Count Your Lucky Stars •CHAENNIE•

Chapter 4

What Cocktail Should You Order Based on Your Zodiac Sign?

Aries-Dirty Vodka Martini
Taurus-French 75
Gemini-Long Island Iced Tea
Cancer-Old Fashioned
Leo-Espresso Martini
Virgo-Gin and Tonic
Libra-Cosmopolitan
Scorpio-Manhattan
Sagittarius-Negroni
Capricorn-Vesper
Aquarius-White Russian
Pisces-Mojito

Bell and Blanchard Brewing Company, a small, locally owned and operated brewery, was the latest-and largest, save for OTP-partner Oh My Stars had teamed up with to date. In the past, Jisoo and Jennie had diversified OMS's revenue stream by accepting sponsorships and paid advertisements from zodiac-centric brands they themselves liked enough to rep-perfume, astro-themed active wear-but this was a step above. Oh My Stars would be collaborating with the brewery to launch a series of astrology-inspired beers, one for each sign, to be released during the corresponding season, beginning with Aries and ending with Pisces.

Jennie was jazzed about the partnership. She was firmly in the beer good camp. What she was less jazzed about was spearheading the partnership sans Jisoo.

Not that Jisoo wasn't involved-this was an Oh My Stars venture after all, and Oh My Stars was and would forever be run fifty-fifty by them both-but as their business had grown, boomed, so had the need to delegate. They'd done some variation of delegation since day one; Jisoo handled the majority of the chart readings they offered by phone or Zoom, in part because clients responded better to Jisoo's outgoing, bubbly personality, and also because Jisoo genuinely enjoyed the one-on-one interaction more than Jennie did. Jennie preferred the behind-the-scenes work infinitely more-website maintenance, content creation for their social media channels, research, and now beer test tasting.

Jennie was living the dream.

She just, you know, wished that she got to do it with Jisoo. These days, as busy as they both were, Jennie was lucky if she got to see Jisoo outside of their weekly OMS planning chat . . . once? Twice? More often if the whole group was getting together at Jisoo and Lisa's for game night, like they would be soon. So while Jennie was meeting with brewers and discussing hops and yeast and IBU, sampling Bell and Blanchard's current brews while distilling each zodiac sign into traits that could be represented in beer, Jisoo was handling back-to-back sessions with clients.

Things were changing, and it wasn't bad, but it was taking some time for her to get used to it.

Jennie juggled a complimentary six-pack of beer from the tasting she'd just attended-the first of many promised to her by the brewery-and flipped through the mail as she stepped inside her apartment. Credit card statement, phone bill, junk, junk, more junk, coupon to Sephora for her birthday next month. She tossed the stack on the entry table along with her keys, set the beer on the floor, then reached down to unlace her boots and-

"Jesus." Jennie jumped back and gasped. Cat sat in the middle of the foyer, head cocked to the side, staring up at her with those peridot-green eyes.

That was also going to take some getting used to.

She cleared her throat. "Hi, Cat."

The cat blinked at her.

Wait. Shit. Eye contact was a no-no. Then again, this was Jennie's apartment. Did she really want to demonstrate deference inside her own domain?

Cat opened her mouth and yawned out a meow that showed off her many pointy teeth and-Jennie quickly averted her eyes. That answered that question.

She shuffled past, boots still on, and booked it down the hall to her bedroom, shutting the door once she was inside. Everything she'd told Jisoo about maybe adopting a cat? Total bullshit. Cats had terrified Jennie ever since her great-aunt Sooyeon's fluffy white Persian had fallen through the canopy of Jennie's bed, waking Jennie up from a dead sleep by landing on her . . . claws out and yowling. They'd both been fine, but the scars-mostly only emotional, thank God-had lingered.