This is a short chapter but hope you enjoy. More to come soon. Promise! -xoxo
Chapter Four
Saturday morning Lizzy woke up early, feeling remarkably refreshed and struggling to recall why she felt plagued with a sense of dread until she remembered that Charles and Jane's brunch was today and that, more likely than not, a certain gentlemen would be present.
Attempting to shake these negative feelings, Lizzy decided that she'd make some coffee and then do some yoga in her apartment before heading over to Charles' to help him and Jane with brunch preparations.
Perhaps the yoga and coffee combined would grant her the strength to get through another encounter with William Darcy.
Two hours later, after some yoga, coffee, and a hot steamy shower, Elizabeth arrived at Charles' apartment. Upon passing through the door, Elizabeth could immediately understand why Jane had been spending so much time here. While Jane's salary as a psychologist certainly afforded her a nice apartment, it was nothing compared to the sprawling luxury of Charles'. Dark, shiny hardwood floors were offset by a bright white chef's kitchen, while floor to ceiling windows flooded the space with natural light. The furniture in the living area was sleek and modern, if a tad masculine, and clearly high-quality. A short tour revealed that the apartment boasted not only an impressive kitchen and living-room space but also a spacious bedroom, a shower with jets that sprayed from all angles, a jacuzzi tub, workout room and spacious guest suite. The tour had Lizzy thinking sardonically that perhaps she could be a little more interested in a certain kind of man than she had passionately declared to Darcy almost a week smirked at the thought.
After her brief tour, Lizzy got down to work with Jane and Charles. Jane who was, perhaps understandably, a great deal more nervous than Charles, was already fluttering nervously around the kitchen in her pale-blue shift dress, despite the fact that the guests were not to arrive for a good two hours.
After tying the apron Charles had supplied her with over her jeans and black blouse, Lizzy got to work mixing the batter for the pumpkin loaf while Charles and Jane chopped and mixed the various fillings for the breakfast tacos they were going to serve. They worked in silence for the most part, listening to a playlist off of Charles' phone which contained a surprisingly eclectic array of songs from Bob Dylan to Beyonce. After two songs from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack played in succession, Lizzy teased Charles, causing him to blush a shade of red that rivaled his hair. At Lizzy's teasing Jane came up behind him, winding her arms around his waist and giggling.
"What can I say? My man has a wide array of tastes…."
This particular comment caused Charles to blush even more profusely as Jane affectionately patted his bottom and planted a kiss on his cheek before moving back to her side of the kitchen.
Lizzy, who, for Charles' sake had pretended not to notice their little encounter smiled inwardly. Jane was without a doubt the sweetest, most authentic person Lizzy knew, but she was often hesitant to express her deepest emotions, especially romantic ones, and was rarely overly demonstrable. Charles Bingley seemed to be changing all that, something that Lizzy couldn't help but feel glad about.
At around 10 o'clock, an hour before the guests were to arrive, the doorbell rang. Jane turned to Charles in a panic, wondering why anyone would be arriving an entire hour early.
"Don't worry, it's probably just Darcy. He said he might come by earlier."
Charles said casually, wiping his hands on a dishcloth as he moved to buzz Darcy up.
Jane quickly turned her attention from Charles to Lizzy, wondering how her sister would take this new bit of information.
Lizzy looked up from the pumpkin seeds she was carefully sprinkling on top of the unbaked loaf and smiled amusedly at Jane.
"Jane, relax. I'm perfectly fine, I assure you." She said in a hushed tone as Charles walked to open the door.
"I'm very focused on cooking!" she said laughingly before sliding the pumpkin loaf into the oven.
Despite Elizabeth's serious misgivings about William Darcy's character, a combination of her early morning coffee and yoga session, seeing her sister so deliriously happy and most certainly in love with Charles and the fact that she was in the middle of her favourite activity, had significantly brightened her mood to the point where she felt prepared to greet Darcy with a friendly smile.
Thus, upon turning around and seeing him standing on the other side of the island, holding a bouquet of red and pink tulips while conversing casually with Charles and wearing jeans and a soft navy-blue t-shirt, a sharp stab of arousal shot through her before she could quickly lower her gaze and clamp down on it.
After devoting her complete attention to slicing the grapes for her fruit salad into perfect halves for nearly a minute, Elizabeth felt it was safe to look up again.
She managed to smile warmly at him upon finding his piercing gaze already fixed on her.
"Hello William."
"Elizabeth." He replied, rather stiffly, his left hand clenched and then relaxed, hanging at his side.
"How are you?" She continued cheerily, enjoying his obvious discomfort.
He looked surprised at her question but quickly composed himself although his voice still sounded rather stiff and awkward.
"Good. And I trust you are well also?" Elizabeth smiled at the formality of his words and tone. Very uncomfortable.
"I am, I am. Thankyou." She said, deciding to leave it there as she pushed the grapes off of the cutting board and into the glass bowl beside her. A moment passed before either of them spoke.
"Uh, is there anything I can help you with?" Darcy asked hesitantly.
Elizabeth quickly deliberated whether he would be more uncomfortable standing awkwardly amidst all the activity of the kitchen or performing a menial domestic task such as chopping fruit. She decided to test as to whether or not his offer of assistance was in earnest.
"You can finish cutting this cantaloupe and pineapple right here, if you want. That would be very helpful."
She said, moving out of his way so he could take her place.
As much as she didn't care for the man, she had to admit that she was getting an absurd amount of pleasure out of seeing him- handsome, ridiculously monied and powerful-squirm under her gaze and directions.
Realizing that, however basic, he might not know how to use the kitchen utensils in front of him, she stepped back towards him to demonstrate.
"You use this little scoop with the cantaloupe….like so, and this knife works excellently with the pineapple. As you can see I've already cut it into chunks, now you just have to to use this knife to separate the skin from the fruit….the curve of the knife makes it very easy….like this, and then cut it into smaller pieces and add it to the bowl over here."
She looked up at him to confirm he had understood her directions and found him staring intently at the fruit she had just cut, as if attempting to commit to memory precisely how she had done it.
"It's okay if it's not exactly like this. Approximations are okay when it comes to fruit salad!"
Elizabeth said before moving away to check on the pumpkin loaf.
"Lizzy, is everything going alright?"
Jane said in a hushed tone, coming up behind her with a bowl of hash browns for the tacos just as Charles came into the kitchen with two bottles of champagne in his hands.
"Yes, yes of course Jane." Lizzy waved her hand dismissively,
"Stop worrying about me I'm perfectly fine."
As Lizzy assisted Charles in setting up a mimosa station on one side of the island, a thought occurred to her. Could Charles and Darcy have had a talk concerning her and Darcy's encounter on Sunday night? Darcy's nervous and uncomfortable behaviour was almost seemingly bashful and seemed to indicate that something had occurred between their phone call on Wednesday and today's brunch. She'd have to talk with Jane later to confirm it. For now, she was enjoying the reversal of their positions almost too much to be upset with Jane's potential interference.
She glanced over to where he was dutifully slicing pineapple and carving out small spheres of cantaloupe for the fruit salad. He was currently scooping rather slowly, likely due to the fact that he was attempting to replicate Lizzy's examples as closely as possible-her scooped and sliced fruit sitting isolated on the far left edge of his cutting board as an example.
As Jane and Charles were finishing up the taco fillings, Elizabeth asked if she could cut the stems on the flowers Darcy had brought and put them in water. After Darcy replied in the affirmative, Lizzy set to work on this task, gazing out upon the magnificent view of New York City afforded by Charles' apartment and pondering questions of insults, apologies, soft blue t-shirts and chopped fruit.
Darcy had spent much of the past week attempting to convince himself that the initial attraction he had felt for Elizabeth had been illusionary-merely the result of the intense aphrodisiacs that were her low-cut black dress, wild hair and the dim lighting and delicious food of the restaurant.
It didn't matter that upon speaking with her over the phone on Wednesday he had felt hot arousal pierce him somewhere in his lower belly and shoot up through his rib-cage. She had a voice that was simultaneously inviting and teasing-as well as husky, and, in Darcy's opinion, deeply sensual. It was warm sweet comfort with undertones of spice and bitterness, much like the delicious Mexican hot chocolate Georgiana had introduced him to while he was down visiting her in San Francisco not six months ago.
Now, meeting with her again face-to-face under the bright lights of Charles' kitchen Darcy had to seriously reevaluate his previous position. When he had first entered the apartment, his eyes had quickly sought out Elizabeth, finding her working in the kitchen, her dark curly hair secured loosely at her neck as she chopped fruit. Dark jeans encased her surprisingly long legs and a black, silky blouse hung off her curvaceous frame, concealing and revealing in such a way that made Darcy's mouth water involuntarily. He had quickly snapped his attention away from Elizabeth and to Charles in an effort to subdue these unwanted carnal impulses, only to be drawn back to her moments later.
When she suggested he chop fruit for her and leaned in near him to demonstrate, he stilled almost imperceptibly, forcing himself to continue breathing as she moved so close to him he could smell her shampoo and feel the heat radiating off her skin.
Images of him kissing her-alternating between soft and slow and furiosuly passionate-swept through his mind.
He could only imagine what it would be like to take her in his arms and run his fingers through her hair.
The body he had initially attempted to convince himself was heavy and unattractive was now provoking him immeasurably and he could only imagine how her lush curves would feel pressed up against him...
Surely he was going mad! He'd been pursued-actively pursued-by wealthy and royal heiresses, socialites, actresses, singers, high-powered entrepreneurs and rising academics- all intelligent, beautiful and genial-perfectly at ease in high-society-in his social circles. And of course, on more than one occasion, he'd been attracted to these women, he'd given into his carnal desires, and played with them the game that is old as time.
However, he'd never felt this accute of an attraction despite the fact that the woman in question had made her dislike of his person painfully clear. Furthermore, Elizabeth didn't possess the sleek charm and practiced manners of Darcy's other inamoratas, a fact that only added to his bewilderment. He'd always been careful to limit his romantic relationships to those within his social circle, dating only women who held a certain level of independence and understood his position and the necessary perimeters of any relationship they would enter. This, to his thinking, eliminated the possibility of undue attachments or expectations on the part of the woman. Elizabeth was completely the opposite. She hadn't grown up in New York's high society and simply could not understand the various obligations of someone who moved in these circles. As if this wasn't enough, she was an untrained chef who had just moved to New York City , had what Darcy could only assume was a poorly paying job and had dreams of opening her own restaurant one day. Furthermore, from what Darcy had gathered from the couple of encounters they had had, she was a warm and intensely passionate individual who would most certainly be prone to forming the very kind of undue attachments that Darcy worked so hard to avoid.
Had Darcy been a little more self-aware, he would have then perceived that at the present moment he was the only one in grave danger of forming any undue attachments.