Jennie flicked on her cell phone and glanced down at the time. 1:53 PM. Nearly three hours had passed since she left the hotel to pick up Lisa. Now here she was, back where she had started - alone in the hotel room, with no one to keep her company except a plateful of cold pizza.
She lifted a slice and brought it to her lips, but she didn't quite have the stomach to take a bite. Instead, she set the pizza back down and pushed the plate to the far end of the coffee table. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop her fingers from trembling.
Just a little shaky from the ordeal this morning on the freeway - that was all. A little shaky, and a little guilty. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done something quite so irresponsible.
Lisa deserved it though. She had it coming after what she'd just put Jennie through. Asking her to go pick her up. Lisa had a hell of a lot of nerve. Lisa almost would have gotten away with it too, if the car hadn't run out of gas.
Jennie must have sat there for a good five minutes, staring at the gas gauge and trying to figure out what to do. Was there someone she could call? Not 911. She knew that much. What about AAA? That was roadside assistance, right? She'd opened the glove box and shuffled through the mess inside, searching for a clue, but came up with nothing but Lisa's registration and some empty, wadded up potato chip bags.
Who to call? If only she had Lisa's bat phone. Wasn't that the whole point of the bat phone? She actually had a legitimate emergency now, and it was the one time Lisa didn't have her bat phone. But she did have some other phone on her, right? What was that number Lisa had called her from this morning?
She'd dialled and held her breath, hoping to hear Lisa on the other end of the line, but a woman's voice answered instead.
"Hello?"
"Hi," Jennie said. "I'm trying to reach Lisa Manoban. She called from this number?"
"Oh my God! Oh my God, this is so crazy! This is the craziest day ever!"
Who was this? She sounded young - and a little hysterical. "Um, ok," Jennie replied. "Is she there?"
"No, she left again. But oh my God, can you believe she used my phone?" the voice said. "Like her mouth was next to the part I talk into! And then - OH MY GOD!"
"What? Are you ok?"
"I swear to God, she kissed me! Like, she actually, like, physically put her lips..."
Jennie hadn't needed to hear another word. She clicked the phone back off, shaking her head in disgust. Seriously, Lisa? She kissed some stranger? Some random fangirl she met at the airport? Here she was, killing herself to bring Lisa her precious car, and she couldn't even manage to break up with her properly before moving on to the 21 year olds again.
Douchebag.
No, Jennie told herself now, picking the plate of pizza back up again. No reason to feel guilty. So what if she ditched Lisa's shiny red convertible on the side of the highway and called a cab to come pick her up? The douchebag had it coming.
Jennie heard a sound from outside the hotel room door and sat up on the couch. She tugged on her blouse to straighten it, preparing as best should could for the coming confrontation. The door swung open. Jennie watched in silence as Lisa walked into the room with Rosé trailing behind her.
Lisa looked at Jennie tentatively, holding up one hand in an uncertain greeting. Why was she was just sitting there, glowering at her? Lisa felt a little like a lion tamer that just let the cat out of its cage - not quite sure if she was about to run away or rip her throat out. "Hi?" she said.
Jennie turned her face away and stuffed a bite of pizza into her mouth.
Lisa raised her eyebrows. "Did you forget about something?"
She made no response. Lisa watched Jennie chew slowly and then lift the slice back up for another bite.
"Right," she said. "So just to clarify, when you said you were coming to pick me up? By that, you meant you were not coming to pick me up?"
"I see you got another ride," Jennie replied through her mouthful of pizza.
"I waited for you for two hours!"
Jennie lifted her gaze, and Lisa took a step backward at the malice she saw in Jennie's eyes.
"Oh, I went to pick you up," she said.
"When? Where?"
"You might want to see about your car." Jennie returned her attention to the pizza.
"What about my car?"
Jennie shrugged.
"Jennie, where's my car?"
"Somewhere between here and LAX."
"What? What did you do?"
"I would've called AAA, but I figured they probably had some VIP section I didn't know about so..."
"Jennie, where is my car?"
"Parked somewhere on the shoulder of the 405 freeway." She accompanied her words with a look of wide-eyed innocence, and she watched with satisfaction as Lisa's mouth dropped open in response.
"I'll get on it," Rosé said from her corner of the room. The publicist pulled a notepad from her purse and began jotting on it rapidly.
Jennie stood up and picked up her plate, turning toward the bedroom. "You two probably have some things to discuss. I'll leave you to it."
"Sit your ass down," Rosé replied calmly, her eyes never leaving her notepad.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't know what's going on with the two of you, but whatever this is..." Rosé waved her pen back and forth between them. "... I can't do my job until you both pull your heads out of your asses, have an actual conversation. Or just kiss and make up."
"Oh great," Jennie said. "That's great. Let's have a conversation, Lisa. Go ahead. Why don't you tell Rosé what you were going to say to me this morning?"
Lisa took a step toward Jennie. "Calm down."
"No?" she asked, her voice rising in agitation. "You want to beat around the bush a little more? Ok, Rosé. You should probably ask Lisa about her new friend. What are we calling her, Lisa? Close friend? Has she graduated yet to close 'personal' friend?"
"What? What the hell are you talking about..."
Rosé interrupted Lisa, tracing the back of her pen along her list of notes as she spoke. "Ok, Lisa. Let me see if I have everything here," she began. "Right. So, you strategically started your morning on the sidewalk in front of your hotel in your underpants." She nodded thoughtfully to herself. "Might have considered a professional photoshoot, but I suppose you were going for more of a candid approach. What else? Launched an underwear line. Promised an exclusive interview to... let me see here..." She ran a finger back and forth across the page, scanning for the information. "Right, here it is. Exclusive interview with the Pop Candies YouTube channel." She raised her eyebrows, still not looking up. "Interesting media strategy. And then of course we have The Daily Mail with pictures of you on a motorcycle, breaking a variety of traffic laws. We've got some Instagram videos popping up of you running after a tow truck outside LAX. Cursing, of course. But impressive athletic ability, Lisa, the way you hurdled that tourist's luggage there. Maybe a line of running shoes to go with the underwear..."
"Are you done?"
"Not quite. You really had quite a morning, didn't you? We've got a new love interest. We've got an abandoned vintage red Ferrari that's probably trashed by now..."
"Rosé..."
She cocked her head to the side and smiled at Lisa through closed lips. "Oh, I see what you were going for here," she said, pointing her pen at Lisa. "I'll just set up the ticker tape parade for this afternoon, and we'll announce you're doing a remake of Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
