Fire Lodge ( jenlisa )

Part 4

G-Dragon laughed. "Hey, just because I'm not where I want to be doesn't mean I'm not gonna work my butt off where I am. Speaking of which, I've gotta go. I'm sure you'll figure something out."

Jennie sighed again as she hung up the phone. She wished she had half of G-Dragon's confidence in her abilities. Either way, in a couple of hours she'd find out if she was able to handle this first crisis of her career running the Fire Lodge.

******

Jisoo spent the morning trying to figure out what she could possibly have done wrong. Chaeyoung didn't say anything, and she didn't seem exactly mad, but there was a coldness there that hadn't been there the day before. They selected all the groceries they needed with a minimum of talking, loaded them into the truck, and headed back to the lodge.

The ride back to the lodge seemed longer than the ride into town had been. Whereas the previous day's trip had been filled with easy conversation and entertaining stories, the ride back was filled with awkward silences and stilted attempts at conversation.

When they finally made it back to the lodge, Jisoo helped Chaeyoung unload all the groceries and then started unpacking. Chaeyoung stopped her.

"I'd like to do all the unpacking myself this first time, to help me organize the pantry. Why don't you go get a shower, take a couple of hours off, and come back at 4 so we can start supper?"

Having been effectively dismissed from the kitchen, Jisoo decided a shower sounded like the best thing at the moment. As she headed upstairs from the kitchen, Jisoo ran into Jennie, who was headed down to the kitchen and stopped her for a few moments of small talk on her stairs. Jisoo considered talking to Jennie about Chaeyoung's sudden change of mood, but quickly decided against it - she know Jennie and Chaeyoung were friends, so Jennie would be on Chaeyoung's side if this developed any sort of conflict, and it would only make the rest of the season more uncomfortable if she went over her boss's head to the main boss before the first week was over.

Once Jennie let her go, Jisoo decided a shower sounded like a great idea - she'd been wearing the same clothes for two days straight, including sleeping in them, and she was starting to itch just thinking about it. Gathering up some clean clothes and a towel, she went to the bathroom. After adjusting the water, she stepped into the shower. As she started soaping herself up, she closed her eyes and imagined it was Chaeyoung's hands rubbing her all over.

"Oh no," she said to herself, "you stop that right now. You know that's not going to happen so stop torturing yourself. Chaeyoung can barely stand to talk to you today after whatever happened overnight, so you can just forget about anything happening there." She lowered the temperature of the water until it was just barely uncomfortable and then finished her shower.

After she dried off and got dressed, she went out and curled up on one of the chairs, looking out over the valley. She had to decide what to do about Chaeyoung, and she had to decide before prepping for dinner started at 4.

"Well, for starters," she thought, "you can stop fantasizing about your boss. Executive chef falls head over heels for sous chef is the stuff of schoolgirl romances, not real life. Hell, you don't even know if she likes girls."

Jisoo jumped when she heard someone approach - she didn't think she'd been talking to herself out loud, but she wasn't entirely sure. She looked to see who was coming. Whew - it was just Lisa. The Thai girl was practically swallowed by the denim jacket she was wearing and she was eating some kind of snack from a bag.

"Hey there you," she said, sitting down on the arm of Jisoo's chair. "Mind if I join you?"

******

Lisa saw Jisoo sitting by herself on the back deck and immediately recognized the appearance of someone who needed a friend. Sitting down on the arm of Jisoo's chair, she held out the bag of chips toward her. "Shrimp chip? My mom sent me a box of my favorite junk food from Thailand. Try one!"