Here it is! I've been waiting awhile to post it, but I'm very excited. We probably only have like two chapters left… possibly three. I don't know yet, but we will be finished my next week. This chapter is kind of sad. Poor Carly.

Ok Read. Read on. Read until your dreams come true. (Then review.)

Pride and Prejudice: Abbreviated and Un-fabricated

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands." Ugh. Do you ever get a song stuck in your head?

They say that waiting is the hardest part. And they're right.

"It'll be okay, Carly," Sarah reassured me sweetly as I sat in her little cubicle with Miranda and her. It'd been a long week thus far and I was severely doubtful that it would be okay. Sarah was so sweet, but she just made me feel worse.

And to top things off Trevor found out about me being in love with Danny and broke up with me this morning. Unrequited love or not.

"Yeah, Carly," Miranda sighed. She tried to squeeze my arm sweetly, but the cubicle was so small that Miranda just ended up elbowing me in the nose and giving me a nose bleed. Sarah handed me a tissue and I shoved it up my nostrils.

"You really shouldn't worry so much about Stephen. It was probably just a threat." Sarah handed me another tissue, this one for me to cry into, but the blood was coming out of my nose rather quickly and I had to shove this one up my nostrils as well and ended up crying into my shirt sleeve.

"Don't beat yourself up about it Carly," Miranda grunted. I could tell her compassion stores were being exhausted and with Miranda that's a nonrenewable resource. "It's really not your fault that your former boss is threatening your journalistic reputation by blackmailing you with the publication of racy pictures of you and him. You have a thing for men in authority, don't you?"

I sobbed harder into my sleeve. Oh, hearing it summed up like that made it seem even worse than that time Larry the six legged octopus had a mutinous uprising against me and convinced all my friends that I was an alien. Me? An alien? I'm not the one with six legs and dreams of becoming an astronaut, but the rest of my friends refused to see reason. That was the last time Henrietta Elaphantae ever spoke to me. I miss good old Hen… I got so tired of her silence that I eventually threw her out of my bedroom window. Mommy ran her over with her mini-van and poor Hen's wooden legs wouldn't move her fast enough to get her out of the way. Stupid wooden elephant.

"I just can't believe that you had a fling with Stephen Wicki!" Miranda exclaimed. Yep, compassion stores were all used up. Boy was this fun.

"It wasn't an affair," I protested through my bloody tissues. God! This blood just wasn't stopping. Is that normal? I probably have leukemia. Knowing my luck, it's possible. "It was like one kiss, one night, and he was taking advantage of me! I don't know where those damn pictures came from!" Oh no, I was sobbing harder and my tissue was full again. Sarah handed me another one.

"Let's not argue," Sarah sighed, peering into her empty box of tissues. "Miranda we're supposed to be helping Carly, not hindering. Carly, I really think things will turn out okay. Adam says that we should help you get ready for Danny's arrival and go back to work, like nothing has happened and, as weird as this is to admit, I think he's right."

"Why do we have to get ready for Danny's arrival?" I asked. "He doesn't show up for another week." My final bloody tissue was so saturated that it fell out of my nose and got blood on my pretty blue dress. Oh damn. Could things get any worse?

Miranda hid a grin. I knew they were about to tell me something bad. Miranda always smiles when she senses other's pending doom.

"Sweetheart," Sarah soothed, as blood poured out of my nose, "Danny arrived back in town like three days ago. He's supposed to be back in the office tomorrow."

Three days ago? And he didn't even come to check up on me. I mean, I realize that he doesn't love me, but wow… three whole days! Danny's never been out of work for a single day, yet alone three. That's how much he must hate me now: That he'd miss three whole days!

Oh god! And he was coming back to the office tomorrow. The only thing worse than not seeing Danny for the past five days, would be seeing him. The last thing I remember was me crying over his laptop as I stared at the picture that Stephen had e-mailed me. It was dreadful picture of Stephen and me making out on a hotel balcony. It looked as though we were alone in his room, but that's just the angle. There were people all around us. Not to mention… my butt looked huge in the picture.

Danny had peered over my shoulder and turned puce. "Why do you have a picture of you and Stephen Wicki making out?" he asked. He hadn't sounded angry, just very numb. Further proof that he doesn't love me.

I had sobbed and told him the whole tale. I told him about the office party at the Hilton over a year ago. I told him it had only been once and I'd slapped Stephen he very next instant. I told him about Stephen using it against me. I sobbed about Stephen threatening to publish it along with an article that called into question my journalistic morals and the idea that I'm "moving on to ensnare internet tycoon Danny Dardy." Or at least he'd read that part in the attached article.

Danny was very, very angry (I could tell by his maroon tint), but he was still a good guy and so he called up a car service to take me to the airport and let me charge my ticket to the company credit card, but still, he didn't even look at me the entire time. As soon as he saw that picture I became repulsive to him… not that he ever liked me in the first place.

And now he is coming back to the office and I'll have to face him and he'll probably still be so angry with me that he still won't look at me and I'll have to deal with losing the only man I've ever loved.

I sobbed harder into my sleeve as my bloody nose dripped down my face. I was very, very wrong. Things, apparently, could get worse…