Lisa
Me: Did Jennie tell you what she did today?
Jin: No... do I want to know?
Me: She sent a huge bouquet of flowers to my office to piss Nancy off.
Jin: What??
I sent him a picture of the flowers.
Jin: JESUS. That's the biggest bouquet I've ever seen!
Me: I know! She's insane.
Jin: She must really like you.
Me: I think I'm slowly winning her over ;)
Jin: Haha yeah right. Good luck. You've been working on her for three years.
Me: I just want her to like me.
Jin: She likes you fine.
Me: I want her to be my friend!
Jin: LOL. That might be pushing it.
Me: I don't know but I think I'm making progress: I made her laugh today and I got flowers.
Jin: Interesting...
Me: What time is your date?
Jin: I'm getting ready now.
Jin sent me a picture of his outfit.
Me: You look hot! Have fun!
Jin: Thanks!
Me: Tell me how it goes! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!
Jin: Is that really the advice you want to give me? You'd do a lot...
Me: ;)
Long after I finished my food and was comfortably settled into my food coma, my phone rang. Surprised, I found Jennie's name on my screen.
"Hey, what's up?" I answered.
"Are you busy?"
I looked down at myself: wrapped in a blanket with Chinese takeout crumbs all over. "Nope."
"Can you do me a huge favour?"
"How the turn tables..."
"... What?"
"It's from 'The Office'... never mind. Yes, what's up?"
"I'm sure you've noticed it's snowing quite a bit."
I looked out my window and confirmed that the snowstorm had blown in; I couldn't even see the neighbouring apartments.
"Do you think you can pick me up from work and give me a ride home? Everyone's already left and Jin's busy. I tried calling a few other people already."
"So I'm your last resort?" I asked with a smirk.
Jennie sighed. "Yeah, basically."
"You just want to hang out with me more, don't you?"
"Oh my God. I'll just call an Uber."
"But how much is it right now? Like fifty bucks? Isn't that why you called me instead of taking an Uber?" I waited with a smirk.
"You're so annoying."
"I'll be right there." I said with a laugh and hung up the phone.
When I pulled up to the curb, Jennie rushed from the lobby to my car. I had the heater blasting, but even from the short run to the car, she was shaking.
"Thank you." she said. "Seriously, I owe you."
"No problem. The real question is... why are you staying until 8pm on a Friday?"
Jennie leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. "I had stuff to do."
"Didn't we talk about this yesterday?"
Jennie didn't respond.
"Jennie." I said and reached out a hand to rest on her arm. I took a breath to finish my sentence, to tell her that she had to stop pushing herself so hard all the time, but decided against it. "Have you eaten?" I asked instead.
"No."
"Jesus, Jennie. What do you want? I'll buy."
"No, it's okay. I have food at home."
I shook my head and drove her back to the apartment. She fell asleep on the five minute drive home. When we arrived, I hopped out of the car with her.
"Are you walking me to my door again?" Jennie teased through her exhaustion.
"Obviously."
Jennie shook her head but didn't comment. She unlocked her door and turned to say goodbye, but I walked right past her into the apartment.
"What's for dinner?" I asked.
Jennie stared at me before answering. "I was just going to make chili."
"Got it." I walked into the kitchen and began pulling out the ingredients.
"What are you doing?"
"The chili will take an hour, so just go take a bath and get in your pyjamas. I'm cooking dinner."
"I don't need you to take care of me." Jennie scowled.
I met her eyes. "I know."
We stared at each other, Jennie with her hardened gaze, challenging me. I stared back and smiled, my guard down. I must not have been a fun target because I didn't argue with her; perhaps she was expecting a fight, some pushback, but I didn't give it to her. I didn't let her fight. Eventually she sighed.
"Fine."
