I Wasn't Supposed to Fall For You [ Chaennie ]

Part 1: I Haven't Forgotten Anything

Jennie

"There's nothing worse than letting your ex-public enemy number one walk through the front door of the company you built from the ground up. You can't let her work for you! She could wreck everything. Years and years of work, just gone because she's a tactless, classless, mean-girl turdbag probably hell-bent on sabotage to make up for the fact that you succeeded, and she didn't."

Lisa Manobal, Jennie's best friend and often the only reason she'd been able to hold onto her sanity over the years, especially in high school, had a pained expression on her face. Jennie felt every stab of that pain. She'd been feeling it for the past two hours, ever since David Smith walked into her office and gave her the files for the new hires.

"Do you remember how people used to make fun of us because we were friends?" Lisa rolled her eyes. "Now you're trying to change the subject."

Jennie wasn't. She was trying to figure out how to approach the conversation when deep down, she had just as many misgivings as Lisa did about her old nemesis breezing her way into her company. As CEO, Jennie trusted her HR department to make the best possible choices. She'd learned years ago to relax and take a step back so she wouldn't go completely insane because she couldn't micromanage every single detail of her company. Things had started out slow. She'd been halfway through her business degree when, on her way to college, power walking down the sidewalk because she was late for a group presentation, she'd snapped the heel clean off her shoe. They weren't a cheap pair either. She'd taken off both shoes and run in a freaking skirt suit the rest of the way. Once there, she'd begged a fellow classmate to exchange shoes with her so she didn't have to go up on stage barefoot. She'd thought about what a waste it was that all those shoes out there, when they fell out of fashion, or someone fell out of love with them, or when they broke, just ended up in a landfill or taking up storage on thrift store shelves where no one would buy them. Plus, there was the whole problem with tons of flip-flops ending up in the ocean. She'd literally been in the middle of giving her presentation when it had come to her - the idea that would change her life.

"Jennie. Are you listening to me? You. Can't. Hire. Her." Lisa crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen counter.

As soon as Jennie realized who her HR department had hired for the director of marketing, she'd grabbed her things and made a fast getaway from her office before she could do something she regretted in places people could see. Like hurtle straight into a very real meltdown. Glass walls, while modern and pretty, were sometimes very, very inconvenient. She'd sped home, risking getting pulled over and slapped with a speeding ticket, and called Lisa, who came over immediately, also probably breaking the law several times to get there as quickly as she did.

Jennie breezed past Lisa, forcing a calm she didn't feel. She went to the fridge and took out a pitcher of homemade sun tea. It was her absolute favorite, her mom's recipe, and one of the only guilty pleasures she indulged in that included real sugar. She poured two tall glasses and passed one to Lisa. Jennie downed half her glass without tasting it, but the cold liquid wetting her parched throat was heaven. She hadn't been able to swallow down the lump in her throat for the past two hours, but the tea helped. It hit her belly, cooling some of the acid burning there at the bitter memories that the name Roseanne Park evoked.

"I-I know that," Jennie stammered. Sweat beaded at her hairline as though she'd just been powering through an intense workout. Spin class. God, she hated spin class. Her body burned like she'd just been peddling for her life. She reached up and smoothed her hand over her forehead, wiping away some of the dampness.

Lisa winced. "Well, if you know that, do something about it."

"I can't! She's already been hired."

"You're the CEO. That literally means that you can."