“I’ll think about it. Thanks.” He took the boxes containing their lunches.
Watching as he walked out the door and across the freezing cold street, she hoped he would figure something out to make Ruth’s day special. The cook called her name, and she took the plates to the diners at the end of the room in the last booth. Regulars. Both excited about the meatloaf.
As she walked back to the front, the café door opened and Rafferty walked in, carrying a balloon and a brown paper bag. The balloon was red and said, “love” in big letters.
He sat down at the counter, and Mia went to him in annoyance, asking, “What can I get you, Rafferty?”
She needed him out of here as soon as possible. Him and his damn balloon. Her holiday was already bad, he was only going to make it worse.
“Nothing for me today, though the special is tempting.” He licked his lips, and she had a sudden flashback to those very lips on her nipple. She had a love-hate relationship with those flashbacks.
“What are you doing here?” She crossed her arms and ignored the tingle that had shot straight to her core.
“I got you something for the holiday.” He handed her the bag and the balloon.
Taking it, she looked at him skeptically. “Why?”
“Just being a good lover.. Thought you would need it,” he said and winked at her.
Looking around, she lowered her voice and hissed, “What is it?”
Rafferty shook his head and whispered back, “Maybe you should open it at home. It’s kind of private.”
At his words, she slowly opened the bag and peered inside. It was a pregnancy test. Quickly closing the bag, she leaned close to him and whispered, “What the hell, Rafferty?”
“I was just thinking that it got a little heated last time, and we might have forgotten something important. I don’t know if you remember; you were a little drunk.” He was smiling as he said it, like it was no big deal that they kept having sex when she was drunk.
“You took advantage of me when I was drunk, again.” Hissing quietly, she glared at him as she tried to make the bag as small as possible and hand it back to him.
“You were all over me, Mia. It’s not my fault you can’t keep your hands off me.” Holding up his hands and not taking the bag, he pushed away from the counter and headed to the door. Opening it, he turned, smiling and saying loudly, “Call me when you know.”
Seething with anger, she pulled the balloon down and, with her pen, popped it, which drew everyone’s attention. Smiling at her customers, she wrapped the deflated balloon around the bag and threw it all in the garbage. He was such a liar. Nothing happened that night. She distinctly remembered falling asleep watching a movie. No way she woke up, had sex, and fell back asleep and didn’t remember it happening. There was no way.
Or was there a little way? She had been drinking, and she knew how she got when drunk. Horny. Would she have slept with Rafferty again? Wasn’t one drunken hook-up enough?
Mia was contemplating giving up alcohol completely, cold turkey. Because lately, every time she drank, she slept with Rafferty, then couldn’t remember a thing the next morning. Every. Stupid. Time.
Biting her lip in annoyance, because she couldn’t just go into the drug store and buy another one, not with every man for miles around buying flowers today, and now, she was questioning everything. She was about to grab the test from the garbage when Anderson ran into the café. “Have you seen Ruth?”
“No, she’s probably at home.” Mia forgot about the test and the possible pregnancy, suddenly thinking about her friend instead.
Anderson looked back out at the street at her apartment door. “I checked. She’s not there.”
“I haven’t seen her mom come get her, she couldn’t have gone far,” Mia said, though she hadn’t been paying attention to that. After all, she was all-consumed with her pregnancy scare right now. Ruth’s whereabouts was the last thing on her mind. Her eyes darted to the garbage.
“Can you call me if you see her?” Anderson begged her.
“Did you do something? Did she realize you had forgotten about Valentine’s Day?” She kicked the garbage out of her line of site. She needed to focus on Ruth right now.
“No, my ex called when I was getting lunch. Ruth answered. She said something, but I have no idea what.” He looked so worried and concerned. If Mia hadn’t known he was in love with Ruth before this, she knew now. Lucky Ruth; she got a good one. Not an annoying playboy like Rafferty!
“I’ll call if I see her. She’s most likely up there,” Mia assured him, but he probably didn’t hear her because he was out the door before she finished speaking. Shaking her head, she wondered what really happened. She knew she would find out eventually, she always did.
After Anderson had left, she forced herself to walk away from the garbage and the test it contained, only to spend the rest of her shift thinking about the test in the garbage. Should she take it? Was she even late? By her calculations, she wasn’t even late yet. But if they had unprotected sex, maybe she should take it to make sure. Nosy Jackie at the drug store wouldn’t even have to know.
Better to know than not.
So as she left for the day, she grabbed the balloon-wrapped test from the garbage and hurried down two buildings to her apartment. Letting herself in she quickly, she discarded the balloon and paper bag. Taking it test straight into the bathroom, she read the directions. Staring, she realized she would have to take it in the morning. That was hours away.