Disappearing Act

Because I have been working on the holiday show with the theatre, I haven’t been working nights at the bar with exceptions for New Year’s and other extremely high volume-expected times. As such, I’ve been working days, which means I haven’t seen Brad since New Year’s Eve; I’ve also been ignoring all of his texts and phone calls since then, too. So, now that the holiday show is over, I’m back on nights and was expecting a whole lot of awkwardness coming from Brad’s direction when I walked in to work last night.

But he wasn’t there.                                        

I clocked in and got settled with Cara. She was pouring drinks tonight, instead of being a bar back like usual.

“Are you filling in for Brad?” I asked her.

“Didn’t Bruno tell you?” She asked.

“Did Bruno tell me what?”

“I’ve been promoted to bartender.”

“Oh, that’s awesome, Cara!”

“Bruno said he wants to see you after you get settled.” She said serving a beer to a regular.

I went to the back room where Bruno always hung out with his favorite customers.

“Bruno, you wanted to see me?”

“Yeah, Faith, let’s go to the office.”

I followed him back through the kitchen to a rickety staircase. Once we got to the landing, I followed him down a damp-smelling hallway until we reached his office. He offered me a seat in front of an old antique desk covered with papers.

“The situation going on with Brad is just unacceptable. I want to know what you think about it.”

I broke out in a cold sweat. Did Brad tell Bruno that we had sex in the stockroom? Was Bruno about to fire me? Is that why Brad wasn’t there? Had he been fired? I started panicking internally but decided to play dumb.

“What situation? Does it have to do with why he’s not here right now?”

Bruno gave me a confused look.

“You don’t know…? Faith, Brad quit five days ago. He didn’t even give me two weeks’ notice.”

I sat there shocked. My stomach dropped. I was both relieved about not being fired but also felt responsible for Brad leaving.

“I made Cara a bartender but I need you to take Brad’s place as the head bartender.”

“What!? Bruno, I’m in no way trained for that.”

“I’ll pay to get you trained at a school or something, okay, but I can’t run this place without a head bartender, you know that. And you’re the best person I’ve got for the job. I’ll pay you more.”

 I sighed.

“It’s not about the money. What about my other job? You know I need the flexibility of working days and nights when I work on shows. The head bartender works the busiest shifts, which are always at night. I can’t do that AND stage manage shows that are opened.”

Bruno sat back in his chair, deep in thought. His chair made loud creaky sounds as he rocked back and forth.

“What if it’s just temporary?” He asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll make you the head bartender for 3 weeks…a month tops, just until I can find someone else. I’ll pay you double time.”

I thought about it. A month wouldn’t be too bad. Most rehearsal periods last that long so if Ed picked me up for the next show, there shouldn’t be a conflict since I can work nights during the rehearsal period, but not when the show is open and having performances at night.

“Okay.” I said.

We shook hands and I left the office. When I got back to the bar, we had a lot of customers so I started pouring drinks as fast as possible. Eventually, Cara and I got caught up and had some down time.

“So, what did Bruno want?” She asked.

“He wanted to promote me to head bartender.”

“That’s awesome, Faith!”

“I didn’t take it.” I said.

Cara’s face fell.

“It’s just going to be temporary until he can find someone else.”

“Oh.” She said.

“It just wouldn’t work with my stage managing.” I said.

Cara nodded in agreement.

“So…what happened with Brad?” I asked her.

“I have no idea.” She said, “He just…left. He said he didn’t need the bar anymore or anyone here. It was…it came out of nowhere. He seemed happier than usual for the past few weeks but a few days before he quit he seemed really angry and upset all the time. He must have had some personal stuff going on.”

“Yeah, I guess. Do you know what he’s doing now?”

“I think he’s working as a manager at some record store his friend owns. He’s talked about it before as a back-up plan if the bar ever went under.”

“Wow.” I said. I was pretty sure Brad’s departure had EVERYTHING to do with what happened between us but I didn’t want Cara to find out about that.

“So how are you and Mike?” Cara changed the subject and I was thankful.

“We’re fully back together and things are going well. I’m meeting him tomorrow to see a movie. You and Liam can come, if you want.”

“Oh, I’d love to, but Liam’s parents are in town and we’re going out to dinner tomorrow.”

When I got home after my shift, I felt insurmountably guilty. I felt guilty because I’m the reason Brad left and I feel guilty because I still don’t know if I should tell Mike about what happened. The longer I wait to tell him, the worse it will be, I think, but if I never tell him I’ll feel like I’ll be lying to him. I hate this.