Good conversation is surely the first step to finding love. If one is incapable of sustaining good conversation, then perhaps attempts to find love should be postponed, or forgo entertaining the venture altogether.


Charlie deftly hailed a cab, chatting on her cell phone all the while. "What? Great! Yeah, you should definitely visit. No, of course I have enough room in my apartment." She motioned for Willa to get in before her. "Come over; the city's great! Yep, talk to you soon!"

Willa practically dragged her into the cab when she hung up. She poked her friend. "Why the hell would you invite Carter to the city? He makes me look like a goddamn woman of the people, or something like that."

"The Roma, please." Charlie turned away from the driver and eyed Willa. "So? He's still my brother, and I'm of the firm opinion that someday he'll learn to deal with people better. I mean, he can't always act that way for the rest of his life. So preferably before somebody plants a hand into his face."

"That someone being me. And how does his visiting fit into your glorious picture of his future?"

"Oh I don't know. It might remind him of his brotherly duties and all that. Also, if Jon and I are a thing by that time, it might not be a bad idea for them to meet."

"Incidentally, how was your date? I assume it went well, if you invited him to the launch."

"I haven't decided if I'd call it a date yet. We had dinner at the tiny little restaurant with the best Indian food, and we just talked a lot. I told him about my work and stuff, and how we ended up in Netherfield Park, and he told me about his family and his art."

"He's an artist?"

"No, it's a hobby, but he's really passionate about it. He does a lot of photography. And did you know that he comes from a family of five brothers? We've only met three of them!"

"Jesus, you mean there are more of those people? With their coffee and their excessive friendliness?"

"Apparently, yeah. But here's the real kicker. You know how my parents are breathing down my neck to get married and all?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, apparently their father's like that. Can you even imagine?"

"Wow. No, quite frankly, I can't."

"Exactly. Oh, here we are." Charlie paid the driver as Willa looked up at the Gothic facade of the building they were about to enter. She had scouted out the building a few months back, dragging a reluctant Charlie with her as they planned the launch party for Charlie's new software, SandBath, backed by the generous funds of Hurst Capital Ventures. At the time, they'd both been frazzled beyond recognition, Charlie from rounds of presentations and sells to different investors, and she from weeks of contract drafting and negotiation. Willa could only hope that she'd spent enough time on the planning stages to pull this off. She certainly wanted to cast her friend in the best light possible.

"You ready?" Willa asked, watching her friend tug nervously at a stray lock of auburn hair. "Prepared to make speeches, shake hands, and kiss babies?"

"Yes to the first two. As for babies, well, I'm tasking you with deflecting them away from me. You can kiss babies." Charlie began walking up to the revolving door.

"I'd scare babies."

"Nonsense. How else will you raise your lovely bookish children with Laurie Bennet?"

Willa rolled her eyes and made to turn the door. "In the alternate universe where I marry that man and have his children, he'd be named Jason and I'd be pulling a Medea."

"How morbid. You do know he's coming tonight?"

"What, as his brother's date?"

"Ha, no. He works at one of the universities in town, and I think they'll be one of the first places to use SandBath, so he was actually invited before we even ran into them. Jon's the new addition."

"Any other brothers I should worry about? Perhaps the youngest, who's been sent as an errand boy? Or Kit, who's employed a barista?"

"No others. And really Willa, they're not that bad."

"Charlie, you think rainbows come out of Jon's mouth whenever he talks. Then again, with you, he probably is spewing rainbows."

"Nevertheless, I'm quite certain they're good guys. Look at how they offered to help that day."

"You mean, look at how they interefered that day in something which didn't require additional help? Charlie. Date Jon all you want. He seems all right. But I'm going to try to steer clear of the rest of the clan if it's all the same to you."

Charlie sighed. They'd reached the main lounge area where the band was getting set up. She set her purse on the bar and motioned to the bartender. "A shot of whiskey straight, please."

"Alcohol before public speaking?"

"I need something to steel the nerves before kissing babies."

"And you think anyone's going to hand you a baby while you smell like liquour?

"You can take the babies then. And Willa?"

"Charlie?"

"Be civil to Jon, and his brother? Especially his brother?"

"You want me to drag what's-his-face away so you can spend time with Jon. At your own launch party, where you'll be too busy to know your own name."

"Jon can remind me. C'mon Wills; we've only been able to get one date in between his schedule and mine. Please? As my bestest and most wonderful friend?"

"Fine. But, you will swear to keep Carter away from me when he's visiting. At least when he's being obnoxious. Which, let's face it, is the vast majority of the time. I reserve the right to leave whenever I want when he's here."

"Fine, fine, fine. Oh, look. People."

As guests started trickling in, Charlie went into a frenzy of greeting and hosting. Willa stayed by the bar for the most part, watching her friend navigate the crowd. Charlie was born to socialize; the woman needed human interaction like she needed oxygen. Willa wouldn't have minded being able to conduct all her business through email. Even business presentations were fine, but small talk practically made her nauseous. Charlie possessed a natural ability to make people feel at ease, which was probably why they were such good friends. Willa kept Charlie grounded; Charlie kept Willa sane. All in all, their friendship had survived undergrad, and grad school on opposite ends of the country before ending up in the same city again. She was unwilling to let Charlie go, and didn't resist the temptation to groan when the Bennet brothers walked in. Jon scanned over the crowd, looking for Charlie, and made a beeline for her when he saw her. Laurie seemed like he was going to follow, but appeared to think better of it, and headed towards the SandBath table. Willa picked up her sparkling water and skirted around the outskirts of the room to join him.

Wanda Collins, her uncle's new favourite, intercepted her before she could reach her destination. "Ms. Darcy! Why, it's such a pleasure to meet you again."

"Likewise Ms. Collins. If you'll excuse me -"

"I wasn't sure if you would show up. I mean, Mr. de Bourgh may have mentioned something of the matter, but he of course, is too busy to make an appearance and I wasn't entirely certain if you would be as well. Clearly you are not; though, few people could probably be as busy as Mr. de Bourgh is. Are you aware, surely as his niece you must be …"

"Ms. Collins. My uncle does not keep me particularly well-informed about his affairs, as I have informed you previously. I could not converse particularly well with you about anything he does. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to meet someone."

"Have you previously been introduced to this person? I know many of the people here; I'd like to think of myself as fairly well-connected now, thanks to Mr. de Bourgh's network."

"I think I'll be quite fine, thank you Ms. Collins. Excuse me." She side-stepped Collins and continued towards the table. Laurie Bennet had apparently disappeared though, and she glanced around, searching for him. As she saw Collins approach again, she hurriedly backed away in the direction of a dark corner, and hit a wall. A wall which spoke.

"Do you make it a habit to run into people, Darcy?"

She turned and gazed up at a pair of grey eyes in horror.

"First Kit, and now me. Is it a habit then? Or just some particularly odd act of fate?" Laurie asked from above her head.

"I, uh, I," Willa stuttered. "I apologize. And no, it's not a habit." She paused and stepped back, thinking of what to say. "Sorry, I was just trying to get out of someone's way."

"Wanda Collins? Entirely understandable."

"Yes." She frowned. "Did you just call me Darcy?"

"Wilhelmina's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it? And I'm not exactly in a position to call you Willa. I don't suppose you even remember my name."

He'd made a good choice in using Darcy, though he wouldn't know it, she thought. "Laurie Bennet. And Darcy's fine."

"I see. I assume you're here as Charlie's friend?"

"Her legal counsel actually. And as, uh, one of the m-major owners in the company."

"So not as her friend? Not going to offer moral support?"

"Uhm, no. It's a launch party. I'm here in official capacity." She could have kicked herself after uttering that.

"I see," he said in a tone that spoke the opposite. They were both silent afterwards, having apparently run out of things to say.

She decided to cut her loses for the night. "Sorry, duty calls." She walked quickly away from him, mentally berating herself for failing to maintain conversation. And damn Bennet for making her stutter. She hadn't done that in years. Surely, that was what had thrown her off - first walking into him, and then actually reverting back to old habits. She thought she'd passed that stage back in high school, but apparently it was back. Willa saw Jonathan step towards the bar, and walked towards him, knowing Charlie probably wasn't very far behind. She spotted her friend, and beckoned her over.

"I can't do it. I'm sorry; I just can't. I take it all back; I'll even deal with Carter."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"He just puts me off, Charlie. I just cannot deal with Laurie Bennet; he just puts me off. Look, I'll -" She cut herself off as she saw Jon hand a drink to the man in question. "Shit."


The rest of the night passed quickly after that. Willa was quite certain Laurie had heard her, but resigned herself to her fate, figuring that avoiding him would be much easier if he was doing the same for her. She socialized with potential business partners and clients as courtesy demanded, but tried to keep interaction to a minimum. As the party wound down, she found herself alone at the bar for the first time in several hours.

"Another bottle, please." The bartender nodded, having long memorized her Perrier order earlier. As she opened up what had to be her fifth bottle, Charlie finally finished up with saying goodbye to her guests and receiving their congratulations.

"Congratulations. Ready to go?" Willa raised her bottle in Charlie's direction.

"Yeah. Let's go home."

As they both madly tried to hail a taxi, Charlie started laughing maniacally.

"Do you need a sedative?" Willa asked nervously.

"No, no," Charlie gasped.

"Do you want a doctor?"

"No, it's just … there weren't any babies!"

"So?"

"There were plenty of 'babes'," Charlie practically doubled up while making air quotes, forgetting to keep hailing cabs. "But you didn't kiss one!"

A taxi finally stopped as Willa tried to figure out whether her friend had truly gone insane from the coding. "Charlie. Shut up and get in."


Author's note: Hey, I'm still alive! Sorry everyone; finals and moving combined to make my life something of a hell. But I'm back(!) and ready to write, so updates should be fairly regular for a while. :) Please continue to review and offer your thoughts.