The No Kiss Contract (Jensoo)

26

Jisoo arrived back in her office after lunch to a scene she very much wished she had seen from the beginning. Halima had Roland backed into a corner behind her desk, and she had her finger in his face. His hands and eyebrows were raised so high, he must have thought either that her finger was a gun and she was holding him up, or that it was a ruler and she wanted to measure the width of his eyelids.

"Hey, you two. What's going on?"

"Jisoo, of course, I appreciate your privacy," Roland started to say.

"He was snooping at your calendar," Halima said at the same time. "You only need to ask, Roland." Jisoo spread her arms wide. "I'm an open book. Halima, thank you so much, my beloved little pit bull. Take an extra-long lunch. I'm sorry I was so long at mine."

"I never realized how supremely loyal Halima is." Roland followed her into her office. "And scary," he added, under his breath.

"She is loyal. Loyalty is a highly valuable quality, in my opinion." Jisoo couldn't say how hurt she had been by what she perceived as Roland's disloyalty—his nonexistent defense of her character—at the Summit, because she wasn't supposed to have heard it. "And I'm loyal right back. Can't function without her. What do you need?"

"Lunch with Joel Kleinman today, I see? Are there developments?"

"Possibly. I'll know more later." Maybe she was less than an open book. Not closed, exactly, but definitely face down at the moment. She didn't want to share what was spoken of at her lunch with Joel just yet. She guessed she'd have to be more direct. "What's up? Why were you looking at my calendar?"

"Two items we need to discuss. First, things are going tits-up at Wax Corp."

"Oh, shit. What happened?" She had a sneaking suspicion she already knew.

Roland shook his head. "Keeley made an absolute hash of things. We're wining and dining them tonight in the hopes of salvaging the relationship. We need you to come. Seven o'clock at Ai Fiori."

"I can't. It's my sister's opening night. She's in a play."

"Cancel it. This is im—" Roland furrowed his brows. "You don't have a sister."

"Yes, I do. Cherry. You met her."

"I never did. When?"

"Well, you didn't meet her at her party, the one you crashed in June, when you were shitfaced. It was in July, when we had you and Leanne over for dinner with the Kleinmans. Remember the trampoline? Cherry showed you her side flip? And Leanne said if you tried it she wasn't taking care of your injured ass."

Roland thought for a second. "That's not your sister. That's Jennie's sister."

"Yes, she is. She's my half-sister and Jennie's half-sister."

"I'm so confused." He put a hand to his chin.

"My dad and her mom fucked about fifteen years ago and had Cherry as a result."

"Jisoo," he tsked. "So crass."

"I have another meeting, Roland. I don't have time to draw you a diagram."

"And you and Jennie are getting married?"

Jisoo hesitated. It had rolled off her tongue without a thought before.

Now the lie stuck in her throat. "What do you think?" It was an evasion that wouldn't hold up in court.

"How do your father and her mother feel about it?"

"Roland, I don't have time for this and it's really none of your business. I told you, I have a meeting."

"I know, with Sophie. Why are you meeting with our investigator? Which of our clients needs her?"