Jennie set down her slice of pizza and rubbed her bleary eyes, unable to suppress another gaping yawn. It was still pitch black outside the hotel window, but the dawn couldn't be far off. Shouldn't be much longer now, she thought. Maybe another hour or two, and Lisa would come walking through the door. She was determined to wait up for Lisa - refusing to give in to sleep. Now that her mind was made up, she never wanted to go to sleep again unless Lisa was sleeping there beside her.
She sat up straighter on the couch and forced her eyes back to the movie she had started watching on the hotel pay-per-view. Her old favourite once again, The Princess Bride.
Her phone was resting on the coffee table in front of her, and she saw the screen light up with an incoming call. Was it Lisa? Had she landed? Had she run into some new delay? She picked it up and looked at the caller ID. Jisoo.
Jennie sighed, remembering her friend's last text message.
Jisoo: Still on for drinks tomorrow night? Can't wait for the post-mortem!!
Jennie hadn't bothered to reply until late - well after Jisoo must have gone to bed.
Jennie: Sorry, no drinks. Not dead just yet.
She was surprised to see Jisoo's name on her phone now. Was it already morning on the East Coast? She reached for the remote to put the movie on mute as she picked up the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey, what's up?" Jisoo's voice said in her ear. "Not dead yet, huh? Should I be concerned?"
Jennie laughed. "Probably."
"Are you ok?"
"I'm fine." Jennie replied.
"So should we pick a different night? The suspense is killing me!"
Jennie took a deep breath, bracing herself for the coming conversation. "I don't know." she said. "I'm not sure when I'll be back in New York."
"What do you mean? Did your flight get cancelled?"
"No." Jennie said. "I'm not coming back. I'm staying in LA."
"What do you mean you're staying?"
"I mean I'm staying. I'm staying here with Lisa."
"Jennie, that's crazy!"
"A little bit."
"I don't understand." Jennie could hear Jisoo's voice becoming more flustered. "Aren't you supposed to be in court today?"
"Yup."
"So how are you gonna do that from LA?"
"Well, it's not really going to be an issue, since I'm probably getting fired in a couple hours."
Jisoo was silent on the other end of the line.
"Hello?" Jennie said. "Are you there?"
"I can't believe you would do this." Jisoo responded at last. "All the hours you've put in? All the years? And you're just going to throw it away?"
"That's the plan."
"For Lisa? You're throwing it away for a rock star?"
Jennie shrugged. "What do I have to lose, really?"
"Everything!"
"No." Jennie replied. "I can always get another job. Lisa's the one with everything to lose."
"Oh spare me..."
"No really, Jisoo. I talked to her publicist earlier. Rosé was freaking out because Lisa decided to blow up her whole career and get on a plane to New York. To be with me. She would give it all up for me, just like that. Without a second thought."
"Well, Lisa always was impulsive."
The sound from the television was on mute, but Jennie's eyes were still following the silent images moving across the screen as she carried on her side of the conversation. It was just getting to the good bit. She smiled to herself, remembering what came next. The part where Buttercup realises the love of her life isn't dead after all - just far away somewhere, thinking of her, trying to fight his way back to her.
She could almost hear Lisa's voice laughing in her ear now, the way it had sounded when they watched this scene together the other day. "Oh look." Lisa had said. "Here comes your favourite part." Lisa still remembered all these years later - remembered things about her that she had forgotten long ago.
"Jennie? Hello?"
"Not impulsive." Jennie said into the phone. "Decisive. There's a difference."
"It's only been a few weeks!"
"No, it hasn't. It's been years. It never stopped. I never got over Lisa. Not really. That's what she's been trying to tell me."
"Jennie..."
"I have to see this through, Jisoo. Maybe it will blow up in my face, but I have to try."
She heard her friend exhale forcefully on the other end of the line. "I just don't even know what to say. Every other day, you call me up and tell me what a douchebag she is. And then you call again the next day and say she's the love of your life. It's insane. You both sound completely insane."
Jennie smiled, watching the TV screen. She always used to laugh at this scene in the movie - romantic, for sure, but completely unrealistic. How could Buttercup have the love of her life standing right in front of her and be too blind to recognise him? How could anyone possibly be that stupid?
"Lisa's not a douchebag." Jennie said.
"Well..."
"Maybe I'm the douchebag. Did that ever occur to you? Lisa's been steady as a rock. She always was. I'm the one who left her. I'm the one who keeps jerking her around."
"It's called protecting yourself." Jisoo said.
"Well, maybe I need to protect myself a little less. Maybe I'm wrapped up in so many layers of bubble wrap, I'm going to suffocate."
"So take off the bubble wrap! That's fine. That doesn't mean you have to throw yourself off the side of a cliff!"
There went Wesley, tumbling head over heels. And there went Buttercup, tumbling after. She took the plunge even though it might have killed her. Might have killed them both. Buttercup closed her eyes and took the leap, and she trusted that he would be there at the bottom to catch her.
"Jisoo, it's done." Jennie said. "I've made up my mind. I just hope it isn't too little, too late."
