The Girl Next Door - Jenlisa

Chapter 14

Do not romanticise: do not think those looks mean anything. Do not replay moments in your head. You're seeing them through rose-tinted glasses.

Rosé's voice broke against her reverie.

"I'm supposed to let you know that your mother is begging you to check her messages and stop ignoring her."

Lisa sighed. When she asked God for a best friend, she didn't mean someone who would also be best friends with her mother.

"I'm not," Lisa's fingers mindlessly ran across her laptop's trackpad. "I just got too preoccupied with the meeting today."

As if to add to Rosé's point, her phone vibrated again.

Another sigh left Lisa's lips. She grabbed her phone that was haphazardly thrown on her table this morning along with the useless printed presentation decks. She found the messages and missed calls she got from this morning—most of them indeed coming from her mother.

She threw her phone back carelessly on the papers strewn askew on the desk. Lisa's not yet ready to be faced with an avalanche of other people's emotions when she's still stewing on her own, as her headspace clearly still hasn't left that corner office on the 16th floor of KT Telecom.

Like seriously, what the fuck just happened back there? She was supposed to be professional but she let her stupid horny self take over that business development opportunity. It's a good thing she didn't sabotage it right then and there.

Lisa drew a deep sigh. It was the first time something like this had ever happened to her. It just discombobulated her how her neighbour could affect her so much like that.

Rosé crossed her arm as she leaned on Lisa's table. The Thai pretended to be preoccupied with the blank space in her email composer, but the pink-haired woman's stare was unnerving.

"I really wanted to tell her I'm not her daughter's keeper, but I don't want to be cut off from your Sunday lunches and miss out on her green curry." She eyed Lisa testily but refrained from raising her voice. "I also meant to ask about the meeting, but with the way you're scowling, I'm gonna assume it did not go well."

Lisa massaged her fingers onto her forehead. She contemplated how to deliver the news with the least amount of panic she could solicit from her project manager.

Let's assess the situation, shall we?

Lawful good: we're not yet screwed

True neutral: we just need to present the solutions again to convince the client we're the real deal

Chaotic evil: apparently, I've been screwing the client and to be honest, I can't stop. I don't want to stop.

Lisa winced at the realisation of how deep she had wadded in the pool of morally conflicting decisions.