Chapter 2 - introduction / exertion
The first date was a train wreck, to a point where neither Bennet sister made a point to even remember their names. They had opted for a fairly standard date over drinks in Soho, a mutually convenient location. Perhaps to spite her conservative mother, Lizzy had insisted on shortlisting one particularly gorgeous male-female pair for a screening date. But what they had in looks, they sorely lacked in character. Neither of the pair were bad people per se, but both were amongst the most boring people that the two sisters had ever met. Needless to say, there was limited motivation for them to seek their attendance at a second date with their Bennet parents.
The next were a pair of ex-army boys who called themselves Wickham and Denny. Anyone who spoke about themselves in the third person was very firmly off the table. And added to that, they had been so vulgar. It was clear that Lizzy's high standards had not filtered all of the unsuitable pairs.
So it was with great trepidation that they stood outside the tennis courts on a Sunday afternoon waiting for the third and final pair to show up. It wasn't the usual locale for an interview - or a date, come to think of it - but at least somewhere that she felt she had the upper hand.
They had opted for an active date, given how little they had to show for the other two more conventional dinner dates. The hope was that at least if these two men turned out to be unpleasant or unworthy of future effort, they would at least have gained some exercise for their troubles. And Lizzy had to admit, she knew that tennis whites were a surefire way to show off her figure. It had been a long while since she had deliberately shown off her body with the intention of securing a date, but she knew the power of carefully selected clothing to accentuate and entice. Though she was ultimately unsure of whether it would be a one-time doubles match or something more, she had promised her mother to at least try to make a good first impression. So it was; tennis whites forward, charismatic smile plastered front and centre, and an attempt to be friendly on the tip of her tongue.
Elizabeth nervously peppered Jane with questions about the two men, having been too busy at work to have put much energy into texting on the app that week.
"Jane, my dear, can you give me a quick brief?" She asked, her manner not dissimilar to the kind but assertive tone she used with her team at work. "You know, what are their names, what do they do, am I wasting my time… The usual?"
Jane laughed at the crisp instructions.
"Wow, Lizzy. Good to see you're still intent on treating this as a business deal." She rolled her eyes at her sister's defensive expression before responding to her questions.
"Their names are Charles and William-" Jane began. Lizzy interjected with a laugh.
"Great! So we have managed to snag two prince-alikes?"
"Let me finish!" Her sister entreated. Jane was quite used to Lizzy cutting across her with a joke. In fairness to her sister, they were usually funny. "They are thirty two and thirty three, and both work in the city, I think they met at University. Charles has done well for himself on the startup market, working in tech services now, and William seemed to be pretty senior in Pemberley Digital, I'm sure you've heard of it? He was quite cagey when I asked what he does there."
"Oh yeah?" Lizzy replied, feigning disinterest. She knew Pemberley Digital fairly intimately, as it had been one of her first projects out of the gate to renew their website and launch an ultimately extremely successful web media campaign. She had never been on any calls with the execs but she knew it to be a family business, albeit a hugely successful one. Dynasty was perhaps a more apt word. It had been a while since she had worked with them, but she kept up to date so far as their content was everywhere. She wracked her brain for a William from her acquaintance there, but no such person sprang to mind.
At least there was common ground to start from.
"Oh yeah?" Jane mimicked. "That can't be good."
"I know the company, Jane, that's all." She did not want spiralling speculation so soon before they were to meet the man.
"I'll have to trust you on that," Jane replied. Her curiosity was evident in her hungry eyes, but she pressed on. "They both seemed to like sports, Charles in particular. And William is partial to the theatre. They both go to music concerts together regularly." She looked at the open message on her phone. "In fact, they were at a Harry Styles gig last night."
She struggled to form a picture of the thirty-three-year-old man who was "quite senior" in such an impressive firm, and yet went to see Harry Styles of his own volition. Perhaps he had a sister?
"Do you remember what they look like? Which one is which?" Her sister asked kindly. It would be embarrassing to have supposedly been messaging them all week and yet not be able to tell them apart. She pulled up a picture from their profile.
"Charlie is the handsome ginger one-" Jane blushed and quickly recovered. "William is the tall one with the dark hair."
"Goodness he looks as though he could do with a good night's sleep!" Lizzy said softly, reflectively.
"Well that bodes well for tennis," Jane said wryly. "Bagsy playing against Charles."
Somehow Lizzy knew that their partnering had already been a foregone conclusion no matter what she said about William and his brooding expression in their profile photo.
"Farbeit from me to suspend any enjoyment of yours, dear sister," she smirked. Jane's smile faltered. "Especially since you find Charles so handsome."
The pair were still laughing and teasing each other when they were spotted from across the field.
~. ~
The two men arrived together, their tall, lean appearance as striking as they were handsome. Unhurried in their steps, they advanced briskly towards the sisters whilst deep in cheerful conversation with each other. The shorter of the two - Lizzy recognised him as Charles - was moving in an animated manner. He seemed to be either very nervous or very excited. Every few paces, he would look up to scan the park and land his gaze on where they stood, his ginger hair blowing in the breeze and a broad smile on his face. His taller friend - who must be William - walked in a commanding way that told her in advance of his perfectly fitted and perfectly pressed clothes, long before he was close enough for her to admire the way they framed his figure.
"Good afternoon," Charles called when he was close enough for it not to be rude to do so.
They exchanged pleasantries in an exceedingly un-awkward manner. Elizabeth rolled her eyes affectionately at her sister and Charles who were carrying the conversation in a manner which suggested too much prior knowledge of each other for their acquaintance to have been limited to just the texts they had shared as a quartet on the app.
"So what do you do, William?" She said, encouraging him to join her from the fringes of the conversation.
"Hmm?" He murmured. Christ, she thought, the deep vibrato of his tone setting the hairs on her arm on end.
"What do you do, outside of knowing where to go to get excellently fitted sportswear?" She spared an admiring look at his toned figure and smiled.
He blushed at the thinly veiled compliment.
"I work at Pemberley Digital. We have a long history of-"
"Innovating digital solutions for the client of the future," Lizzy finished with a smirk. She saw him narrow his eyes slightly, and worried instantly that she may have come on too strong. She raced to explain.
"-I promise I didn't stalk you on the internet."
"I should hope not," he replied in a haughty tone. She wasn't sure if he was angry or teasing.
"I swear I didn't," she defended herself. "I mean, not to be too blunt about it, I just don't have the time to go on a goose chase through thousands of Williams on LinkedIn."
"On LinkedIn?" he chuckled to hide his nervousness. He didn't enjoy the moment where women found out what he did for a living. They were either intimidated by the three-lettered job title, or they became more interested in his bank account than his personality.
"Yes," she replied, her tone mocking. "Yes, on LinkedIn. The one place you can reliably find a man like you."
"What keeps you so busy you can't spend five minutes looking for a man like me? And how do you know my company's tagline?" He asked. His tone was as teasing as it was curious. He hoped she did not read too much into the 'my.'
"I work in consulting," she confessed. He smiled knowingly. "I actually worked on a project for Pemberley when I was an analyst."
"Is that so?" He asked. The furrow in his brow gave away the fact that he was trawling through his memory to try to recall whether he had seen her there before. "In our city office?"
"Yes, probably about five or so years ago now, though." She paused, and he continued silently wracking his brain. "Why, worried you've forgotten me?"
"I don't think I would have done, no." He surprised himself with the honesty in his words, and his tone spoke of the relief he felt that she had crossed Pemberley's paths whilst his father was still alive and running the shop. An intelligent woman such as she seemed, she would have known the ExCo, and he was glad to have not been outed for his position just yet. He was content to allow her to remain in the dark.
"What was the project?" He continued, curious to see what legacy she had left.
She explained briefly the context and outcomes of the work she had done and he was impressed at the clarity and engaging manner of her words.
"That was you?" He asked, impressed. He was correct in the assumption that quite a footprint had been left by that particular project. The website update had attracted a much younger audience, and had driven recruitment in multiple demographics far ahead of competition.
"Well," she said demurely, "I was the junior in a fairly large team."
"But you are not junior any more, correct?" He asked, sizing her up with his steely gaze.
"Whatever gave you that impression?" She teased.
"The way you speak," he said honestly.
She admitted her recent promotion, hoping he wasn't the sort who became emasculated and intimidated by the idea of a successful woman.
"You look quite young for that title, no?"
"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an attempt to patronise," she replied, arching her eyebrows in defiance.
"Most definitely the former," he apologised, his expression mimicking hers.
"I was teasing, I am twenty nine." She thought for a second, though the silence was not uncomfortable. "You never told me what you do for Pemberley."
"I am not a junior either, though I guess you stick around long enough and you're not going to be picking up the evening packages."
She laughed, and he felt buoyed by the sound.
"Well, if you're going to stay so cryptic about what you do at Pemberley, William, you can at least tell me a bit about your life outside of work."
He came alive a little as she provided him the natural opportunity to talk about his sister. He told her of his wonderful twenty three year old sibling, who had just graduated from fashion school and was designing costumes for the English National Opera. Lizzy saw the pride and joy in his features when he spoke about her, and it was clear from the shenanigans she got him up to that she was a good influence.
"I knew it," she breathed in satisfaction.
"Knew what?" He asked, his train of thought derailing as he felt her eyes on his face.
"I knew you had a sister!"
"You're really not doing yourself any favours trying to convince me you're not a stalker," he chuckled wryly.
"Charles said that you were at Harry Styles last night," she offered by way of explanation.
"And so what? Is a single gentleman of my age not allowed to enjoy a night of music and dance without having a younger sister?"
"Farbeit for me to judge you for any of your hobbies," she rushed to explain. "I was not wrong, though, was I?" She asked.
"I guess not," he conceded.
Lizzy revealed that she was in fact partial to the artist in question, and their conversation flowed naturally into comparing recent concerts and bucket lists. They were quite surprised to find out how much overlap there was in their tastes. He made a mental note of a couple of mutual interests.
It struck him as they were talking, how delightfully interesting she was, with her sharp yet soft features and the way she brought him into conversation. He was a confident speaker, he had been forced to learn to be for his work, but he did not often enjoy conversing with people of whom he knew so little. It usually felt quite performative, as he feigned interest at what his conversation partner had to say. But this was different. She pulled words from him like no one else he had ever met, and he was on tenterhooks to hear what she was going to say next. He was poised at all moments for the next tease or challenge, anticipation thick in his gut.
~.~
Some time later, they were still standing at the edges of the court when Lizzy changed the subject rather abruptly when she heard Jane and Bingley laughing to each other.
"What do you reckon?" She asked out of the blue.
"Hmmm?" He repeated, in that same deep tone that had her heart racing and her breath faltering. She recovered and then reminded herself of her original thought.
"I give it a month," she laughed.
"You give it a-" he sounded confused. She smiled when realisation made his features soften, rendering him extraordinarily handsome. "Wouldn't be the first time," he said wryly.
"Yes, such a hopeless romantic, my sister," Lizzy joked. It felt good to have an ally in the eternal wingperson camp.
"And you?" He asked with an even voice which belied the underlying curiosity he felt. If she thought it odd for him to ask so easily about something so personal, which could render her so vulnerable, she did not show it. Give it a chance, she reminded herself.
"Me? Romantic?" She considered it for a second. "I guess I once was," she said, surprising herself with her honesty. "But it's been a really long time-"
"Yes-" His tone sounded as though he wanted to say more. The nerves she had felt waiting with Jane had morphed into an entirely different emotion, no less off-balancing for the shift. She felt oddly wired standing next to this pulled-together man who made her feel so entirely the opposite.
Jane saved them from their unexpectedly intense conversation when she saw them leaning into each other, seemingly oblivious.
"Shall we flip a coin for doubles partners?" She asked her three companions.
"Sure, I'll flip," Charles offered, characteristically enthusiastic.
"Heads you're with Lizzy, tails with me," she smiled suggestively. Elizabeth was overjoyed to see her sister's playfulness returning for the first time since the breakup.
"Heads," he said. His smile faltered imperceptibly, but he made a show of bowing to Elizabeth just in case she had noticed his small show of disappointment at missing time with Jane.
"Giddy up, partner," she said, immediately cringing at herself. Well, might as well go with it.
"Howdy right back atcha, girl" he joked good-naturedly. Lizzy grinned wildly back, sensing they could be fast friends.
"Alright, team cowboy," she replied with a high five.
She spared a glance towards her sister and her intense partner. He was watching the scene unfold in front of him with cautious humour. Looking stiff and uncomfortable, he shifted his weight and held a hand out for a polite handshake with his partner. Jane smiled warmly at him and shook his hand.
"Team 'handshake' it is," Jane joked. William blushed profusely, smiled to let her know he was in on the joke, even if it was at his expense, and walked purposefully to pick up the rackets and balls.