Continued ...

    Bryan shook his head and muttered, “My God, you’ve lost your mind.”


    The plan was simple. A week or two before the Adventure Caravan, Bench would start to act cold and distant towards Bryan, refusing to hang around with him during mid-afternoon snack breaks and just stay away from his workstation during the days leading up to end of October until the onset of November. This would give everybody else the subtle clue that Bench was in fact trying to avoid Bryan. Of course, Bench had reminded Bryan that not everybody would detect the signs at first. True, anybody could guess that with the extremely busy days ahead, Bench would have plenty of things to do and wouldn’t have any spare time left to loiter in the Creatives’ department. And it was generally known in the office that she sometimes had unexpected though rare mood swings, characterized by aberrant silence and infectious lethargy — a complete reversal of the day-to-day persona her officemates were used to seeing.
    But still, Bryan worried that convincing the office people this way was kind of a long shot. Obviously, everybody would be pretty busy too in the days to come and it would be highly unlikely for them to catch in on what’s going between Bench and Bryan. He had told Bench about this and she said not to worry — she’ll just have to find a way to expedite the process. Specifically, she’ll have to engineer a “leak.” Through the one person who is likely to be believed. The one person who is sure to spread the message. The best word-of-mouth conduit in the entire agency — Ellie. Of course, this “leak” will have to happen in a week or so after the Adventure Caravan and Halloween Fashion have wrapped up. Doing so earlier would be overkill.
    Despite his uneasiness, Bryan had marveled at Bench’s cleverness, at the same time spooked by her guts. He still couldn’t believe that she would really push through with it. She had really thought this through, he told himself, she must have really wanted to get out so badly that she would resort to this. And the worse thing was, Bryan had agreed to it. Or at least he didn’t protest enough for Bench to think it was a preposterous proposition. He could have said no. Now he was kicking himself because he didn’t.
    Truth of the matter was, he was scared. He was never comfortable with getting away with a fib. Back in college, her mother told him to conveniently “forget” to mention that his father had a source of income so that Bryan could qualify for a full scholarship grant. Although he needed not have done it in front of his interviewer, the omission on his scholarship application stared at him cruelly and unmercifully.
    And he had told Bench that he was never good with things like these. She had told him to grow up. Besides, she had insisted, Bryan won’t have to do anything. It would be up to her to do the pretending. Technically, she would be the only one doing the lying. All Bryan had to do was be himself. The only reason she had told Bryan about the whole plan was because she didn’t want Bryan to think she really was giving him the big cold shoulder. She said it was a “matter of courtesy” for their friendship. She said it would be unfair to him if she left him high and dry.
    Bryan wanted to find comfort in Bench’s words. He couldn’t find any.


    Bench was true to her word. Since the second week of October, she was never seen hanging around with Bryan. When there came a need to brief Bryan about a certain new project for an account Bench was handling, she would easily find a way to let Ellie or Lisa do the briefing. When Noel scheduled a brainstorming session with Bench or Bryan, she would defer or simply wouldn’t show up on the excuse of meeting a client. When asked to do something that involves Bryan’s participation, Bench would politely refuse without offering any explanation.
    And her attendance has gotten increasingly peculiar and erratic. Fifteen-minute cigarette breaks turn into hour-long trips to only-God-knows-where, sometimes she wouldn’t even return to the office for the rest of the afternoon. Bryan had heard Ellie complain loudly that she couldn’t contact Bench’s cell phone number at one time. When she did get by the office, she would sit with nary a word in front of her laptop all day long, except for the increasingly long cigarette breaks. On certain days, she would come in as early as 6 AM and leave the office before 4 PM. During lunch breaks, she opted to eat out alone in the nearby mall, in restaurants where she was sure no one in the office would go.
     When it was time for Bench, Ellie and Ken to fly to Cagayan De Oro City for a few days to handle the Adventure Caravan, Bryan realized he was actually looking forward to Bench’s absence. For once, he could go to the office without having to worry about the awkwardness of his and Bench’s situation. On any given day, he could probably disregard any officemate’s ill-feeling towards him and get on with his copywriting duties without ever giving that person any ounce of thought. But it was way different with the current state of things. Try as he might, he just couldn’t ignore the discomfiture and inherent weirdness of being shunned like that and knowing for himself that all of it is one elaborate sham concocted by one almost-deranged friend and colleague. And the fact that he’s completely in on it was giving him creeps of the different kind. Conniver’s guilt — it’s never easy, he told himself.
    

    “Sit down, Bryan,” Noel said without looking up from his laptop monitor, his hands busy typing on the keys.
    Bryan sat down on the chair in front of Noel’s desk. Without anything to do, he stared at his notebook for a while and then proceeded to cracking his knuckles. The room was chilly. Bryan wished he brought a jacket.
    “I wanted to talk to you about Bench,” Noel said, still typing. “But let me just finish this.”
    “Okay,” Bryan replied nervously. So it comes to this, he thought, I bet you didn’t see this coming, Bench.
    Noel straightened up and folded the laptop. He set it on the left side of the table and leaned on his chair. He took one last look at his mobile phone before putting it away inside his pocket. Then he stared at Bryan.
    “You do know that the Adventure Caravan was a tremendous success. In fact, the client wants to do a Boracay version next year. All thanks to Bench’s coordination. I hate her guts sometimes but frankly, I’m very impressed with the way she handled it. And so is the client. They’re very pleased with the results and they want to thank her personally. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know where she is.”
    “She went AWOL,” Bryan muttered.
    “Looks like it.”
    Bryan looked down on his hands.
    “Ellie told me you and Bench were pretty close,” Noel continued. “Former classmates in school, digs the same stuff Bench likes — Ellie told me you and Bench were practically like best buds.”
    Bryan remained unmoving.
    “My point is — you might be able to tell me just what the hell is going on.”
    “There’s nothing to tell.”
    “Ellie says there’s plenty going on. She says you and Bench are — let me put it this way, “socializing” more than what’s appropriate in an office environment.”
    “It’s none of Ellie’s business.”
    “Okay, I’ll respect that. It’s none of my business. But this agency is my business. And I need to know if there’s something funny going on. With Bench currently unreachable and Kyla also missing, I’m bound to —”
    “Kyla? What do you mean?”
    “Just last week, Anne told me she couldn’t reconcile several checks drawn to cash somewhere between the last week of October and first week of November. Anne says she couldn’t figure out why those checks were drawn in the first place. She tried to call Kyla but she couldn’t contact her.”
Bryan sat numb with the news.
    “No trace of Kyla,” Noel continued. “She just disappeared. Right about the same time Bench went AWOL.”
    “Are you saying Kyla and Bench — are you saying they both —?”
    “I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me.”
    “It can’t be. I know Bench. She wouldn’t do something like that.”
    “She already has.”
    “What?”
    “Back when she had that deejay job. There was some fiasco about funds that Bench was directly in control of. Anyway, short version of the story is, it got blown into such a mess that the station had to let go of many people. Bench included.”
    “Shit.”
    “Anne, of course, thinks Bench was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Personally, I think she might have been involved. And now she may be robbing my company.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “I don’t know anything, yet. But sooner or later, the truth will come out. Count on that.”
    Noel stood up and approached the glass window panel.
    “I haven’t spoken to Bench since, I don’t know, early October,” Bryan said.
    “You had a row with her?”
    “Something like that.”
    “And she hasn’t contacted you since?”
    “No.”
    “How about Kyla?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure about that?”
    “Yes.”
    Noel turned and sat back in his chair. He gave Bryan a serious stare.
    “I may call on you again if I have questions,” Noel said.
    “I understand.”
    “You may go. And tell Lisa I want to see her now.”
    Bryan nodded before walking out of the room.