Can you believe it?! I kept true to my word and updated again!!!! Yay me!!!!! Vacation rocks.
Thanks y'all again for all of the wonderful reviews. They make all the writing worthwhile.
Here you go!
Chapter 22:
I didn't know what we were doing for dinner that evening so I opted for the basic grey cowl-neck sweater dress. I pulled my hair out of its bun and allowed the waves to shake loose and added some light makeup. I threw on a pair of black boots and grabbed my purse and was ready to go.
"Jen, I'm leaving. Don't wait up!" I called as I entered the living room
Jen poked her head out of her room.
"Where are you going?"
"Dinner with the student I showed around today and her brother."
"Ooooh, is the brother cute?"
If only she knew.
"It's a long story that I'll explain later."
"Ok. Have a good time."
I went out into the hall to wait for Julie and Darcy only to find that Will was already there. He was wearing khaki slacks, with a blue button down shirt and a black v-neck sweater on top of which he wore a leather jacket. His hair was slightly damp and curling at the ends. I just stood and stared until he turned and realized I was there.
"Liz!"
"Hi Mr. Darcy."
"Will" he corrected.
"Sorry. Will. It's going to take me a while to get used to it.
He grinned. His gaze then traveled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
"You look beautiful."
"Thank you." Suddenly I was self-conscious.
Julie then burst through her door, practically tripping over her own two feet.
"You always have to make an entrance, don't you Jules?" Will teased as Julie stood up straight and smoothed her hair and tugged at the hem of her dress. She was wearing a wool wrap dress in an eggplant color that was very flattering on her.
"I do try, it helps alert the room to my presence."
"I doubt anyone would neglect to notice your presence when you walked into a room. You look stunning." I told her.
"Thanks. At least this way Will can't accuse me of being a wallflower"
"Which we both know I tell you not to be every single day." He replied sarcastically.
"I am shy when I meet new people."
"For about 2 minutes"
From years of arguing with my own sisters, I sensed a sibling argument brewing.
"Darcys?" I called out
Julie and Will both stopped and looked at me.
"Perhaps we should go? They're predicting that the rain will turn to snow at about 10 p.m."
"Ooooh do you think it will snow a lot?" Julie asked.
"Not enough to cancel classes considering tomorrow is Sunday." I replied
"That's ok. I've always wanted to see the snow in New York. It's never snowed when I've been here."
I let out a half snort.
"What's so funny?" Julie demanded.
"Even if the snow tonight sticks, it will be grey slush by morning."
Julie pouted.
"But that's not snow"
"I agree with you on that. That's one of the best things about going home to my parents over the holidays. They live in eastern Long Island and when it snows there, it really snows. Plus it stays white."
Julie sighed.
"Ladies?"
We turned to face Will.
"Perhaps we should follow Liz's earlier suggestion and go?"
And with that we headed out the door.
"So the day I was supposed to make my big argument for the moot court team tryouts, I go to class wearing a suit and heels because I had to argue directly after class. I walk into the lecture hall and up the steps and as I'm nearing my row I step down, and someone must have spilled their bottle of water on the step and not cleaned it up and I slip and fall. In front of the entire class!"
Julie choked on her drink a little as I was telling the story while we were eating dinner.
"Seriously?! That must have been horrible!"
"I'll say. Half the class rushed to help me and the other half didn't care."
"No way!"
I nodded.
"So now I'm wearing a skirt suit and I've messed up my knee and it's cut in several places and bleeding, which is of course visible. Later I realize that I've also twisted my ankle and it's three times its normal size and I'm limping around school in 2 inch high heels on a twisted ankle and bum knee."
"Oh no!!"
"Yes. But the funny thing is, despite all that, I did my arguments and I made the team."
"That's amazing!"
"It was probably the blood." I joked.
"Does every law student have some kind of horrific, embarrassing law school story?" Julie asked.
"I don't think so." I replied.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Will added in. "My first day at Harvard, I went into my Contracts class and the professor called on me. Well, I had decided that, despite what everyone told me during orientation, I didn't need to read for class and hadn't. So I wasn't prepared. And I had to tell the professor that. In front of 135 people. And then the professor said to me 'Give it a shot Mr. Darcy'."
"Oh no." Julie groaned. Darcy nodded.
"So I gave it a shot. And in my nerves said 'a cluster of plaintiffs'. The professor stared at me and then said "Mr. Darcy, people are not grapes, they do not come in clusters."
Julie and I burst out laughing.
"No way did that happen." I said while trying to catch my breath.
"I assure you that it did."
Julie and I started laughing again.
"And then" he continued "every time I went drinking during our first year, my friends would ask me if I wanted grape juice."
I doubled over from laughing so hard.
"Hey! Who are these people having all this fun? Do I know them?"
We all looked up to see Josh standing over our table.
"Josh!!!!!" Julie squealed and launched herself into his arms.
"Hey Squirt, it's good to see you." Josh replied, enveloping her in a bear hug. "Liz, I'm surprised to see you here. Is there something I don't know?"
Will and I both blushed.
"No. I was Julie's ambassador today and showed her around school. They invited me to join them for dinner tonight."
Josh gasped and clutched his heart.
"They invited you to join them and didn't even bother to call me?! I'm wounded."
"You git." Darcy said. "I left a voicemail on your mobile telling you to meet us here and surprise Julie."
"Ah but I didn't get a personal invitation like Liz did. Perhaps one of us was more important to you than the other?"
Will made a bit of a choking noise.
"Or perhaps Will saw one of you in person and not the other?" Julie interjected.
"Way to go charging on your white horse Julie." Josh jabbed back.
"Thank you."
My head just bobbed from person to person as the whole conversation went on, as if I was watching a tennis match.
"Shall we order dessert?" Will asked suddenly. And so the meal continued.
Both Josh and Will accompanied Julie and I back to the dorm.
"Hey Jules, why don't I help you break down your first case so that you understand it?" Josh asked in the elevator ride up to our floor.
"Why? Don't you think I can do it on my own?"
"I've always said that pea sized brain of yours couldn't comprehend everything."
"Hey!" Julie said indignantly and swatted Josh on the arm while he grinned goofily.
The elevator dinged as we reached our floor. We walked down the hall toward our rooms and stopped at Julie's door.
"Will are you going to come in and join us?" Julie asked.
"In a minute Jules, go on in without me and I'll join you."
"Night Liz!"
"Night Julie. I'm next door if you need anything."
"Thanks!"
"Good Night Liz."
"G'Nite Josh, I'll see you Monday."
With that Julie and Josh went inside and closed the door behind them.
Will just stood in the hall with me and silence loomed.
"I had a really good time tonight Will, thank you for inviting me."
"I enjoyed myself as well. Thank you for showing Julie around today and for looking out for her."
"I like Julie. I think we are going to become fast friends."
Silence.
"Well good night."
"Good night Liz."
Neither one of us moved. More silence.
Darcy took a step toward me. I took one toward him as well so that we were almost touching. He looked down at me and I could almost feel his breath on my face. Caught up in the moment, I closed my eyes, tilted my face up toward his, and slowly began to raise myself onto the tips of my toes. I felt Will's hand snake behind me to cup the back of my neck. He bent down to get closer, close enough that our lips were almost touching and his breath was tickling my lips. I parted my lips slightly – and Julie's door banged open.
"Will! Are you coming?! Josh is telling me that I don't understand this case about cotton farmers and is saying that it is really a case about lemon wholesalers!"
Will and I sprung apart from each other. Julie suddenly realized what she barged in on.
"Oh! Whoops, sorry. Don't mind me." And popped back inside.
By that point the moment was broken and Darcy and I just stood there.
"Um, well, good night Will."
"Good night." He responded.
And with that, I let myself into my room.
Awwwww. If it makes anyone feel better, I really really wanted Will and Liz to kiss too. So badly that I sat writing this going "you're the author you idiot, you can make them kiss if you want them to kiss. So let them kiss." But I'm the author and I know that they can't kiss now, it would ruin everything. Uggggggh!
I'm thinking about doing another contest . . . I just have to figure out what it should be and what the prize should be. What do you think? Let me know when you click that little button and review!