The rest of the morning was filled with one interview after another for Elizabeth. It wasn't that she disliked conducting interviews… it was just four hours of asking the same ten questions, getting slight variations on the same answers, and giving a rundown tour of the building was enough to drive anyone insane. Hell, she was almost happy to be going over the costs of the new server with Collins, well almost. On her list of least favorite things to do, willingly talking to Wilbur Collins had to be one of the top. For the life of her she could not figure out how someone so technologically illiterate could have the final say so in the Technology department's purchasing requests. It also didn't help that every time she was forced to interact with the man he tended to give her sickening sweet compliments, which was enough to make her feel like she needed to take a scalding hot shower to remove the grime-like feeling covering her skin. Elisabeth had considered filling a grievance with HR nearly on a bi-weekly basis, but she knew it would cause her more grief on getting the equipment that she needed then what it was worth getting him to stop. Elisabeth took a moment to clear her head before dialing the fool's phone number.
"Ah Miss Bennett, I was afraid that I would not be able to hear your lovely voice until the morrow." The voice from the speaker phone oozed.
She winced, 'Who talks like this anymore?' "Good afternoon Mr. Collin's, I apologize for pushing our meeting back, I had to se…" the IT manager started.
"No excuses are needed my dear Miss Bennett, you simply must learn better time management. As my esteemed colleague Ms. De Bough has stated…"
'Not another one of his long winded speeches about the Wicked Bitch of Kent's views on how properly run a department efficiently.' Lizzy's mentally groaned as she absent mindly started a tally for the numbers of times Collins was going to call her 'My dear Miss Bennett' in this conversation. The current high score was twenty seven and Lizzy didn't really wish to relive that conversation any time soon.
"To arrive on time is to be late, to arrive ten minutes early is to be on time…." The voice coming from the phone droned on and on.
'How long is he going to go on this time? I've got more important things to do then listen to this snooty little windbag go on about how wonderful the illustrious Ms. Katherine De Bough is and how 'accomplished' we all would be by listening to her helpful suggestions.' She glanced at her nails 'Man this nail polish looks like utter crap, what the hell was I thinking letting Kitty and Lydia do my nails? I should have known they'd use a color that screams 'Hi, my name is Bambi and I'm a slut', on me. They know that I hate these Barbie bubblegum pink colors. Hell, I would have been better off having Mary do my nails… Sure it would probably be something that the lead singer of My Chemical Romance would be sporting, but at least it would have had some sort of persona…'
"Don't you agree Miss Bennett?" the voice over the phone asked only to be greeted by silence. "Miss Bennett?" he attempted again. "Miss Bennett can you hear me?"
"Say wha a huh?" she awoke from her inner musings "Can you repeat the question? Our call's connection seemed to have crapped out for a minute." She fibbed. 'Please let him be dumb enough not to question it. Please let him be dumb enough not to question it, please, please, please.'
"My dear Miss Bennett there is no need to use such vulgar language. A lady as beautiful as you should never say words as ugly as that. " Elizabeth could almost imagine the sickenly sweet smile on the caller's face and marked another tally on the paper. "But I digress, such an unreliable contraption the telephone. It's nothing like a Blackberry. Now that is truly a marvel of modern day brilliance."
'This man is an idiot. Just keep your remarks to yourself, remember you need approval for that new server set up.' Elizabeth took a deep breath and repeated the mantra in her head. 'He's still going on about how wonderful his blackberry is. Should I tell him that it's still a phone? No, can't make him feel stupid. He's the one to sign the approval forms.' She shook her head, 'Hell he's still going on about the wonders of his Blackberry; God, I swear Collins must have been dropped on his head as a baby.' She sighed. 'This is gonna be a long painful day, I can just feel it.'
Darcy's right eye twitched as his dear, dear friend (as he reminded himself) Mr. Bingley paced back and forth through the raven haired executive's temporary office; mumbling on how his precious Jane is going to be so upset when he breaks the news that she wasn't going to be able to have the company of her sister at lunch. "I don't see what the big deal is, it's only lunch." Will shot an annoyed glance to his red headed colleague. "It is not like you can not simply reschedule the bloody thing."
Charles Bingley's pacing came to an unexpected halt at his friend's words. "Just a lunch?" his bright hazel eyes starred at his temperamental friend like said friend had grown a second head. "Just a lunch…" he repeated again, completely dumbfounded.
Darcy's already non existent patience was becoming thinner. "What are you going on about now Charles?" he exhaled in an annoyed manor "Yes Charles, it's just a lunch and not the end of the world." He snapped.
"Jesus Christ all mighty Will, didn't you hear a word I said this morning?" Bingley stared at his counterpart in utter shock "What bug decided to craw up your ass lately?!" Bingley exclaimed "Ever since you came back from that trip to Ramsgate, you've been like… like" Charles struggled to find the right words to finish his sentence but sighed in defeat before starting again. "Will you've been so closed off, much more so then what you are normally. What's wrong? I've never seen you degrade anyone like you just did to Lizzy, and you hadn't even met her, yet." He sighed again "You can tell me Will, you know whatever it is will stay just between you and me."
"I don't want to talk about it right now, Charles. But thank you."
Charles Bingley sighed for what seemed like the five thousandth time today (not that he was counting) as he dialed his beloved girlfriend's cell. "Hello Jane?" he paused to gain the courage to spill the news. "Lizzy asked me to tell you that she won't be able to make it for lunch…" Charlie winced when he heard his beloved girlfriend's disappointment.
Charles was silent as listen to his lady love trying to reassure him that she understood if her sister said that she would not be able to take time out to go out for lunch that she must have been in the middle of something important. After all Lizzy always did have a habit of putting the needs of others above her own. "Janie?" Bingley suddenly had a stroke of inspiration. "I got an idea; how about before the party tonight we take Lizzy out for dinner. Surely your family won't mind too much, would they?" he smiled at his angel's response. "Excellent, would it be ok if I drag Darcy with us? He arrived early and call me a softy but I couldn't just leave him to mope around in a hotel room all night." An impish grin spread across Charles's lips shortly after he heard his beloved angel's answer.
By the time they got to the reason of her conference call, one Elizabeth Bennett was wishing that she didn't cancel lunch with her sister. Hell, she admitted to herself after the second 'My dear Miss Bennett' she was wishing that she was anywhere but stuck on the phone with Wilbur Collins even willingly listening to one of her mother's many rants about how she should have chosen a more feminine profession… 'Well maybe not that.' She mused as she remembered her mother's last attempt of persuading her to take up an oh so promising carrier as a bikini waxer.
"Eliza?" Thomas poked his head into his supervisor's office.
"Mr. Collins, can you hold for a moment? Thank you." she placed the phone on hold before the other side of the phone had a chance to protest. She took a moment to stretch, before turning her attention to the person leaning on the door frame. "What's up Tom?" she eagerly smiled.
"That bad?" the tech half heartedly smothered a rather undignified snort at his boss's all too well known 'are you kidding me' look. "Anyways, Bond girl is on line two and you wanted me to let you know when the install was done." He paused for dramatic effect. "Well, it's done."
Elizabeth took a moment to shake her head in disbelief at her head at her 'quirky little henchman' (as she dubbed him). "Thank you Tom, tell Janie that I'll be with her in a minute." As she took the phone off of hold. "Mr. Collins, I'm afraid I must cut our meeting short. There's something that needs my immediate attention. I hope you understand." She fibbed again.
"Not at all, Miss Bennett. I shall count days until our next rendezvous." Lizzy shuttered at the speaker phone's response. "Farewell my dear Miss Bennett."
"Goodbye Mr. Collins." She immediately clicked to line two. "Janie! Have I mentioned how much I love you today?" Elizabeth beamed.
"Mr. Collins again, eh?" the speaker giggled.
"Am I that obvious?" Elizabeth replied in mock horror.
"No not at all 'my dear Miss Bennett." The phone receiver jokingly replied.
The younger of the two sisters glared at the phone, hopping that the person on the other end would feel her annoyance through the phone line. "I should have never told you about that." She grumbled, causing the older of the two to laugh harder.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Jane attempted to calm her giggles. "I called to invite you to dinner and drinks before the family party tonight. Are you up to it?"
"After the day I've been having, YUS!" the younger sister exclaimed.
"That bad?" Jane asked letting concern for her younger sister come through her voice.
"That bad… I'll tell you all about it tonight." Lizzy massaged her temple. "Jane my love, I hate to do this but I got to go… You know the drill things to do, worlds to take over and remake in my image."
"Heh, I'll see you later then. Don't forget dinner I'll meet you at the Magic Time Machine at six, and you better be there all miss high and mighty birthday girl." The phone teased.
"Yah yah yah, I heard you. Six o'clock, Time Machine… I got it." Lizzy repeated mumbling something about bossy older sisters under her breath before hanging up the phone and calling up to Charlotte to make sure that the 'prick' knows that she was on her way to set up his computer. To her relief the 'prick' was in meeting. 'Thank heaven for small favors.'
The first thing one Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy saw when he opened the door to his office was the rather attractive backside of the buildings IT Manager under his desk, humming to herself. Now Mr. Darcy wasn't one to normally gape at a physical attributes of the opposite sex, far from it actually. But for reasons beyond him he could not turn away. Was it the fact that she was on her hands and knees under his desk, or the fact that her grey skirt had ridden up a good four inches then what it was supposed to be, or the fact that he was slightly attracted to her, or a combination of the above? Whatever the reasoning was, he was having a bit of a problem of pulling his eyes away from the attributes of the lady before him. It took a few moments for him to pull what little self control he had over himself at the moment together "Um, excuse me?" he winced as the woman on all uttered a rather impressive string of curse words under her breath as she rubbed her head where she hit it on his desk. 'Rather colorful vocabulary she has there.' Somewhere in the back of his mind mused.
"Mr. Darcy?!" she scrambled out from under the desk hoping he did not notice the embracement coloring her cheeks as she struggled to come up with a coherent sentence with no help from her aching head. "I was just finishing up. Your system is ready to go." She rushed the last sentence out. "I'll be leaving now." Elizabeth all but ran out of the door so she could keep what little dignity she had at the moment. 'Nothing like hitting your head and cursing like a sailor in front of the big boss especially after all but putting them in their place this morning. Just shoot me now.'
Mr. Darcy was still rooted in the same place with the look of complete puzzlement smeared across his features when Charles came bounding into his office to declare that he was going out to eat dinner with him and Jane with no ands ifs or buts about it. 'What the bloody hell just happened?' he asked himself.
The saying of 'A fish out of water' was at this moment not lost on one Mr. Darcy as his eyes wondered from the mismatched furniture, the wait staff in various costumes, to the menu that listed things from 'The Roman Orgy' to 'Mad Hatter's Tea'. Of all the places that Charles has dragged him to, this with out a doubt had to be one of the oddest places that he had ever seen. His inner musings about his friend's taste in dinning was cut short when the same friend started to wave his hands up in the air like a madman to get the blonde in the green turtleneck's attention. "Jane, Janie dear over here!" Bingley beamed.
'It's official, poor Bingley's lost his mind.' Darcy rolled his eyes at his friend's embarrassing display. To his relief or horror it appeared that he was not the only one embarrassed by his friend's actions judging by the soft blush covering the cheeks of whom Darcy can figure out must be Bingley's Jane. He took a moment to study the fair haired lady and he could now honestly understand why people had the habit of calling her an angel with her soft golden hair pulled into a simple bun to her kind blue eyes. Bingley's Jane did appear to be a Roman Goddess statue that had come to life. He stood as she was introduced and returned her pleasant greetings before returning to his chair. Darcy had to admit to himself she seemed nice enough but for the life of him he could not understand why his red headed pal was acting like a love stuck fool… strike that he remembered who he was pondering and if there was one thing that Will Darcy knew about his friend was that Charles had a habit of falling head over heels in love with a pretty face. 'Typical Charles.' He sighed deeply.
Everyone was well into their second drink by the time the missing member of the party finally made it to the restaurant and the happy couple was trying to figure out who's expression was more shocked the raven haired C.E.O. or the brunette little sister. To the relief of one Charley Bingley neither one of the shocked duo seemed to show any indication of the earlier introduction that they had some ten hours before. Lizzy joked as normal and Will well Will was his normal shy quiet self.
Dinner passed with a few rather awkward incidents for Darcy. His first mistake was asking the waiter where the restroom was and then had the 'fun' of a rather obnoxious waiter dressed as Harry Potter announce that he needed to use the loo while leaded him to it. The second mistake of the evening was allowing Bingley order the same drink as the younger Bennett sister, but how would he know that an Ugly Magic Potion would have enough alcohol in it to make a horse keel over and Bingley, poor Bingley who was attracted to the glowing dry ice mist of the beverage and had little to no tolerance for hard liquor started to giggle like a school girl at the littlest things. After hearing the impressive list of hard alcohol he assumed that Elizabeth Bennett had the liquor tolerance of a pirate. At this point one Fitzwilliam Darcy was wondering how else this night could turn out to be any more awkward well, that is, until Harry Potter and the rest of the costume waiters gathered around the younger of the two Bennett sisters and then started to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Needless to say that at that precise moment of time one Will Darcy was hoping the floor would open him up and swallow him whole.
Author's Notes:
First and foremost, I want to thank you guys for the kind reviews. I am glad you guys enjoy this story.
As for the not so kind reviews that I received. Thank you for giving your time to read the chapter and commenting. I am however, well aware that my writing skills are not the best. As I have stated before I am an artist and not a writer. The written word and me do not have the best relationship, but I write for me and no one else. If you do not like my writing do not read it. I will take your critique and attempt to better my skills but other then that, it's no skin off of my nose if you do not continue reading my stories.
This chapter went through a few (six or seven) rewrites until I got it to a point that I wanted it. I debated on having Bingley spilling the beans about Lizzy birthday to Darcy sooner but resisted along with a few more twist and turns. The fun of the Bennett family will be soon I promise. I can not say when, but as soon as I am pleased with how the chapter written it will be posted.
Also, for the people who are wondering how in the world I came up with The Magic Time Machine restaurant it's a real place in the Dallas area. The waiters dress up as various Movie characters, the menu is filled with oddly named (and delicious foods), no two rooms are designed the same, and the waiters will yell at the top of their lungs to let everyone know that you have to go to the restroom if you ask them where it is.