18.
Second Winter at Fire Lodge
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It was Monday morning and the guests were checking out. Mina, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung had taken care of their checkout paperwork before breakfast. Jihyo had waited until right after breakfast. But Tzuyu waited until the very last minute, while the others were putting their bags in the van, to approach Jennie at the front desk. Jennie noticed that Tzuyu seemed to be nervous about something, but chalked it up to the fact that she was about to have to spend several hours in a car with her ex-girlfriend. Then, while Jennie was running her credit card, Tzuyu slid a paper across the desk. Jennie picked it up, unfolded it, and saw that a number was written inside.
"What's this?" she asked, perplexed.
"That's how much I'd be willing to pay - per week - to rent one of your unused staff bedrooms, including meals and laundry privileges." Tzuyu looked around, hoping none of the other members of Twice had heard this conversation - if Jennie said yes, they'd find out about it soon enough, and if Jennie said no, they never needed to know.
Jennie mentally ran the numbers in her head. The amount Tzuyu was suggesting was a little bit less than what she could get if she put the room out of rent on the open market. But the fact was she wasn't willing to put the room out on the open market - not yet, at any rate - and the extra money would definitely help keep the Lodge afloat.
"That sounds fair. Did you want to move in right now or..."
"I've got to go back to Seoul to wrap up my affairs there, so . . . about a week?" As she was talking, Tzuyu pulled her checkbook out of her purse, wrote out a check, and handed it to Jennie. "There's one week's rent as a deposit."
Jennie slipped the check into her pocket and smiled at Tzuyu. "It's going to be nice having you around for more than one weekend a year. I mean, I'm sorry about you and Jihyo, but. . . oh, you know." Jennie knew what she wanted to say, but she wasn't sure exactly how to say it.
Tzuyu laughed lightly at Jennie's discomfiture. "I do know. It took losing Jihyo to see what I'd been missing. So while it's not something I would have chosen before, I think it's working out for the best."
Jennie smiled knowingly. "And I'm sure meeting A-Yeon right after didn't hurt, either."
"Wait - how did you?" A look of comprehension suddenly dawned on Tzuyu's face. "Small town, everyone knows everything."
Jennie nodded. "Pretty much."
Tzuyu laughed. "That's going to take some getting used to."
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Chaeyoung and Jisoo were walking back from Pentagon, the hot new restaurant in the valley. Well, people said was new - it had actually been around a couple of years but had only just recently started getting the recognition it deserved. They had had the tasting menu, then afterward Chef E'Dawn
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