First Class (Chaelisa)

Chapter 4: Chicago Day 1

October - Two months later.

Roseanne is sitting at home in her studio apartment in Chicago. It's spacious with a modern yet industrial finish; red brick interior, polished concrete floors, raw piping exposed, and stainless steel kitchen. Further decorated with paintings, some of which are Roseanne's own, others bought from galleries, several small sculptures, and souvenirs from Roseanne's travels including a dedicated wall filled with postcards and prints of her personal favorite photos she took.

Usually, working at home is not a problem, but tonight, for whatever reason, Roseanne has trouble concentrating and decides on a change in atmosphere.

Grabbing her coat and laptop in hand, Roseanne makes her way down to a coffee shop several blocks away. The shop has a hipster-ee vibe, with poetry slam on Thursday nights and live local bands on the weekends. But tonight, Monday night, it's just faint music from a set of overhead speakers playing 45's from an old vinyl record player. Or maybe it's a new vinyl record player made to look old. Whatever.

Making herself comfortable, Roseanne plops down sideways on a couch under a window, lifting her feet up and opening her laptop again. Sipping a cup of coffee, she spends a few minutes on her phone, spanning all the social media platforms to update her status on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. She has gained a notable fan base from her articles and likes to keep them up to date - that even she went through spurts of writer's block.

For some reason unknown to her, Roseanne thinks of Lisa. Maybe it's the coffee that brought her back to Italy, or even before that, the coffee shop in JFK's terminal. Wondering, she enters the name 'Lisa Jeon' in the search box of all the social media apps, but doesn't get any results.

Roseanne puts down her phone at the failed attempts, not giving it too much thought and fate knew. Within seconds, Roseanne hears a knock on the window outside, turning her head, she sees a set of witty eyes peering in along with a small wave. Letting a smile overtake her face, Roseanne tilts her head, gesturing the beautiful brunette to join her inside.

Picking her feet off the couch, closing her laptop, and removing her reading glasses, Roseanne makes room for Lisa to sit down.

"Hi," says Lisa, "I didn't expect to see you in a place like this," looking around.

"It's fine, I just needed a change of ambiance."

"I get it, sometimes I get so tired of looking at sterile hotel walls and their shitty paintings."

Roseanne lets out a laugh that echoes through the coffee shop. It makes Lisa smile wildly.

"So, how are you?" asks Roseanne.

The conversation quickly transitions as if they'd left Italy together and no time had passed at all. The hours go by like minutes and it's nearly midnight before they realize.

"Sorry ladies, we're about to close," says the barista.

"Oh, crap," says Roseanne. "Sorry," and they both begin to get up.

Lisa starts, "I feel like you probably already know what I'm going to ask, but would you care to join me in my hotel tonight?"

Roseanne gives Lisa's question some consideration. The answer is yes to sex, but didn't know if she should invite Lisa to her place. Instead of answering, feeling lucky, Roseanne takes a chance and leads with a different remark.

"I have a better idea. Follow me."

They begin down the block and Lisa can only guess that they are either going to Roseanne's hotel or quite possibly a bar that's open later. Roseanne stops abruptly in the middle of the third block, in front of a metal gate, nowhere near a populated area, and pulls out a set of keys. Lisa is slightly perplexed until her eyes scan the building names listed next to the buzzer and lands on the letters "R.P."