The John Saga- Part One

After a lot of back and forth, I decided to accept John’s invitation for coffee.

New Me, Same Problems

Remember the hot up-and-coming actor we had starring in our shows this year? He asked me out.

Commitment

Wesley and Zoey got married!

Time Out

It’s been a while since I wrote last.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again...Again

“It’s…it’s been such a long time.” I said.

I hadn’t seen him in years so I was surprised to see him standing in front of me. I closed my book and put it down on the table between us. He sat across from me. His hair was shorter, but it was still him.

Hard Day's Night

They were all staring at me and I felt the walls close in. If there had been walls, that is. Everywhere I looked someone was watching, waiting. The longer it went on the worse it got. I looked down and saw Mike. He was bleeding and I was holding a bloody knife.

Happy Fucking Holidays

Mike and I trudged up the snowy stoop to Maggie’s house. I was carrying several gifts for Grant and Annabelle and had gifts for Claire, Sarah, Maggie, and Jamie in a bag slung over my shoulder. Mike was holding a dish of my stuffed mushrooms and a couple bottles of wine.

I chose my outfit very carefully for the night. It was a black dress with long black sleeves and a conservative neckline. It went to just above my knee and I was wearing thick black tights and black shoes. Mike had commented that I looked like I was going to a funeral so I threw on some Christmas ball ornament earrings, put a gift bow in my hair, and changed my shoes out for some shiny red pumps that matched the earrings and bow.

Maggie greeted us at the door.

True Friends

I walked into our conference room and immediately knew something was up. Hazel was sitting at the head of the table and she never came to our weekly meetings for the Glass Penny. Hazel may have recruited all of us to join this theatre but up until now she’d been very hands off (aside from providing a significant investment to the establishment of this theatre and ongoing production checks). I smiled at her and took a seat next to Zeke as we waited for the others to trickle in.

When Molly arrived she sat across the table from me and I gave her a weak smile. She responded by looking at Hazel. I don’t blame Molly for being cold to me. After the way we left things, I can understand having a cooling off period. It sucks but she’s entitled to her feelings about our friendship as much as I am. I’ve been an asshole, we both have. We need some space and I get it.

Ashley and Riley walked in with coffee, followed by Nick. They settled in and Hazel cleared her throat. In front of her was an office binder. She flipped it open.

Damage Control

Molly is officially gone. Our apartment feels so empty without her and I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do. Our lease is up next month and I’m pretty sure I won’t renew it, which means I have a month to find a new apartment in my price range and then actually move into it. I also have to budget in buying a ton of new furniture since virtually all of our furniture was Molly’s due to mine being destroyed in the fire.

Dark Elephants

Things at The Glass Penny have been going well. We’ve been discussing the possibility of instituting an internship program for the summer in 2015. Having interns would help keep our costs low and we could offer several different internship positions in a variety of theatre jobs. I’m excited about looking into this more and getting it off the ground, hopefully.

“I could have my own intern for our summer show! It’ll be so cool to be able to teach someone else what I do.” I said.

I was at Mike’s apartment sitting at his kitchen table, telling him about my day while we ate dinner together.

“That’s awesome.” Mike’s enthusiasm didn’t match his words.

He’d been more reserved lately and I wasn’t sure what to say. It felt like Mike wanted to say something but never did and it was a giant elephant in the room. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to address it or not because I wasn’t sure what was going on with him. After dinner we sat on his couch and watched television.

“Do you want to watch Project Runway?” I asked excitedly.

Mike gave me a mock disgusted look.

“No way. Let’s watch Bar Rescue.”

I shrugged and snuggled up to him on the couch as he changed the channel.

“This show grosses me out. It makes me never want to leave my house again.” I joked.

Mike gave a quiet snort to show that he’d heard me and I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Lady in Red

“Day’s end can’t come close enough, right?” Aaron popped his head above his cubicle.

I was working on a deadline and had just sent my final piece into my editor. This particular piece was about the police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri over the weekend and was pretty challenging but I was satisfied with what I’d managed to produce. I knew where Aaron was going with this line of conversation, though.

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to join a few of us for happy hour after work?” He asked.

Usually, I turn Aaron down for happy hour but Dan’s words rang in my ear about how the invitations will eventually stop. I was in the mood to celebrate my article being done anyway so I agreed to go. We had a few more hours left of the work day so I started up on my next project: A District Attorney’s son who wrapped his car around a tree while driving drunk and had somehow managed to avoid any charges.

Water Under The Bridge

Work the day after the party was…uncomfortable. I knew that pretty much all of the cast and crew had learned about what happened and were going to be watching me closely and that really bothered me but I also recognized there wasn’t much I could do about it. Before the cast and crew arrived, though, Zeke showed up and didn’t immediately brought it up.

Tucker to the Max

We had a belated party for the opening of Tucker’s show tonight and I knew we’d regret hiring him. The show was given a shorter run than the other ones we’ve got planned because of the debacle we’d had at the beginning that led to Tucker being hired in the first place. So, once the show closes (in three weeks) I will have a nice month-long vacation from running shows during the night and will only have to run rehearsals during the day. Sweet! But…back to what happened at the party…

He Is Worth It

Adam and I planned to have a quiet dinner together the night before he was supposed to drive a moving truck to his new apartment in Cincinnati. We had just finished packing up almost everything (his bed would be packed in the morning) and were deciding on what we wanted to eat. I hadn’t been looking forward to this night at all.

We decided to order in pasta from an Italian place about 20 minutes away. When it arrived, I mostly just picked at my penne. We were sitting on the floor with our plates sitting on a box.

“You’re really quiet.” Adam said.

I shrugged.

Choice Words

By the time I arrived at the bar after getting off of work, the party was in full swing. I had steeled myself for this before I left but everything just felt so much more final and real now that I was surrounded by balloons and banners that said things like “good luck” and “bon voyage”. Adam immediately came over to me and kissed my cheek. He pointed me to the food table and was squirrel away by Dan to go talk to some friends he knew across the room.

I stared at the food table and felt sick.

“Faith!” Dan came up behind me and roughly threw his arm around me, “I’m so glad you came! Isn’t this great?”

Bon Voyage

Things have been weird for the past few days. Since we decided to try doing this long distance, we’ve come to an unspoken understanding not to bring it up. Adam moving is this constant elephant in the room that neither of us wants to address but it’s getting harder to ignore, especially with the moving boxes piling up in his apartment. But, Adam brought something up the other night that made his impending departure too difficult to ignore.

Ohio Bound

Adam and I hadn’t talked since I left his apartment in the middle of the night besides a text he’d sent me the morning after:

    

           I know you need time and I’ll give you some space. –A

I kept going back to reread it periodically since then, I’m not sure why. I found myself on Zoey’s couch with the girls sitting around me.

“I feel like there’s no good solution to this.” I said looking into my cup of tea.

“That’s because there’s not.” Molly said.

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.

Penny For Your Thoughts

Adam’s interview was today and since I didn’t have to work, I stayed over last night and sent him off this morning with lots of luck. I hung out at his place until he got back because I wanted to hear about how it went. I didn’t realize it was going to be such a long day for him. He didn’t get home until well in the afternoon.

On The Hunt

I stood outside Adam’s door knocking for at least five minutes and decided to just let myself in. There was loud music playing and I followed it to his office. He was sitting in his desk chair with his pajama pants on, an old college t-shirt, and a baseball hat turned backwards playing the air drums and singing very badly to One Republic’s Love Runs Out.

“I thought you were going to work on your interview prep for that job.” I yelled over the music and leaned against the door jamb with a smirk on my face.

Adam jumped at the sound of my voice and turned around.