Becoming Mrs. Manoban

6. For the love of Pierre

It'd been exactly three weeks since Jennie moved into Lisa's home. It surprised her how fast time was flying and how effective she had become in avoiding her. It wasn't so difficult anyway, seeing as Lisa was always busy at work and often worked till late at night—no wonder the woman didn't have a life. During the first week, she had become very fond of Momo and Dahyun who was the scullion, since she had taken a week's leave from work she was forced to stay home and spend a significant amount of time in the kitchen where Dahyun taught her some of her famous recipes. She had been working for Lisa for the past five years and seemed to regard her highly. So many times, Jennie had contemplated digging for more information concerning Lisa but refrained as it just seemed odd and she might end up putting both she and poor Dahyun in an awkward situation. Besides, she had vowed to detach herself from anything Lisa.

While she wasn't busy with her culinary ventures, she focused on reading the books she had brought along. Reading gave her a much-needed distraction. It seemed to divert her attention from her situation and propel her into another world—even though it was Charles Darwin's world. At least, On the origin of species held much more comfort than the well of lies she was living in. She also made it a point of duty to call Nayeon every couple of days, just to see how she was doing and when she was missing her face she would alternate the calls with Skype video calls. Their chats were very exciting because Jennie had scheduled Nayeon's surgery at one of New York's leading hospitals and they were both anxious for when Nayeon would have her life back, although Nayeon had voiced her scepticism about how Jennie could afford it.

The following week, Lisa informed her that she would be travelling to Australia for some business-related summit and would remain there for a few days afterwards. She was glad that she could now retire from consciously avoiding her and best of all—she could return back to work in peace. The only problem with that ideology was that she had told her sister that she had left town meanwhile she was still very much in New York. It made her feel terrible and ashamed of her dishonesty every time she stole in and out of the coffee shop, always looking over her shoulder even though she knew quite well that Nayeon finding out that she was still around was a long shot. There was no way she would sacrifice the only steady job she could keep for now. After nine months, she would return back to her life and even though she would be twenty million dollars richer, she still wanted to keep busy— plus Mrs. Park, her boss had been good to her all these years. She couldn't just leave.

The current week was flying by pretty quickly too as well. She had kept busy at work and in the kitchen too, even though Dahyun had tried very hard to resist her assistance—she was such a sweet young lady. During the week, Jennie had come across an old friend of hers from college—Kai. Kai was always a too-close-for-comfort kind of guy but during the time she'd known him, they'd been good friends. Unfortunately, since Nayeon got sick, Jennie had to kiss her social life goodbye and focus on bringing the bread home. She had met him at the coffee shop and he was very glad to have crossed paths with his long-time crush. He indulged her in a hasty exchange of words before inviting her to dinner after several attempts from Jennie to oppose.

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Jennie sighs deeply as she begrudgingly slips out of bed, her head still hazy with remnants of the confusing dream she just had. She shoots her vision in the direction of the clock that hangs on the wall and it claims to be eight-thirty.
"Shoot!" She exclaims as she quickly and surprisingly musters enough energy to dart out of bed. She was late, she'd never been once late to work during the two years she'd been working for Mrs. Park. But then again you should be used to unconventional things happening in your life by now, Jennie. She mocks herself inwardly as she slips out of her cozy housecoat and quickly gets into the shower.

It takes barely thirty minutes for her to prepare and before long, she is in the car being driven by Bambam. Lisa had forbidden her to drive her truck, she claimed that her vehicle was hazardous and could detonate en route at any time. She had rolled her eyes and decided not to argue with her for once. She hated to admit it but she missed her a bit—okay a lot. The house was pretty quiet and idle when she was away and for some insane reason, she couldn't put her finger on, she missed her bossy tendencies.