H E R +18[Chaennie/Chaelisa]

9

The next couple of days felt like torture. Lisa would wake up and check her phone for any messages from Roseanne and find none. And every time her phone buzzed, a flicker of hope would rise within her, wanting it to be Roseanne, and more so, wanting it to be a hopeful Roseanne. And not a Roseanne who had given up on them completely.

She tried to keep herself distracted. When she wasn't house hunting, she was catching up with her friends. She spent a day at Grace's too, it felt good to be back home and in the company of everyone she loved. But there was a hollowness in her heart, and she knew why. That hollowness would only be filled when she was sure Roseanne wasn't mad at her anymore or would give her a chance for them to try being friends in the least.

It was Thursday. 4 days had passed since she last saw Roseanne, heard her voice, and reveled in her presence again. And the more time passed, the more she feared Roseanne was coming up with reasons for them to lose any semblance of a relationship.

Lisa met up with her agent. She'd been house-hunting since Monday, she was desperate to find a place again, she couldn't be living out of a hotel room any longer. Haein had given her this agent's name and contact, and the woman was quite friendly and seemed to understand Lisa's requirements.

Just as they were walking out of one of the apartments she'd just seen, her phone began to ring. ROSEANNE. She quickly picked up.

"Roseanne? Hey!" Lisa answered quickly "Lisa, Hi..." Roseanne said, calmly.
"Maybe we should stop somewhere for lunch before going to a new place?" The agent spoke to Lisa, not realizing she was on a phone call.

"Sorry, uh, you have company, I can call later..." Roseanne said, sounding a little nervous suddenly.

"Uh no, ummm, I'm just house-hunting. That was my agent, Laura." Lisa rushed to explain, hoping Roseanne wasn't jumping to any kind of conclusions.
"Oh, okay." Roseanne said.

"How are you?" Lisa asked, she wanted to keep the conversation going, and that was the first thing she thought to ask, even though she knew she'd seen Roseanne's just a couple of days ago, and with the way they left things, Roseanne was probably not in the best of moods. It was a ridiculous question to ask.

"I'm fine... uh... listen I was thinking, we should catch up. To talk." "Yes! Umm... are you free today?" Lisa asked.

"I'm at work right now, but I should get done by 6 pm." Roseanne said.
"Alright, do you want to get something to eat or something?" Lisa asked carefully.
"Let's just go for a walk?" Roseanne replied.

"Yes, sure. That works." Lisa said with a smile. Roseanne was letting her in. This was Roseanne letting her in right?

"If we get hungry, we can always stop for a bite somewhere," Roseanne said. "Yeah, that sounds good to me."

"Yeah" Roseanne replied and then there was an awkward silence. "I'll come pick you up at 6?" Roseanne asked.

"Oh no, there's no need. I'm going to be out all day looking at places, so I'll be below your office building by 6."

"Alright, I'll see you then." Roseanne said

"Yes, bye Rosie" Lisa said and they hung up.

Roseanne stared at her phone and exhaled heavily. She'd been so nervous to make that call.
But if she and Lisa were going to mend whatever this was between them, they needed to start somewhere. And maybe they could start with filling up the blanks from the last 3 years. Maybe in trying to fill those in, Roseanne could shush that voice inside of her that constantly reminded her how she was still so in love with Lisa In trying to mend this friendship, she could maybe tame those feelings inside her, learn to be what Lisa wants them to be. Friends.