Irreplaceable
Chapter 5

In the weeks that followed, the book club had actually taken shape, different from the original. It had been the third meeting at Ruth's great apartment where Natalie had suggested they record their conversation and turn them into a podcast. This week was going

to be the first one they recorded. Mia was a little nervous, but also a little excited.

Since the night she got wasted at the bar, she had avoided Rafferty as best she could. He still came into the café more days than not. But she had avoided talking to him completely. Even if he sat in her area in the café, she had the other waitresses take his table, or she just took off for lunch then.

So far, he hadn't said anything about what had happened that night. And to her mortification, she had no idea what she had done. Based on the evidence around the room, they'd had s*x. Even her body said they had s*x, but her mind couldn't remember it. Just a few images of stripping out of her clothes, kissing him when she was naked, and the feeling of coming while looking into his smiling blue eyes. Then nothing.

But today she was going to kick him right out of her mind. The temperature had hit the big zero, and there was going to be a party. For years, when the temperature finally warmed up to above zero, Joe Jordan had a bomb fire to celebrate. Winter was far from over, but they had gotten past the coldest days, and that was worth a party.

With excitement, she hurried over to the insurance office. Ruth would love the party, she was sure of i Shoving into the office and barreling out of the cold, she felt something was up. There was something going on, but her friend was pouring coffee and Anderson was just talking to her. Looked like nothing, but it felt like a lot. Maybe Ruth and Anderson needed to go to this party even more than her.

"Mia," Ruth exclaimed, greeting her a little too excitedly.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

"Nothing, just getting more coffee. Anderson said it was snowing," her friend said in a rush.

"It's snowing, all right. It's supposed to snow most of the night," Mia said. Weather. The filler of all conversations in this town. Don't know what to say? Talk about the weather. There was always weather happening, and everyone had their opinion about it. "I think I heard that also," Ruth replied and seemed unable to stop staring at Anderson as he left the front of the office and go back to his desk without a word, leaving the women to their conversations.

"The temperature hit zero today. You know what that means," Mia hinted.

"The cold snap is over?" Ruth questioned in confusion.

"No, silly. Joe Jordan's party is tonight," she said, because everyone knew about the party. Or at least they should.

Ruth shook her head. "I don't know Joe Jordan."

"You don't have to know him. You can just go to the party," Mia assured her.

"I don't know. I don't like parties," Ruth admitted, and Mia knew it, but she also knew that Ruth needed to get out sometimes.

"You had fun at the bar a few weeks ago; it will be like that." But it will definitely not end like that, Mia thought. She was staying away from a certain person for the rest of her life.

"I had fun, yes, but a party is different." It wasn't, but Ruth hadn't been to enough parties to know that.

"What if I get Anderson to come. Then will you go?" Mia wasn't above bribery.

"He won't go, so then I won't have to go." Ruth smiled at her

"Are you coming, Anderson?" Mia asked from Ruth's office space. He was lost in thought, and his head popped up at his name.

"Where?" he asked, his eyes on Ruth and not her.

"Were you not paying attention at all?" Mia walked into his office. "Joe Jordan is having his annual 'over the donut' party tonight. Are you going?"

"Never heard of it." He shook his head as if to clear it.

"She didn't either. Do you two not live in this town? Every year, the first day the temps hit zero again for the first time, Joe Jordan has a bonfire to celebrate. Today we hit the mark, and tonight is the party." Mia sat herself down in his guest chair. She needed him to agree so that Ruth would go out.

"I don't know who Joe Jordan is," Anderson said. The same thing as Ruth.

Now she had to repeat that conversation, so she didn't have to go alone.

"You don't have to. Come on, Anderson. We need a ride; my car isn't starting." Mia had no idea if her car was starting or not. It had been a few weeks since she had needed to drive. She assumed she would have trouble when she finally decided to start it so it wasn't a lie exactly.

"You need a designated driver?" He leaned back in his chair.

She shook her head in denial. "Not really, but my car is out. And if Ruth goes, she doesn't have a car, so we are in need of wheels."

He asked Ruth, "Are you going?"

"I don't know," Ruth bit her l!p.

"Come on, you two. Come to the party with me. I don't want to go alone." If she didn't go to the party, she would stay at home and watch TV by herself, thinking about what had happened with Rafferty for another night.

"You are never alone in a crowd, especially not one in Landstad," Anderson said.

"I won't leave your sides. I promise to spend my whole night with you two. And I'm not drinking too much. I'm done with drinking until I pass out." Mia wasn't getting drunk again for years.

"If Ruth goes, I'll drive you." Anderson turned to the woman in question, and so did Mia.

Ruth only gave a slight nod that she was willing to go with them. Excitement flooded Mia as they planned the evening. She needed a night out.

An hour later Anderson picked them up outside Ruth's apartment, and the drive to the party was short. It was already in full swing when they got there, and the sun had barely set. The cold air around them and the snow under their feet was barely noticeable with the huge fire burning at the center of so many people. Mia talked to everyone as she, Ruth, and Anderson wandered through the crowds.

Chatting and drinking as she went, Mia remembered how much she loved these things. Just spending time with people she knew, nothing special. At one point, she stopped and looked around and just smiled at all the people who would show up at a party they didn't know about twelve hours before. Landstad had some positives.

Mia turned to Ruth and Anderson. "Isn't this great?"

"You go have fun, Mia. You don't have to babysit me." Ruth looked a little panicky to Mia; maybe it was time to get her home.

"I'm not babysitting you, silly. I'm partying with you." Mia finished her beer and pulled another from her coat pocket. Was this number three or four? She couldn't remember. Maybe she shouldn't open it. No more getting drunk, Mia, she told herself. This was the new Mia.

Just one more, she decided, and opened the bottle. Taking a drink, someone put their arms around her. Even though she had a nice buzz going on, she knew it was Rafferty. Her body always knew when it was Rafferty.

His warm l!ps were touching her cold ear as he whispered, "Are you drunk enough to fvck me yet?"

Pushing him away from her, she calmly handed her beer to Anderson. Then she turned on the little weasel. His face registered that he wasn't ready for an actual physical fight, but she was.

With all the anger from the last few weeks, months, and years over Rafferty Brooks, she wound back to punch him. As she swung, he must have seen it coming because he dodged her, and she fell into the cold snow. Not ready to stop yet, she wrapped her arms around his legs, and he fell to the ground. Trying to grab him around the neck with her mitten-clad hands, she could see he was laughing at her, which made her even madder at him.

Just as she was getting the advantage over him, she felt someone pulling her off. Anderson held her away from Rafferty, who was still laughing on the ground.

"Never speak to me again. Never!" she yelled so he could hear, along with everyone else at the party.

"I think it's time to head home," Anderson said as he pulled Mia toward the parking area.

To Mia's surprise, Ruth drove Anderson's truck back to town. She didn't think the other woman could drive. Or she knew she could, just it happened so rarely that she always forgot. Ruth didn't have a car, and her step-father or mom always picked her up for the weekends she spent with them. Mia knew Ruth had a sports car, but she rarely saw it. She just parked it outside the insurance office a few days a year.

On the drive, Mia was talking too much, but she couldn't stop. When she was buzzed, she liked to talk, and she would talk about anything with anyone. Usually, she didn't remember much about the chats.

All too soon, town came into view, and then they were downtown. Sweetly, Anderson opened her door for her and escorted her to her apartment door. He was so nice. Why couldn't she have accidentally slept with him? Why Rafferty?

Once in her apartment, she shed all her layers of clothes and took a long hot shower-the night had been so cold. Clean and warm, she put on a tank top and the panties she would sleep in. Adding her bathrobe, she headed to the living room and plopped down on the couch, leaving the lights off.

So far, she wasn't tired yet. She knew that 5:00 a.m. would come way too soon, as it always did, but she didn't want to sleep yet. Flipping through the channels on the TV, she found a movie she loved and pulled a blanket off the back of the couch, snuggling in to get lost in someone else's problems.

The movie was about halfway through when someone knocked on her door. Looking at her phone, she saw it was almost midnight. Shoot, she thought. She needed to get to sleep. She needed to be up to open the café in just a few hours.

Another knock came. Maybe it was Ruth to talk about what was happening with Anderson.

Happy to talk to her friend, she swung open the door and swore. "Hello to you too, Mia." Rafferty was leaning against the door jam.

"Get out of here, Rafferty." She swung the door closed again. In his face.

Catching it with his foot, Rafferty walked into her apartment, already taking off his jacket, and hanging it on her coat tree in the corner as if he was welcome. "I just wanted to make sure you made it home all right."

"I did. You can leave now." She flopped back onto the couch trying to ignore him.

Pulling the blanket back over her and snuggling back into the warm spot she had left, she turned her attention back to the TV. After a second, she pushed her feet out so that she was took up the entire couch. Rafferty had walked over to the couch and was looking down at her.

Leaning over her, he grabbed her pillow out from under her head, and she sat up a little. Angrily, she grabbed at the pillow he had taken. While she was distracted, he sat down where her pillow had been. Then he put the pillow on his lap. Gently, he laid her head back to where it was.

"Just watch your movie, Mia." He brushed her hair with his hand to get it out of her face.

Ignoring him, she concentrated on the TV, not on his body pressed against the back of her head. Not about his hand still caressing her hair. Letting herself relax and enjoy the movie, she fell asleep within minutes.