiny secretary move that she secretly enjoyed most days. Maybe it was to feed her addiction to his smell—he smelled so good.
She took the cup into his office, where he sat looking over some papers spread over his desk. “Morning, Anderson, here is your coffee.” Yup, there it was, the Anderson smell.
At her words, he looked up with his brown eyes and smiled at her. “Thank you, Ruth. You’re late.”
Unable to not smile back at him, she said the first excuse that came to mind. “Weather.”
Walking out of the office, she looked out the window at the sun glistening off the snow piles on the street outside. Maybe she should have paid more attention to what the actual weather was outside during her quick walk in. After sitting down at her desk, she slid her heels off and started getting her computer and phone ready for the week.
As usual, she could see him working at his desk from her own spot in the outer room. The office was good-sized, but she had moved her desk so she could see him before he’d even started there. When she had first done it, she was happy she could keep an eye on Frank and have her computer face the wall so that nobody could see what she was doing. When Anderson had started, all the furniture had stayed where it was. He seemed to not think anything of the setup, and she didn’t mind one bit.
All morning, he sat in his office working on his computer, shuffling around loose papers, and calling people. Nobody called in, and nobody came in for her to deal with. So, Ruth spent the morning proofreading what she had written on Saturday evening.
Jessa and Link (formerly Jack) were well on their way to their happily ever after. All she had to do was rip them apart and put them back together. It sounded cruel, but how were they to know that they were meant to be without a little drama?
As lunchtime neared, she slipped her shoes back on, took off her reading glasses, and went into his office. “Do you want me to run and get lunch?”
He looked up at her and blinked in slight confusion. Running his hands through his hair, he said, “Yes, sure.”
“Do you want your usual?” Ruth asked as always. It was a ham and cheese sandwich; he could eat one every day. And he almost did, but she asked because she didn’t want him to think she knew him that well.
“No, let’s get something different.” His brown eyes were looking at her in confusion, like he had never seen her before. Or maybe like he had but couldn’t remember where.
“Okay…what?” She tripped over her words. Was he talking about lunch or something else?
She stopped mid-turn to look back at him, but his eyes were on his paper suddenly.
“I don’t know,” he answered vaguely as he continued to look at the papers.
Something was up with him today. He was distracted, even she could tell. Usually, he was super organized and efficient, but today his papers were everywhere, and he had called Ned Keller twice for the same thing. The desks were close enough for her to have overheard.
“I can’t get you what you don’t know. You can go today. Maybe the special will be what you want,” she huffed, walking out to her desk. She sat down in her chair, still facing him, and glared at him.
“Okay, I will go.” Getting up, he grabbed his jacket and slid it on. “What do you want?”
“The special,” she answered. It didn’t really matter what the special was; she got it. After having gotten lunch at the same café for over ten years, she knew everything they made, and like a dutiful daughter, she ate the special like her mom was forcing her to.
A bonus was that the special was usually a large portion, and years ago, she had made lunch her biggest meal of the day. She usually ate a light supper since she didn’t want to waste a lot of time cooking just for herself in the evening. That was just a waste of time she could use elsewhere.
Anderson slammed the door on the way out of the building, and she wondered what was bothering him so much. She could tell his mood was off. Maybe getting lunch would bring his mood back to normal.
