When Lizzie and Lydia got back home, their hair, their make-up, the overall nature of their arrival had their dad laughing at them.
"You two look like you had a ton of fun last night."
"Tons." Lizzie smiled. "I call shower first!"
"You two better hurry up, your mother is almost ready."
When he said "almost ready" he actually meant that they had precisely one hour to finish getting ready for their lunch. Lizzie washed herself and got ready, careful not to touch the tattoo. She applied minimal makeup, and perched sunglasses on her nose.
"Are you girls ready?" Their mother laughed.
"Yes!" Lydia and Lizzie replied. They looked at each other, and laughed as they came down the stairs.
"Jane invited everyone to the lunch, it's going to be the four of us, Caroline, Will and his sister."
"Gigi is here?" Lizzie asked. Her mother nodded. "God, I haven't seen her for a really long time. I bet she's all grown up and everything."
The rest of the party was already seated, waiting for the rest of the Bennets to arrive. Around the table was Jane, Charlie, Caroline, Will and Gigi. Her parents sat by Jane, and left the seat next to Gigi open. Georgiana Darcy was signing to her brother. Lizzie did not see all of it, but she had signed along the lines of 'I didn't know she was back in town." Will waved her off and told her to be nice to Lizzie.
Lizzie had spent years learning ASL so that she could talk and have conversations with Gigi without Will having to translate everything for her. She smiled and said hello to everyone at the table.
How are you Gigi?
Fine, thank you Lizzie.
It's so nice seeing you again. You're so tall and a beautiful young woman. I see that your school is treating you well.
It is a good school.
Lizzie felt really proud of herself that she was able to communicate with Gigi still, she hadn't forgotten her sign, or had to fingerspell any of the words. But at the same time, she could tell Gigi was blowing her off. She didn't understand why. They were friends, they were supposed to be friends. As the conversations carried on, Caroline started to feel like she was not getting enough attention.
"So, Elizabeth, how is everything in Derbyshire?"
"It's so great Caroline."
"What is it you do again? Weren't you an assistant something?"
"Oh, no actually, I produce now." Lizzie smiled emphasizing the difference in promotion. "I'm in charge of the news channel down there." She looked at Caroline, who obviously had a loss of words. Lizzie wanted so much to yell, "suck it bitch! That's right!" Lizzie had a theory about Caroline. That she has always had it out for Lizzie, ever since Caroline met her, she didn't really like Lizzie. The feeling was mutual, especially since finding out that Caroline had the total hots for William. Now, she wasn't supposed to care if Will and Caroline got together, he wasn't dating Lizzie anymore. He wasn't hers, sure he was the guy that she has known her whole life, her first kiss, her first dance at prom, and the first guy she fell in love with when she was 13, the guy she lost her virginity to. He was a lot of her firsts, but now he wasn't hers.
"That's wonderful." As if she couldn't get any more plastic.
"Oh, hey Charlie, thanks for the aspirin last night." Lizzie said. Lydia echoed the gratitude.
"That was all Will." He nodded at his best friend. William smiled slightly, then went back to poking at his food.
"Thank you William!" Lydia yelled from across the table.
"You're welcome Lyds." He said.
The lunch was so good. Lizzie was beyond full and could hardly breathe. "Lizzie, do you want to come over later? I can take you home." Jane asked.
"Yeah! Sure." She answered.
"You too Will?" He looked up at Jane with wide eyes, obviously not paying attention. "Can you come over?"
He turned to Gigi, Do you mind if I go to Jane and Charlie's? Do you want to go?
Take me home first, I'm tired. Gigi signed back.
"I'll take Gigi home first, then I'll come over."
"Alright, sounds good." Charlie said.
"Bathroom break." Jane announced, "come with me Lizzie?"
"What is this? The 10th grade?" Charlie asked.
The sisters stuck their tongues out at him.
"Look, I'm sorry about last night." Lizzie started when they got to the bathroom.
"Oh, no. It was really entertaining. Charlotte sent me videos."
"That's when the clothes came off?" She said, like an epiphany.
"Yup." She flushed the toilet and came out of the stall, "it's just something happened last night, and Will won't tell me."
"What do you mean?"
"He was kind of really excited to see you Lizzie. Yesterday, he wouldn't say it, but he was. He and Charlie just got stuck at work. Now he's all- quiet."
"I honestly don't know" Lizzie shrugged, "and I don't know why you think it's my fault."
"Be nice to him please Lizzie."
"I being nice." Lizzie said, "I am nice!"
When they walked to the table, she saw Gigi signing to Will. She watched Gigi sign that she didn't care. Will told her she was being rude, but stopped when the two girls returned to the table.
Gigi walked away, towards the car without saying bye to anyone. Lizzie looked back at her and sighed. She didn't understand. She did meet Will's glance when she looked back, and turned away quickly.
Lydia was glad to go home with her parents, she could go back to sleep, and then wake up to start on the homework she had due later that week. Caroline was off to meet with her socialite friends and shop while she was in Netherfield.
Lizzie got into the back seat of Charlie and Jane's car. "Was it a wicked hangover Lizzie?"
"It was beyond terrible, I still felt like I was spinning when I woke up, and this tattoo was not the best idea."
"I told you not to do anything stupid."
"I know, I know, I was such a cliche last night."
She collapsed onto their couch and closed her eyes. She fell into a light sleep, waking up to her phone ringing. Her eyes shot open, and William Darcy was sitting on the couch opposite of her looking down at his phone. Goddamn it, he saw her sleeping.
"Hello?" She said answering the phone. It was her assistant Kitty.
"Lizzie, he have a problem."
"What kind of problem Kitty?" Lizzie got up and took the call outside. She sighed as she listened to the report and thought about it. "You're kidding me right?" Kitty sounded like she was panicking, "No, it's fine Kitty, we'll take care of it. I just need you to send him a hard copy of the green folder. There should be one on my desk. Go get it, look through it, make sure everything is there, then take it to Nick. Please make sure he gets it. Thank you Kitty." Her assistant was still on the line, ranting about it being her fault, "Kitty, it's fine, just go fix it."
She checked her email and sent a couple in response. She shot Kitty a text message to make sure she was okay, but heard her name behind her, "Lizzie?" She watched Will stand awkwardly in front of her, "I'm sorry." Will was putting out a cigarette.
"I didn't know you smoked."
"It's a bad habit, sorry."
"Sorry? For what?"
"I don't know if you saw Gigi earlier-"
"No, I didn't. She was fine, she talked to me. And if this is you trying to talk to me. Will, you're doing a terrible job."
"I know, I just-"
"What's the damn problem Will?"
"I don't know."
"You do know, but you just don't tell me. You don't want to tell me, and that's what frustrates me so much. You're such a smart man with a brilliant mind-"
"Goose-"
"No, you don't get to call me that, not anymore."
She returned back inside and sat on the couch next to her sister. "Everything alright?" Jane asked.
"Yeah, not a problem I can't take care of." She put her hand on her sister's stomach, "is he kicking?"
Will came in a little while later, probably trying to air out the smell of the cigarettes.
"Alright, now that we have your attention, you two have been chosen to be this baby's godparents and God forbid anything happen, but we want you two to know that there are perks to this job other than making him call you Uncle or Auntie Favorite." Jane started, "we got you a little something."
Charlie handed both Lizzie and Will a small box, "it's kind of lame, but you two have always been there for us, and we know you'll be here for our little guy too."
Lizzie found a necklace with a small pendant in her box. It had an engraved heart of it. She looked over at William's present, a new money clip. She jumped up and hugged her sister and brother-in-law. "Thank you, so so so much."
"Yeah, thank you." Will said shaking Charlie's hand.
Jane disappeared to the bathroom again, and Lizzie was smiling at her phone, "Who are you texting Lizzie? Looks interesting."
"It's Charlotte. She's been talking to one of the guys from last night and she wants me to go with her when she sees him."
"NO." Will said quickly. "no."
"What the hell?" Lizzie said looking at him, "what makes you think I'm going to listen to you. You know George, Will."
"I do, you don't."
"What? Are we in the third grade? I can't have more than one friend?"
"If you knew what-"
"You could just tell us." Lizzie waited. He just stared back at her intensely. Thank god his phone started to ring, he answered it and watched Gigi sign. He signed no and that he would leave right away.
"I have to go." He quickly got up. "Bye Jane! I'll see you tomorrow."
He shut the door behind him, "stupid asshole." Lizzie said crossing her arms.
"You know that he pretty much saved your ass last night." Charlie said.
"What?" She demanded.
"Yeah, while you were drunk off your ass, one of the creeps was trying to make a move."
"So he got jealous and kept me from getting laid?"
"God, you need to know your limit Lizzie. He was looking out for you. The guy was really touchy, with you, I was getting uncomfortable."
"Oh."
"He's had a tough year Liz. He finally started to see someone but"
Jane came into the room and he stopped talking, "Where's Will?"
"He needed to go." Lizzie said. "What were you saying Charlie?"
"I don't know what happened. They just stopped seeing each other."
"You told her?" Jane asked.
"They're both my best friends Janie!"
"Lizzie, I wanted to tell you, but Will asked us not to talk about it."
"Oh, it's fine." Lizzie said. She thought about Will seeing other people. The idea of her seeing other people was fine, but when she tried to imagine Will with another woman, it really bothered her. She didn't want to show Jane and Charlie so she tried to play it cool, "It's his problem, not mine."
Charlie sighed, "He still loves you."
"Charles." Jane said, warningly.
"She had to know." He put his hands up and walked away.
Lizzie sat very still. "I'm not going to apologize for him." Jane said, quietly, "I want to, but he is right."
"Can you take me home please?" Lizzie asked.
The radio was off in Angelica's car, making the awkwardness more awkwards. Lizzie didn't speak until they were parked outside her dad's house. "Why didn't you tell me about his girlfriend?"
"I knew you weren't seeing anyone and I didn't want you to-"
"Jane, I left him. Have you ever thought that maybe seeing him with someone else would've helped me get over him? I. Left. Him. I've felt guilty every day since."
"Why are you so mean to him all the time Lizzie? Right before you got here, he was so happy. Gigi was coming down for the weekend, and he didn't say it, but he was excited to see you to."
"I don't know… I'm scared maybe."
"Scared of what?"
"Nothing, nevermind." She chickened out. She was scared to tell her sister that she was scared that she might still love him, even after all this time. If she was nice to Will, he wouldn't hate her, and if he didn't hate her, she would hate herself even more for leaving him.
"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."
"Promised who what?" Lizzie asked.
"William. I told him that I wouldn't tell anyone not even Charlie."
"What did you promise him Janie?"
"He caught them you know. His girlfriend and another guy. Then he saw texts that they'd been sending each other."
"Other guy?"
Jane nodded, "You'll be cool tomorrow right? You're not going to act all weird because you know all this?"
"Uh, yeah, I won't." Lizzie answered. Her mental gears already in motion. "You should get going. Charlie probably wouldn't want you home late."
"Yeah, okay. I'll see you tomorrow Lizzie. Make sure you get some sleep tonight."
Not likely. Lizzie walked through the front door, and found her mom making desserts. She had batter in mixing bowls and cupcake tins everywhere. "Lizzie, you're home, good."
"I'm almost done, just a few more things, then I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted."
"I can finish it all up Mama." Lizzie offered.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, go ahead and get some sleep, you're going to want to look fresh faced tomorrow morning."
Mrs. Bennet patted Lizzie's arm, "Thank you sweetheart. Don't stay up too late. Love you."
"Love you too." She finished the last batch of cupcakes and washed the dishes. She let the cupcakes cool, then started on filling candy jars with sugar and skittles. Lizzie finished everything around 11 and made her way upstairs. Boyfriend was laying on her bed and looked up when she came inside. Sher head was still running and she kept thinking back to what Jane had said. She ran through every action Will had done since she got back and then she thought about how bitchy she had been towards him. She winced at the memory, and wished that she could switch it off so she could sleep. Rather, she got up and got a head start on cleaning and putting up the smaller banners inside the house.
She cleaned until there was nothing else to clean. It was 1:39 am. She had 12 hours and 21 minutes until the baby shower. She had nothing to do, and sleep was definitely not an option. She grabbed the spare keys to her dad's car and drove around. She drove for half an hour, and somehow ended up in front of Will's apartment. It could have all been muscle memory, but part of her wanted to talk to him. She debated on whether or not to call him. She looked down at her phone as her thumb hovered over his name. What would she do? What would she say? She buried her head in her hands and yelled in frustration.
"Hello?" She heard a muffled voice? "Lizzie?" She looked down at her phone, she accidentally did call him. She couldn't play it off. She froze for a moment.
"Hello?" He said again.
"Will? Sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to call."
"It's alright."
Then it was quiet.
"Uhm…" He started, "I think we should talk."
"Yeah, yes." She answered quickly. "I think we should too. Look, also, don't get mad at them, but I know."
"Know what?" He asked. He shifted in bed and she could hear the sheets.
"I'm sorry, it's really late, I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's okay Lizzie." He paused, "do you want me to come a little early tomorrow. I could help set up."
"Funny story actually…" She laughed nervously, "I'm outside."
"Outside? Like on the street?"
"Like I'm in my dad's car."
She didn't hear anything on the other end of the phone, but she saw his front door open, and he stepped outside. He had just woken up, his hair was sticking up in different directions and he was in his boxers.