OUR PLAYLIST | JENLISA

TWENTY

Lisa

Playlist: Superposition | Young the Giant
***

My feet were back on Minnesota soil for the first time since Christmas. I loved that Jennie had come home with me. Despite the shitty night I’d had, compliments of Lola, I hadn’t stopped smiling all day. I was irritable right until I picked Jennie up and she bounced into my arms.

We walked with Love to the rental car counter at the tiny airport in Duluth. Jennie laughed at the single luggage carousel.

“So where is Minneapolis from here?” she asked, leaning down to pet Love. He sat pressed against her leg, looking up at her.

“The Twin Cities are two and a half hours south.”

“And we’re going…”

“Two hours north. Let me show you.” I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Maps. “Right now we’re here. And here’s Ely.”

She leaned over and I caught a flurry of her perfume as her shoulder pressed into my arm. Something seemed to activate between us. She turned her face slightly in my direction, her eyes moving to my lips, and I felt the same pull that had almost dragged us under last night tug me toward her again.

Jennie was moving slower in this relationship than I was. I didn’t take it personally. I meant what I said: I’d wait for her. I’d wait as long as she needed. When she was ready, she’d let me know. And if I was doing my job as her girlfriend, making her feel safe—and making sure she wanted me enough—it would all work itself out eventually. There was no rush.

This was just a season, and there’s beauty in all seasons. Even if you are looking forward to the next one.

“It’s surrounded by so much green,” she said, clearing her throat, and we both seemed to snap from our daze.

“It’s on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.”

“And you go in there?”

“I grew up in there,” I said, tucking my phone back into my pocket.

She looked up at me with those deep-brown eyes and put her hands on my chest. “Thank you for bringing me.” She stood on her toes and gave me a quick kiss.

When we broke away, she nuzzled her nose to mine. “And you’re sure your parents are okay with me coming?” she asked again.

“Absolutely. My mom has probably been cleaning and recleaning the house in anticipation of your arrival. You’re the first girlfriend I’ve brought home since prom.”

She jerked her head back and stared at me for a second. “Please tell me that’s a joke.”

“I haven’t brought a girl home in ten years.”

Panic washed across her face and she wriggled out of my arms. “Why?!”

“Uh, because I haven’t had one worth bringing?” I smiled. Flustering her was becoming one of my favorite hobbies. I totally got why Jisoo did it. Jennie was so beautiful when she was blushing and biting her lip.

“But…you’ve had serious girlfriends. What about the one that you dated for three years?”

“Jessica? Yeah. That was my prom date.”

“Lisa!”

“What?” I laughed.

“What the hell? This is not what you sold me on!”

I chuckled and put my hands on her arms. “They’re going to love you.”

She put a finger to her eyelid and looked at me bleakly.

I shook my head at her. “You would make the worst poker player, you know that, right?”

“Lisa, you made this sound like it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Would you have come if I’d told you the truth?”

“No.”

“Well, then.”

She glared at me.

“Would you prefer that you’re just one in a long line of women that I’ve brought home?”

She narrowed her lone eye at me. “No.”

“Well, then,” I said again, proving my point.

She took her finger from her eyelid and hugged her arms around herself. “What if they don’t like me?”

Impossible.

I tipped up her chin. “There’s a very real possibility that they’ll like you better than they like me.”

Mom was flipping out. Not just because Jennie was The Huntsman’s Wife, but because I didn’t bring women home as a rule.

And bringing Jennie home meant exactly what Mom thought it did.