Chapter 1 - Are You Ten Years Ago
Ten years ago Lalisa Manoban died.
Okay. Not really, at least not in the literal sense.
The Lalisa Manoban that everyone knew in 2010 was not the same after what had happened; however, something inside her was forever broken the day Roseanne Park had left her after spending all night together, whispering sweet nothings to one another, the night she left... the night Rosie left her.
And maybe everyone else would had thought the situation wasn't that bad. They had fun. They laughed, they danced, they sang, they talked. But no one, not a guy, not a girl, no one had ever made her feel the way she felt with Roseanne during those few hours they were together.
She never understood how she had, before that night, spent years looking at her but never really seeing her.
She would punish herself for many nights after that.
The morning after, she had cried for a bit, it wasn't the fact that she had her first (and second... and third) time with a girl. It was the fact that she felt things she never knew she could feel for someone else. Weeks after that, she would spend hours looking at her iPhone screen typing and deleting a couple of words. Nothing was ever sent.
And nothing was ever received either.
She was never able to maintain a relationship that lasted longer than two dates, not after what had happened with Roseanne. She was always looking for something she never really got to fully know. She was looking for Rosie even if she always denied it.
"You have to move on. It's been months." - Jennie, the only person she had trusted it with would tell her.
"I don't need to move on because it was nothing" - She would answer.
"Then why aren't you guys talking? You spent hours looking at your phone. Everytime we go out you search for her in the crowd. You think I don't notice?"
"You're crazy Jen. And you better stop saying things like that. I'm not even gay" - she would state ending the conversation.
Jennie would say nothing else.
Things were never the same for her since then. She never knew why Roseanne went away, why she never reached out for her. She felt guilty because not only she felt like she did something wrong, but she also had lost her only, truly friend that night, and she knew she was never getting her back.
New York City, 2020
She was late. Again. She had missed the 7:30 am train and now she was in a hurry.
"Shit". She hissed.
Lisa needed to deliver her latest work, it was something called: "A day Without Men". She had been traveling all around the world during the last year looking for the perfect picture. She got many of them... women were amazing and she wanted to show everyone that they could be as fierce, strong and intelligent as men were. This was something that had started as a joke one of her previous co-workers had said and it always bothered her. How he could be so insensitive towards something like that? So from that moment on she had it stuck on her mind.
She had been waiting for a chance like this for a long time and it was the opportunity she needed to show them what she was made of; her team lead had told her the new boss wanted to see all the projects they had been working before she took the CEO position and she was not about to fuck it up.
Or maybe she was. "Come on Lisa. You can do it." She told herself .
Lisa was ready to hand over her portfolio and showcase her passion in every single frame. Her boss needed to understand what she meant. Great things were said about the new head of the company, she was actually from Atlanta as well, but she had never met her nor had she even seen her. She was like a ghost. Working from 6am before everyone arrived and leaving after 8pm when no one was around.
