The No Kiss Contract (Jensoo)

15

Halima was already there when Jisoo arrived at the office on the next Monday.

Jisoo slowed as she approached her assistant's desk. "Morning. Good weekend?"

The stank face Halima unleashed on her was her first tiny clue that something was wrong. Her usually even-tempered assistant went back to glaring at her screen.

Jisoo continued into her office, set her briefcase down, sat, and then leaned over in her chair to observe Halima ignoring her.

The fuck?

Jisoo had never not gotten a greeting from her. It was totally out of character. Now that she thought about it, Halima had been moody all of last week, but whenever Jisoo had noticed how odd that sullenness was for Jisoo usually imperturbable assistant, another work crisis had come along to shove it out of her brain. She couldn't exactly remember when Halima's shoulder had started getting progressively colder—over a week now, she would guess.

She couldn't deal with this. Not Halima and Jennie.

Jisoo whirled her chair around to gaze out the window. She'd think about how to deal with Halima in a minute, because from the moment she had sat down on the train this morning, all she could think about was her arrangement with Jennie—which definitely wasn't working—and she wasn't done processing all the ways it was going wrong yet.

After the new hires party at Roland's place, Jennie had been quiet in the car service on the way home. She accepted Jisoo's apology with grace but shut down any attempts to discuss what had happened. She suggested Jisoo use the time to work, and then pulled out her phone and did something with an Etsy app all the way home.

Jisoo had hoped for a chance to clear the air over the weekend, but that opportunity hadn't arisen. Jennie wasn't around when she had gotten home

Saturday afternoon, and Jisoo had slept most of Sunday away before joining Jennie and Louis while they watched a nature show in the early evening on that comfortable sofa. Jennie had perched on the arm of the couch, about as far away from Jisoo as she could get. Jisoo had been so relaxed she had fallen asleep again, and woke hours later in the dark, curled up in a soft, sweet-smelling, throw blanket that had come from God knew where.

And now Halima's face looked like a puckered asshole, and Jisoo was probably responsible for it, yet she hadn't a clue what she had done.

What the hell was going on?

At least with Halima, Jisoo could order her subordinate to tell her what was wrong, not that that would count for effective management or anything. But she had to solve one of these two problems, and the one directly in front of her seemed the easier of the two.

Jisoo hit the coffee station and returned with two steaming cups. She held one out to Halima. "Can we talk?"

Halima gazed at the cup but made no move to take it. She sniffed and picked up her notepad, ready to work.

"Not work just yet. Come in. And take this cup, will you, please?" Halima accepted the coffee and followed Jisoo into her office.

"I have to ask you this even if it sounds like I'm in junior high. Are you mad at me?"

Halima seemed to have been waiting for this and shot back, "Am I trustworthy?"

The fuck? "Of course. I wouldn't keep you around if I didn't trust you. What is going on?"

"Why did I have to hear about your engagement from Roland's assistant?"

Shit. "You heard about the mistletoe thing?"