Chapter Text
Mia didn’t know it when she pulled into the back-to-school carnival, but Ada’s words were like a prophesy.
When her car came to a stop and Rose all but jumped out of the car, seeing Sherry, Jake, Piers and a girl with dark hair named Moira waiting for her at the gate, Mia’s main concern was making sure her daughter didn’t get smoked by a car in the parking lot.
After seeing the group into the carnival, and being promptly ditched with a kiss on the cheek from Rose and a promise to stay in touch via text, Mia joined Ada and a very flustered looking Leon by the main stage. Apparently, Leon explained, he’d met Helena’s sister Deb, who had volunteered to run some of the games, just shortly after he and Sherry arrived, and Deb had taken great joy in grilling him, much to Helena’s dismay and Sherry’s amusement.
Ada and Jill had arrived at about the same time, and after Chris hustled Jill away to deal with something or another, Ada perched herself next to them and watched Leon sweat. Helena, who was the staff member in charge of coordinating the games for the day, had finally managed to move her sister along and left the three, and just as Leon breathed a sigh of relief, she placed a kiss on his cheek and reminded him about his promised stint in the dunk tank. Ada, she’d gleefully told Mia, had laughed so hard she’d almost developed a stitch in her side.
Mia shook her head with a grin, looking around at the bustling carnival. Raccoon City was a smaller town, and Umbrella’s collapse had almost ripped it apart at the seams.
In the aftermath, the remaining townsfolk had banded together to rebuild. It’d left everyone in town tightly knit together, and everyone in town had seemed to come out to support the carnival. In the crowds, Mia could make out Jill talking to the new Fire Chief, Carlos Oliviera, who was apparently an old friend of Leon’s from his time before coming to Raccoon City. He’d just moved into town a month or so before, on Leon’s suggestion, and he and Jill got on like a house on fire, to pardon the pun. Mia didn’t know much about him, and hadn’t thought to even ask what Ada had heard about him.
Mia clocked Ada’s gaze flickering to the two as she looked around, cotton candy in one hand and the other arm keeping her casually leaned against the sound stage. Jill was a beautiful person, but when she was happy and in her element, she was gorgeous, which Mia imagined very few people in the crowd around them weren’t aware of. Mia figured Carlos knew better than most what happened when you played with fire though, and nudged Ada gently in the side when a crease formed between her eyebrows.
“Hm?”, Ada asked, glancing over. Leon’s eyes went to where Ada’s gaze had been, and he rolled his eyes at Mia over Ada’s shoulder.
“You’ve got that look on your face that means I’m going to need to come up with an alibi by the end of the night.”, Mia teased, hooking an arm around Ada’s waist. “Jill adores you, just about as much you do her.”
“And Carlos thinks she’s great, I wouldn’t put it past him to try and get her to join the fire department when she retires from the school board, but she’s very much not his type.”, Leon added dryly. Ada looked genuinely baffled, and a little offended.
“Excuse you, Jill is everybody’s type-“, Ada went to respond heatedly before Leon nodded his head towards the group.
Another man had approached, and Carlos lit up like a Christmas tree when he spotted him. He waved the man over and the three spoke animatedly. Leon continued, “That’s Ty, Carlos’ fiancé. He does demolition for the PMC I used to work for. He isn’t in town much, but apparently he wanted to meet Carlos’ new bestie.”
“Of course he would, because Carlos isn’t an idiot and Jill is amazing.”, Ada scoffed, and Mia could feel her back relax. Mia stifled a laugh, resting her head against Ada’s shoulder for a moment.
“Who isn’t an idiot?”, a voice asked from their left, and Mia felt herself jolt just slightly. She could hear Ada’s smirk when Ada greeted,
“Not you, Redfield. Nice of you to join us. Managed to get the teenaged dirtbags who’ll be serenading us this fine evening in line?”
Chris rolled his eyes in response – Jake’s band had been practicing in the garage at Leon’s house most weekends, and Leon could grudgingly admit that they weren’t terrible. Rose, reluctantly, concurred, though that may have been because of what Mia suspected was a crush on either Moira Burton or Piers, possibly both. Mia thought they weren’t half bad, if the videos on Sherry’s Instagram were any indication, but she kept her opinions to herself. – and joined the group.
“I’ll be sure to let Jake, Piers and Moira know your opinions of their playing haven’t changed, Ada.”, Chris said dryly, smiling at Mia. “Mia, nice to see you. I thought I spotted Rose around the concessions.”
“You too, Chris. Yeah, apparently I’m not cool enough for Rose to hang out with at one of these things.”, Mia answered with a smile. “Sherry, Piers, Jake and Moira met her at the gates when we got here, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“She could be stuck with a worse group.”, Chris admitted, grinning. “Will you be staying until close?”
“Probably. I can barely get Rose away from them on a slow day. Depending how today goes, we might wind up camping out overnight.”, Mia laughed.
“I’ll put in a good word for you with the principal.”, Chris promised. In the back of her head, Mia knew she was smiling like an idiot, and she couldn’t bring herself to care. She was enjoying feeling happy for once in a very, very long time.
“Appreciate it, but I’ve got an in.”, Mia said conspiratorially, winking with her arm still around Ada, who for her part had rolled her eyes towards the sky like she couldn’t believe she was being involved in this.
“You disgust me.”, Ada said, with a whole lot of love packed into the words as she looked at Mia fondly. She turned to Leon, who was watching with a smile on his face, and then said, “Come on, Leon, let’s go find somewhere else to – Wesker?!”
Mia felt Ada wrench around where she stood, then looked over to where Chris, Leon and Ada were now looking, each with an expression of anger. The person she found herself looking at was, frankly, not what she had imagined Jake’s father to look like.
After dinner at Ada’s house, Mia had deliberately avoided Googling Jake’s dad. Her curiosity was killing her, and she probably could have found a picture in TerraSave’s files, but she knew herself. If she let herself do that, she’d start to obsess and then she’d spiral, and it just wouldn’t end well for anyone. She had a sneaking suspicion that Rose knew more about her friend’s estranged father than Mia did, and she made herself be okay with that. She figured that, when it became something for her to worry about, she’d do something about it then, but until that point, she wouldn’t dig.
The man standing in front of them did not, at all, look like Mia would have pictured Albert Wesker to look like. Irene Muller, who was a music teacher at an academy about an hour outside of Raccoon City, was a kind, generous and all-around beautiful woman, and Jake had, by all appearances, taken after her greatly. Irene was also kind enough to shame a saint, and Mia privately had a very tough time reconciling that woman with the man behind so many of the heinous experiments Umbrella had done in the name of science.
Jake didn’t take after his father at all as far as Mia could see, Wesker being about as tall as Leon, with blond hair and ridiculously pale skin. He was wearing sunglasses, and a shirt, slacks and shoes that Mia would bet cost about as much as what she’d spent on Rose’s entire back to school wardrobe. He held himself like someone who knew themselves to be very important, and while Jake could be cocky and boisterous, he had long since grown out of the arrogance he’d when he was a kid. It seemed that the father never had, and the thin smirk he gave the group in recognition made Mia’s skin crawl.
From where she stood, still with her arm around Ada, Mia could tell that her best friend’s hackles had gone up. Ada could never stand people who thought they were the most important person in the room, she’d always said that they usually had the dirtiest secrets. Mia had never known her best friend to be wrong about her judgement calls, even when they came out of left field, and she felt herself tense beside her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mia watched Chris step forward, putting himself bodily between Wesker and their group. A woman had appeared beside him, almost out of thin air, and Mia watched RC High School’s head fitness and athletics teacher, Sheva Alomar, wordlessly stare down Wesker from Chris’ side. Mia had met Sheva a handful of times, mostly in parent teacher conferences, and she knew the teacher to be an outgoing and kind person. Rose had confirmed that while she didn’t put up with anyone’s bullshit, Sheva was one of the more popular teachers at RC, with an open-door policy for all students and never an unkind word to say. From what Rose had let slip, Sheva had been one of the only teachers Jake had opened up to about his mom getting sick again, and Leon and Sheva had coordinated making sure Jake was taken care of while Irene was getting treatment.
“What are you doing here, Wesker?”, Chris asked, his voice icy. It was a tone Mia had never heard him use before, in their admittedly limited interactions, but it wasn’t one she was terribly fond of.
“Nice to see you again as well, Chris. And I’m enjoying the carnival, of course. From what I gather, Jill has worked so hard on this. I wanted to see the fruits of her labour firsthand.” Ada, already tense, made to lunge at the man without a word of warning, and Chris put an arm out to stop her momentum. Mia wrapped an arm around her best friend, who looked like she was about to spit venom at Wesker.
“You keep her name out of your goddamn mouth.”, Ada snarled, pushing against the barriers both Chris and Mia had formed to keep her still.
“Now Ada, must we be cross?”, Wesker said with a put-upon sigh. “Once upon a time, I seem to recall us being friends. Or was my sister really your favorite Wesker?”
“We were never friends. I put up with you as long as your old man signed my paycheck.”, Ada spat at him. Mia could feel the muscles in her arm tensing up under her hand, and she exchanged worried looks with Leon. Ada took a step forward, then added, “You have some goddamn nerve, showing your face here again after what you did. Speaking of Alex, I’m surprised she didn’t rip your face off after you left her out to dry.”
“Oh, I’m sure if she’d had the opportunity to, it would have been her first port of call.”, Wesker acknowledged blithely. “As it happens, I haven’t seen her since our father passed some years ago. My sister has been working with a countess in Romania, doing research work.”
“Well, ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead. Here I thought Spencer would have outlived us all out of pure spite.”, Ada scoffed, and Wesker, to Mia’s frank astonishment, let out a laugh that didn’t sound entirely rehearsed.
After taking a moment to compose himself, which Mia spent wondering, again, how the hell this man had managed to get Irene Muller to marry him, never mind getting Chris to date him, Wesker smiled at Ada, who glared back at him. “Oh, I have missed that fire of yours, Ada. And, not to speak ill of the dead, but I’m sure if he’d had a say in the matter, he would have indeed outlived us all. But, heart attacks are such funny things.”
Mia heard Ada mutter about how she hadn’t known Spencer even had a heart, but her questions were cut off when Chris spoke. “Ada, it’s okay.”, he said, exchanging a look with Ada that Mia wasn’t sure how to read before bringing his eyes back to Wesker. “Well, we won’t keep you, Wesker. There’s a whole carnival to check out, be a shame to miss anything. Thanks for stopping by.”
Mia felt more than heard the brick wall that Chris’ words formed between he and the man in front of them, and she watched as Wesker’s shoulders tensed. She imagined that if he’d had less restraint, Wesker would have said something fairly impolite, but he seemed to paint on a sharp smile in response to Chris’ words.
“Of course. But, before I leave you, Chris, perhaps you can tell me where I can find my son. I’ve seen videos of his band practicing on my niece’s Instagram, and I wanted to wish him luck before his performance this afternoon.”
Between one breath and the next, Leon had gone from beside Mia and Ada to face to face with Wesker, a look like thunder on his face. Ada sharply said, ‘Leon, don’t-‘ a moment before Leon opened his mouth.
“I warned you not to contact my kid, Wesker. She doesn’t want anything to do with you, or either of them.”, Leon bristled, placing particular venom on the word ‘them’.
Wesker seemed entirely unfazed by the furious man in front of him. He seemed to regard Leon coolly for a moment, and then said, “And I haven’t, Agent Kennedy. Oh, excuse me, it’s Mr. Kennedy now, isn’t it? I forgot you retired after the custody agreements were finalized. William and Annette send their best, by the way.”
Leon looked about a breath away from jumping at Wesker, and Ada grabbed a hold of the back of his sweater quickly. She tugged firmly on the sweater and Leon looked back at her, getting a shake of the head in response to whatever unspoken question Ada read on his face. Chris put his hand on Leon’s shoulder and gently nudged him back to where Ada and Mia stood, then turned to face Wesker.
“You know what, I think we’re done here, Wesker. Jake made it very clear that he’d be just as happy to never see you again, and honestly, I can’t say I don’t know how that feels.”, Chris said calmly, and Mia saw the verbal strike land as Wesker flinched minutely. “And after what you and the Birkins put Sherry through, the fact that you have the nerve to stand here and talk about her is, frankly, appalling.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Chris.”, Wesker replied, sounding like butter wouldn’t melt in his lying mouth. “Granted, Annette and William weren’t the most attentive of parents, but there was never any proof of wrongdoing.”
Leon moved to run at the man again, and Ada’s hand held onto the back of his sweater in a death grip. Chris gave the man a look of what Mia could only describe as loathing, though she didn’t think she was imagining the buried pain she saw as well. Beside him, Sheva was almost vibrating with rage and Mia watched as her hands clenched every few moments.
Chris shook his head, and then sighed quietly.
“I’m not even going to dignify that wish a response. Now I’m only going to say this once, then my friends and I are going to go enjoy the carnival and forget we ever spoke. I don’t know why you came back, and I don’t want to know. If I never saw your face again, it’d be too soon, so let me be very clear about this.”, Chris said quietly. “For the sake of the kids, we’ll be professional. As long as you do your job and don’t cause anyone – and I do mean anyone. – grief, we won’t have a problem. However, if I hear even a whisper of you getting up to your old tricks, Irons won’t be able to protect you, not from the town, not from Leon, not from Jill, and sure as hell not from me.”
“Precisely what tricks are you referring to, Chris? Science experiments?”, Wesker said dryly, and entirely too confidently for a man who was public enemy number one in Raccoon City. “In any case, consider me warned. I’m not here to cause grief for anyone, whether you believe it or not. Not that you asked, but I was notified that Irene was sick, and I wanted to help she and Jake. I understand that my son harbors great disdain for me, and not entirely without cause. However, I’ve made a bit of a name for myself these past few years; I have the money, and medical bills aren’t cheap, especially on a teacher’s salary with a growing teenager.”
“So you came back out of the goodness of your heart? Spare me.”, Sheva said with an eyeroll.
“I came back to help wife and son. When Irene’s returned to health, I imagine I’ll be on my way once again. God knows there isn’t anything else in this town that’s worth my attention.” Mia could read a sliver of resentment breaking through the words, and she bristled at them.
Chris didn’t react to the words, though Mia imagined he wanted to if the tensing in his jaw was anything to go by. He offered a grimace that, if one was feeling charitable, could be called a polite smile. “Well, then let’s all hope Irene recovers quickly. Be seeing you.”
Wesker watched Chris for a long moment, and he opened his mouth before snapping it shut a moment later. Offering a clipped nod, Wesker turned and walked into the lines of people walking by the sound stage. Chris let out a long, low breath while Leon let out a quiet string of curse words, then looked at Ada with a nod. She let go of his sweater, and Leon said something about going to find Sherry backstage before running to where the security guards were by the stairs to the band prep area.
Sheva’s eyes were flicking between Chris and the crowd where Wesker had vanished, and she turned to the group. “I’m going to go find Josh and let him know, I’ll send Jill your way if I run into she and Carlos in the crowd, alright?”
“Alright. Thanks, Sheva, and be careful.”, Chris stressed, getting a pat on the shoulder before Sheva walked towards where the concessions were. Chris let out another deep sigh.
“Anyone else feel like they need to take a shower?”, Ada grumbled, putting an arm around Mia’s shoulders while her other hand slowly unclenched from around her very abused looking bag of cotton candy.
“There isn’t a shower hot enough, I don’t think. Thanks for the assist, Ada. I know your history with him isn’t the easiest.”, Chris acknowledged, getting a handwave from Ada.
“He’s a slimy son of a bitch. The thing that pisses me off the most is that I didn’t see the worst of it until it was too late.”, Ada answered. She looked to the crowd, spotting Jill making her way over with a look of rage on her face, and then said, “Looks like I’ve got some ruffled feathers to sooth. Redfield, you mind keeping an eye on this one for me? She tends to get into trouble when left to her own devices.”
“Pot, kettle.”, Mia said dryly, getting a wink from her best friend. Mia laughed and pulled her arm from around Ada.
Chris grinned at the two, seeming to relax for the first time since Wesker’s arrival. “I’m sure we can manage, you go on. And please, try to keep Jill from killing someone?”, Chris agreed.
“I’ll keep her from getting caught killing someone.”, Ada promised before walking to meet Jill.
Mia and Chris looked at each other with a grin. Mia glanced around, seeing the band beginning to set up their instruments for the show that was due to start. “And then there were two.”, she commented lightly, seeing Leon waiting at the curtain while Sherry and Rose helped Jake, Moira and Piers set up their instruments.
“So there is.”, Chris replied. Mia watched a few different emotions fly across his face before Chris said, “Mia, listen, I want to apologize.”
Mia blinked, then asked, “Apologize for what?”
“Jill told me that you know about my… complicated history with Wesker.”, Chris began. “He’s always been irritatingly good at getting under my skin, but I should have reacted better than I did.”
“Chris, I don’t even know the full story of what happened but from what I do know? I wasn’t even involved, and I wanted to clock him when he started talking about Jake and Sherry.”, Mia insisted.
“I thought, after fifteen years and a boatload of therapy, I’d have been less angry. Turns out, I was wrong. But I shouldn’t have let him bait me, he was just going for a reaction from me, and I gave him what he wanted.”
“But you didn’t, Chris. You took the high road. I don’t doubt in the slightest that he was trying to push your buttons, but you didn’t give him that satisfaction. You should be proud of yourself.”
“I’m not, but thanks.”, Chris said reluctantly. He let out another sigh and said, “Y’know, this is not how I planned on today going.”
“The universe has a funny way of biting us when we least expect it.”, Mia laughed.
“You’re telling me. I definitely didn’t plan on you meeting my own personal evil ex, but here are.”, Chris said dryly.
“God knows, I’m in no place to judge anyone about their exes. Mine is currently being left on read by our daughter out of spite. We all play the hands we’re dealt.”
“Jill told me about that. She also mentioned that the divorce was finalized?”, Chris asked. Mia felt her heart give a jolt against her ribcage, and tried to remain calm. That, she reminded herself, was a perfectly normal thing for two friends to talk about.
“That’s right. As of four weeks and three days ago, I am no longer Mrs. Ethan Winters. I’m keeping the last name, mostly for Rose’s sake, but now I’m just plain ol’ Mia Winters.” The sting of that notion had been a difficult one to reckon with, but as she said it out loud, it felt right to Mia.
“That’s great, I’m happy for you, Mia. Is Rose handling things alright?”, Chris asked, smiling at her.
“I don’t think the divorce was ever what bothered her, not really. I mean, it upset her, but I think it was the way it all happened that really hurt her. But, Ada got her into counselling and that seems to be helping her. We still have some bad days, but I think we’re going to be okay.”, Mia said with a happy smile.
“You will be. You and Rose are tough.”, Chris said with certainty. Mia saw him glance at something over her shoulder, and he frowned at it before returning to look at Mia. “Listen, Mia, this is possibly the worst way I could ask this, but would you want to go to dinner with me sometime?”
Mia felt like she’d been shocked, even as she smiled. She blinked quickly, then said, “I – I mean, yes, absolutely, yes, but… God, I – Like, as a date?”
“That’s how I had it planned in my head, but it can not be?”
“Okay, good, yes, a date. I would love to.” In the back of her head, Mia knew she was stumbling over her words and grinning like an idiot, but she didn’t care.
“Great.”, Chris answered with a matching grin, then pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. “Jill offered to get your number through Ada for me, but that seemed… weird? And morally wrong?”
“Ada would have given it to you, without question. She’s offered to get me yours often enough.”, Mia replied, putting her phone number in and saving it under Mia W. She handed the phone back and said, “I know with school starting, you’ll be swamped, so just text me and we can plan something.”
“Will do. Speaking of, we should probably move away from the speakers, my days of moshing are far behind me.”, Chris quipped, pocketing his phone before the two moved back to the gates of the stage area.
The two made small talk for the next few minutes as the area around them filled with people before the show began. They were in the middle of a discussion of what Rose and her friends were planning for after high school when the MC of the concert took the stage, announcing Jake’s band.
While the opening chords of a power ballad that Jake may, or may not, admit to writing about Sherry began playing, Mia felt her phone begin vibrating in her pocket.
Mia saw Rose’s name on the caller ID and answered, “Hi Rosie, where-“
“Mom, I’ve been texting you for the last half hour, where are you?”, Rose asked, her voice pitched and sounding panicky.
Mia felt her stomach lurch. Chris gave her a look of concern as she answered, “I’m by the gates to the stage with Chris. Rose, are you alright?”
“Just stay there! Sher, they’re over there, let’s - oh my God, move, dude! Check your texts, mom, I’ll be there in a couple minutes!” Rose’s phone disconnected, and Mia pulled the phone from her ear with a sick feeling in her stomach.
“Is everything-“, Chris started to asked.
Before he could finish the question, Mia heard a voice she knew like the back of her hand calling her. The sick feeling in her stomach turned into something like a lead weight, and Mia turned around.
“Mia! Hey, I didn’t think we’d find you with all these people.”, Ethan greeted, he and Zoe walking up to where she and Chris stood.
Mia felt more than saw Ada appear at her side like a ghost, staring Ethan down from beside her, and she could hear Rose approaching from the crowd behind her.
It felt like she was back in Jill’s office, the day Rose got into a fight at school. The anger rose up her throat like bile, and all she could bring herself to ask was, “Ethan, what are you doing here?”
“I can work remotely, remember? I wanted to see Rose, spend some time with her before school gets too busy. I asked Zoe to come so I can show her around and introduce them.”
Mia remembered, alright. Mia remembered the number of fights she and Ethan had had while Rose was growing up, her always pressing him to use his work’s option to work remotely so they could take Rose on family trips while she was still little. Ethan had always pushed back, saying he’d never get any work done that way and how else were they going to pay the bills? Never mind that Mia made more than him at TerraSave, or that he didn’t have to be present every moment, just him being with them would have been enough.
The memory of those fights, how frustrated and angry she’d always been, surged back to her. She wondered if that was something she should talk about in therapy.
Then, the rest of Ethan’s statement hit her, the part about introducing Rose to Zoe even though they’d already met, and Ethan knew Rose was still hurting from the divorce and their separation.
Mia saw red. The last thing she remembered between that moment and walking to her car with Rose was Ada stepping in front of her, and Rose going off on her dad like a bomb.
When the numbness began seeping out of her skin and Mia realized she had Rose’s arm wrapped around her waist on one side while Ada held her hand on her other, the trio were already halfway to where Mia’s car was parked. She heard Ada saying something about how Jill and Chris had firmly, but politely, asked Ethan to leave, and figured that that was why she and Rose were currently frogmarching her to her car.
Mia felt her breath get easier as she was guided into the passenger seat of her car, then saw Rose climb into the backseat while Ada took the driver’s side. Ada was talking to someone, Mia assumed Jill, through her Bluetooth as she put on her seatbelt, then said goodbye and disconnected the call. The two made eye contact, and Ada asked,
“Back with us?”
“Yeah.”, Mia said quietly. Ada nodded once, then started the car.
“Mom? You okay?” Rose’s voice sounded scratchy, like she’d been crying, and Mia tried very hard to swallow down the rage she felt.
“I’m okay, baby. Are you?”, Mia asked. Her throat hurt, and she didn’t remember yelling, but she imagined if Ada was that tense, and Rose was that upset, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
“I’m so fucking mad, mom.”, Rose seethed, tearing up behind her. Mia put her hand back between the seats, feeling Rose hold onto it as she rested her head against Mia’s seat.
“I know, honey. I know.” Mia looked at Ada, then asked, “Did we make too bad of a scene?”
“You starting to shake, and screaming like a banshee before going catatonic with anger? No.”, Ada said tersely as she drove out of the parking lot. “Jake, Piers and Moira jumping down from the stage mid-set when Rose started yelling at her dad about what an asshole he was? That was something that someone could, potentially, consider a scene.”
“Rosie.”, Mia said gently, squeezing her daughter’s hand slightly.
“I’m not sorry, Mom.”, Rose replied quietly.
“I know, baby. Make sure you thank Jake, Piers and Moira though.”
She heard Rose’s quiet mutter of, ‘I will’ and then turned to look at Ada again. Ada’s jaw was tense as she drove in silence, and Mia could see her free hand tapping an erratic rhythm on the steering wheel. She figured, from the tension radiating off of Ada, that her best friend was waiting for her to ask about why Ethan had shown up without warning, with his new girlfriend no less. Mia imagined that, in the past, she would have possibly cared as to the why of it.
Right then, she really didn’t. They’d burn that bridge when they got there. She squeezed Rose’s hand gently, then said casually, “So, Chris asked me out to dinner.”
Ada hm’d and Rose let out a groan behind her. “Yeah, Jill mentioned he was going to do that.”, Ada said, equally as casual.
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”, Mia asked, smiling tiredly. Ada shrugged.
“And let you worry yourself to death about it? Pass. I saw that dog and pony show once, and that was more than enough.” Mia, knowing exactly what Ada was referring to, let out a laugh.
“Ada, I was seventeen. And I’d been waiting for Ethan to ask me out for literally weeks by then.”
“He took you to a hockey game for your first date, Mia.”, Ada said flatly.
“It was a very nice-“
“Do not defend him, Mia, I swear to God. And, you don’t even like hockey! You didn’t then, and you don’t now!”, Ada said vehemently, making Mia laugh even harder. Ada huffed, then added, “Anyway, Redfield was driving Jill up the wall about it when I told them that the divorce had been finalized. Between him and Leon, I was at my limit for adults who can’t process their emotions in an appropriate manner, i.e. on their own without using me or my girlfriend as a sounding board.”
“He was thinking about it for that long?”, Mia asked, getting a flat look from her best friend. She laughed, then said, “Okay, fine. So, yes, he asked me out for dinner, and I said yes.”
Ada nodded absently, signalling and completing her turn before replying. “Of course you did, you’ve only been talking about him for the last, oh I don’t know, half a year? If you’d said no, I would have lost my mind. When’s it happening?”
“Not sure. I gave him my number and told him to text me after things settle at school.”, Mia explained, noting that Rose hadn’t said a word about this latest development.
Even behind her sunglasses, Mia could see Ada roll her eyes. “Cool, so your first date is going to be in June, approximately?”
“Ideally not, no, but-“
“Mia, Redfield is a workaholic. It’s one of the many things you and he have in common. Oh my God, the two of you are going to die from anticipation at this rate.”, Ada said disapprovingly. She glanced in the rearview mirror and then said, “Rosie, when we get home, make sure you remind your mom to give me her phone. I’ll text Redfield and set this up my damn self.”
“Auntie, please don’t get me involved in this.”, Rose groaned. “I don’t want to think about my mom dating Redfield, it’s weird enough you dating Valentine.”
Ada said, ‘you like Jill though!’ at the same time Mia asked, “Rose, if I go for dinner with Chris, are you going to be okay with it? I wouldn’t do something that would hurt you.”
Rose was quiet for a long moment, then said, “I mean, I guess as far as guys in this city, you could do worse than Redfield. It’s just going to be so awkward if you guys become a thing, and if you get married, I am not calling him Dad.”
Ada let out a cackle while Mia felt herself turning red. “Rose, let’s get the first date out of the way, alright?”, Mia asked, laughing nervously to herself.
“And for better or worse, babe, I think you’re stuck with the Dad you’ve got.”, Ada added, frowning to herself. “I have always thought your mom was too good for him, but the only good thing I can say about him is that he loves you a lot. He was shit partner, but as far as I can tell, he was a good dad.”
“That about sums it up.”, Mia agreed quietly, then felt Rose squeeze her hand. Mia let out a tired breath, then said, “We’ll figure it out as we go, I guess. One day at a time.”
“While we’re figuring it out today, can we also get pizza? Everything happened so quickly that I didn’t even get to finish the soft pretzel I bought.”, Rose grumbled, and Mia felt her press her head against the side of her seat.
Ada laughed again, and Mia smiled. “I think we can arrange that.”