Flirty Faith

I showed up at the record store Brad works at in super tiny, skin-tight denim shorts and a tight, white tank top and a push-up bra. I needed a good reason to show up there out of the blue and figured I’d pretend like I was bringing him lunch. For good measure, I made sure it wasn’t food he’d like, that way if he didn’t take the bait with the open flirting, I could pick a fight if he said he didn’t like it.

“Hey.” I said walking inside.

“What are you doing here?” Brad asked happily.

“I thought I’d surprise you with lunch.” I said holding up the lunch cooler I brought with me.

“That’s awesome! Let me go get my jacket.”

“Okay.” I said as he walked towards the back. I found myself annoyed by his excitement.

I walked over to the cash register where Phil, Brad’s friend, was working. I leaned on the counter so my cleavage was in full view and stuck my butt out seductively.

Master Plan

“You guys, he is not taking any of the bait. He sees me as perfect.” I bemoaned.

The girls and I were shopping at the mall. Anna had brought the twins who had just turned two (which I cannot believe, they are SO big) last month in a double stroller. They were sleeping while we tried on shoes.

“Maybe you should just end things.” Anna suggested.

Oral Fixation

Bruno has STILL not found a replacement for Brad’s position which means I am still working at the theatre, calling cues every night and then immediately going to the bar right after. Last night, I was there until 4 in the morning because I had to close and do inventory for this month. The money I’m making is nice but I don’t know how much longer I can do this.

I went to Brad’s place after I got off of work and immediately kicked off my shoes and took my pants off before crawling into his warm bed.

“Hey.” He smiled wiping the sleep out of his eyes, “Long night?”

“You have NO idea.” I said snuggling into him and closing my eyes.

When Self-Sabotage Works in my Favor

“How are you accidentally dating Brad now? Didn’t you and Mike break up less than a month ago?” Anna asked.

Can of Worms

Tonight was opening night of the show. Tech was rough but we all got through it and Zeke was my light board operator again which was nice. Zeke is fun to work with and he knows when to stay focused and when he can relax a bit. We have a good chemistry when it comes to me calling cues and him following them.

“That was a good opening, Zeke. Thanks for your hard work.”

“You, too, Faith. I’ll start shutting down the booth so you can make sure the backstage area is closed up.”

“Thanks, man.”

I headed to the backstage area to check in with our costume crew head, Sally. Everything was getting checked in and the actors were leaving. I checked the props in and made sure they were all placed on the table where they were supposed to be, then I put out the ghost light on the stage. By the time that was done, Sally was done checking in the costumes and I locked up.

“Hey, Faith, some guy was looking for you, I told him to wait in the booth.” Zeke said from around the corner, “Is it cool if I go?”

Tough Love

I was sitting at the dining table feeling sorry for myself when Molly walked out of her room. She was dressed to the nines, getting ready to go out on a date with Calvin. I had to be at work in an hour but I wasn’t dressed yet and just wanted to be sad.

Molly sighed.

“Still sad?” She asked pouring herself a soda.

“I will be sad forever.” I said dramatically.

“Can I say something?” She asked timidly.

“Yes, of course you can.”

She sat down across from me with her soda.

“Okay, well, can you promise me that what I’m about to say won’t affect our friendship because it’s going to be brutally honest and might make you cry…”

I hesitated.

Confrontation

“What the HELL is wrong with you!?” I yelled.

And in the End...

Mike and I are over.

He came over to my apartment yesterday to end it in person.

The Truth Will Set You Free

Brad watched my face as he said it.

There was a beat of silence before a look of understanding spread over Mike’s face and he turned to look at me. The hurt from Brad’s words were all over his face. Mike headed out of the bar, I followed him out but not before I shot Brad a look full of hatred.

When I caught up with Mike on the sidewalk, he spun around to look at me.

“Is it true?” He asked.

The Truth Will Out

A word from the author: A few updates before this post, and a warning.

I've started getting responses for the survey (and hey, if you haven't taken it yet, please do so by clicking here, it's fast and easy and I'd really appreciate it if you could fill it out) and you guys have given me some GREAT feedback. So here are some changes I'm going to implement, so far (more changes will probably be coming but those have to do with story line and characters so those won't be immediate and other changes that will really come only when we're caught up with real time):

• I will be introducing a character page for the sidebar. It will have every character that has appeared on the blog in alphabetical order with descriptions and summaries of how they relate to Faith. A lot of you mentioned that it was hard to remember who was who so I'm going to work on making that and will let you all know when it's complete. It may take me awhile because there are A LOT of characters.
• Almost everyone mentioned the problem with not being on real time. And I completely agree. So I'm going to make every effort to get back to real time by August of this year, September at the absolute latest. Being back on real time has been my major goal for this year because being able to schedule posts makes things so much easier for me when it comes to posting consistently.
• You want longer posts more than two times a week. This is fair and I get it, you all love the blog and want more posts to read, but I'll be straight with you, it's not doable for a long period of time for me and trying to force myself to do a three times per week schedule is part of the reason why I'm so behind in time in the first place. It's almost double the amount of writing I would need to do for a two posts per week schedule and that puts a lot more of a strain on me to just write something so I have something to post. That's not how I like to write and you guys want long, high quality posts so that's not something any of you really want, either, because that's not what you're going to get when I realize that I don't have a post for the next day and it's 11:30 at night. So here's what's going to happen: I have some important stuff happening in July but once that's done, I'll start posting three times a week to get us back up to real time. Once school starts up again, we'll have to go to two times a week and I'll try to throw in a bonus post occasionally.
• I am going to change the posting schedule once school starts up again to being on Mondays and Thursdays. I think that balances things out a little more evenly and it'll be easier for me to have posts written for those days based on my class schedule for the fall. But, the posting schedule, for now, is still Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will make announcements when the schedule changes and put the posting days in the blog's sidebar.

Now for a warning...that sounds so serious, so, um, how about I'm giving you all a heads up: We're about to start a very rocky roller coaster ride for Faith. Many of you are going to absolutely hate it (based on the survey comments) but I promise that if you stick around for it the Faith you all fell in love with will be back by the time we get up to real time and things will be VERY different from where we've been for the past year and a half. As readers, you don't get the luxury to see how the road ends like I do, but please trust me when I say that, even though this will be a very frustrating few months for you and Faith, it is completely and entirely necessary for Faith's development as a character. I've been planning this story line out since I started the blog and it's exciting (and sort of scary) to finally have it written out and ready for your eyes. I hope you enjoy reading it (even if you don't like everything that's about to happen).

Happy Reading!
-del

Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Mike and I had just had a session of great morning sex in my bed.

The Big VD

“Hey, so…what do you want to do for Valentine’s Day?” Mike asked.

Chicken

Mike and I were sitting on his couch watching a movie. I was curled up next to him with my head on his shoulder, his arm was wrapped around me. I sighed deeply, enjoying the moment. Things were like the fight at Christmas never happened. But then the guilt crashed over me, ruining the happiness of the moment. I was lying to him. It must have showed on my face because Mike raised his eyebrows at me.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

To Tell or Not to Tell

“I need to tell you something, but I want you to promise you’ll let me finish before you start yelling.” I said.

I was sitting at the table, staring at my hands, not sure if I really wanted to come clean about the Brad situation.

I’m a coward and didn’t want to tell Mike until I’d run it by the girls first. We were having brunch.

“Okay.” Zoey said skeptically. Anna and Molly nodded.

“I had sex with Brad while Mike and I were on a break. Now Brad has quit and it’s because of me and I feel SO guilty about everything. I haven’t told Mike and I don’t know if I should or not.”

I took a deep breath and braced myself. The girls looked at each other in silence.

“Oh, Faith.” Anna said. The disappointment in her voice was clear.

“Why?” Zoey asked exasperatedly.

“I was sad and I was sure Mike and I were done, I hadn’t heard from him in a week…I…I don’t even really remember how it all happened but it did and I am being eaten up on the inside with guilt.”

“Do you even know if that’s why Brad left?” Molly asked.

 I opened my mouth to answer but then realized I didn’t know.

“I’m pretty sure.”

“But you don’t actually know if that’s the reason?”

“Well…no…but-”

“Maybe you should call him and see if that’s actually the case. He could’ve just left for a better job.” Molly said.

I realized Molly was right. Knowing if Brad really DID leave because of what happened would assuage my guilt a little bit but not all of it.

“Even if he didn’t leave, what should I do about Mike? Should I tell him?”

“Would you want to know if he slept with someone during your break?” Anna asked.

“Yes and no.” I replied.

“Why?” Zoey asked.

“Well…because I’d want to know but at the same time it would break my heart. I don’t know that I would want to break up for good, though…”

“It looks like you have your answer.” Anna pointed out.

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it just be better to not tell him and put him through the pain of it all?”

“Better? Or easier?” Zoey asked.

She had a point. Not telling Mike was certainly the easier route but it’s also the more dishonest one, too. I still haven’t made a decision about whether or not to tell him but I am definitely going to get in touch with Brad and try to get some kind of closure for what happened. I also need to apologize to him for being so inconsiderate to his feelings.

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.