The Other Shoe

I walked out of the booth after the night’s performance and smiled.

“Hey, I didn’t expect you to be here.” I said.

But the smile faded away when I saw Adam’s face.

“We, uh, need to talk.” He rubbed the back of his head and looked really upset.

“Is everything okay?” I hesitated.

“It’s about the job offer I got.”

Zeke shouted at me from the booth and asked a question about locking up and I nodded.

“I’m sorry, you have to finish up here.” Adam realized, “We can talk when you’re done.”

I swallowed hard and nodded before heading backstage to close everything up. I had a nervous pit in my stomach and could hardly focus on what I was doing. When I joined Adam in the lobby I felt like I was about to go out of my mind.

“The position they offered me is in Ohio. In Cincinnati.” He said.

“What?” I was confused, “I thought you said it was here, in the city. I thought you were only applying to jobs here.”

“I did. The listing said it was here. They only told me the position they had actually hired me for was in Ohio today when we went to negotiate about salary and benefits.”

We left to go back to his place as I asked him questions.

Apparently, Adam did not get the position he’d applied for but the person that interviewed him liked him and wanted him to work for their organization so they found a similar position…in Ohio and offered him that one. Adam said that they offered the original position to someone else before they interviewed him and trying to find him a position is why his interview had seemed to take so long the other day.

“How can they do that?” I asked angrily, “That doesn’t seem fair at all!”

“A big part of getting a job is who you know, I guess. You know it’s like that in theatre.”

“Isn’t it false advertising?”

Adam shrugged and looked sad. When we arrived at his apartment I had been ranting angrily for the last ten minutes.

“This is RIDICULOUS! They practically lied to you! Do you even want to work for such a dishonest company!? I can’t believe th-”

“Faith.” Adam cut me off and had me sit down on his coffee table. I was fuming and he sat across from me, “I know you’re upset. I am, too.”

I looked at him with defeat.

“So…now what? Are you…are you going to take the offer?”

“I asked them if I could have some time to think about it. I have to give them an answer by first thing Monday morning.”

“If you took the job, when would you leave?” I was embarrassed when my voice cracked on “leave” and tried to hide that my eyes were filling up with tears.

“Two weeks from tomorrow…”

“Two wee…”

I looked up at him and felt like I’d been punched in the gut. A tear ran down my cheek and I just knew.

“You’re…you’re going to take the job, aren’t you.” I said sadly.

“I…” Adam looked guilty, “It’s…”

“It’s your dream job. Of course you’re going to take it.” I said gently and with understanding.

“Tell me not to and I won’t.” He wiped the tear away.

“I won’t be the person that has you give that up.” I reeled from him horrified that he would put that decision in MY hands.

There was a silence between us and I swear I could hear my heart breaking in it.

“Come with me.” He said.

“What?”

“Come with me. We could move there together and-”

“I can’t. I’m still on contract with The Glass Penny. Plus, my whole life is here, Adam. My friends are here, my job is here…”

We stared at each other sadly.

“We could do the long distance thing.” He said.

“I…” I shook my head.

“Faith, it’s our best option. I can’t stay here and you can’t come with me. We can make long distance work.”

He pulled me to him and engulfed me in a hug.

“I’ll come and visit every other month and you can come and visit me the months that I don’t fly here. Or we could try every two weeks. Just...just think about it, okay?"

I was honestly shell-shocked and just nodded but the idea of doing a long distance relationship again honestly made me want to throw up. Adam seemed so sure about it being able to work, though…

Later that night I laid in his bed staring at the ceiling, wide awake. I listened to his slow breathing and remember being amazed at how soundly he was able to sleep when I felt like a bomb had just gone off inside of me. I slipped out of bed, got dressed, and walked home but the walk didn’t help clear my head or make what we should do about this any less difficult.