UNTIL LOVE SETS US APART ( JENLISA)

Chapter 11

Lisa POV

"How long are they going to make us wait for a table?" Irene demanded, tapping her foot against the floor and rolling her carefully made-up eyes at me. I managed to smile back at her, even though I wanted to roll my eyes right back.

"Well, if you'd booked a table for----

"We shouldn't have to book!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air and attracting the attention of a couple of people waiting next to the host stand as well. "This is the kind of place that would be glad to have our patron age."

"Clearly not that glad," I muttered back without thinking, forgetting that Irene didn't exactly take well to being undermined.

"What did you say?" She planted her heel in the ground and swivelled around on it, as though she was wishing she could grind it into me instead.

"Nothing," I held my hands up. "Just hope they won't be much longer, that's all."

"We'll expire from hunger before we get a table," she sighed heavily, as though she really believed the words coming out of her mouth. "I can't believe this..."

I didn't bother to comment again, knowing it wasn't worth my while to delve into exactly why it was about the most entitled thing in the world for her to rock up at a restaurant that was practically the most in-demand in Delhi and expect them to cow to the two of us. I glanced around, and noticed a few people looking in our direction, probably wondering why she was making such a fuss. I was starting to wonder why I had even come on this date in the first place.

Well, no, I knew what I was doing here - I knew I was here because I wanted to do every thing I could to get Jennie out of my head and, so far, sitting around getting mildly irritated by Irene was a far better option than sitting at home getting deeply annoyed by my inability to let go of the woman I wanted back. I I still had no idea where she had gone to, but when I had told Rosé about the situation, she had told me to let things go.

"She's got family in the city," Rosé pointed out. "She probably went back there. This has all been a lot for her, Lis; you've got to understand that. The way she reacts to things might not seem logical to you or me, but it does to her, and that's the most important thing."

"Right," I nodded, and I tried to ignore the twist in my stomach at the thought of her getting up and leaving in the night. Without even saying goodbye? It didn't feel right. But Rosé was the one who understood this far better than I ever could, and I wasn't going to push her to give me permission to put my life on hold and chase a woman who had left me.

"The two of you... you grew a little too attached to her," Rosé hesitated for a moment, trying to find the best way to phrase it - even for her bluntness, she could tell that this had been hard on me. I knew what she was asking, but the thought of trying to quantify what Jennie and I had shared was painful, impossible, like trying to trap the galaxy in a glass jar.

"The two of us," I sighed and repeated after her. She nodded, her mouth tight. She reached over and patted my arm.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, and I didn't dare to look in her eyes for fear of spilling every thing that I had been keeping so carefully to myself all this time.

When I had told her that Irene was back in my life, her eyes had rolled so hard to the back of her head that I had been sure they would end up stuck there. She had never been the biggest fan of my ex, but given how Irene was, I couldn't blame her.

This was the fifth time the two of us had gone out together in the last ten days. She was constantly pressing me to spend time together, even though she never actually seemed to have a good time when we were out. But I kept agreeing, certain that things would have changed enough that I would eventu ally break through her shell and find the real Irene inside.