Summer in France || 𝖩𝖤𝖭𝖫𝖨𝖲𝖠 ✔︎

ten

Lisa looked at the piece of paper on her nightstand, picked up her phone and started dialing Nora’s number. She’d been distracted by the number all day while catching up on paperwork and wondered why the hell she hadn’t called her yet. Her finger was hovering over the call button, just about to press it, when she decided to put the phone back down.

Damn you, Jennie. What was the big deal? Nothing would happen between her and Jennie, yet she couldn’t bring herself to ask a gorgeous tourist out to dinner. A gorgeous tourist who had basically thrown herself at her feet. It couldn’t be more perfect and uncomplicated. But Jennie had somehow found a way into her system, and she wasn’t able to stop thinking about her.

She had locked herself up in the annex, trying to get her tax returns out of the way, and hadn’t spoken to her all day. She picked up the book that Jennie had returned after finishing it and smiled as she flicked through the pages, tracing the marks where they had been folded.

“There’s definitely something there, Gumbo,” she said to the sleeping dog on the pillow next to her. Gumbo opened one eye at the sound of his name and went straight back to sleep. Jennie had asked for another book in the same genre, and had Lisa search for a good hour to find one.

Nowadays, she didn’t read much romance anymore. Picking someone up had almost become second nature to her, and that had consumed many of her nights ever since Selma had left. Until now, because now, she spent most of her nights with Jennie. And even though there was no steamy sex involved, she enjoyed her company so much more than some meaningless encounter with a stranger, however good-looking. Jennie was something else altogether. She was beautiful, smart, clumsy, adorable and far from the stiff businesswoman Lisa had expected her to be. She admired Jennie for being brave enough to let go of everything she had; everything that had shaped her into who she was.

Lisa turned on her knees and peered out of the window, the way she had many times that week. The candles on the terrace table were lit, faintly highlighting Jennie's silhouette. She was reading a book with her feet up on another chair.
Don’t go over there. She might want to be alone. That had been Lisa's dilemma for days. She looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was only nine o’clock and if she didn’t go out there now, she’d be torturing herself with regret all night, unable to sleep.

Why the hell had she shown her that piece of paper with Nora’s number yesterday? Had it been provocation? It was out of character for her, rubbing a potential fling in someone’s face. And why had Jennie seemed upset about it? Lisa got up, put on a t-shirt and grabbed a bottle of wine from her fridge on her way out.

“Hey.” Lisa held up the bottle as she walked towards Jennie. “Please be honest and tell me if you want to be alone.” Jennie looked up from her book with a big smile on her face.

“Not at all, I was hoping you’d come,” she said, running a hand through her long, brunette hair. “In fact, I was thinking of knocking on your door, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to be alone either.”

“I guess we’re on the same page then.” She nodded towards Jennie's leg under the table. “How’s the ankle?”

“It’s okay. The ice really helped, I think. The worst swelling went down over night, and I can put my weight on it now, so it might have looked worse than it was.”

“That’s good.” Lisa shuffled in front of the table. “Just to make it clear, Jen, I have no intention of asking Nora out.” She chuckled. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I just wanted you to know.”

Jennie's eyes met Lisa's. The flickering lights from the candles cast a warm glow over her face as she stood there, looking down at her, and she melted at the sight of. “Thank you for telling me, Lisa. I appreciate it. Although I’m not sure why either.” She shrugged, “I’m sorry if I acted weird today.”