Hi everyone! I'm back! I know i keep apologizing and promising to be more consistent and then ditching again but this time I swear I won't. I can guarantee this because... I actually finished the story! My awesome beta Mab35 is reading the next 3 chapters and I am just typing up the last couple of chapters (Yes I do my writing with a pen and paper)

And so here is the next chapter...hope you like it, looking forward to hearing from you!

Chapter 23

Richard marched briskly to his office, his mind full of everything but the hectic work day ahead. Frankly he felt like a teenager watching a soap opera. All this "will they, wont they" was giving him a headache. And yet he couldn't rest until he knew the answer.

"Good Morning Mr. Fitzwilliam." his secretary chirped brightly as she made to follow him to his office, struggling to keep pace with him.

"Morning Elise. What's on the schedule for this morning?" He shrugged off his jacket at hung it on the coat rack before walking to his desk. Sitting down, he automatically adjusted the picture frame closest to him, a photo of Jesse, her head thrown back as she laughed aloud, eyes crinkled at something he had just said. It was his favorite picture of her.

"You have a conference call at 9 with Mr. Bennet and Mr. Darcy, a lunch meeting with Mr. Thatcher and the sales department is still waiting for you to approve their latest incentive program." She stood in front of him, prim and proper in her pencil skirt and sweater set, tapping away on her iPad as she read it out to him, "Oh, and I have those numbers you asked for." She passed him a folder.

"Thank you" He reached out for it and placed in on his desk before turning on his laptop. "You can let the sales department know that Mr. Darcy and I will get back to them by the end of the day."

"Alrighty" She turned to leave, pausing when he spoke again,

"Also, can you let my cousin know I need to see him when he gets a chance?"

"Sure thing Mr. Fitzwilliam" Knowing she was dismissed, she walked out silently, her sensible mary-janes making very little noise. It was one of the things Richard admired about her. She was practical. No 4 inch heels for her at the workplace and he preferred it that way. He waited for her to shut the door before turning to his work to make sure he had everything ready before his conference call with Michael. After half an hour of reading over documents and double-checking figures and profit margins, Richard heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," He looked up to see his cousin confidently stride into his office. "Hey, you're finally here!"

"Yes I am, now what's the big emergency? Do you want to go over anything?" Darcy sat down across the desk and picked up some papers to look them over. Richard rolled his eyes,

"No you moron! What happened with Lizzy? You never called me back."

Darcy sighed and tossed the papers down onto the desk before sitting back and stretching his legs out, crossing his ankles, "Nothing happened. I called her repeatedly but she never answered. I figured I'll just talk to her in person."

Richard nodded, "Good idea. Let's go now." He rolled back his chair and pushed off his desk, standing in one quick motion.

"First of all, there's no 'let's'. I'm going to talk to her alone. Secondly, I can't now. We have our conference call with Michael in," Darcy checked his watch, "20 minutes." He played with the cuff of his shirt, adjusting the cuff links. "So, do you think we'll end up branching out to LA?"

Richard stared at his cousin in confusion, "How can you be so calm and relaxed at a time like this? You've been holding all this in for months. Aren't you relieved that you're finally going to come clean?" His cousin raised an eyebrow,

"Well I'm glad that I look calm to you because I am anything but. I need to distract myself right now or I'll end up chickening out." He stood up, "And that's why I'm going back to my office to get ready for Michael." He strode out of the room ignoring his cousin's cries,

"If you just talk to her now you won't have to pretend to be calm!" He clasped his hands behind his head and sighed in frustration, "Great," he muttered, "Now I have to tune into another episode of Days of our shitty Lives."

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"Our next move logically would be to branch out to Los Angeles. London is stable, New York is as always, strong. Of course if neither of you wants to move down there that's fine, but we would have to assemble a competent team to run it." Michael's voice could be heard loud and clear over the speakerphone.

"It makes sense to have an office in LA. I'm surprised you didn't do this earlier." Richard twirled a pen between his fingers as he listened. "But who would run it?"

Darcy flipped through the folder in front of him. Sitting in his own office, he was the mirror opposite of his cousin. Where Richard sat back with his feet up, something he would never do if he had an audience, Darcy sat up straight in his chair, perfectly postured and alert. "I think Coleman would be an excellent choice and he deserves the promotion. He's been with us for years and his performance is always stellar"

"Well that'll come later. For now, I want the two of you to go down there and get things started."

Richard grimaced. He wasn't overly fond of the sunny climate, "For how long?"

Michael chuckled. He knew Richard well enough to know what was going through his mind, "Well you boys know what you're doing. Shouldn't take too long. Just get things set up. Get the ball rolling and you can follow up as needed."

Darcy spoke up, "We should be good to go after the holidays."

"Excellent," Michael voice revealed his enthusiasm, "I'm running late for a meeting but keep me posted."

"Will do. Oh, are we going to be seeing you for Christmas?" Richard asked. He knew Darcy was eager to know as well.

"No, I have too much going on right now. This will be a working holiday for me."

Darcy frowned and struggled to keep the accusation out of his voice. "But I thought you said the London office was stable?"

"It is and I intend to keep it that way."

Richard bit his tongue. It wouldn't do to mouth off to his boss. Michael was easy going but even he wouldn't put up with insubordination from an employee.

"Is there anything else?" From his tone, Richard could tell that his cousin was also holding back.

"No that's it for now. Oh, one last thing. Let Lizzy know about LA also. I'm not sure I'll get a chance to fill her in myself but I want her there."

Richard heard the decisive click before he could say anything else. Why did Michael think he wouldn't have time in the mere weeks before the trip to inform his daughter about the plans? Was he not in touch with her?

"Richard are you still there?" Darcy spoke up startling his cousin out of his thoughts.

Richard sighed, "Yeah I'm still here. Lizzy's not going to be happy about this. She was expecting him back for the holidays."

"I know" Darcy agreed. He could see Lizzy's face almost as if she were in front him, eyes wide and despondent, "Well maybe she'll go to London for Christmas."

"Maybe. Hey, when are you planning on talking to her?

"I don't know. I thought maybe I'd take her to lunch and talk to her then."

Richard smiled and removed his feet from his desk, "Sounds like a plan. Ok I'm hanging up, I have to get back to work."

"You? Work? Please" His cousin scoffed

"Shut up."

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Lizzy was on the phone with Charlie when someone knocked on her office door.

"Come in," She called out before directing her attention back to the phone. Marc peeked his head in and grinned. Lizzy smiled back and waved him in, "Yes from what I understand everything is on track for the Office party but what's the rush? We still have a couple of weeks."

Marc walked in and made himself comfortable in the leather chair across his girlfriend, taking a frame from her desk and examining the picture inside. It happened to be one with Lizzy posing with Richard and Darcy. He wondered about their dynamic. From what he understood, they weren't related.

"Charlie why are you so worried? Party planning isn't in your job description." She paused to listen to him rant a little more before cutting him off, "Okay, okay relax. I promise I will be there. I won't bail on this one." She rolled her eyes as she put the phone down.

"So," She smiled at the young man in front of her, "what are you doing here?"

Marc leaned over and put the picture frame back, "Well, my meeting was pushed to tonight and I found myself quite hungry and in the mood to try some American cuisine. Of course, I was hoping to be accompanied by a gorgeous woman. Do you know anyone who would be interested?" His grin was contagious and Lizzy realized that all those years in Paris had not made her immune to handsome gentlemen with charming accents.

"Well today's your lucky day. Turns out I am free." She stood up and moved towards the door, pausing to grab her purse and jacket and toss it over her arm as she followed him out, "Wait, so does this mean you aren't free for dinner?" He paused and pivoted around to face her.

"Oui ma belle, I am so sorry, but I cannot skip this meeting," Lizzy could hear the sincerity in his voice and shook off her disappointment at having to dine alone.

"Don't worry, I understand. Go do your thing and we'll meet up another time," She pulled her office door closed and turned back to look at him. He stared intently at her and, satisfied with what he saw, he leaned down to kiss her. When he pulled away she smiled at him as he wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to the elevator. Once they had both stepped inside, he pulled her to him once more. Lost in each other, neither one noticed the two tall gentlemen staring at them, one in shock and the other in despair.

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"Who the hell was that?" Darcy fumed as he walked back to his cousin's office. Richard raced to keep up with the enraged man.

"I have no idea but hang on, give me a minute,"

Darcy stopped walking as he watched his cousin exchange a few words with his secretary before joining him once more.

"Sorry, had to push my lunch meeting," Richard followed Darcy into his office and shut the door behind him. They really didn't need an audience for this. Darcy whirled around,

"Who is he?"

Richard shrugged helplessly and walked over to a chair and sat down, watching his cousin pace back in forth in frustration. He didn't quite know what to say.

"When did she start seeing someone? Is it serious?" He stopped pacing as the reality of that question hit him full force. Panic stricken, he turned to face Richard, "Wait, is it serious? Is he her boyfriend? Does she have a boyfriend?" His voice was increasingly sharp with each question. It never occurred to him that Lizzy would move on. Richard held his hands up defensively,

"Listen, I'm as baffled as you-"

Darcy cut him off, "You said she had feelings for me!"

"She does-"

"Well obviously not or she has a weird way of showing it." He began pacing again. Richard sighed,

"Listen man I don't know what happened but I spoke to her yesterday and got her to admit that she had feelings for you. She was even going to talk to you about it."

"So what happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know what happened last night but hey it can't be serious. I mean she was single yesterday afternoon so-"

Darcy held his hand up, "Please. No more from you. You almost messed me up. If I had spoken to her earlier, do you realize how humiliated I would have been?"

Richard stood up to face his cousin, "Hey man, come on, I was trying to help you! How was I supposed to know that she'd find a boyfriend in 6 hours?" He cursed himself in his head for trying to help his friends once again.

Darcy closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel the beginning of a headache coming on, "Look Richard I appreciate what you were trying to do but you must have misunderstood her. She obviously doesn't have those kinds of feelings for me. The most I can hope for is going back to being friends. I'm just going to work on that.

Richard sat back down and frowned. It was not like his cousin to just throw in the towel for anything. "Will, hang on a minute. This guy is clearly a rebound guy. She couldn't have gone from pining over you in the afternoon to head over heels for some guy overnight. You still have a shot!"

Darcy shook his head slowly, "No. Rebound or not she looked happy with him. And she hasn't looked like that for a while now. I'm not going to ruin that for her. It's time for me to leave well enough alone." He turned around to face the window. The view of the city, the cars and pedestrians that looked like toys from his perspective, always a balm to his soul did nothing to calm his churning insides.

"What? Seriously?" Richard sputtered. "What's the matter with you? I never took you for a quitter." He couldn't help but be disappointed at this anticlimax. The silence in the room was deafening and he sat chewing his bottom live pensively, not wanting to be the one to speak first. Finally his cousin spoke up,

"It's not quitting when there's nothing to quit," Darcy muttered under his breath just loud enough to be heard.