I'd tried so not to give in.

I said to myself: this affair never will go so well.

But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know so well

I've got you under my skin?

-Frank Sinatra, "I've Got You Under My Skin"

CHAPTER THREE

Yes, that's right… Eddie got Frankie drunk.

Don't ask me how that happened… I have not seen Frankie drunk since our freshman year of college, when she tasted alcohol for the first time and apparently, couldn't get enough of it. Ever since she spent the next morning puking, she swore that she would never drink more than 2 drinks in one night. Of course, a lot of people set limits for themselves like that, but the funny thing about Frankie was that she actually STUCK to them – I hadn't seen her down more than 2 regular-sized drinks in one evening.

That night, after hauling Frankie's drunk ass back to her apartment and crashing on her couch to make sure she didn't die in her sleep, was when I realized for the first time that Eddie was getting to her. Coincidentally, that's when Frankie realized the same thing for herself as well.

Frankie groaned and rolled over, convinced that it was not possible for the sun to be that bright, and her apartment must've somehow levitated and moved 20 feet away from the actual surface of the sun. Her head was throbbing, and her upchuck reflex was working strongly against her. This could all mean only one thing.

She'd broken her 2-drink rule the night before.

The events from the evening before slowly came back to her, and she groaned even louder and pulled one of her pillows on top of her head.

The dinner. The surprise guest. Bantering with Eddie.

Tequila.

More banter.

More tequila.

That was about all she could wrap her mind around… the rest was still a complete blur. She was debating staying in her bed for the rest of her life when she heard noises in her kitchen, followed closely by footsteps coming down the hall towards her bedroom. She was too hungover to even be concerned for her own safety, and wondered fleetingly if the intruder would just put her out of her misery if she asked nicely.

"Good morning, sunshine," the voice greeted her cheerfully. Damn. Jane won't kill me.

"Urrghhh," Frankie muttered in response. She felt her covers ripped from her, and she curled into a tight ball.

"C'mon, Francesca, up and at 'em… that's the downside of getting drunk on a Wednesday night… you have to go to work the next day." At that, Frankie bolted up right and looked at her clock, relieved when she saw she still had an hour to get to work. She rubbed her temples and tried to recover from her sudden burst of adrenaline.

"I completely forgot what day it was," she muttered.

"Yeah… I'm surprised you didn't forget more, like your skirt or something. Anyway, I made coffee, there's fresh bagels in the kitchen –" Jane was cut off when Frankie groaned, clutching her stomach in a wave of nausea. "…okay, scratch the bagels, but you gotta get up, darlin."

"God I would so love to have one of those jobs where I could just call in sick right now," Frankie muttered, still rubbing her temples.

"Yeah, well… you don't, so get your ass outta bed, because I have to get to work too."

Frankie sighed and managed to grab her robe as she stumbled into the bathroom. She emerged again 20 minutes later, deciding to forego her usual hair routine and instead slick her wet hair back into a braid, and put on her most comfortable work clothes. Jane was in the kitchen when she walked in, and she held out a steaming cup of black coffee. Frankie accepted it and took a long gulp. She couldn't help but notice as she swallowed that Jane was grinning at her like an idiot. Frankie rolled her eyes, then winced at the pain and made a mental note never to do that again.

"Why do you look so damn smug? And while I'm asking questions, why the hell aren't you as hungover as I am?"

"I'm not hungover because I actually know how to control myself around alcohol… and I'm smug because I cannot believe how much of a success last night's dinner was."

"Oh really," Frankie said dryly. She picked up a bagel and forced herself to take a bite.

"Well yeah… did you forget how much you and Eddie were flirting last night?"

Frankie choked on her bagel.

"I mean, Charlie and I wanted you guys to get along, yes, but we were just aiming for you not to try and strangle each other while standing at the altar of our wedding, we didn't think that you'd actually flirt."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second," Frankie said once she'd managed to swallow. "I was not flirting. That was not flirting."

"Oh come on, Frankie, who are you kidding? You've never had that much fun flirting with someone and you know it."

"No, I don't know that, because I wasn't flirting!"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Y'know, Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

Frankie slammed her cup of coffee down on the counter. "For the last freaking time, Jane, I. Was. Not. Flirting. Why would I flirt with a guy like Eddie Bennett? He is the exact polar opposite of everything I look for in a guy. He's crude, he's uncultured, uneducated, offensive, he's clearly a womanizer, though how he accomplishes that is beyond me, he's… he's actually, literally dirty. Did you see his fingernails last night? Ugh."

Jane examined her, her head slightly cocked to the side. "And yet… you flirted. Why exactly do you think that is?"

Frankie groaned. "Alright, that's it. I do not need this, especially not on this particular morning. I'm going to work."

"What about the rest of your coffee?" Jane called after her as Frankie grabbed her briefcase and started for the door.

"I'll get some at the office. Lock up after you leave. And by the way… I hate you."

"Hate you back, Flirty McFlirterson."

"Morning," Eddie grumbled as he walked into the office of Bennett Construction the next morning, an hour and a half later than he normally showed up for work. Charlie chuckled, watching his brother as he walked straight for the coffee pot.

"Well you had a good time last night," Charlie commented. Eddie shook his head and quickly downed half the contents of the small styrofoam cup.

"Yeah… I keep forgetting that tequila makes you drunk, and being drunk when you have to go to work the next morning is typically a bad idea."

Charlie laughed and made his way towards him. "So… you remember what happened last night?"

Eddie's brow furrowed. "I remember the dinner… and I remember the bar afterwards… and the tequila… but that's about it."

"So I guess that means that you don't recall flirting the entire night with Frankie Darcy."

Eddie scoffed and shook his head again. "You're damn right I don't remember that, because there's no way in hell that that would actually happen." He refilled the cup.

"Trust me, dude… you were flirting."

Eddie looked thoughtful as he took another gulp of his coffee. "Okay. I'll admit it was fun trading potshots with Frankie. Most women I talk to either agree with everything I say, or don't say much of anything at all, so it was… refreshing to meet a woman who could actually hold up her end of the conversation. But, that being said… I wasn't flirting, because flirting implies that you're attracted to the person, and I am not attracted to Frankie."

"Why not? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Jane… but Frankie's beautiful, don't you think?"

"I dunno…" Eddie said, shrugging one shoulder. "She's not my type. I don't go for beautiful girls, you know that. I go for hot girls, or cute girls. Frankie is just… I mean, she screams high maintenance, don't you think?"

"I don't think she's as bad as you think she is."

Eddie scoffed. "I doubt it. Dude, she opened your front door at that party, and I had her figured out within about 2 minutes."

"Man, she was right, you are a cocky ass."

"I'm serious, man. Those clothes, that hair, that attitude… she's a rich snob who doesn't think that any man, much less a man like me, is worthy of even being in her presence."

"And yet… she let you get her totally piss drunk on tequila last night," Charlie pointed out, leaning against the wall. Eddie grinned.

"Oh yeah… I did do that, didn't I? That was mostly for my own amusement." Charlie laughed and walked back to his desk.

"You're terrible."

"Francesca Darcy," Frankie answered her cell phone. She frowned when no one responded, cradling the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she typed on her computer at work. "Hello, is anyone there?" she repeated. She heard breathing this time. She narrowed her eyes and picked the phone up. "Okay, if this is some sort of obscene call-"

"Frankie?" a timid voice asked. She frowned.

"Who is this?"

"This is, uh… Zach. Zach Collins. We met at Charlie's apartment?" Realization dawned on Frankie, and she almost groaned out loud.

"Yes, of course, Zach, I remember you. How are you?"

"I'm uh… I'm really good, how are you?"

"I'm good. How did you get my phone number?"

"Charlie gave it to me, actually."

Frankie rolled her eyes. "Oh, how nice of him. So what can I do for you?"

"Well, actually, I was, uh… just, um… wondering, if… oh shit… oh god I can't believe I just said shit… um, I was wondering if…" Frankie looked up to see her assistant at her door and she let out a breath of relief.

"Zach, I hate to interrupt you, but I'm at work right now and I'm late for a meeting. I'm so sorry. Can I call you back?"

"Oh… oh, yeah, absolutely… do you need my number?"

"No, I have it on my phone now that you called me."

"Oh right, of course." He laughed nervously. "Well call me soon."

"I will. Talk to you later."

"Okay. Bye."

"So how did your presentation go?" Jane asked through the cell phone that was pressed to Frankie's ear.

"It went fine, I guess," Frankie replied, dodging people as she walked down the busy sidewalk. She sighed. "Y'know, I never thought I'd say this… but I really don't want to talk about work anymore."

"Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that either," Jane replied. Frankie smirked. She looked down at the address written in the piece of paper on her hand, then looked up at the building she was standing in front of. Well… this is it.

"I gotta go, Jane," she said into her phone.

"Oh, alright, I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah… bye." She hung up her cell phone and stuck it back in her purse. She looked up at the brown brick building and adjusted her jacket, in disbelief that she was about to walk into Eddie Bennett's apartment building.

It was two days after he had gotten her completely wasted on tequila, and she felt like she'd just that morning recovered from her hangover… and yet, there she was, like some sort of sick masochist, practically begging for a beat-down. She swallowed and reminded herself why she was there – Jane. She wanted to organize a surprise engagement party for Jane and Charlie, and she needed the help of Charlie's brother and best friend, and that was Eddie. She had dug up his phone number only to call it and find that it was actually the number of a local deli. She'd tried several times but always got the same result, and since she couldn't dig up his cell number, she'd managed to get a hold of his address. She was running out of time, and she wasn't going to sit around and wait until he got his act together… so there she was, standing in front of his building.

She walked up the front steps to the building, scanning the names on the buzzer until she found the name "Bennett." She pressed the button, and a few moments later, she heard a voice over the intercom.

"Hello?"

"Eddie? It's Frankie Darcy." There was a pause, and Frankie frowned, wondering if he'd been able to hear her. She was scanning the console to see if there was some sort of "talk" button when Eddie finally spoke up.

"Frankie? Seriously?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's Frankie. Can you let me in? I need to talk to you."

"Oh, uh… yeah, sure, I guess… come on up." There was a loud buzz, and Frankie pulled open the glass door. She rode the elevator up to the 8th floor, where his apartment was, and when she found herself standing in front of his door she was surprised to feel the tiniest little butterflies in her stomach. She frowned. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd had butterflies about anything, much less some guy. She shook it off and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" she heard Eddie's voice through the wood. She eased closer to the door, hearing a bunch of rustling. "Hang on just a minute!" he called again. Frankie put a hand on her hip, waiting for him to open the door. A minute later, the door swung open, and Eddie smiled out at her.

"Well, well, well, it really is you, Frankie. Never expected to see you down here in the ghetto," he remarked. Frankie smirked.

"Funny. Can I come in or do we have to stand in the hallway?"

Eddie stepped back from the door and motioned for Frankie to come in. She brushed past him on her way into the apartment and looked around, unsure of what to expect. She was surprised to see that it didn't look too bad – a little rough around the edges, and obviously, decorated like a typical guy's apartment (meaning, not at all) but she was surprised not to see empty pizza boxes and beer cans lying everywhere. She took a few more steps further in, noticing that the front closet door was open a crack. Eddie quickly stepped up and tried to shove it closed. When the door stayed slightly ajar, he kicked something further in and then managed to shove it closed. Frankie smirked to herself when she realized what was going on.

"Did you… clean?" she asked. Eddie frowned.

"What?"

She chuckled to herself. Eddie may have been good at some things, but playing dumb wasn't one of them. "You cleaned up. While I was on my way up, you were cleaning up your apartment," she stated, now sure that that was what was happening. Eddie rolled his eyes.

"What? No. You're hallucinating," he said. Frankie laughed.

"Alright, fine, you weren't cleaning," she conceded.

"So… why exactly are you here?" he asked. Frankie crossed her arms over her chest.

"You'll be happy to know, this is strictly business… I want to throw a surprise engagement party for Jane and Charlie."

Eddie raised his eyebrows, apparently waiting for more. When no more was coming, he cleared his throat. "Well… that's nice, for you…" he trailed off. "Is this a personal invitation or something?" This time Frankie was the one to roll her eyes.

"No, it's not a personal invitation… gosh, you're slow… I want you to help me plan it."

Eddie frowned. "Me? You want me to help you plan an engagement party?" he asked slowly, emphasizing the words "me" and "you" in total disbelief.

"Yes… why are you looking at me like I just asked you to give me your left kidney?"

"Because… are you aware of who I am? And who you are? And the fact that I'm fairly certain that our ideas of what a party is are pretty much polar opposites?"

"Yes I am aware of that. Do you think I want your help to pick out appetizers or color schemes? No, I want your help because I don't know Charlie all that well, so I need your help with what his schedule is like, the guest list, etc… plus, it's his party too, and I want him to enjoy it, so I guess I do need a little bit of your help with the actual party." Eddie folded his arms across his chest.

"I dunno…" he said hesitantly. Frankie sighed.

"C'mon, Eddie…" she cajoled. "I really want to do this for them, but I can't do it without at least some help." A mischievous smile crept up on his face.

"Alright, fine… but on one condition."

"What's that?" He stretched his arms up over his head before easing closer to her.

"You will have to keep your hands off me. Think you can manage that?" Frankie laughed out loud before pushing him away and heading back towards the door.

"I think somehow I'll find a way to survive." She was about to leave when something occurred to her and she turned back around. "By the way, I've been trying to call you for a week now… is there a reason that every time I tried to call you I got the 12th Street Deli?" Eddie frowned.

"Where'd you get my phone number from?"

"From Jane's address book." Eddie chuckled nervously, running a hand over the back of his neck, and Frankie could've sworn she saw a blush creeping up on his cheeks.

"Oh yeah, that… well, the thing is, when I first met Jane, after she and Charlie started dating… well, uh, I didn't think they'd last that long, and to be completely honest, I found her kind of annoying…" Frankie raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I like her now, she's great, but when I first met her…. Y'know, first impressions and all that, you and I should know that better than anyone…" Realization dawned on Frankie.

"You gave her a fake number, didn't you?" Eddie chuckled again. Yep – definitely a blush.

"Sorta, yeah… and I'm a little unsure as to how to fix that without hurting her feelings." Frankie rolled her eyes, but she had to laugh a little bit.

"We'll figure it out… you want to give me your actual phone number then?" She pulled out her cell phone and he rattled out the digits.

"Okay. I'll call you and we'll figure out a time to get together and start planning," she said after she had saved the number and slipped the phone back into her purse.

"Looking forward to it," Eddie joked, winking. Frankie shook her head.

"Start that winking thing and I'll force you to look at centerpieces with me." Eddie winced.

"Alright, alright, you win, I give."

"Wow… this looks really fantastic, guys, thank you so much," Gabriella Wicks said, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder as she looked at the extension on the office building that Bennett Construction had just completed. Eddie had been working on this project for weeks and had never seen her before, but she happened to be in the office when they were officially done, and now Eddie couldn't take his eyes off her. She was beautiful, with big brown eyes and dark features – he was guessing she had Hispanic roots somewhere in her heritage. Her hair was slightly curly and thick, and she was wearing a fitted skirt with a white blouse. He thanked God that they hadn't had much to finish up that day, so he wasn't soaked with sweat and wearing a hard hat. He ran his fingers through his hair.

"Oh yeah… no problem," Eddie said, smiling at her. She smiled back.

"We do have a little bit of paperwork to finish up," Charlie, ever the businessman, said next to him, gesturing to the thick manila folder under his arm.

"Oh right, of course, come on in… are you guys hungry? We just ordered lunch and we've got extra," Gabriella said as she led the two of them into the building. Eddie glanced at his brother, seeing he was clearly about to politely decline, and he jumped in before he had the chance.

"Actually, lunch sounds fantastic. We're famished, right Charlie?" he said, elbowing his brother pointedly. Charlie smiled.

"Oh yeah… famished." Gabriella smiled.

"Great! We can eat while we finish up this paperwork."

Half an hour later the paperwork was finished and the leftover lunch was gone, and Charlie and Eddie were headed for the door. Charlie excused himself and walked to the truck, but Eddie turned back to Gabriella.

"Listen… now that we're no longer working together or anything…" he started, leaning against the side of the building. He noticed Gabriella's smile change from politely professional to flirtatious. "…I was wondering if maybe you'd want to get dinner sometime."

"Dinner, huh?" she said. Eddie nodded. "You hardly know me." Eddie shrugged one shoulder. "No words? Just gestures?" Eddie chuckled and nodded again. "Well, Mr. Sweet Talker, I guess you convinced me." She pulled out a business card from somewhere and handed it to him. "Give me a call, we'll set it up."
"See you then," Eddie said, walking away with a wink.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter... don't forget to review:)

Sobee1982: Thanks for reading! I don't want to give everything away, but there will be a Wickham character (as you can see from this chapter, haha) and Lady Catherine comes later... I did leave out Caroline though, because the family scenes got kinda complicated, so I decided to simplify them as much as possible. Anyway, thanks again and keep reading:)

Willow-41z: Thanks for reading and reviewing again. :) You didn't really ask me any specific questions, but I just thought I'd say this, haha... when I swapped the genders of Lizzie and Darcy, what I tried to do is not adhere completely to their characters, because I figure that Lizzie WOULDN'T be exactly the same if she were a man, and vice versa, y'know what I mean? So I tried to imagine how their gender would affect how they act and what they say, and that kinda stuff. Anyway, thanks again for reviewing:)

drugged-on-chocolate: thanks for the tip! I allowed anonymous reviews now. :) Thanks!

Thanks also to poppy and k8bob8! (oh, and k8bob8... I'm glad you like OkGo! They're one of my favorite bands, I always promote them all over the place, since I've been a loyal fan of theirs for like four years, haha... but yeah. awesome song, I agree. hehe.)