Jennie picked up her phone and looked at it now, just to be sure she hadn't missed a call. 1:13 AM. She knew she should go to sleep, but she thumbed through her contact list instead. There was her name. Lisa Manoban. It usually gave Jennie a little thrill, seeing it there - the personal cell number of someone so famous. Now it just made her feel queasy. She scrolled past it and clicked on another name instead. Jisoo.
"Jennie?" Jisoo's voice was thick with sleep. "What time is it?"
"Sorry, did I wake you?"
"It's four in the morning here!"
"I'm sorry," Jennie cringed. "I shouldn't have called."
"Are you ok? Are you at Lisa's right now?"
"I am at a very nice hotel."
She heard Jisoo suck in her breath on the other end of the phone. "What happened?"
"You were right."
"I usually am," Jisoo replied, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Hold on."
Jennie could hear her friend shuffling around for a minute.
"Ok," Jisoo said in a louder tone of voice. "I was right about what, exactly?"
"Apparently, Lisa and I are just friends."
"What?"
Jennie quietly pounded her forehead against the heel of one of her hands as she spoke into the phone. "She has a girlfriend."
"No!"
"Yes."
"Who?" Jisoo asked. "I haven't read about her with anyone except you since she broke up with the last swimsuit model..."
"Well, there was a new swimsuit model waiting in the wings."
"Oh my God. She is such a douchebag."
"Whatever," Jennie sighed. "It's my fault. I'm the one who showed up here two days early. "
"I told you - I told you, you should at least call ahead."
"I'm such an idiot."
"No, she's an idiot," Jisoo said. "Why did she even invite you out there?"
"I don't know. Maybe because she's a douchebag?"
"Wait," Jisoo replied distractedly. "I'm Googling. What did she look like?"
"She looked like a swimsuit model."
"Oh, here, it's on Just Jared." Jennie heard her friend's voice start to read the blog post out loud. "... spotted at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit party with 21-year-old beauty, Aubrie Ibrag..."
"Twenty-one?" Jennie interrupted. "Are you kidding me?"
"Wait, so what happened?" Jisoo asked. "Did she leave with her?"
"No, she just danced with her."
Jisoo was silent. She wasn't getting the picture.
"Lisa kind of, like, let me get swept away in the crowd..." Jennie explained, "... and danced with her instead."
"Oh," Jisoo replied matter-of-factly. "So you got Cha-Cha'ed."
"Excuse me?"
"John Travolta took Sandy to the prom, but he ended up dancing with Cha-Cha DiGregorio instead."
Jennie couldn't help but laugh. "Are we talking about Grease?"
"You know, that didn't mean Cha-Cha was her girlfriend," Jisoo continued. "Just meant Cha-Cha was aggressive."
"So are you saying I shouldn't have left?"
"I don't know, Jennie. I wasn't there. What did Lisa say when you were leaving?"
"She just texted me, 'Ok see you later.'"
"Well, that's bad."
"Right?" Jennie said.
"Ok, she's a douchebag," Jisoo confirmed. "I was giving her the benefit of the doubt for a second there - but no, she really is just a douchebag."
"Why am I here, Jisoo?" Jennie moaned into the phone.
"Are you ok?"
There was a knock at the door, and Jennie felt a momentary burst of irrational hope. But of course it wasn't Lisa. Couldn't be Lisa. She had no idea where Jennie was right now. She opened the door for the room service waiter and let him bring in the slice of pizza she'd ordered.
"Jennie, are you there?" Jisoo's voice was asking.
"Sorry. I'm here." Jennie sat back down and stuffed some pizza into her mouth. "I'll be fine. I'm just feeling really stupid right now."
"You're not stupid."
"I should have listened to you. I should always listen to you."
Jisoo didn't bother to argue. "So what now?" she asked. "Are you gonna come home?"
"I guess so. I'll catch a flight back in the morning."
"You know you can always come stay with us. The kids would love having Auntie Jennie come stay for a couple weeks."
"Maybe," Jennie sighed. "Maybe I'll just go back to work."
She looked at her phone again after Jisoo ended the call. Nearly two in the morning now. There was no point waiting up. If Lisa decided to call again, the phone would wake her.
Jennie polished off the last of the pizza and tucked herself into the bed.
She had just closed her eyes when her phone lit up again - not with a text, but with the low battery warning - and she had fallen into a fitful sleep by the time the screen went dark for good. Out of power.
