Chapter 10: Man-Candy

Elizabeth was on the couch in her PJs waiting for her sister to arrive home from her date with Charlie. She had already flipped through People and US Weekly, and was about to turn on her Kindle to read her latest book download when she finally heard a key slide into the lock on the front door.

Jane pushed her way inside, carrying her teacher's satchel, a bag of restaurant leftovers and sporting the largest smile Lizzy had ever seen.

"I hoped that you would still be up!"

"Jane, how was it?" Lizzy took her sister's belongings so that Jane could remove her jacket. After putting the leftovers in the fridge, she flopped down on the comfy vinyl cushions and her sister followed suit.

"Lizzy, I'm crazy about him. I know I shouldn't be. I know it's too soon, but I just can't help myself. He's such a gentleman."

Grinning as wildly as Jane, Lizzy clutched a round lavender throw pillow to her chest, "Jane, tell me everything."

"Well, it started right after I got out of work. I exited the building and was surprised to find a private car waiting for me." Jane blushed and covered her face with her hands. "Oh my god this is gonna sound so cheesy, but it was amazing."

Lizzy put one hand palm up in front of her gesturing for her sister to continue, while her other hand had crept up to her mouth at the mention of a private car. The pillow was still tightly gripped to her body via her hips and her elbows. Twinkling deep hazel eyes stared expectantly at her sister.

Jane took the hint, exhaled a deep breath and continued, "The car dropped me off at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Charlie was waiting there with a single rose. He told me that we had about an hour and a half until our dinner reservation with his sister so he thought that we could walk the bridge together."

"Wow, Jane. Are you serious? Are we sure he's real?"

"Yes!" Jane swatted at her sister. "Real, and fun to be around, and amazingly nice."

"Like someone else I know."

"Well, maybe. Maybe that's why we get along so well," Jane looked happy and thoughtful. "Lizzy, I swear we didn't stop talking. We discussed his life in England, and how he made his own way with his internet endeavors even though his parents told him that they didn't need or expect him to be successful so young. He's thinking about increasing the membership on one of his sites to include the U.S., so he's over here working on setting up a headquarters of sorts in advance of the expansion. Will has been helping him a lot with it. He asked why I became a kindergarten teacher, and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our home life too. We then started talking about all of these random topics, like music and television shows, and discovered that we had similar or complimentary tastes in almost all of them."

"This is unbelievably perfect – Jane, you're making this up. You have to be."

"I swear I'm not!" Jane blushed. "I know it sounds too good to be true but it is, I promise." Jane sought her sister's eyes to convince her but it wasn't necessary; Lizzy was long aware that Jane was incapable of lying.

Lizzy smiled. "Well, and how was Del Posto? I must admit that I never thought I would know anyone who ate there, much less my own sister!"

"It was really yummy, but really expensive." Jane made a face. "I think I may have gasped out loud when I looked at the prices. Caroline said it's her favorite place and I'm pretty sure that's why Charlie picked it."

"Oh the sister! How did you like her?"

"I liked her a lot. She was really nice too, but that makes sense 'cause she and Charlie are actually twins! She's quite the conversationalist. She's also very fashionable - I've never seen so many designers blended into one day's outfit in my life! Mom would have been green with envy."

"Sounds like she was trying to show off a bit with an outfit like that, no?"

"I didn't think so. She works as one of the senior buyers for Barneys, so you can't really expect her to be otherwise I guess. She made it sound so exciting - she travels all over the world to visit fashion houses and attend catwalks! They also have another older sister, Louisa, who was recently married. She's on a three month honeymoon to Tahiti as a gift from their parents."

The amount of wealth that the Bingley's were obviously used to was starting to make Lizzy's head ache. "Jane you better be careful about what you tell mom regarding Charlie's financial resources. She might steal your birth control pills in the hopes you might get pregnant and be forced to marry him or something."

"Lizzy!" Jane scolded. "How can you say that? I know mom can be a bit extra but she means well. She would never entrap a man for us."

Lizzy was not so sure.

Jane shook her head and continued, "Anyway, we didn't even kiss. Like I said, he was the perfect gentleman. We even set another date - He wants you and me to have dinner at his home in Jersey next Saturday night, the 18th. You'll come, right?"

Competing emotions of discomfort and curiosity dueled in Lizzy's chest. "Well, I already agreed to the lounge idea whenever we do that but Jane, I don't want to be a third wheel or anything. It sounds like you two have a lot of relationship potential."

"Don't be silly Lizzy, I want you there. Besides you can't be a third wheel: Caroline will be there too. Like Charlie said, the sisters have to meet each other." Jane smiled at the memory of him saying this. "And, I think we're going to do Ella Lounge on Halloween since it falls on a Friday. It'll be fun to have to wear costumes."

And curiosity wins. "Jane, it sounds great. I'll definitely go." Her sister looked confused, so she clarified with an eye roll and a smile, "To both things."

If Lizzy had been unsettled by the grey eyes that awaited her on Monday, which although early, she had been somewhat warned about; it would not be difficult to fathom the level of aggravation she experienced when she discovered the same pair of grey eyes joining her Thursday afternoon staff meeting.

Informing her team that the meeting would begin shortly, she turned and stalked toward her secretary's desk.

Lydia Baron was watching a YouTube video on low volume that she obviously found entertaining. Seeing Elizabeth approach, she quickly hid the browser window and deftly turned down the sound, but failed to hide the smile that lingered despite her other efforts at concealment.

Lizzy rolled her eyes. "Lydia, why is William Darcy sitting in my staff meeting?" The tension in her body caused her to splay her fingers in front of her face before balling them into fists at her sides.

"Oh, he called yesterday. Well, actually," she glanced up and shrugged her shoulders, "it was his receptionist who called, and asked when you usually meet with your marketing team."

"So, you just provided the information? Did you ask why he needed it?"

"Um, no. It's William Darcy, Britain's 'Most Eligible Bachelor'? I wouldn't deny him anything."

Did she just giggle? Help me now this girl just GIGGLED.

The usually quiet Mary had turned at her desk to pay attention to their exchange. Without warning, she included herself in the discussion: "See, I told you Lydia." Turning to Elizabeth, "I recommended to her that she should check with you first, and tried to explain the ultimate importance of confidentiality and communicating with one's superiors. I believe that one can never be too careful in regards to their interactions with their managers. I particularly," she punctuated this word with a finger in the air, "noted how easy it would have been to put the receptionist on hold and call your extension. However, she told me you wouldn't mind once you found out that you would get to spend your afternoon with Will Darcy." Wheezing out his name, she followed her monologue with an enormous intake of air; she hadn't taken a breath once during her speech.

"Yes, thank you Mary." Elizabeth smoothed her forehead and briefly closed her eyes. I really need to talk to HR about their hiring decisions for secretaries. Arching her brows to further her point, she returned her attention to Lydia and admonished, "Lydia, in the future, I need you to check with me to make sure I'm OK with you providing information like that, do you understand?"

Lydia's face fell flat as she tried not to roll her eyes. "Yes, I understand." Then, reaching into that mostly vacant space between her ears, her face brightened slightly, "But Elizabeth?"

Lizzy was in no mood to hear her, but knew that she deserved the opportunity to defend herself. She raised her eyebrows expectantly at Lydia to gesture for her to continue.

"I don't exactly see why you're complaining. I would kill to have that piece of man-candy in my meeting any day."

I bring it on myself sometimes. "Lydia, ask me. It's not a suggestion."

Aside from the tight-lipped individual seated at the far end of the conference table, Lizzy thought the staff meeting was proceeding remarkably well. She was sure it had a lot do to with the surge of adrenaline she felt coursing through her body as a result of his usual unrelenting stare. It really is a tragedy that such an unbelievably handsome exterior is wasted on that rude, miserable man. Is he here to critique my every move again?

Once the introductions had been gotten over, she quickly settled down to business. She had already managed to define and delegate roles and responsibilities to her very eager team members, and had given each individual assigned contacts for the many third party vendors they would utilize to complete the campaign. About half an hour into the meeting, she had just begun going over her projected timing for deadlines, when Mr. Darcy's voice unexpectedly descended on the room.

"Miss Bennet," he interrupted, "would you be able to speak with me outside a moment?"

Elizabeth could hardly believe her ears. Intruding on her meeting was enough, but calling her to the principal's office in front of her own staff? No way.

"Mr. Darcy, we're pretty much finished." She returned her attention to her staff. "I will email you all the deadlines so that you have them documented in writing. Thank you for your time this afternoon. I look forward to implementing a highly successful campaign with you all."

Once her team had filtered out of the conference room, she shut the door and turned her attention to her unwelcome guest. "I didn't want to keep them unnecessarily. What did you want to speak to me about?"

Lizzy watched as he smoothed his tie, leaned his elbows forward on the table and locked his eyes on hers. "I simply wanted to inform you that our sales projections for the Longbourn are looking remarkably well. My market research team has informed me that they do indeed believe that there is an opening for it in the U.S. segment as well. I thought you might want to tell your team that once their current tasks are completed, there is a strong possibility that new ones will be assigned."

"Thank you for the information. I will be sure to inform them of that at our next meeting." The content of his speech lessened the edge her nerves had been put on, but she was still agitated by his audacity. Elizabeth knew that she needed to lighten the mood, even if just for her own sanity. "Mr. Darcy, didn't you think that I ran that meeting surprisingly efficient? Our own conference took much longer, and I was able to cover the same information."

"Of course you did; but I would expect no less from a practiced manager, particularly one like yourself with a devoted team at her side. We had the added difficulty of it being our first formal business meeting together."

"And so we did." Silence.

He's really not going to say anything else? Ok then…perhaps I can use this to my advantage and find out when I may finally expect to see less of this man. "Do you plan on staying long in the United States?"

There was a slight - almost imperceptible - eyebrow raise there. A reaction! I just witnessed a miracle.

"For the present. In addition to my business arrangements with Lucas Media I am also here for personal matters."

"Ah." More silence.

Seeing that was all the explanation she was going to get, Lizzy knew it was time to wrap this meeting up. Before she could get her thoughts together however, Mr. Darcy stood and spoke again.

"Miss Bennet, I haven't been able to take lunch yet today. Would you care to join me for some refreshment?"

What? Where did that come from? As surprised as she was, Lizzy was even more horrified to realize that her first instinct was to say yes. Her mind then quickly reviewed their past three interactions: vicious insults, unrelenting critique, rude interruptions and practically non-existent conversation. The perfect recipe for a dream lunch with 'man-candy', she mused.

"Thank you but no, I've already eaten. I should really get on with sending this email."

"Alright. Good day Miss Bennet."

"Good day."

Elizabeth watched him give her a brief nod goodbye as he exited the conference room.