It had been a bad idea. Asking Lisa to come.

Lisa in pencil skirts and blouses was hard to deal with. Lisa in formal wear was near impossible.

Lisa in jeans and flowy, beaded, colourful tops?

She had her hair in ponytail.

She was leaning against the car, casually fiddling with the end of one strand, tickling her palm while staring off into space.

How does someone look more attractive in casual clothes? How? Jennie's pulse, which hadn't been going very slowly before she spotted Lisa, picked up its pace.

She'd just barely started to be able to deal with Lisa being around her, and now it was dawning on Jennie that she'd be spending a whole week with Lisa in unknown territory. Lisa would want to do things. She'd want to go sightseeing and do touristy things. And she'd want to do them with Jennie. That should have been a good thing.

Except that it wasn't. Because the more time Jennie spent with Lisa, the more her brain provided her with inappropriate thoughts about her PA.

For instance, if they took advantage of the heated outdoor pools, what kind of bathing suit would Lisa wear?

"Ms. Kim!"

Jennie jumped. She'd been standing in the door of the hotel, completely lost in her own thoughts.

"Jennie," Lisa said, coming out of her thoughts and smiling widely. "Took you long enough."

"I'll grab your bag," said Lisa's companion.

That was another thing. Hanbin was driving them to the airport.

Despite Jennie's insistence that she was perfectly happy driving them both and that she could leave her car in the airport garage for a week, Lisa had asked Mr. Hanbin to give them a lift. He was such a nice person, of course he would agree. Especially for Lisa.

Jennie was not ready to admit why this bothered her so much, but it did.

"I can put it in myself," she said, her voice coming out cold as she picked up the suitcase and dragged it to the trunk. She noticed that Lisa had packed in a pink duffel bag with tourist key chains hanging off the strap. It made her smile.

"All loaded up ladies?" Hanbin said. He pulled out a pair of sunglasses and, placing them on his nose, said, "Let's blow this joint."

Lisa giggled. Hanbin, suave as ever, opened the door to the passenger side for her. Jennie fought the urge to hit him with the car door as she slipped into the back seat.

Just act normal. There's no reason for you to feel this way so just act like a decent human being for half an hour.

Somehow she managed it, even when Hanbin insisted on coming in with them into the airport, carrying Lisa's pink duffel bag over one shoulder and holding her hand. Checking the bags went smoothly and finally it was time to go through the security check, where Hanbin would have to be left behind.

"Don't forget me, Lisa," Hanbin said.

"It's just a week," Lisa said with a laugh, but she was blushing and looking pleased.

And then he was kissing her, right there in front of Jennie. A great big soppy thing with their arms wrapped around each other that seemed to just keep going.

"Make sure to take care of my girl," Hanbin said, releasing Lisa. Lisa tottered a bit, like she was out of breath. Jennie's hands curled into fists inside her coat pockets. She glared at the intersecting lines of the tiles on the floor rather than look either of them in the face. She was nauseous and lightheaded for some reason.

"That's not really appropriate behaviour for a work situation, Mr. Hanbin." It came out as a snarl.

"Awww, Jennie, he's not gonna see me for a week. I think-" She felt Lisa touch her shoulder and she jerked away, reflexively.

"I think that you're both adults and can contain your personal affairs to private." She grabbed the handle of her rolling carry-on luggage and stalked off to the security line.

The moment she was standing still, away from the both of them she wondered what had just happened. That wasn't any way to act. She didn't care if people (in general) went around kissing each other in public. She didn't even really think it inappropriate at work, as long as it didn't interfere with said work. But it was really, really bothering her with Lisa and Hanbin. With Hanbin's stupid hands on Lisa's curvy hips. And Hanbin' stupid mouth on Lisa's cute little cupid's plump lips.

She heard Lisa come up behind her in line, but didn't look around. They went through the line, checked their bags and made their way through the airport in silence.

"Hold up for a sec," was the first thing Lisa said, as they passed through the duty-free mall.

Jennie stopped and waited, feeling worse and worse about herself as the moments passed. She couldn't have just ignored it, could she? She let her temper get away from her, again, and now Lisa was going to be mad. Why did Lisa even spend time with her? She was the ice queen, fit to hang out with no one but oblivious IT guys who she couldn't actually hurt with her acid tongue.

"Here you go." Lisa had returned. It took Jennie a moment to realize she was holding out a Timmy's cup and doughnut bag.

"Huh?"

"They were out of chocolate sprinkles so we're back to Boston cream." She held them out an inch closer.

"I just snapped at you for no reason and you're buying me a doughnut," Jennie said. She really didn't know why she was protesting. Lisa wasn't mad and there was chocolate.

"I know you didn't really mean it."

"I'm a ." There, she said it. "You shouldn't be putting up with me."

Lisa was shaking her head, a smile on her face. "You're nicer after you've eaten."

She pressed the cup into Jennie's hand, "Drink your crack. I don't think they'll let you bring it on the plane."

Lisa had her nose pressed to the window of the rental car as Jennie drove them north of Quebec City. Evergreen trees blurred past the window. She waited for glimpses of the Saint Lawrence through the window, hoping to see a whale despite Jennie's insistence that they wouldn't see one this far inland.

Eventually they turned away from the river along a narrow road that led exclusively to the resort. It was on its own small lake, surrounded by Quebec's special brand of half-sized mountains.

When they finally rounded a bend and caught sight of the resort Lisa gasped. Next to her, Jennie gave a satisfied smirk.

The place was huge. A large old-stone building loomed almost like a castle. This far North, snow still covered everything in a white, sparkling blanket. Smoke curled out of old chimneys.

Bits of the roof peeked out from the snow, copper aged to a minty green.

Smaller buildings surrounded the main building. They were newer, but were a lovely log cabin style that made the whole place feel old fashioned.

And Jennie technically owned this whole place. And others like it.

This gave a new meaning to Lisa's definition of 'rich.'

Jennie pulled up to the main building. A valet and two bellhops, dressed in a navy-blue uniforms, jogged to open the doors of the car almost as soon as she turned off the engine.

"Ah, merci beaucoup," Jennie said, handing him the keys. She said something else in rapid French, quickly leaving Lisa's limited knowledge of the language in the dust. The man gave a little bow – which was super fancy – and climbed into the driver's seat.

"You speak French?" Lisa was suitably impressed and more than a little by this development. It was a proven fact that people who spoke french were 80% hotter. Considering that Jennie was already at 100% in that department this was pushing her into possible lethal levels of attractiveness.

"Yes. You don't?" Jennie looked like this idea was completely foreign to her. She began to follow the bellhops up toward the double doors. "Didn't you have french in school?"

"Of course. But I quit after grade nine. If I had to learn to conjugate verbs for one more year, I may have drowned myself in Bouillabaisse. How did you stand it?"

Jennie shrugged. "I had a really good tutor for French. I also learned Mandarin, for business."

"Wow, your dad really cared about your education."

For some reason, Jennie's face clouded over. "Yeah," she said, and started walking faster. Lisa jumped a couple steps to catch up.

"Yoo hoo!"

Lisa's first impression was of a wall of fuzzy, brightly coloured stripes.

The wall, it turned out when she took a step back, was the chest of the largest man she had ever seen. He was wearing a knitted sweater that looked like it belonged on another planet.

"I am Mr. Olsen. Welcome to La Fontaine de Tranquillité. It is an honour to have you here,

Ms. Kim. And you are Ms. Manoban, ya?"

She shook the