"Lisa, you haven't thought this through."
"I've made my decision."
"Just take a little time and think..."
"This is not up for discussion, Rosé."
"It's career suicide."
"I'm aware of that."
"It's a sold out 30-city tour. You can't just cancel. Do you understand what kind of lawsuits you'll be looking at?"
"Yes, I understand Rosé."
"You'll never work again. Never. You'll never come back from this."
"Well, that's kind of the point."
"There are other ways, Lisa. There are ways to handle a retirement without permanently burning every bridge in the entertainment industry."
"I'm never making a comeback. Ok? I'm done. I'm getting on a plane to New York. Jennie doesn't want to live in LA? She doesn't want to give up her career? So fine. I'll give up mine."
"Lisa, you're obviously emotional right now. Why don't you just tell me where you are, and I'll come meet you, and we can talk about this..."
"There isn't time! The flight leaves at 4:15."
"At least let me sit on the story for 24 hours before I make the announcement."
"I don't care how you handle the announcement. It really doesn't matter, Rosé."
"Have you told the other band members?"
"No."
"You don't think you should maybe break the news to them yourself before they see it on Entertainment Tonight?"
"Fine Rosé. Sit on it for 24 hours."
"So you're just going to walk away. Even if it means shitting all over your friends. Shitting all over your fans..."
"This is what I have to do."
"Lisa..."
"I've got to go. Jennie's flight leaves in half an hour. It's probably already boarding."
"Don't..."
Lisa hung up before she could hear the end of Rosé's sentence. It didn't matter what Rosé had to say anyway. The decision was made. The decision was final.
Lisa had only made it two miles down the 405 freeway before it had come to her, clear as day. She didn't know why it hadn't occurred to her before. She had been so hung up on convincing Jennie to stay in LA, and all the while the answer had been right in front of her, staring her in the face. She couldn't let Jennie fly back out of her life again. She couldn't just turn around and go back to her hotel and forget Jennie Kim ever existed. That's the way the story ended the last time around, and look where it had gotten her. Nowhere. There was no point to anything in her life - her career, her music, everything she'd worked so hard to build for herself. There was no life if Jennie wasn't in it. So what if it was everything Lisa had? She would trade everything she had in a heartbeat if it meant she could have Jennie.
So that was it. If that's what it was going to take, that's what she would do.
Lisa sat now in the driver's seat of her car, pulled over at the edge of a freeway fill-up station. She turned the ignition back on with a decisive flick of the wrist. No time for dilly dallying. She needed to get back to the airport.
She was just reaching for the gear shift when she heard her bat phone ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked down at the caller ID. Rosé. She had nothing more to say to Rosé. There was only one person she needed to talk to right now, and she'd have that conversation in person.
Lisa hit 'Decline', and the ringing stopped, only to start again a moment later.
"Dammit Rosé!"
Didn't Rosé get it? Had Lisa not made her decision abundantly clear? To hell with it. To hell with all of it. If she was going to burn every bridge she ever built in the entertainment industry, might as well start with this one.
Lisa cracked open the driver side window and chucked her bat phone out onto the pavement. The roar of the engine drowned out the ringtone she'd grown to know so well, as she threw the car into gear and sped away.
