AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mandy, I don’t think this salad is a two-dayer,” Mia said, looking at one of the five salads that were brought that was a soupy mess. Looking up to see if Mandy had left, she saw Ruth standing in the doorway.
Putting the tin cover back on it, she picked it up and turned her back on everyone, and threw it in the garbage. Like Ruth had done to their friendship that had taken months to build.
“Mia,” Ruth said in the silent room.
Turning around and facing her, Mia didn’t hold back, not anymore, “Didn’t think you would come since Rafferty would be here. Can’t be in the same room as him, can you?”
Ruth ignored her words and asked, “Can we talk, Mia? In private?”
“Can you take care of this?” she asked the room of women, who all agreed that they could handle it as they looked from one to the other. How they were going to make the big meal happen with what little was in the house, she didn’t know. But she was a little relieved she didn’t have to worry about it for a few minutes. She just had to worry about being around Ruth.
Leading Ruth upstairs since there were very few rooms with furniture in them, she took her to the one spare room that did have a bed in it. Ruth sat on the bed and rested her arms on her stomach—her now very pregnant stomach. Mia stood with her arms crossed. There was no way she could relax.
“I’m sorry, Mia. You were right. I have been cruel to Rafferty over the last few months. And in turn, I was mean to you. I had given up on him actually doing something about how he said he felt for you. When he first asked me to help him win you over, it was just after we started book club, a long time ago. I wanted to protect you from him, from what the rumors about him were. I had assumed he would break your heart and not look back. I didn’t want that for you. I didn’t think he would change, not even for you. I admit I never got over that feeling.” Ruth didn’t look at Mia at all.
“We both had some issues to get over. I think we might have finally done that.” She shrugged. They may not be over every issue, but the major ones were behind them, she was sure.
“No thanks to me. I should have just forgiven him when Howard died. We were both treated badly by that man. But instead, I kept punishing him for something he couldn’t change. It was more of a habit than anything. Some injustice I clung to even when Rafferty asked me to forgive him.” Ruth didn’t move, but she did look up at Mia.
“He’s all alone, you know. His mom has shut him out completely since Howard died, maybe even before that. Well, not anymore. He’ll have me and my family now.” Mia paced.
“But you’re leaving? Moving with him?” Ruth asked, rubbing her huge stomach.
“Yes, as soon as I find a manager for the café. I hope I find someone soon. We’ve lost a lot of time together. I regret losing that time.” She stopped and looked out the window at the plain back yard. She had so many plans for that space, and she wouldn’t get to achieve any of them.
“What about book club?” Ruth asked.
Turning back to Ruth, Mia said, “I was done with book club weeks ago, Ruth. It used to be the best part of my week, but now I dread what you will say, what jabs you will poke me with. It seemed your dislike of Rafferty had turned on me.”
“I’m sorry. I took it too far. It’s just that everyone in book club is happy, and you seemed to be stuck on Rafferty. I wanted you to move on and be happy.”
“I’m happy with him. When we’re actually together, it’s great. He makes me feel pretty and smart, and I love him for it.” Mia smiled.
“But you’re all those things without him,” Ruth told her, getting up from the bed with more difficulty than Mia expected, but she wasn’t going to offer to help.
“No, I’m Mia at the café without him. He makes me a better person. He’s the one who put my name up for organizing the auction, which led to the Christmas carnival. He thought I would be good at it. He believed in me, even before I thought he cared about me.” At the time, she hadn’t even known it was him behind it.
“You are. But you will leave all that behind when you leave Landstad.”
“Yes, because I want to be with him. We have too much of a past in this town, and people are always talking. I don’t want to be talked about.” Ruth should be the first to understand because she hated when she was talked about.
“I think you took that away from everyone today. I got a phone call that you were in church holding hands with Rafferty before it was even half over. What were you thinking? Were there no billboards just outside of town available?” Ruth grinned.
Mia just shrugged. “I wanted the town to know that he’s mine. Stop the rumors before they even started.”
Ruth clapped her hands slowly a few times. “Success. Remember back when we went out for drinks with Tess, when Rafferty and Anderson brought us drinks? Tess said that night we had a thing for the guys. I guess we did.”
“I remember being friends that night. I miss being friends. It seems I can’t be friends with you and be in love with Rafferty at the same time. The more I fell for him, the worse our relationship became.” Mia looked at her hands, lost in the past and how much she had enjoyed that night with her friends so long ago.
“I hate that I have lost you as a friend over this. Yesterday, Rafferty said that I won, but I lost you, and you were my best friend. You were my first choice to take with me when I got married. I pretended you weren’t. I should have just told you at the time. But I was still clinging to the past when we were too different, we couldn’t get along. I couldn’t see how important you were to me.” Ruth wiped a tear from her eye.
“Thanks for bringing us along. I have to say it was a huge turning point in our relationship. The turn we really needed to take. I wish I had noticed it earlier. Are you ever going to tell anyone or just get married again?” Mia asked, not for the first time.
“I don’t know. I wanted to because I didn’t want to be the unwed mother like my mom was. But Anderson isn’t going anywhere; he’s not Howard. I love the gossip and the speculation.” Ruth grinned at her admission.
“I hate it. I want the wedding, at church like everyone else. I want to be the one fussed over and have everyone there. See my mom cry, and have Dad give me away. I want it all,” she said, realizing it was true. As much as she wanted to tell the world she was married to Rafferty Brooks and had been for almost nine months, she wanted to have the wedding that would announce it to the world.
“But you are already married, right? When did you even get married?” Ruth asked in disbelief.
