Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill
JENNIE
There are a lot of cars in Lalisa's garage. I can't imagine they're all her, especially since some of them are carbon copies of one another. Lalisa leads me past the line of cars and into an elevator that's located in her private garage. It takes us straight to the penthouse.
I'm impressed to find that, instead of elevator music, the news is playing in the background. It's a rerun of a Mad Money episode from yesterday, in which the host discusses Black Enterprise's rumored acquisition of IlluminaGen, a pharmaceutical company whose work I am actually intimately familiar with through my coursework at Wilton.
I turn to Lalisa and lift a questioning eyebrow.
She smirks. "I can't say anything about that."
A grin graces my lips as I tease, "Not even to your fiancée?"
The grin slips from my lips.
What the Hell was that?
Her face turns serious. "Hey. No second thoughts, okay?"
I nod, but I'm still frowning by the time the elevator doors open. The elevator leads to a hallway with a single door in it, the entrance to her apartment. After we enter, I am in awe as Lalisa gives me a tour of the main area.
The kitchen is large, with clean and shiny state of the art equipment. The penthouse has an open floor plan, so I can see the kitchen, the living room and dining area at once. It makes the already oversized space even larger. This amount of room is almost unheard of in New York City.
"The whole place is bullet and soundproof. There's a panic button in each room." She points to the one in the kitchen, which is hidden in one of the cabinets. "If you press it, my guards will come in." At my widened eyes, she adds, "Don't worry. It's just a precaution. No one involved with any of the families would dare come after me. It's really just protection against corporate espionage now."
I nod dumbly, even though I'm not even processing half of what she's saying. I'm too overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place and terrifying words like "espionage," "bullet" and "panic." Ignoring a wide hallway on the first floor, Lalisa leads me up a spiral stairwell and straight to a bedroom. It's large, spanning at least 800 square feet.
No way is this a guestroom, but I ask just in case. "Is this the guestroom for me?"
Lalisa shakes her head. "It's my bedroom. The master."
It's surreal standing in her bedroom. There's a sitting room that leads into another room for sleeping, separated only by an archway the width of a school bus. In the main area of the room, there's a bed in the center and a large flat screen television set. The bed is a giant Alaskan king, covered in silky black sheets, a black down comforter and a decorative red throw blanket.
The floor, like the rest of the penthouse, is all dark hardwood. There's an opened door that leads into a sleek walk in closet and another doorless archway that serves as the entrance to a giant master bathroom.
I am amazed by the sheer size and opulence of the place. I can't even imagine what my guestroom will look like. "Can you show me to my room?" I ask.
Lalisa spreads her arms out, as if to gesture that this is it.
I frown. "You're giving me the Master?"
"We're sharing the Master."
I shake my head vigorously. "No. No way."
Lalisa shrugs. "You could always take the couch."
"I'm the one doing you a favor. I'm not taking the couch. I'll take the bed."
She shrugs again. "Go for it."
I nod, satisfied. I leave her there, entering the closet instead to get ready for bed. It's double the size of my dorm room and can easily be mistaken for a high end clothing boutique. I shake my head in disbelief at the lavishness. After grabbing a soft cotton t-shirt, I take it with me to the bathroom, purposefully ignoring Lalisa, who brushes by me on her way to change out of her suit.
Like the rest of the place, the bathroom looks expensive with its white Carrera marble flooring and black modern cabinetry. There's a toilet in its own little room. The standing shower, encased in grey marble, is separated from the room by a glass door. Inside of it is a bench and multiple waterfall style showerheads. Beside the shower is a white, jetted bathtub fit for five.
I go to the toilet. Afterwards, I wash my hands and pull out a drawer under the sink, finding an unopened toothbrush in it. I brush my teeth with it, rinse my face of mascara and grime, and decide to take a quick shower. After tossing my beloved LBD in the hamper. I stop at my underwear, realizing that I have no clean panties to wear. Mine was soiled by the whole dance floor incident. I remember how drenched they were and make a face.
Gross.
I won't be able to sleep in those. I toss the underwear into the hamper, too. Then, I set my phone on the counter, after remembering to send a text to Doyeon, letting her know I'm safe.
Jennie: At Lalisa's place, safe and sound. Be safe tonight! See you soon.
And because I'm a coward, I turn off my phone before she can text me back. I know tomorrow I'll be waking up to a million questions that I don't know if I'm allowed to answer. I'll have to talk to Lalisa about the parameters of this arrangement later. I still haven't signed a nondisclosure agreement, too.
When I'm done with my shower, I have no other choice but to tug Lalisa's soft t-shirt on over my bare body. I feel incredibly naked underneath. Wearing another person's shirt is intimate enough, especially given the fact that I'm not wearing a bra nor panties. The knowledge that it's Lalisa's and she's nearby, somewhere in the same penthouse, makes my cheeks flush.
When I reenter the bedroom after blow drying my hair, I'm frightened to find Lalisa in bed, wearing only a pair of black Calvin Klein boxer briefs.
I avert my eyes. "I thought we agreed that I'd get the bed."
When I look back at her, she's shrugging, but her eyes are focused on her shirt on my body.
"No one is stopping you," she says.
"But…"
"Don't be ridiculous. Who knows how long you'll be here for? I'm not sleeping on a couch indefinitely in my own damn house."
"This place is huge! It has to be, like, 10,000 square feet!"
"Twenty."
My jaw drops. "Twenty thousand square feet and you can't even make up a guest room for me?"
"It's only a ten bedroom home," the rich prick says.
She ticks each finger in a visual count.
One finger. "Master."
Two. "Office."
Three. "Library."
Four. "Armory."
Five. "Shooting range."
Six. "Theater room."
Seven. "Security room."
She lifts all ten fingers now. "And the rest have been combined and renovated into a personal gym."
I can't believe this. The dude has a shooting range, armory, gym, theater, library, security room, and office in a New York City apartment? I know she has money, but this is just insane.
She continues, "You're welcome to sleep in any room you want to, but I can guarantee you that this bed and the couch are your best options."
I groan. I am not spending who knows how long sleeping on the couch. I might as well start getting used to sleeping on a bed with Lalisa. With a long, exaggerated sigh, I make my way to the empty side of the bed. When I pass her, I catch her eyes rolling. She seems to do that a lot around me.
Lalisa goes to brush her teeth and shower before she returns to the bed. By the time she settles in, I still haven't gotten used to the fact that we're going to be sleeping in the same bed for however long I'm here for.
"Lights," she commands into the empty air, and we're immediately flooded in darkness.
I scoot over until I am on the absolute edge of the bed. Since it's an Alaskan King, there's a generous amount of space between Lalisa and me, but it doesn't feel like enough. I can't sleep like this.
I am considering falling asleep on the couch when Lalisa sighs and scoots my way. I can picture her rolling her eyes as she wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me toward her. She nestles her body into mine, positioning us so she's Big Spoon and I'm Little Spoon.
Now, with her muscled front pressed against my back and the feel of her breath on my shoulder, I really can't sleep. I'm even more aware that I have nothing on underneath Lalisa's shirt. We stay like that for a moment before Lalisa squeezes my body and sits up.
In a surprisingly chivalrous move, she takes a pillow and the extra throw blanket and relocates onto the floor. She's out like a light within seconds, leaving me to wonder…
What the Hell was that?
When I wake up, it's still relatively dark. Though the blackout curtains are drawn, I see bright light peeking out underneath an uncovered edge of the wall to wall window. A glance at the clock on the bedside table tells me it's a little past one in the afternoon. After sleeping late last night, I'm still tired, though this is the best sleep I've gotten since the Hallway Incident.
I lift onto my elbows a little when Lalisa enters the room. She's in a suit and has a pretty black box in her hand. There's an intricately tied bow wrapped around it.
When she sets it on the nightstand and begins to leave, I ask, "Where are you going?"
She pauses for a moment, halfway to the door. "Work."
I nod and lay back down, not bothering to answer. Because, really? Who works on a Saturday? I'm so tired right now, I can't even fathom working at this moment. I let my slumber take over my body, lulling me into another deep, dreamless sleep.
When I wake up again, the place is empty. There's a note on the nightstand attached to the box Lalisa dropped off earlier.
At work. Dinner at 6. Wear this.
It's not signed, but the note is clearly from Lalisa. Inside the box is a silky, emerald green evening gown. It's safe to assume that wherever we're going is fancy. A glance at the clock tells me I have an hour to get ready. I'm not surprised I slept in until 5 P.M. I haven't been sleeping well lately, but now that I know Lalisa needs me too much to harm me, I'm looking forward to catching up on many missed hours.
Lalisa strolls in by the time I have the dress on and am ready to go. My face is bare of makeup, because I don't have my beauty products with me, but I was able to wrestle my hair into an elegant up do with some hair ties and bobby pins I found lying around in one of the bathroom drawers. I don't even stop to consider who they belong to.
Gross.
Lalisa hasn't looked up at me since she entered, but I know she's aware of my presence. I shift uncomfortably, unable to tear my eyes away from her chest as I watch her undress. When she tugs her pants down her legs, revealing taut, muscular thighs, I zero in on her package, encased in navy blue Calvin Klein boxer briefs.
I haven't stopped lusting after Lalisa. It's stupid, I know, and I'll do well to remember who she is. But when an attractive woman is standing in front of me in nothing but her underwear, I'm going to look. It's impossible not to. I'm not a nun. Hell, I doubt a nun would be able to look away from a shirtless Lalisa.
I clear my throat. "Where are we eating?"
When she looks up at me, her eyes burn a slow trail up my body, starting from my heeled toes, traveling up the exposed skin under the daring slit of my dress, and eventually leveling onto the abundant swells of my cleavage heaving out of the dress. Once her eyes lock on mine, there's no doubt in my mind that this lust is mutual. She's giving me the same look she gave me the first night I met her.
I take an instinctive step back, trying to distance myself from it.
"L'oscurità."
L'oscurità is a fancy Italian restaurant in TriBeCa with a waiting list over a year long. I know this because Krystal once stood in the hallway, going on and on about how exclusive it is after going there for a date with some old hedge fund guy. I'm not sure if I have the table manners for a dinner at such an ornamental place.
At my hesitant look, Lalisa says, "Don't worry about it. We're just eating dinner with my family. Think of it as a trial run to work out our kinks."
I nod, but now I'm even more horrified on the inside…
I'm going to meet her family?!
That's worse!
"Does your family know this is fake?" I gesture back and forth between us.
She nods. "They know everything."
Everything?!
Memories of Lalisa's fingers in me, her lips sucking on my clit, flood through me. I wince, hoping they don't know about what happened in the alley that night.