behind the stars // chaelisa + hints of jensoo

The Jeep groans and Lisa groans with it as she jolts from side to side in the old car when she doesn't steer clear of a pothole fast enough. She makes a mental note to get the road fixed, already going through her contacts in her head to find someone who's does a good job without charging her an arm.

Having nearly dug that path herself after so many comings and goings, Lisa barely pays any attention to the last rays of sun shining through the forest siding the main road before it set completely, the warm glow that comes with late fall making everything seem that much ethereal. She knows it's a breathtaking sight and she makes her living from people willing to spend a few hundred bucks for the chance of watching it all in person.

But she's nothing if not a practical person and she needs to be home before dark, enjoying the sunset like a lovesick teenager in a period drama will have to wait another day.

Lisa blames the heavy rain they had a couple of weeks ago for how decadent this damn road is each time she lurches forward, the flimsy seat belt of her decades-old Jeep doing nothing for safety. She still loves this car as much as she did when her father pressed the keys to her palm and wished her good luck, and it has endured through thick and thin with her but it wouldn't last much more if it collapsed in the middle of the road. Maybe she should give up an arm to pay the right guys to destroy the idea of a whimsical gravel road and actually get it properly paved.

Before she could start going over her budget and considering what a construction work of this level would do for business, Lisa sees the place she calls home coming into view. As the gravel road takes a sharp turn, Lisa slows down until the car starts complaining so she can take in how majestic her hotel looks in the orange glow that only a sunset in the country can give. Her hotel - she's been running it for the better part of four years, but those two little words still make her chest puff with pride.

She takes in the leaf covered walls that made her fall in love with this place, the dark wooden details popping out against the cool white of the walls that still remind her of Dutch buildings for some reason, the lush greenery that somehow never give up on flourishing, no matter the weather. She lets her mind wander to what lays beyond that, the second building and the garden in between the two, the patio with a view of the mountains and the fields where the horses must be coming back from at this time.

Lisa can't imagine anywhere else being home .

Parking near a path with bushes that match almost exactly the green of her Jeep, Lisa hops out, dragging a few packages out with her and shutting the door with the heel of her foot. She doesn't bother setting up the alarm or even closing the windows all the way up - there's nothing to worry about this far into the countryside, nothing will ever come bother her in her own little piece of heaven.

Lisa crosses the path to the entryway, squinting to make out the words on the board for tonight's specials before she even reached the front desk. It only takes her reading the words "porcini broth" next to "kale risotto" to realize she's starving. It's early enough that most of the handful of guests haven't made their way to the dining area yet but she's sure that it's late enough for her to find something delicious to steal from the kitchen.

Her mind is still on her dinner and what she could grab from the wine cellar to pair nicely with the risotto when she drops the packages on top of the front desk, causing a sleepy Jennie to jump on her chair, lifting her head from where it was resting on the lowered side of the desk, a post-it dangling from her cheek before gravity got it unstuck.

"Would you look alive, please?" Lisa smirks at Jennie's wide eyes, leaving the woman to stretch as she looks through what she had gotten in the mail. It feels old-timey, having to drive several miles once a week to find out what bill had arrived or order had been delivered. But it's one of the things Lisa likes the most about living this far into the country - she could order her entire life online, but she still had to live through an anticipation that never lacked in novelty.