Author's Note: I re-uploaded it because it was deleted from the website. Anyways, enjoy.
Darcy walked into the Barnes and Noble, desperately looking for anything resembling culture in this small, or as Caroline so eloquently put it, "uncivilized" town. He had just arrived at Netherfield the previous day and suddenly felt the need to avoid Caroline's fawning. Darcy frowned, realizing that this was going to be one of the few times he was going to be able to escape from her. He quickly made his way towards the fiction section and was looking at The Sound and the Fury when he heard two women talking on the other side of the partition.
"Lizzie, what book are you looking for again?"
"Anna Karenina. It's by Tolstoy."
"And this is for what class?"
"Class? Why can't I be reading it for pure enjoyment? "
"Seriously, Lizzie. What class?"
"There's no class Char. It just looked interesting. Hurry up. After this we can get some Starbucks."
Darcy wanted to move away and stop eavesdropping, but for some reason felt compelled to listen to these women argue. After all, after he was done here he was just going to back to Netherfield…. where Caroline was. Joy.
"Oooh, Charlotte. Guess who found your favorite book?"
"I never said 50 Shades of Grey was my favorite book! Just that I thought it was good."
"Yeah, because reading crappy dialogue and plots about S&M is sooo interesting. Seriously Char, listen to this. 'I thought you didn't make love. I thought you fucked… hard.' 'Feel it baby…' This is porn, Charlotte!"
Darcy chuckled to himself as he remembered Caroline going on and on about how good that book was. He almost missed "Lizzie" continuing her rant.
"Oh my God, Charlotte. Can you imagine if my mother had Anastasia as a daughter?" Adopting a southern belle accent out of nowhere, Lizzie said, "Are you telling me that you left a rich, handsome young man just because he's a little odd in bed? What about the 2.5 WPF club? Where did I go wrong?! Why do my daughters continue to defy all good and practical sense?" and pretended to cry.
"Lizzie you've gotten way too good at imitating your mother."
"Not the point Charlotte. The point is, why is it so hard to find a nice guy that isn't freaky in bed? I think that's what E.L. James was trying to comment on. You just have to pick one or the other. Good in bed, handsome, or rich. Those are your only options."
"That's surprising coming from you Lizzie. You're always so… idealistic."
"Yeah… when you can find a cute, rich guy who doesn't want to beat me, just give me a call."
"Speaking of the rich, has your mom stopped talking about Bing Lee yet?"
Darcy stilled as he heard his friend mentioned. How the hell did these people know him already? They've only been in town for a couple of days!
"Ugggh no she has not. She's still trying to convince Jane to 'snatch him up' because he's going to be a doctor. It's amazing how often she can ignore our protests that we refuse to marry just for money."
"Well, if some rich guy offered to marry me I definitely wouldn't say no."
"And therein lies the difference between you and my sister and I. Money is nice and everything, but it wouldn't persuade us into matrimony."
"Prude."
"Gold-digger."
Both girls laughed and moved towards the Starbucks with books in their hands. Darcy tried to move towards them to continue listening to the conversation without drawing attention to himself, listening for any more mention of Bing.
"Do you think your mother is going to try to throw you at Darcy?"
"Oh God let's hope not. I'm still not convinced he and Bing aren't a couple."
"Lizzie! You can't just assume people are gay."
"I am not assuming! Merely a guess. But if they were at least they would be safe from my mother."
"Let's hope they're not. I heard they were hot."
"Good looks doesn't necessary indicate a good personality. Let's just judge them at the Gibson wedding. Then we can figure out the whole gay thing." Darcy, who had no problem with gay people, still felt a little offended that some random women was questioning his sexuality before they even met. Note to self, don't wear bow tie to wedding.
Darcy then heard Charlotte and Lizzie talking about some vlog. While they were discussing analytics and the best way to edit some video Darcy almost stepped out from behind the shelf to argue with some of their perspectives but thought that was a good way to freak them out. He signed with content. Intelligent conversation. He assumed that would be scarce in a town this small, but he was happily wrong. A couple moved around the corner and Darcy was forced to move before he started looking suspicious. He passed by the women he had been listening to for the past fifteen minutes and quickly glanced to see what they looked like. Even though they weren't particularly attractive, Darcy wouldn't mind conversing with them. He dully noted what they looked like and walked towards the check out line. It did not even register with him that he had picked up a copy of Anna Karenina until he had paid and was exiting the store.
