Take My Mask, I'm Home

being an unknowable pariah was better than being a broken soul

To Lisa's dismay, she wasn't able to call any of her family members to let them know that she actually would be arriving for her adoption anniversary week. Thanks to the time difference between New York City and Alaska, it meant that someone was generally always at work. Phone calls needed to be scheduled rather than spontaneous.

The combination of painkillers and shock of what she'd agreed to had seemed to have kicked her hangover to the curb, so she ordered in some pizza and spent the evening packing for her week away at Alaska. It was late April, so the temperature was beginning to warm up, but it was never perfectly guaranteed to be light sweater weather. She packed wool, thermal tops, some heavy sweaters, hats, and a pair of trainers; the kind that was meant for warmth and comfort, not high fashion. She had plenty of lighter clothes stored up in Alaska, anyway. She put her waterproof hiking boots by the door for her to put on in the morning, because they were great for slush. She'd kick them off on the plane. She wondered whether Jennie had any, then decided that it wasn't her problem. Lisa had the feeling that Jennie wasn't going to listen to her when she'd asked her to pack more casual clothes; she was sure that Jennie was going to stick out like a sore thumb in Homer.

She smiled to herself at the thought of Jennie walking down Main Street in her Chanel dresses and expensive shoes, carrying a bag of groceries. The smile turned into laughter, and soon enough she was somewhere between laughing and crying, sitting on the worn old sofa in her apartment, a slice of pizza sagging in her hand.

She had no idea how she'd got herself into this mess. On the one hand, she was going to hold Jennie to her giving her the job that she wanted. She was going to hold her to the settlement. She was going to get something out of this, but on the other hand, this was going to be the most wrong thing she had ever done. Not only was she going to be lying to every single person in her life except for Jennie, she was breaking the law so badly that she risked a stay in prison and the loss of everything she knew.

And for what? Because a pretty lady with beautiful eyes asked her for help? Asked? Lisa scoffed to herself. Who was she kidding? Jennie hadn't asked for her help, she'd demanded it, and she needed to keep the distinction clear in her head. She should've turned her down flat, but at that highly-charged moment in Jennie's office, she hadn't felt like she'd had much of a choice.

Lisa desperately wanted to text Rosie and ask her advice on what she should do, but she couldn't even do that, thanks to the knowledge that everything in her phone would be reviewed by the government. All she could do was let Rosie know that she would be arriving the following evening, and that she was bringing someone with her, which she would do as soon as she'd finished eating her pizza. She was not looking forward to composing that text, considering she would have to explain who the someone was.

The someone being Jennie freaking Kim, her extremely indifferent boss, and the woman her family mostly knew from negative articles in the media. It was not like Lisa to bad mouth anyone; she always stopped herself before she said anything truly rude, so the worst that she had said to her family about Jennie was that she was not exactly personable. Lisa was so mild-mannered that her refusal to say anything specifically horrible about Jennie to her family spoke volumes to them, and she knew it. She didn't exactly talk her up either, though; the best she could've said for Jennie before this point was the same as anyone could've read in any article about her. She was intelligent, accomplished, and an excellent businesswoman.

Another thing that her family knew was that she was frustrated at the fact that she'd not been able to visit them at home for more than a couple of days at a time since she'd started working at Knetz. They knew it was because of her boss.

And, what? She was going to show up tomorrow and tell her entire family that she was marrying Jennie, completely out of the blue.

...Yeah.