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

Chapter 29

Lisa stayed with Jennie for the next few days. The initial shock from what had happened with Soohan dissipated fairly quickly, and instead of having shaking hands and near-tears in her eyes, she found herself filled with a burning rage that she wasn't equipped to get rid of by herself. And so she stayed by Jennie's side, her hand somehow finding its way into hers whenever their fingers brushed, and Jennie never pushed her away. Instead, she got Sidney to drive her to and from work every single day, and when Lisa got back to the apartment, Jennie was always there waiting for her.

She never apologised for letting Lisa go to Soohan's place alone, because she didn't do that. But her soft gestures and home-cooked meals and the way she worriedly brushed Lisa's hair back from her face whenever she snapped, "I don't want to talk about it" said sorry in all the thousands of ways her mouth was incapable of doing.

Besides, Lisa wasn't mad at her. Not even slightly. It had been her own idea to go there, and she'd just been trying to help. Jennie hadn't known what would happen, and there was no doubt in Lisa's mind that she would have been the first person kicking the door down and dragging Soohan off her by his hair if she'd had even the slightest inkling that something might be wrong.

But Lisa was still mad, and so she broke one of her first rules of Jennie World and found herself wearing her new clothes to work. Until then, they'd been a completely separate part of her wardrobe, reserved for events and dinners and parties and absolutely not for racing around after Cherin asking her what she wanted for lunch that day. But things were different that week, and maybe Lisa felt a little fragile, so she stormed into the office on Monday in her highest heels, with her black pants painfully tight and her white shirt showing just the right amount of cleavage. The fucking hickey was still visible, and she did nothing to cover it up. She wasn't going to hide herself away because of him.

Cherin had just stared at her from across the office, and that was the first day in two and a half years that she didn't yell at Lisa even once. When Lisa brought her her third coffee of the day, Cherin looked up at her with a strange kind of consideration on her face. It was deeply uncomfortable, and Lisa wondered if it was a test to see how long she could bear it without crumbling.

She put the coffee down on the desk and forced herself to stand upright. "Can I get you anything else?"

"No…" Cherin said slowly. "You seem different today."

"Still the same old me," Lisa shrugged, but her voice sounded flat. Cherin's eyes flicked down to the bruise on her throat.

"We haven't spoken much since that party of yours," she said, gesturing to the seat opposite her desk. Lisa sat down, keeping her back rod-straight. "I'm not sure I've ever seen you look as industrious as I did that night."

"Yeah, well. It was kind of crazy."

"You were working very hard," Cherin said coolly.

"Um," Lisa swallowed. "I guess. It was a big deal."

"I see. How's the rich girlfriend?"

"Good," Lisa replied shortly.

"I noticed that she's not been appearing on so many arty news sites recently. Are you still together?"

"Yes," Lisa ventured, knowing that the reason why Jennie had slipped from those webpages was because she'd all but shuttered herself away while she'd been trying to lure Soohan in. But that was something Lisa didn't want to think about, so out loud she said, "She's considering throwing another party after Christmas. Less hipstery this time. You'd be welcome to come."