NOTES: Lizzy's POV— normal length. Her first day on the job. Will post again soon :) Love y'all! ~Vinny
Lizzy smoothed down her skirt self consciously. She hated dressing up. Even though her mother had tried her best to imprint into Lizzy's head that she was nothing special, she had grown up into a not-bad looking woman. The thing Lizzy didn't like about that was that when she was alone— even around her hometown— she felt unsafe.
She had worn a pale green button down and a nice gray skirt (it was her first day of work, so she tried her best), and she had already gotten cat-called twice on the walk to work.
"Hey! Hey miss!"
Oh fuck. Here we go again.
Lizzy turned around, a fake smile plastered to her face and her hand frantically reaching into her purse for her phone to call 911.
A familiar looking man, with neatly combed hair and haphazard stubble ran up to her, out of breath. "Sorry to bother you, ma'am, but you dropped this."
He held out her wallet.
"Oh!" Lizzy took it gratefully. "Thank you so much."
"No problem," he nodded, smiling oddly. He wiped a hand down the front of his backpack strap, looked at her again, and then walked away.
Lizzy watched him go for a second, then put a hand to her chest. Oh Jesus, that had scared her. She had thought she was about to get raped or mugged or asked her opinion on current events. God. Her heart still hadn't calmed down. Why was she so twitchy today?
She pondered this as she crossed four lanes of traffic, avoided an open sewer grate, and at least six broken glass bottles on the sidewalk.
Eventually, she reached the address Samantha had texted to her a few days ago— a smallish, squarish building, with modern looking furniture inside and tall plants (that looked like rosemary!) leading up to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Lizzy was about to open the door when a rushed looking woman in a hijab and business suit opened the door for her.
"Hi!" The woman said, "Are you Lizzy Bennet?"
"I, um, yes," said she, backing away instinctively.
The woman in the suit grabbed her hand and shook it heartily, smiling. "Thought so! Fitzgerald sent me a pic from the birthday party; I saw you walkin' up."
"I take it you're Samantha, then?" Lizzy asked, feeling a bit bewildered.
"The one and only!" Samantha laughed.
Samantha had a very nice laugh; it seemed to bubble up from her throat and explode out of her shoulders, which shook like an erupting volcano— this image made even clearer by her dark gray eyes, black suit and hijab, and lava red blouse. She seemed an explosive kind of woman.
"So! Wanna come inside?"
"Um, yes!" Lizzy nodded politely as her new boss opened the door for her. "I.. I wasn't sure what to bring.. so…"
"Nothing we don't already have here, don't worry," Samantha said. "Oh, and, if I seem like I'm rushing you, that's because I am. I got about a million calls to make before lunchtime. Later, when you get settled in, we'll have more down time since we'll split the million calls to make every day! Anyway, I'm really sorry— I did leave a note for you at the desk though!"
"Oh, ah— a-alright," she stammered, her head spinning.
Samantha led her over to a desk, round and tall, and gave her a few sticky notes. "Basically, since it's your first day," she said with a smile, "I figured you could get familiar with the technology and clean out the company email! And, later, if you don't have plans, maybe we could grab lunch?"
"Uhm, yeah— Th-that sounds good."
Samantha stopped her rapid-fire speech for a moment, and looked at Lizzy with those piercing gray eyes. "Hey. You don't have to. Don't feel pressured— I just thought it would be nice to get to know you."
Lizzy took a second to smile genuinely, and breathe. "I'd like to get to know you better too. I'm just.. a… bit overwhelmed, is all."
"I've been told I'm overwhelming," Samantha said with an apologetic smile. "But I promise: this job is not as stressful as I make it look. This is just my personality."
Lizzy chuckled at that, and Samantha went on her way after saying goodbye.
Sitting down gingerly on the puffy office chair, Lizzy cracked her knuckles. It had been a while since she did anything other than make coffee and conversation for a living.
Grabbing a sticky note, she typed in the password, and the computer sprung to life. She clicked into the homescreen, and immediately said out loud, "Holy mother of…"
This.. was the most DISORGANIZED desktop she had EVER seen. Files everywhere, unlabeled, inbox jam-packed with messages and spam, tabs open all over the places…
Lizzy laughed to herself, though she felt like might curl up into a ball and start shaking. Coming from her— the previous Queen of the Mess!
If Fitzwilliam ever saw this, he'd probably—
And just like that, her good mood was gone.
Lizzy's smile slid off her face, and, feeling hollow, she began shifting the untitled files to one side, to make room for some sense of order.
Why did she have to think of him? Why? It hadn't hurt this much that morning, when she talked it over with her father— so why now? Why did it feel like a punch in the gut to imagine his face, screwed up in displeasure over a cluttered desktop as she teased him about it, imagining him giving in, putting his arms around her, and laughing that deep laugh of his, the one he only let out around her…
Fuck.
Lizzy briefly put her head down on the desk. It was harder to block out her feelings than she had thought.
She went back to her work. She sifted through the copious amounts of emails, jotting down any dates or names that sounded important, and deleting the ones with 'HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA— CONTACT NOW!' in their headlines.
Usually those ones cracked her up, but for some reason, today, it just hurt to think about. Hurt to think about how she was, technically, single again.
She was all alone.
You would think, after being alone almost all her life— without anyone beyond Jane to really understand her struggles and love her unconditionally— Lizzy would be used to it by now.
Damn Fitzwilliam. Lizzy wished he hadn't spoiled her so much, by making her feel special for once in her life.
She also wished she could stop missing him so she could get her work done.
But most of all, more than all the other wishes and hopes and prayers, Lizzy wished that he was right there beside her, wrinkling his nose at the messy filing system and chatting about Tolkien, and holding her hand in his.
Right then, her stupid, stupidheart wanted that.
More than anything.