A/N: I still don't own Pride and Prejudice after all this time. For anyone who is curious, there are links to pictures of Charlotte's and Lizzie's dresses from chapter 17 in my profile.

Chapter Eighteen: Un Giorno Por Noi

Lizzie's POV

I had to go into work on Friday morning. Classes were starting Monday morning and I needed to do a ton of prep work. Plus we had a million obnoxious staff meetings that day. Kyle wasn't mad at all about the fact that we wouldn't be going on a date that weekend. "You finally found the guy you're supposed to be with," he told me before the Friday morning staff meeting. "I'm so happy for you guys and I'm sure I'll find the girl I'm supposed to be with very soon."

I smiled at him. "Kyle, you're a great guy and any girl would be lucky to be with you."

"Just invite me to your wedding," he said. "Oh, don't give me that look, Elizabeth Anne Bennett; you know that you're going to marry him and it's just a matter of time before I'm proven correct."

Jane and Charlie were both convinced that they had brought Will and me together. I didn't think they had; I think that was a combination of God and Will's crazy aunt, but we weren't about to burst their bubble. I was just happy that after all these months everything had been set to rights. I had screwed things up badly back in April, but now Will and I were going on our first date. I couldn't believe it; I was going on a date with William Darcy. A few weeks, heck even days, earlier I wouldn't have believed this possible. But his aunt had helped things along instead of making them worse. I guess my defense of myself to her had proven to Will that I was interested in him. The night before he had said she had given him hope instead of destroying his opinion of me.

It was so hard to get through the day. Will was going to pick me up around six-thirty and then we were going to have dinner at my favorite restaurant, La Riviera. Damien and I had gone there on our first date but I had a feeling things would be different this time. For one thing, Will wasn't a player and for another, I just had a good feeling about this one. Will is a good guy and I like him. Plus Jane approved of him and so did Kyle. The only other opinions I really needed were my dad's, Becca's, Steve's, Jenny's, and Hannah's. I was pretty sure my dad would approve of him; it was Steve who I was worried about. Steve Logan seems to think that he's my big brother and that his purpose in life is to protect me from men who want to hurt me. He's also of the impression that most guys out there want to hurt me.

As I did final preparations for the first day of school, I thought about the situation with Kyle and Steve and the way they treat the guys I like or who like me. I'm glad I have people who love me and care about my safety like that in my life. They're real sweethearts. Becca is very lucky to have Steve in her life and someday, hopefully soon, Kyle is going to make some girl very, very happy. He deserves a girl he can treat like a princess.

At six-thirty, I was standing in my bathroom with Jane and Mary trying to put the finishing touches on my outfit. I was wearing a black strapless lace eyelet dress with a white sweater on top to protect me from the restaurant's air conditioning. My dark brown curls were hanging loose around my shoulders and Jane was doing my make-up. My sisters were determined to make me look like a princess. I was wearing a thin silver necklace with a white stone hanging from it and matching earrings. "You look so pretty," Mary said. "Will is going to fall in love with you when he sees you."

I smiled at her. "I just hope the date goes well. I really like Will and I want things to work out for us."

"You're all set," Jane said. "You look gorgeous, Lizzie-belle, and I promise you that everything is going to work out for you two. Will has been waiting for you for months; he's going to keep fighting to make a relationship with you work." She hugged me and kissed my cheek as the doorbell rang. "I'll answer that while you put on your shoes. Knock him dead, Lizzie-belle."

"Yes, ma'am," I said with a mock salute. Then as she ran done the stairs, I put on my black stiletto peep-toe shoes that I love more than a great many things; they're my favorite shoes. Plus I can actually wear heels around Will because he's over six feet tall. I like being able to wear heels but you can't do that with all guys. Not that I'm really tall or anything; I'm 5'5", which is pretty much average for American women. I knew Will was over six-foot but I wasn't sure how tall he was until we'd been dating for a while. But that's another story for another time.

I hurried downstairs after I put my shoes and found Will standing there wearing a black suit with a dark blue shirt and a black tie. He looked so unbelievably nice; it was insane. Will Darcy really is a gorgeous man. His ears might stick out a little and his nose might not quite fit his face but he's still very good-looking. He smiled at me and handed me a single white rose. "A little bird told me that you like white roses," he told me.

I nodded and smiled. "I love them. Just let me put this in some water and then we can get going."

"Of course," he replied, following me into the kitchen. I grabbed a thin glass vase from a cupboard and filled it with water so I could put my rose in it.

"Who told you that I like white roses?" I asked looking at him over the rose.

He smiled. "You won't let me leave it at a little birdie?"

His face was so adorable I had to tell him it was fine and let it go. I'd find out who ratted me out about white roses soon enough.

Dinner was amazing. We just talked about everything for hours. We started talking about his niece and ended up talking about why he became a lawyer. We talked about why I was a teacher and sports teams that we liked. We talked about our families and he explained more about what Gianna had told me in Virginia about his younger siblings. "My mom had two stillbirths and three miscarriages between having me and having Gianna. It was really hard on her and my dad; it put a huge strain on their marriage and I'm not sure how things would have gone if Gianna hadn't survived. It could have destroyed their marriage."

"That's so sad," I said. "I can't imagine what it would be like to lose five babies, one after another."

"It broke my mother's heart," he replied. "She grew attached to those babies; she loved them. But she never got to keep them. Gianna and I were all she had."

"What about your dad?" I asked.

He shrugged. "My dad was a good guy. He worked hard to provide for his family and make sure we had everything we could ever want in life but I think that sometimes business and money were also an escape for him. He needed an escape from the struggles in his personal life so he poured himself into the Pemberley chain, letting it consume his life. I don't want to be like him. I know I'm a workaholic a lot of the time but I'm trying to work on that. I mean I didn't bring any work to dinner tonight."

I smiled. "I appreciate that. This might sound weird but you're a lot easier to talk to than I used to think you were. I know that sounds awful but for a long time I was terrified of you."

"I thought you just hated me."

"I did," I replied. "But you said I wasn't attractive."

"I lied," he said solemnly. "I said that because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want people to know that I found you attractive. So I told Charlie that I wasn't attracted to you. But I lied and I never should have done that."

"Yeah well, I shouldn't have hated you just because of that one comment and everything Damien told me. I don't know why I believed him even after he dumped me. I think I just wanted to hate you."

He smiled. "That comment inspires confidence."

"I don't want to hate you anymore. After what you did for Lydia and for our family, I could never hate you. But it was actually when we were all in Virginia that I realized who you really were."

"And who am I?"

I blushed. "You're a good guy and you care about people. You take such good care of your sister and your niece. And you were so nice to my cousins."

"They were good kids and I like kids. Plus they were a great distraction from all the work I had to take care of that week. You have no idea how much stress is involved in running a hotel chain. One hotel is hard but eight or nine can get ridiculous."

I smiled. I had grown up listening to my father talk about difficulties of running a hotel and I could only imagine that running a chain of hotel-resorts while working as a lawyer could make life complicated. "How do you live like that?" I asked. "You have to keep traveling for Pemberley and you have your job as a lawyer and now if we're going to start dating that's going to be even more traveling for you."

He smiled. "I can do this. It's not as bad as you think it is. I only visit the hotels a couple times a year and my case load probably won't be that bad for the rest of the year. So I can come visit you and stay with Charlie. And we can talk on the phone. And when you have a long weekends and holiday breaks you could go stay with your aunt and uncle and visit me. I know being a teacher doesn't give you the best vacation time from September to June, but we can make this work."

"You've thought about this before, haven't you?" I asked.

"A little," he replied. "I also know what my life is like. I do travel a least one week a month and I'm usually in court about two weeks a month but that still leaves me with one free week every month. I usually spend that working and I want to spend more time with Emily especially now that Gianna is going back to school but I also want to make an effort to spend time with you."

I bit my lip; I almost felt like crying. I'd never had any guy tell me that he really wanted to make an effort to spend time with me. I looked up into his warm brown eyes and smiled. "You really want to make this relationship work, don't you?"

He nodded. "Lizzie, I'm thirty years old and I finally found a woman I care about who isn't related to me. I want to make this work. I know this is only our first date and I know this might scare you but I'm determined."

"You've been waiting for me, haven't you?" I asked. "You knew that I would eventually change my mind and want to be with you. I know that makes you sound really egotistical but I think you're the type of person who could decide that they want to marry a girl even if he was pretty sure she hated him."

Will's POV

"That really makes me sound like an asshole," I said with a laugh and a smile. "You're making me sound like I'm so self-confident that I know girls will fall in love with me. I don't actually know that at all. I never would have guessed that I would be sitting here tonight until a few days ago."

She smiled at me. "Well I guess things worked out better than expected."

"Much better," I replied with a smile. I looked around the restaurant and then down at my watch. "It's about ten; we should get going."

"But I don't want this to be over," she said. "I'm not ready for tonight to be over. I want to do something else."

I looked at her. "You're from this town. What do you want to do?"

"We should watch a movie at my place," she replied enthusiastically. "Mary has to work until two and Jane is out with Charlie."

"Why does Mary always work until all hours of the night?" I asked as we were walking out to the car.

"She doesn't have the best social skills and so it's better to schedule her when the lobby isn't very busy. She's efficient and stuff but she's just not that good with people. And that's hard."

"How so?" I asked. We were in my car now, driving back to her condo.

"It's weird. I don't know if you've ever really noticed this but Jane, Katie, Lydia, and I are all pretty social beings, but Mary really prefers to keep to herself. I'm not really sure why. Both of my parents are pretty social. I really don't understand her; I love her but I don't get her at all."

"That stinks," I said.

"When we were younger, Dad wanted her to see a therapist but Mom didn't want to air our dirty laundry in front of a stranger. Now Jane and I are pretty sure that airing family laundry in front of one stranger would have been preferable to trying to deal with Mary and her problems now." She sighed. "I don't know why I'm telling you about this except for the fact that she's driving me nuts. She won't talk to Jane or me except when we force her to and she's eating really weirdly and I'm pretty sure she hates us. And don't tell me that's impossible because she's our sister. She does hate us. And I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm probably scaring the crap out of you and completely running everything and this is only our first date. You probably never want to see me again."

"Lizzie, we all have families and we all have eccentric family members. Have you met my aunt recently? Or we could talk about Charlie's sisters. So you have four sisters but you only really get along well with one of them. At least you have Jane. Can you imagine what my life would be like if I didn't get along well with Gianna? You're lucky that you're so close to Jane. At least you have one sister you're close to."

Lizzie was silent the rest of the drive back to her condo and I was wondering if she was mad at me. She didn't look mad but she wasn't talking so I was a little concerned. She just looked really concerned, like she was lost in deep thought about something. I had just turned on Longbourn Estates Boulevard when she spoke for the first time in ten or fifteen minutes. "I think I'm a very lucky person," she said.

I looked at her. "What makes you say that?"

"I've always been pretty healthy, my family could afford to give me a good education, and I've always had everything I need. Sure I've had some struggles in various areas of my life, but I have a good life for the most part. I have a good job that I love and I live in a pretty nice condo with two of my sisters. I have a lot going for me."

I smiled at her. "I'm not trying to guilt-trip you when I talk about my family."

"It's all right," she replied. "I wasn't feeling guilt-tripped. I was just thinking about how many things in my life I take for granted. You've lost five siblings and I'm always complaining about the siblings I have. But they aren't that bad. Sure Lydia doesn't things that are ridiculously stupid and Katie is a ditz who doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Mary might have absolutely no social skills, but she's still my sister. They're all still my sisters no matter what they do and I love them." Then she smiled before adding, "And Jane's just fantastic. She's the best sister a girl could ever want."

"She seems pretty great," I told her. "I feel horrible about screwing things up for her and Charlie. I was wrong and I know that now. I'm just glad that they were able to get together after all."

"You told Charlie the truth, didn't you?" she asked me with a sly smile.

I nodded. "I had to tell him; I couldn't keep lying to him. If he likes her and she likes him, then who am I to stand in their way? I think he's her match in a way."

"They were sort of meant for each other," she said with a smile. "I think Jane is one of those people who were born with one and only one man she could ever marry. She believes that there's only one perfect person for every person in the world."

"Do you believe that?"

She shrugged. "I'm not really sure. It is the basis of the movie, Serendipity. And maybe it's true for some people but I'm not so sure about how it fits in my life. I think that if I had married Steve Logan, I would have been very happy with my life. And I think that I could be happy with you or with Kyle. I think that there are multiple guys who could make me happy but I think that one of them could be better for me than others could. Like Kyle and I have more of a sibling relationship than a romantic relationship. But I don't know. Maybe there really is only one perfect match for everyone. Wouldn't that suck if that was true and your perfect match became a priest or a nun or something like that?"

I smiled at her. She was so adorable and I didn't want to lose her. "I'm not sure that we each have a perfect match but I think it is possible for one person to be the best possible match out of multiple options. I kind of get what you're saying about how things could have worked out for you to be with Steve or Kyle. I'm not sure I've ever really known someone who I knew right away that I could be happy with them forever, but I think I understand how you feel about Steve and Kyle in that context."

We ended up watching The Last of the Mohicans because it's one of Lizzie's favorite movies and I like the movie too. Lizzie can play the movie's great love them, "The Kiss" on the piano, so I made her prove it after the movie ended. She is really talented on the piano. I told her that the next time she was in Chicago she was going to have to hear Gianna play because my sister is also pretty fantastic on the piano. "I'd love that," she replied. "I love listening to other people play. I don't think I'm very good, but I like to fiddle around and listen to other people playing."

"You're much better than you give yourself credit for," I replied sitting down next to her on the piano bench. "I took lessons for a while when I was younger and I could get all the technique but you just have pure talent. You bring something special to the music when you're playing." I shrugged and smiled. "I don't know how to explain it but you give it a different fire and joy. You enjoy what you're doing and you pour your excitement and passion into the music. I love that about talented pianists."

She blushed and leaned her head against my shoulder. "You're too nice to me."

"I beg to differ," I replied. "I once told you that I liked you against my better judgment."

"That was shortly before I told you to go to hell. I think we're even."

"I once said you weren't pretty."

"You were lying."

"That's so true," I said, kissing the top of her head. "You're absolutely gorgeous."

"Now you are lying."

"No, I'm not and I don't want to argue with you. I don't care what other people say; I think you're gorgeous."

A/N: It's kind of short…for me, but it's done. I hope you enjoy it. And I'm thinking about finding Kyle a girlfriend soon. PLEASE REVIEW!