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

Chapter 32

The changes that took place over the next few weeks were abrupt and obvious. The first was that the $10,000 pay packets stopped coming: a week after Jennie’s payment to the bank had been finalised and Lisa was officially out of debt for good, they sat down at the kitchen table and Jennie produced a different kind of envelope.

"This is for you," Jennie said. "I felt like the monthly payments were getting a bit ridiculous, so instead, I'm giving you this."

Lisa saw the American Express logo in the top corner and nearly wheezed. "Jennie. You can't seriously think I can be trusted with one of these."

"I can, because you're very good at spending your own money but you've always been rather restrained with mine," Jennie said, laughing at the awe on Lisa's face as she peeled her shiny black Amex card off of the letter.

"This is really mine?"

"Yes, and I'm not setting you a monthly limit, but please do let me know if you plan on buying a tiara or a boat or anything."

"What am I supposed to use it for?" Lisa asked with the faintest tremble in her voice.

"Everything. If you buy some lunch, or you need a new dress, or you and Chaeyoung go out partying after work, put it on the card. I don't want you touching your wages anymore."

"At all?"

"No," Jennie said, her voice firm. "You're going to save it all. I want you to have a safety net."

"Jennie," Lisa sighed. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything. It's done." Because everything was just that simple for her, and if Lisa tried really hard to believe it, maybe it could be for her too.

The next change came when Lisa returned home from work and went up to her bedroom to find every single one of her possessions waiting for her. She blinked at the piles and piles of clothes that were neatly folded and stacked up along the walls, the shoes that had been added to the closet, the rusty old laptop that was sitting on the bed.

"Jennie," she bellowed down the stairs. Jennie was already on her way up, her eyebrows raised high in amusement.

"Oh, you found them," she said. "I figured Mary would probably like to have her spare room back, so I got movers to go and collect the rest of your things."

"But I'm supposed to be finding a new apartment."

Jennie just shrugged at that, because she rarely acknowledged Lisa's desperate assertions that she had to move out at some point. "Well. You might as well have all your stuff in one place while you look."

"How am I supposed to live in here, though?" Lisa asked. In Jennie’s minimalistic decor, there was very little room to actually put anything.

"I'll buy a dresser," Jennie said, placing her hand on Lisa's lower back. "Or you could just start sleeping in my room again."

Lisa looked round at her so quickly that her neck cricked. "Seriously?"

"Of course. Why not? You were basically living in there before all this happened."

"I know, but there's a big difference between me basically moving in and me actually moving in."