so, do we like each other or not? // JENLISA

Chapter 3

Lisa paused at the entrance. The doors were made of glass, but the dim lighting inside meant she couldn’t see a thing. That only made her feel even more like she shouldn’t walk in.

It dawned on her then that she probably wouldn’t be allowed in – she didn’t need to see Le Bernardin’s interior to know what kind of people dined there. She was wearing a stretchy dress from an average Joe store, and it wouldn’t surprise her in the least if she was asked to leave the moment she stepped inside.

But then the door was opening, and the maître d’ was looking at her. She took an apprehensive step forwards.

“Hi,” she said, her voice slow and betraying her uncertainty. “I’m here for—”

“Right this way,” the man said before she’d managed to stammer Jennie’s name. Blinking, Lisa followed him through the double doors and into the most expensive room she’d ever stepped foot in.

The restaurant was dimly lit and furnished with blacks and soft greys, surrounded on all sides by wood-panelled walls and enormous paintings of the ocean. Jennie could smell seafood as she was led through the centre of the room, desperately trying not to trip over her own heels. She’d been hoping the restaurant would offer some respite from the wet heat that was hovering throughout the city, but to no avail – the room was warm, brimming with the smell of crisp wine and freshly cooked food. The single bead of sweat that was rolling down her spine was the only thing able to distract her from the nerves dancing in her empty stomach.

They reached the back of the room and turned a corner, and there was Jennie, her head bent over two different smartphones and a pair of glasses perched at the end of her nose. Lisa swallowed, a prim smile on her face ready for when Jennie looked up at her, but it never happened – Jennie was too invested in the iPhone in her left hand and the Pixel in her right to have even registered the presence in front of her.

The man who had led Lisa to the table coughed slightly, and she turned her head to see that he’d pulled out the vacant seat for her. She sat down as gracefully as she could, grateful that Jennie wasn’t looking at her pink cheeks, and reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

As the maître d’ walked away, Lisa swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Hi.”

Finally, Jennie glanced up. She didn’t smile, but there was a glimmer in her eye that told Lisa she was pleased to see her.

Then she looked down again. “One moment, Miss Manoban.”

She carried on typing like no one had interrupted her, and Lisa slumped back in her chair. She was aware that she should be disheartened or even annoyed, but the truth was that she was grateful for the extra 30 seconds where she might catch her breath and get herself under control.

She took a deep breath and let herself look around. It was one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city – something she’d learned from frantically reading Trip Advisor reviews for most of her lunch break – and she may as well allow herself to ogle a tiny little bit.

There was a woman in the far corner who looked suspiciously like Natalie Portman, and Lisa spent the next two minutes trying to lean as far back in her chair as she could without falling off it. Her temperature had been slowly starting to reduce to a mere boil, but the sight of someone who may have been an Oscar-winning actress had immediately turned her internal thermostat right back up.