✔Private Affair [Taennie Adaption]

7

Taehyung watched Jennie's face, looking for any hint of what was going on in that convoluted brain of hers.

Maybe he'd raised the stakes too high, but he needed to know now where this was headed. She was everything he wanted in a wife: beautiful, smart and as dedicated to Kim Enterprises as he was. Even better, because they'd gotten involved before she knew who he was, he knew she was interested in the man, not the position he held. As an added bonus, the chemistry between them in bed was unlike anything he'd ever experienced.

In short, she was the perfect woman for him.

But he was tired of playing these games. If she didn't feel the same way about him, he wanted to know it now.

Almost as soon as he laid his cards on the table, he knew his gamble would pay off. He watched the doubts flicker across her face in the furrow of her brow and the downturn of her lips. Then the moment of indecision passed and her expression settled into one of absolute certainty.

Just when he was ready to pull her into his arms for a celebratory kiss, she shook her head. "No," she said. "I can't marry you."

Knowing she'd absolutely done the right thing should've provided some sense of satisfaction. But for Jennie, it didn't.It did, however, allow her to coast in oblivion for several days. For most of the week, in fact, she functioned like a semi–intelligent human being. She went to work. She held conversations and answered e–mail. Three times a day she consumed food—not that she tasted it. Work had become merely about survival. Life, about just getting through the day.

By Friday, the decision that had seemed so completely logical had gnawed through her to sit solidly in her belly like an intestinal worm. She'd made a mistake.

She had thought that by ending the affair she would regain some control over her emotions. She was wrong.

She hadn't taken control of her destiny. She'd sabotaged it.

Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, she was digging through her enormous hobo bag, looking for any morsel of chocolate that might up her serotonin levels above rock bottom, when her fingers latched on to the jewelry box from Taehyung.

She pulled it out. Friday night when she'd fled his office, she'd thrust the box into the murky depths of her purse, desperate to cast aside the earrings and the ties they represented.

Now it seemed silly; foolish, even. The earrings had been nothing. A mere token compared to what he'd offered her on Monday. Why had she been so afraid of earrings? For that matter, why had she been so afraid of an engagement?

She was still pondering the question, desperately trying to talk herself into putting the box back into her purse, when there was a knock on her office door. Lisa strolled in without waiting for a response."Did you see—" Lisa broke off at the sight of Jennie's tears. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! I just—"

"You're sitting in your office, clutching a jewelry box and sobbing." Lisa glanced back into the bull pen as if to verify no one else had noticed and then closed the door behind her. "That's not nothing!"

Jennie pressed her lips together, trying desperately not to blubber like an idiot. But then Lisa was there beside her with a tissue in one hand and a sympathetic hug in the other. The dam broke. Twenty minutes of tearful explanation later and Lisa knew the whole sordid mess. Jennie's dignity—what she had left of it—kicked in at the last minute, preventing her from sobbing out the possibility that she may have actually fallen in love with Taehyung —idiot that she was.

Instead of baring her very soul, she blew her nose one last time and straightened her shoulders, channeling the inner strength of the plucky heroine from countless romantic movies.

"This is okay. I can get over this, right?"

Lisa gave her an encouraging nod.

"I made a mistake. A very big mistake. People have recovered from far worse, right?" "Sure!" Lisa handed her another tissue.

Jennie swiped it under her eyes to clean up the worst of the melting eye makeup. "I just need to take a few days to get control of my emotions, so I can comport myself with dignity." Again Lisa nodded her support. "The last thing I want is to burst into tears every time I see him."

"Or Irene."

"Oh, they're not dating," Jennie said quickly. "He explained everything. At least I don't have that to worry about." She glanced towards Lisa, expecting the requisite nod. But Lisa didn't meet her gaze. "What?" Jennie asked.

Lisa looked ready to chew a hole through her front lip. "Everyone's talking about it. He's taking her to the Foundation for Life benefit. Tonight."

With a sinking feeling, Jennie propelled herself from her seat. She threw open her office door and stared across the bull pen to Irene's office, opposite her own.

Then, as if the whole scene was being choreographed by some evil genius, Irene walked out. With Taehyung behind her. His hand at the small of her back, just as he used to do with Jennie.

Irene said something and then laughed that infectious laugh of hers. Her head was tilted so that her perfect blond hair spilled down her back as she looked up at Taehyung."That lying, cheating bastard. I hate him," Lisa muttered beside Jennie. "I should hate him, right?"

But in that moment, Taehyung looked from Irene's upturned face across the room to meet Jennie's gaze. She saw the full truth in his eyes.

This could have been her. Weeks ago he'd asked her to the event and she'd turned him down. She'd pushed him into this.

"No," she told Lisa. "He's not a lying, cheating bastard. He wasn't dating her while he was sleeping with me. But he is dating her now."