Tinder - Jenlisa (English version)

38

Jennie POV

The Magnum campaign is just starting and coming back to the office just when the workload is getting so heavy is overwhelming. Then, to make things worse, there was the matter of Lisa. She was already at her desk when I arrived on Monday morning. I was a bit surprised because there's never anyone here when I arrive, I'm always the first. She gets out of her chair as soon as she sees me coming in the lift.

LISA: Jennie.

I sigh because I don't want to talk to her right now, I'm not ready for all this intensity, it's fucking 7:30.

JENNIE: Good morning.

I walk straight to my office door hoping he won't talk to me, but obviously, that doesn't happen.

LISA: We need to talk.

JENNIE: We've already talked.

LISA: No. We've argued, that's not talking.

JENNIE: You want to argue?

LISA: No!

JENNIE: Then this isn't the time.

LISA: Then when is it?

JENNIE: Lisa, you're overwhelming me.

She looks at me as if what I've just said has caused her physical pain, as if I've slapped her in the face. I feel a bit bad.

JENNIE: Look, it's early. We're starting the Magnum campaign today. My head was a mess on Saturday and it's still a mess today. I don't need to talk to you. I need some space.

LISA: Yeah.

JENNIE: I've got a lot on my mind right now and if you force me to listen to what you have to say, which I don't want to, I'm going to get pissed, we're going to argue and tomorrow you're going to complain that we haven't talked. We'll start a cycle of discussions that I'm too lazy to have, so don't. Respect my space.

LISA: Sure. Okay.

I'm sad to see her expression. In this month without seeing her, she has two small dark circles under her eyes and looks more pale than usual. She's still pretty, but her face indeed looks worse. She sits down at her desk and I go into my office. I need to be alone and have a coffee.

After a month's holiday, I thought I could move on and put it behind me. Forget about it.

'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But in this case, Vegas would be New York.

How stupid I felt when I saw the messages filled me with irrational rage. I spent a month trying to get over it. I had a good time, I enjoyed my first holiday since I started working, I deserved it. But perhaps I wasted 70% of the time thinking about everything that had happened, remembering things that made me feel stupid for not noticing the details because they were there.

The camera, the alarm clock... The scar on her elbow that Jeongyeong told me she got as a child and that Lisa happened to have in the same place. Lisa's witty, ironic and absurd sense of humour was always present in Jeongyeong. All these things came to my mind and turned the last two weeks of my holiday into 80% wasted time thinking about everything. Or 90%. I felt stupid for not noticing before, it was obvious.

I don't understand what her motivation was. To laugh at me? Maybe it was revenge for all the bad times I gave her at the office. To get information out of me and then use it to sleep with me? I've thought about it many times and it disgusts me so much... Actually, what bothers me is that she didn't even need anything, if what she wanted all the time was to sleep with me, she would have had it so easy, all the time. That pisses me off. Not at her, I'm angry at myself, because for one reason or another, I would always have made it easy for her in the end, and she used this weakness to make fun of me?