Chapter 11

After hitting send on the photo message to GiGi with the picture he took last night of Lizzie and Darcy. Fitz waited for his phone to ring. Less than a minute later it did.

"Go for Fitz."

"OMG! Does William have a girlfriend? Is that Lizzie Bennet? She is so pretty! When can I meet her?"

"Wow slow down GiGi D. She's not his girlfriend yet, but I can tell you that you are looking at your future sister. He is head over heels in love with her. It's super adorable but borderline creepy. Anyone else, it'd be creepy but he makes it seem sweet. They have some issues to work out-"

"What did William do?"

"You shouldn't just assume your brother messed up GiGi D."

"I've known him my whole life Fitz. What did he do? Do we have a plan to fix it? I can be on a plane there by tomorrow."

"GiGi, your brother will kill me if you skip classes. No plane tickets."

"Fitzzzz"

"GiGi"

"Fine."

"I am working on it. I plan to meet with Lizzie's best friend and convince her to help me-"

"FITZ!"

"Us! Help us. She's perfect for him. Good news for you. She's got a vlog. Her newest video uploads at 9. Watch it first. Then watch the rest. She says some pretty harsh things about Darcy but-"

"William probably deserved them. He sucks so bad at meeting people. He manages to seem like a haughty condescending jerk-face. I'm braced for whatever she says."

"Good. Now let me share another juicy detail confiscated from your brother's note pad last night."

"Go on."

"It's headed Proposal to Lizzie Bennet."

"Oh. My. God. Is he going to propose? Before even taking her on a date? What is wrong with him Fitz?"

"It doesn't say it's a marriage proposal. And with the subheadings I really hope it wasn't, all evidence aside."

"My lame brother would make an outline for a marriage proposal. A bad one evidently at that."

"We have on here," Fitz began reading, "odd family, financial troubles, different social classes, my family and myself expect better of me-"

"Good God. It's awful."

"Not done GiGi D. The final line is, in short my own heart has overcome my good judgment. He left space in between to each category to expand on his ideas."

"I'm going to murder him."

"At least he didn't expand on his chosen topics."

"What was he thinking? You need to destroy that paper Fitz, for his own good."

"Oh I plan too. But first I'm going to discuss it with him."

"Please punch him for me. And for Lizzie. No girl deserves to hear something so horrid."

Fitz's phone vibrated with a text alert.

"Oh GiGi D our girl just text me. She is awake and since Darcy is gone I'm her ride."

"Elaborate please."

"Darcy surprised her with a very passionate kiss in the hotel hallway, she had a panic attack, we cleared up some misunderstandings, marathoned her vlog, made a video and she crashed in Darcy's bed. At least I assume he gave her the bed and took the couch. He's too much of a gentleman to make her sleep on the couch."

"Oh, okay. I have a vlog to watch."

"GiGi D, one more thing. She met Wickham this summer, he's in a few of her videos."

"Okay. Thanks for the warning," GiGi said in a suddenly subdued voice.

"She thinks he's a rat bastard now, her own words."

"I love her," GigGi said the pep returning to her voice.

After hanging up with GiGi, Fitz left his suite and knocked on the door to Darcy's suite. Lizzie opened it and greeted him with a smile. "I hope your hungry," she told him. "Darcy left enough food out for an elephant to eat breakfast."

Fitz stepped into the room an surveyed the selection of food set up on the counter and burst out laughing. "I think he wanted to make sure there was a good selection for you to choose from, but I will admit he went a little overboard."

"Ya think?" she said sarcastically.

"Is that 5 different types of granola cereal?"

"Yes. And Life, Raisin Bran and Special K. Hidden behind them are the organic poptarts-"

"How can a poptart be organic?"

"Well I'm not really sure what they are but they are shaped like a poptart and have," reading from the box she said, "an organic fruit filling in a crunchy wafer crust." Setting the box back down, "hence organic poptarts."

"What else is there?"

"This fruit basket, these bagels, 6 types mind you- raisin, blueberry, onion, cranberry, cheese and plain. In the fridge is a variety of yogurt cups-"

"Are those fresh muffins?"

"I believe so."

"You know he means well, right Lizzie B?"

"I do. What I cannot find in this mess of breakfast food is some Lucky Charms, or Coco Puffs, or a chocolate chip bagel or muffin. At least the tiny milk cartons in the fridge are whole."

"His selections are rather practical and well thought out. Hot food would have gotten cold or gross if kept under a warmer to long. And all of his selections are very hangover friendly."

"By healthy and hangover friendly you mean bland. Good hangover food is loaded with sugar Fitz. Or grease. Waffle house, I HOP, Wendy's-"

"Your hangovers sound terrible but oddly fun."

"If you're gonna be miserable you at least do it with good food."

"You want me to take you to waffle house?"

"No," she said opening the organic poptarts. "It'd be rude not to eat some of this. We're stuck. Dig in Fitz."

...

After dropping Lizzie at Charlotte's so she could shower before she headed into Collins and Collins for the day, Fitz thought about his next steps. He hoped Charlotte would contact him soon to talk. If not he would just have to barge into her office today and persuade her to see things from his viewpoint. Darcy and Lizzie had a long way to go from what he could tell and having Charlotte on board would be an asset.

He also needed to talk to Darcy about Bing and about Darcy's horrible proposal outline. He knew Darcy believed he had saved Bing from a gold digger this summer. A point Fitz would have used to talk Darcy up to Lizzie and illustrate his loyalty. But Bing's summer girlfriend had been Jane. Jane who was not a gold digger and was Lizzie's closest sister. Revealing that would have been a disaster. It still was a disaster since Darcy apparently separated two people in love, one of whom was Lizzie's sister. It looked pretty bad for Darcy because Lizzie wasn't stupid, she would figure it out and rake Darcy over the coals for it.

He knew there had to be more to the story, something he didn't know. He also knew that while Darcy had persuaded him, a bad move on Darcy's part, Bing should have refused to do what Darcy wanted. Bing should have manned up and said no.

As far as the outline Fitz had in his pocket, he didn't think Darcy actually still believed the things he wrote, or at least he hoped he didn't. If Darcy really believed them then he'd never win Lizzie's heart, he could kiss a future with her goodbye. Fitz also couldn't in good conscious promote a relationship between Darcy and Lizzie if Darcy believed them. Fitz genuinely liked Lizzie as a person and considered her a friend. He wouldn't want to see Lizzie in a relationship where she was looked down on and made to feel ashamed. Darcy was so awkward he might not have realized how insulting what he wrote down was.

With that in mind Fitz decided to tackle Darcy now and talk to Charlotte later. He'd do it when both of them were out of the way, like by having Darcy pick Lizzie up to bring to Collins and Collins. That should give him enough time alone with Charlotte.