The Chronicles of Bliss is a series of journal entries by Kelly Kavanaugh.
Bliss is the name she's given to her sexy alter-ego. Kelly isn't schizophrenic. She calls herself Bliss (at times) simply because she enjoys it.
She's a rescuer by nature, sometimes a bit of a superhero and other times not so much.
I hope you like her!
*****
The Chronicles of Bliss, Ch. 3
A Reservation for Bliss, Party of 2
I've been stood up! I can't fucking believe it and I couldn't be happier! The guy is old enough to be my father and he has the balls to send me a picture of himself getting cozy in a diner booth with the new girl. I'm sure I've been smiling like a dork about it all day.
I met Johnathan McMannus almost four years ago. I almost never drink in the bar at the hotel because I usually prefer leaving my workplace before starting my weekend but every rule has its exceptions. The bartenders all know that if I walk in around six on a Friday evening they can mix me a vodka martini without asking.
Jimmy, our oldest and best bartender, smiled half-heartedly as he set my drink on the bar in front of me.
"Same as Mrs. McMannus," he said, nodding toward the far corner of the bar.
I glanced over and saw a very distinguished looking older gentleman (I know now that he was 61 then) sipping scotch and staring at a vodka martini with four olives... a drink exactly like mine.
Twenty minutes past and I figured Mrs. McMannus must have gotten lost on her way back from the ladies room and I got curious. I knew Jimmy would be able to fill me. The greatest bartenders seem to know everything, right?
What Jimmy knew almost made me cry. Mrs. McMannus had been dead for over twenty years and that night was the annivsersary of their marriage. They had spent all their anniversaries at our hotel, the hotel where they had spent their honeymoon. Since her death her husband had returned to our bar every year on the same date... to drink alone and stare at the martini he always ordered for her.
My heart ached for him and I want to be very clear here... what I did about it was all Kelly, at first. Bliss wasn't even in the room, not yet anyway.
I walked over to the gut-wrenchingly lonely man and placed my hand on a chair that was next to him and not the chair across from him, a chair that was not Mrs. McMannus' chair. I introduced myself and mentioned that I was the hotel manager and asked if I could sit with him for moment.
It took a long time but I waited patiently and he eventually nodded.
Caroline McMannus had been dead for many years but talking about her brought her widowed husband to life. He told me stories of an outrageous woman that flipped his life upside-down and made everything about the world make sense to him. He was obviously still deeply in love with her and the way he talked about her made me feel like she was still alive. She was still so real to him that I almost felt like she might show up and drink her martini.
He laughed at his own stories and I laughed with him. Then suddenly he was staring at her martini again.
"May I show you a picture of her?"
"0f course you can," I smiled.
The old picture must have been with him for a quarter of century and it took my breath away. She looked like she and I could have been sisters... almost twins!
"She was about your age when that was taken," he whispered.
I looked up, a clumsy apology started tripping out of me but he cut me off... "I enjoyed our little talk very much but it's time for me to head home. Thank you."
He wasn't looking at his wife's martini. He was looking at me. What he didn't know is that, for the first time all night, Bliss was looking back at him.
"Mr. McMannus, I going to reserve a table for you and I in the restaurant, one year from tonight. After your drinks, of course, I'd be honored if you'd join me for dinner."
I didn't give my darling, Mr. McMannus, my phone number or business card. He wasn't ready for anything like that and I wasn't sure he ever would be. You can't rescue anyone that doesn't want to be rescued.
I stood and he nodded slightly, more in agreement that it was a good time for me to go than in acceptance if my dinner invitation. He opened his mouth to speak but froze as I slowly bent down to kiss his cheek. I lingered, hoping he could smell me, hoping he could see more cleavage than I usually show most of the world. I turned away as I stood and walked out of the bar knowing it would be easier for him if I left first.
One year (to the day) later, I gave Jimmy orders to call me in my office the moment Johnathan McMannus arrived in the bar.
I didn't go overboard trying to look like Caroline McMannus. Actually, I was very aware that I didn't really have to try at all. A black cocktail dress with a string of pearls is timeless and has never been out of place in our hotel. My little black dress was probably shorter and a bit tighter than any of her's would have been so there would be no reason for any confusion. I wore my little black dress without guilt, just like I always do. Wearing my hair up in a way that made it appear similar to the shorter hair I remembered from the picture of her was all Bliss' idea and yet... still no guilt.
It takes some genuine ladyballs to intentionally play the 'I-look-like-your-dead-wife' card but I have a decent-sized pair so there was no hesitation on my part. I knew the path I was on had the potential to go horribly wrong but everyone knows (or should know) that rescue work isn't risk-free. I knew in my heart that Johnathan McMannus needed Bliss. I knew it as surely as I knew Caroline McMannus was not going show up for the 21st consecutive year.
The hardest part was the look on his face when he first saw me. He actually winced and then struggled to recover his handsome smile as he stood. He almost managed to do it.
"Mr. McMannus, I'm so glad you're here," I smiled, kissing his cheek for the second time. He was tall. I had never seen him standing. My breasts brushed against his arm and I could feel my nipples hardening.
"Please," he smiled, finally. "Call me Jack." He pulled out a chair for me and I sat down between his chair and hers just as Jimmy arrived with a second martini, mine.
"Jack it is then. But only if that's what your friends call you," I answered, jokingly.
"Actually, everyone calls me John." He glanced at his wife's martini before he added, "She was the only one that called me Jack."
"I'd be very honored to call you by that name but first, tell me, what is my name tonight?"
"Your name is Katy," he answered, matter-of-factly.
"Thank you, Jack."
I had no back-up plan if he had asked to call me Caroline but I can promise that I wouldn't allowed it. I'll admit I used my similar appearance to draw him out but I knew it wouldn't help him at all (and would probably hurt him) if I played that role to the hilt.
His reservation was with Bliss ; ).
We made small talk for awkwardly long time. I learned that he had spent another year of his life on auto-pilot, spending day after day in a world defined solely by the fact that his beloved wife was no longer in it.
When Jimmy arrived with my third vodka martini he mentioned that our table in the dining room was ready (just as I had requested). Jack fidgeted slightly. I knew that we had reached the most critical moment of his rescue. He would either come with me to the dining room or go home to an empty house and begin another year without her.
"Come with me, please."
"Katy, this is crazy."
"I know but are you enjoying yourself?"
"Yes."
"Then have dinner with me."
He stared at his wife's untouched martini so I gave him an extra push. Leaning in close so he could feel my breath in his ear, I whispered.
"I want this, Jack, and you need it. If you are unsure then ask yourself... would Caroline want you to have dinner with me or would she tell you to go home and be alone for the rest of your life."
He gave a little snort that was actually the shortest and quietest laugh imaginable and he smiled. I took that as a 'yes' and moved fairly quickly. I stood, picked up our drinks, leaned into him, and kissed his cheek again.
"We have a reservation for only two, Jack. Take all the time you need."
The truth is that I never really expected him to want to bring the third drink to dinner but it was a good opportunity to help him get out of his own head and man-up just a bit. He had met Katy in the bar last year but tonight he would be having dinner with Bliss.
As he looked back at his wife's martini I gave him a final nudge before I turned and walked out of the bar.
"I think she'd say that you aren't erasing any memories, Jack. You're just making new ones."
I left so he could have a moment. As I turned at the door into the lobby, I glanced back and caught him watching me as I walked away from him. His wife's martini glass was in his hand and it was empty.
I sat at my favorite table in our 5-star restaurant, a table for two that was tucked into a unique nook in the room and yet still afforded a nice view of the bandstand and dance floor. The band I had secretly booked specifically for Jack was delivering exactly what I'd ordered, classic 70's soft rock that I hoped Jack might enjoy... a Blissful detail : ).
The fourth song since I had been seated was a Hall and Oates tune, Sara Smile, and I was beginning to worry but I shouldn't have. Halfway through the song Jimmy, my wizard of a bartender, led Jack into the room and straight to my table. Jimmy smiled knowingly at me as he set a fresh glass of our finest scotch in front of the empty chair. He winked discreetly like we were partners-in-crime and I suddenly knew something that I had always suspected. That old Jedi bartender could see Bliss! In that moment, I would have sworn that he'd known about the sexy superhero in me for all the years that he'd known me. The following Monday I took Jimmy to lunch and gave him an insane pay raise that was long overdue... true story lol.
