The Arrangement (JenLisa)

Chapter 17

JENNIE

The CEO gracefully slides into the back of the town car and Hank drives away from the curb. She looks back at the building and absentmindedly touches her finger to her red lips.

Jennie has a lot happening today, and her mental checklist is full. She starts to go through her day, but Lisa keeps coming to her mind. By the time she's at the office, Jennie is annoyed with her inability to concentrate around thoughts of Lisa. She can't get Lalisa out of her mind, and Jennie has this overwhelming feeling that she needs to go back to her.

Her job is demanding and it's all she has been able to do to spend the hours she can with Lisa. Jennie hates every second she is apart from her Lisa, and she is realizing that work isn't as important as it once was. The drive the CEO once had for it isn't as strong.

Her assistant Marie has been in and out a dozen times with files and notes and reminders of meetings. She knows she should have all this already mentally prepared, but Jennie can't focus on anything but the Thai woman at her bed. The last time Marie walked in Jennie just snapped at her to get out, not even letting the squeaky assistant finish her sentence.

She leans back in her chair and looks out the window to the city below.

"God, what am I doing?" she asks herself. The only place she wants to be is by Lalisa's side. Jennie saw the pleading look in those doe eyes this morning, but she was selfish and could only think about her meetings and responsibilities. Nothing in the world is more important to her now than her Lalisa, and she had made the mistake of not showing her.

In Jennie's quest to try to control her feelings for Lisa, she distanced herself, and that's not what she really wants. But she's scared. She's scared to death she will end up obsessed like her father was, but she has to let Lisa know how she feels. She has to tell Lisa she loves her. More than anything. More than anyone, she's her Lisa.

She has already made more money than she could spend in a lifetime, and she has enough staff to take over her responsibilities. Frankly, it's time. her obsessive behavior has created a controlling monster and Jennie's finally ready to let it go.

Spinning her chair around, she gets back on her computer to send some emails. The CEO creates a memo and send it to all her project managers, letting them know she'll be out of the office for an extended amount of time and informing them of who they need to report to. It only takes her about an hour to get all her ducks in a row, and then suddenly her to-do list for the day contains one task: Lalisa.

She grabs her bag and leaves her office. On the way out, she hears Marie behind her asking questions about the email she just received from the CEO, letting the assistant know she's being relocated to another manager. She didn't take the time to explain everything to Marie, because it's in the email, so she just redirects her assistant to her second in command. The doors to the elevator closes as the other woman's still speaking, she didn't care. The only thing Jennie hears is the loud beating of her heart. For the first time in her life, she feels alive, free.

When she steps outside and Hank is waiting on her, the Korean is practically bouncing with excitement. If her trusted driver noticed how she looks so blissful the way she was smiling the whole time, Hank didn't say it. As she climbs in the back seat, she get the urge to check Lalisa's GPS on her phone. She doesn't know why the feeling has come over her, but when Jennie sees that it hasn't moved she relaxes a little.

She asked Hank to stop on the way home so she can buy Lisa sunflowers. Because it was like Lisa, gorgeous, vibrant, full of positivity, filled with the possibilities. It reminds her of the sun, apt with the way Lisa is Jennie's sunshine. After that, they made another stop at the drugstore and Jennie buys Lisa boxes of the colorful hair dyes the Thai uses.

The CEO can feel the wide smile on her face as she enters the building and heads up to the penthouse. A bouquet of flowers clutched in one hand, a paper bag with the other. She is going to find Lisa and tell her she loves her the second she sees her punk princess. And before she loses the nerve.

She can do this. She can give her heart to Lisa. She can start making up for every hour she was away from the Thai, and never leave her side again. They will go to every places Lisa wanted to go to, together. Jennie can tell Lisa how perfect she thinks the barista is, how lovely, just as she is. She can confess how scared she is of these feelings. Jennie will tell Lisa everything about her past. Everything.

The CEO bursts through the elevator and feels elated. "Lisa!" she shouts and with excited heart flee to the master bedroom.

"Lisa! Babe. Where are you?" She sings and starts to walk around the house, the heels of her pumps echoing loudly at the empty penthouse as they hit the floor. She walks through every room, even the gym, and her panic starts to rise. "Lisa?"

"Lalisa!" Jennie shouts again, but this time it's frantic, almost angry. She's a hairline away from getting mad.

She walks back to their bedroom again and goes to the closet, looking around for Lisa's things. All the Thai's clothes are gone. Even the one-eyed stupid bear is missing. She goes next to the bed, and when she spots Lisa's cellphone and bracelet on the nightstand, the CEO's heart starts to beat out of her chest with panic. She let go of the things she was carrying, and put her palm above her left chest and rubbed there firmly, like she needs to ease the shot of pain she's certain she feels in her heart. She picks up the phone and look through the call log, seeing that the barista called her sister an hour ago. She holds the phone in a death grip and all her anger comes to the surface.

"Goddamnit!" Jennie screams and throws the phone across the room, watching it shatter into a thousand pieces as it hits the wall.

She pulls out her own own phone and hit Hank's number. She doesn't wait on his greeting before the CEO starts barking orders into the phone.

"Lalisa left about an hour ago. The last call was to her sister. The phone is useless now, so don't ask about it. She may have been taken, but it doesn't look like there was a struggle. I don't know but I want her home and I mean by tonight. You got that?"

"Yes, Miss Kim. I'll take care of it," Hank confirms and ends the call.

Jennie picks up Lisa's bracelet off the nightstand and squeeze it in her hands. She wants to smash the plastic thing into pieces as well, but she can't. She loves it because it reminds her of Lisa.

She sits on the edge of the bed and hold it in her hands as if it were her fragile Lisa the night that she found her at the club. She closes her eyes and hangs her head, because Jennie knows what this means. She fights the sob crawling up her throat, swallows another angry scream. If Lisa were coming back, she wouldn't hurt like this, because in that moment she feels it in her soul.

Lisa has left her.

~~~
A.N.:

What story you think I should edit again and upload next?

~M