The following Wednesday Elizabeth was happily tossing tennis balls to her girls at Netherfield, their usual dog park when suddenly Jane stopped in her tracks and stood alert with her eyes focused on the parking lot, her tail gently wagging. Elizabeth turned to see Darcy opening the gate and an excited Bingley darted off to join Jane. Darcy slowly made his way to Elizabeth's side.
"I've never seen you here before, Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth said tersely.
"No, it's my first time. I heard you speaking of the importance of routines and regular exercise for energetic dogs and I thought I'd give it a try. Bingley is rather ... exuberant."
"Oh," replied Elizabeth, flustered. "I had said something of the sort to Mr. Forster, but I was unaware you were part of the conversation." Had he been eavesdropping on her? If he'd heard that much, he'd also heard her say that she made a point of regular trips to the dog park on Wednesday afternoons. Rather than answering her challenge Darcy fell into silence.
After several minutes Elizabeth couldn't bear it any longer and asked, "Bingley is an odd name for a dog, where did you come up with it?"
"He was a gift from a friend, Charles Bingley. He was obliged to leave town for several months on business and didn't want me to get lonely so he got me a dog to keep me company and named it after himself."
Well, Elizabeth mused to herself, Charlotte will be disappointed to learn he has a boyfriend, what other degree of intimacy would require a substitute to keep him company? "You must be rather close."
"Yes, he is a good friend and the dog bears a remarkable resemblance to Charles, happy, friendly, persistent to a fault, and always smitten by the prettiest girl in the room." After another awkward silence, he added with a smirk, "I must say, yelling at Bingley to stop peeing on the floor rather brings me back to our college days ..." at Elizabeth's raised eyebrow he elaborated, "he was my roommate and he didn't have the best aim when drunk."
"How unfortunate," Elizabeth giggled as she pictured Darcy as an uptight college kid following his roommate around with a bottle of spray cleaner and rubber gloves. While the ensuing conversation about roommates past was largely carried by Elizabeth, Darcy remained engaged and Elizabeth decided there were worse ways to fill the gaps between throwing tennis balls.