She readjusts her fingers on the steering wheel for the third time in the last minute. Alone in her car, Lizzy takes a deep, soul-searching breath before letting it out just as slowly. It shouldn't be this hard, not when she knows that she cares for her husband and have every intention to make whatever it is between them work. But there is something life-altering about potentially entering their house tonight - almost as if this were the actual moment she would walk down the aisle to her groom, for real this time.
After another pep talk to herself under her breath, she slides out the car, locks it behind her, and slips into their beautiful suburban home.
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to cancel," Darcy's voice hits her the moment she enters. It may be a spacious house, but the layout is open enough for his voice to travel from the dining room. "Do you have any openings for next week? Maybe - Monday? Right, that would be spectacular. Thank you. I'll put in a good word with Freddie about that collaboration. Right - no problem. Thank you."
He hangs up just as Lizzy reaches the dining room. She braces a hand on the door frame. "Hey."
He takes a moment, giving himself space to heave a sigh of his own. Then he turns and smiles, gently. "Hi."
"I'm sorry I ruined your birthday," she says. She experiments with a small smile of her own. "I didn't - I couldn't - "
"No, wait." He walks over until he's hovering in front of her. His familiar yet intoxicating scent surrounds her. "I should be the one apologizing."
She bites her lip as she looks up at him.
"I should have told you about the prenup. It wasn't fair to have kept that from you."
She swallows and nods. "Right."
"It's just that I - it was not a huge moment of deliberation or anything. I just - I just wanted you to get something out of this marriage, and I didn't really think of the ramifications of doing something that felt like a harmless omission at the time. For you to want to surprise me only to find out something like this - I have no excuse. I'm sorry." He catches her hands. She lets him. "I'm sorry, Lizzy. Can you forgive me?"
The warmth in her chest broadens and lifts, like a blossom unfurling. "If you can forgive me for ruining your birthday."
"I don't think this counts as you ruining it."
They both chuckle. The distance between them somehow feels close yet not close enough.
"You know." She pulls her hands out from his and winds them up around his neck. He pulls nearer obligingly. "I do get something out of this marriage."
"Lizzy, if you breathe another word about money or Pemberley or - "
"You."
"Me?"
"You - I get you." She smiles at him. "And I think that's the biggest gift a girl could ever ask for."
The air pulses between them, drawing them closer heartbeat by heartbeat.
His voice shakes when he whispers inches from her lips. "Do you mean that?"
"One hundred percent."
His lips land on hers, and she gladly pulls up to kiss him back. He wraps her so close that she can't tell whether it's her heartbeat or his throbbing between them. They've kissed before. They've hugged before.
But somehow, with the confessions they've made, the vulnerability and love that pulsates between them makes this kiss a kiss to end all kisses. She is his. He is hers. She'll have it no other way.
"So." He pants when they part, his strong arms still anchoring her firmly against his chest. "Since I've canceled our dinner reservations - you want to Netflix and chill?"
She chuckles. "If that's what the birthday boy wants - although I'm not exactly against jumping straight to the chilling part."
His grin turns almost wolfish. "Well, I don't think I see anything wrong with that."
"I love you, you know. I think I've loved you for longer than I've realized it."
"I've loved you since high school - and even if the ways I've learned to express that love have changed - dear God, I hope they have - my love has never lessened a single iota for you."
Happy tears threaten to spill on her cheeks. She takes another steadying breath, even if her diaphragm is a little too crushed to expand much at the moment. "Happy birthday."
"Thank you." He kisses her again, deeply and firmly and lovingly. "I believe it is."
A/N: Someone mentioned early on in the story that it seems impossible to imagine wrapping this up in 8 chapters. As the ever-amnesiac author, I also wondered myself. But apparently, the answer is that there really was zero impediment to their being together other than they're both idiots. So once we got over that, happily ever after! Lol. Thanks for reading!