Thanks so much for the positive reviews! They really gave me the incentive to keep this up.

Chapter 2

When we arrived at the party, the hotel ballroom was packed with people. As we walked through the doorway, a woman practically knocked me out of her way as she left. She was wearing a ball gown and was positively dripping with diamonds everywhere she could visibly wear jewelry.

"Jane, you owe me big time for this" I hissed in my sister's ear. She just smiled serenely.

"Come on. Let's go find Charlie and Caroline." That had me stopping dead in my tracks.

"Caroline?" Jane turned around and nodded. "As in Caroline Bingley?" She nodded again. "Caroline Bingley, one of my bosses, Caroline Bingley?!?!"

"What other Caroline Bingley would I be talking about?" My jaw just about hit the floor.

"You didn't tell me that Caroline would be here Jane."

"Well, of course she'd be here silly. It is her birthday after all"

"This is Caroline's birthday party?!" Really, this was getting to be way too much shock for my system. Jane frowned.

"Did I not mention that?"

"Um, let me think about it . . . NO YOU DIDN'T!!!!!"

"Lizzie, don't raise your voice, we're in public"

"Jane!"

"Oh ok! I didn't tell you cause if you knew you wouldn't come . . ."

"Damn right I wouldn't have" she sighed

". . . and I really needed you here, Lizzie." Nobody knows how to take the wind out of my pissed off sails like Jane.

"Fine, whatever, we're here already. However, if I end up getting fired because of this, you better lay a serious guilt trip on Charlie, like the one you've been laying on me to get me my job back."

"Don't be silly, you aren't going to be fired because you were asked to come to the party." How naïve Jane can be sometimes "and I'm not laying down a guilt trip on you."

"Oh no, not at all Jane."

"I'll make it up to you Lizzie, I promise." Oooh, that sounds promising. When Jane feels guilty and feels like she needs to make something up to you, she really goes all out.

"Ok. Let's go find Charlie."

It took us awhile to find him, with the room being so big and the crowd being so large, and we didn't really find him so much as he found us. As we were wandering through the room, grabbing drinks as we went along (cause, really, alcohol is about the only thing that was going to make this night get any better at this point), suddenly somebody placed their hands around Jane's waist from behind her, causing her to jump about a foot and nearly spill her drink on her dress. Luckily she didn't.

"Hi sweetie, you made it!" Charlie said as he gave Jane a peck on the cheek.

"Hi honey." was Jane's response as she leaned into him a bit.

"Hey baby" I said to Charlie sarcastically. Charlie's head whipped around towards me, then he relaxed a bit.

"Oh hey Liz."

"Expecting an old girlfriend tonight?" Really, it was just too hard for me to resist.

"What? No, NO! Not at all, just waiting for Jane. I mean, I wasn't panic-like waiting –" I laughed.

"I was kidding Charlie." He breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Jane.

Those two make such a cute couple. You'd think that with Charlie, a head partner at DarBing (the Bing in DarBing) and another one of my bosses, dating my sister, that's how I got my job, but quite the opposite.

I've been at DarBing for about 6 weeks now, since the start of my second year of law school. Jane, on the other hand, is 25 to my 23, and fresh out of med school, starting her residency in pediatrics at Columbia-Presbyterian. About a month ago, Jane had a particularly rough day at the hospital, having lost a patient, and came across town, scrubs and all, to meet me during my lunch break to kind of cry it all out. Of course, Caroline, the head of legal support staff at DarBing's New York office, had once again handed me a huge pile of her work at the last second and I was therefore running late to meet Jane.

So Jane came into the lobby, and not seeing me decided to head towards the elevators to see if I was there. Being that she wasn't her typical, perfect Jane that day, she quite literally ran straight into . . . Charlie Bingley. Having already been on the verge of tears as a result of her day, Jane kind of just lost it and burst out crying. Charlie, of course, was the sweetest, which is normal for him and I'm sure it didn't hurt that Jane is so pretty, and just wrapped his arms around her, brought her up to DarBing in an empty elevator and then steered her into his office so that she could break down privately. Once she calmed down enough to tell him her name in a half hiccuping sob, he went and pulled me away from my desk and Caroline's work. Needless to say, Charlie and Jane have been together ever since. I think that's maybe why she was so desperate for me to come tonight, Jane's not the kind of person who opens herself up to someone, unless she really knows them and that takes time. I guess she feels a bit on uneven ground with Charlie, especially in an atmosphere where she doesn't know anyone else.

Anyway, time to zone back into the present. I noticed that Charlie had taken Jane's hand and was leading her toward the middle of the room and Jane was motioning for me to follow.

"Janie, where are we going?" I whispered in her ear.

"Charlie is taking us to where Caroline is so that we can wish her a happy birthday and give her the gift."

"You brought a gift?" Jane nodded. "Great, now I'll look even worse than I did by just crashing her birthday party."

"You didn't crash, Charlie invited you, and the card has both of our names on it."

"Ok so I'll just look cheap to her instead." I kind of mumbled that last part cause it was no use arguing with Jane anymore and I could use an ally for the rest of the night.

We got to the middle of the room and there in the center of all of her admirers (really, that's what they looked like so what else am I supposed to call them?!) was Caroline. 5'7", the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Charlie and Jane, though Charlie is more of a sandy blonde, Jane a strawberry blonde and Caroline, well there is no other word for it, beach blonde. She was wearing this tight, strapless, pink dress with matching pink heels that showed off her uber thin frame. I get that thin is in, and that I'm not up to date with my muscular body that has curves, but for everyone's sake, eat a carrot stick! Though honestly, aside from the almost anorexic thinness, she really looked pretty. She probably could have been a model, but I guess why bother when you can have designer fashions and make tons of money by doing absolutely no work and just bossing people around?

"Happy birthday Caroline" Jane said as she leaned in for an air kiss with Caroline.

"Janet! I'm so happy you could make it! It's soooo good to see you again!" Charlie coughed.

"It's Jane, Caroline." Caroline laughed, a high pitched tinkling that I'm surprised didn't make the champagne flutes crack.

"Oh how silly I am. How could I forget? Janet was Charlie's last girlfriend." Jane smiled politely and Charlie grimaced. I now felt guilty for teasing Charlie beforehand. Caroline then scanned her immediate audience and focused on me. She fixed a 'polite but I don't really mean it' smile on her face, and marched over to me, grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

"What are you doing here?" She said through clenched teeth. "I'll have your head for this" Really, it was amazing how clear she sounded considering her jaw wasn't moving.

"Ms. Bingley" Yeah, I'm not going to call her Caroline. Certainly not in that moment. "I'm here by invitation. Jane's my sister and Charlie invited me."

"Well." Suddenly that jaw was moving again. "If you're going to be here, might as well be useful." She turned and walked back into the middle of her entourage. What the hell did that mean??? I headed back to Jane. As I neared her, I heard Caroline call out.

"Beth." I kept walking "Oh, Beth!" her voice was louder now and she was pointing in my direction. I looked around to see who she was motioning to and then suddenly realized she was referring to me.

"Yes, Ms. Bingley?" I said in a sickly sweet voice.

"Go get me a flute of champagne." No please, nothing polite about it.

"Sure Ms. Bingley." God, I need a raise for this, especially for being so compliant, is what I thought as I started off.

"Silly Beth, not from there." She pointed to the champagne bottle about 10 feet away. "That one's been open for ages, there are probably no bubbles left. The one over there" and she pointed clear across the room. I waited till I turned before I rolled my eyes. Chances were both bottles had been opened at the same time. But nevertheless, I walked off to get the champagne.

I made it about halfway there when I heard a male voice calling "Beth, Beth." Being that it isn't really my name, I chose to ignore it. Suddenly a rather large hand was on my shoulder stopping me. "Beth!" By now I was in a rather foul mood.

"My name's not Beth unless you're using my full name, so if you'll . . ." I whirled around and was then facing the guy's chest. Now, I'm 5'5" and in the heels I was wearing, I maybe clear 5'8" so this guy had to be about 6'2". I tilted my head to see this guy, and saw a full head of wavy black hair, hazel eyes and that he was really really cute.

"I beg your pardon, that's what Caroline called you so I just assumed your name was Beth." Damn, he had a British accent, and a sexy, make your legs melt, one at that. I shook my head.

"Only if you're calling me Elizabeth. Sorry about biting your head off, I'm not having the best of nights."

"It's no wonder if you're being called names that aren't your name. But your name is Elizabeth?" I nodded.

"Liz" and I extended my hand for a handshake.

"I'm Will." Instead of shaking my hand, he lifted it and kissed the back of it. I'm falling deeper by the second here, need to keep myself from turning into a Lizzie puddle.

"You were trying to get my attention?" Will looked kind of dazed.

"Hmmmm? Oh yes. After you walked off, Caroline realized that she is detoxing this week and isn't drinking alcohol. I didn't want you to have to hike all over the ballroom . . ." So he's a gentleman too. We started heading back toward Caroline, Jane and Charlie.

"Thank you for telling me. So how do you come to be at this party?"

"Actually, I'm –"

"Fitz!" Enter Caroline, stage left. "Oh Fitzy, I wondered where you wandered off to. I was getting lonely." She was now practically hanging off of Will and he was letting her. I then realized that these two were quite possibly an item. I've overheard Caroline at work talking to her cronies about her tall, handsome and British boyfriend.

"I just went to tell Elizabeth that you wouldn't need that glass of champagne." She playfully swatted his shoulder.

"Oh Fitz, you're always thinking about others. You didn't have to go after Beth, she's the help, it's her job to do things like that." Now I'm the help?! Will just shrugged at Caroline. Now really this is going too far. I was about to move forward and say something but Jane moved alongside me and whispered to me.

"Please Lizzie, it's not worth it." I contemplated whether that was really true, but suddenly the music started playing and people began moving onto the dance floor. Charlie extended his hand to Jane and she just patted my arm and followed him to go dance.

Caroline and Will were heading past me together to get to the dance floor, when someone from behind accidentally shoved me and I lost my balance and ungracefully fell. Caroline just ignored me and kept on walking. Will seemed to hesitate for a second as if he was deciding whether to turn and help me, but upon Caroline's tug of his arm, he followed her.

Maybe this Will Fitz wasn't such a gentleman after all. I did know one thing for certain, it was going to be a long night.

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