Chapter Text
Lizzy Bennet opened the front door to a tall condo building and took a moment to catch her breath in the vestibule. One thing she really liked about living in the city now was being able to walk to get places and not relying on a car for everything. After buzzing in and calling the elevator, she checked the time as she waited. It was already getting late, and she would surely be last to arrive, but it shouldn't matter. It was just a casual night hanging out at Charlotte Lucas’s place with a few friends and a few drinks. She'd been to several such nights in the last two months.
She smiled to herself. She was lucky, she knew, already meeting people after moving to a new city. She'd thought at first that glomming onto her sister's group would be a temporary measure until she met other people to do things with, but she really liked Jane's friends, and she loved Charlie Bingley, Jane's boyfriend. Spending more time with Jane herself was of course never a problem—her sister had been the reason she moved here, after all.
As expected, Charlotte's little apartment was full as she made her unobtrusive entrance. There was Jane, sitting with Charlotte and wearing that beatific smile of hers as Charlotte spoke. Charlie was in what looked to be an uproarious conversation with Richard Fitzwilliam, both gesturing and talking over each other as they laughed. Louisa and James Hurst were newly married and still had eyes only for each other. Lastly, Fitzwilliam Darcy was alone against a wall. He did a double-take at Lizzy as she entered, then pointedly looked away. Weird, but whatever. She made her way over to Jane and Charlotte.
“Oh my god, your hair,” Charlotte exclaimed in greeting.
“Thank you, you're never going to see it look so good again,” Lizzy laughed, “at least until the next time I get it done.”
“Is that why you're late tonight?” Jane asked.
“Yes—I got stuck late at work over something stupid, so then I had to rush over to my appointment without stopping at home, and grabbed a quick bite before coming here,” Lizzy said.
“Lady, you could have just eaten something here,” Charlotte chided, “but you look great!”
“Thanks, I'm so happy I found a hairdresser who can deal with this half wavy, half curly mess I've got going on. Definitely didn't have anyone so good at home.”
“Longbourn is a small town,” Jane explained to Charlotte; “we didn't exactly have a lot of selection there.”
“Nope, and maybe my new hairdresser will be what keeps me here,” Lizzy teased. She shook her hair from side to side and flipped it exaggeratedly, like she was in an ad, and the others laughed.
Charlotte excused herself to the bathroom, and Jane asked, “Is everything alright at work, Lizzy? You don't normally work late.”
“Yeah, it's nothing,” she said, “I just found a mistake and had to redo something that would take time, and I didn't want to wait until Monday when I might forget what exactly—”
“Sorry to interrupt,” came Darcy's voice out of nowhere, “but what do you do for work, Elizabeth? I don't think I've ever learned that, since you moved here.”
“Oh,” Lizzy said, turning to him. She was startled by his unexpected nearness and took a step back. “It's not very interesting. I started working for Meryton Inc. about a month ago, have you heard of them?” He shook his head, so she continued, “It's just a whatever job. I send emails, I have spreadsheets—you know the type. I'm basically a transponster.”
Jane laughed, but Darcy looked puzzled, so she tried to help him out. “You know, Chandler from Friends? Nobody really knows what his job is, and that's what Rachel thought it was called?” He just shook his head again.
“Sorry, I can't say I'm really a sitcom guy, especially ones that have been off the air for so long,” he said. She didn't really like the condescension she could detect in his voice.
“So what do you watch, then?” she challenged.
“I enjoy… The Wire. The Sopranos. Mad Men. That kind of show,” he replied.
“Ah—prestige TV is your thing. I should have guessed.”
“I've been watching The Boys since it started, too.”
“Hmm,” Lizzy said, considering. “I think I'm getting the idea. Let me guess—you hated Skyler in Breaking Bad.”
“No,” he replied, frowning, “I actually thought she was one of the most interesting characters.”
“I’m sure you did,” she murmured, smiling with false sweetness. She allowed an awkward silence to follow until he muttered something about refilling his drink and moved away to the kitchen out of view.
And that was always the way with Darcy. He rarely spoke to Lizzy directly, and when he did, he would ask a random question and then sneer at her answer. He was unimpressed when he discovered she preferred playing Animal Crossing to Bloodborne. He was aghast when he learned the last book she read was The Woman In Me by Britney Spears. He wouldn't even call her Lizzy like everyone else, only Elizabeth, like her very name was too basic for him.
That was when they talked at all. He mostly stuck to Charlie and Richard, hung around the others a moderate amount, and Lizzy hardly at all. She did catch him looking at her sometimes, though. His stares combined with his disapproval of everything she liked gave her the distinct impression he resented her joining their group now that she lived here, like she was some kind of interloper. He may have known most of them longer but that irked Lizzy because she did belong there, dammit! She was not only Jane's sister, but she was well on her way to friendships with everyone in this room.
With everyone except him, anyway.
Jane pulled her out of her thoughts when she asked, “Lizzy, don't you think you were a bit short with him? He was just trying to make conversation.”
Lizzy shrugged. “He's obnoxious, and I've always thought so. If he doesn't like me, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.”
“Come on, what happened was months ago, it was before you even met him—”
“Trying to break up you and Charlie was a shitty thing to do, and I'm not going to forgive as easily as you, and certainly won't forget,” Lizzy said heatedly. “Besides, he's just generally a prig, at least with me. I'm not sure why Charlie even likes him.”
“They go way back, they met in university and now they work together.”
“I know, I know. But he's—ugh. He's such a typical finance bro, with his expensive clothes and his Beemer and his superior attitude. That whole job and its culture gives me the willies,” she said with a shiver. “I mean, my job isn't amazing, but at least I'm not a parasite getting rich off of making rich people richer.”
“Charlie says it's interesting and complex work,” Jane chided, “but that reminds me—I meant to ask if that man is still bothering you at Meryton?”
“Will Collins,” Lizzy groaned. “And yes. At least twice a week he asks me out. The word ‘no’ just does not seem to compute with that guy.”
“Do you think—I mean, it might be a bit extreme, but have you thought about going to HR? Or his manager?”
“I’ve thought about it, but I don't know,” Lizzy sighed. “He's been there a long time, and I'm still new, I don't want to show up and get myself labeled a troublemaker. Plus, I worry they won't do anything about it or maybe even retaliate.”
“Oh dear!”
“Besides that—I don't know. The more I'm around the guy… I don't think he's a creep, Jane. Just extremely clueless and probably has very little experience with women. And if a competent HR were to deal with it, he could get in big trouble or even lose his job. I just want him to stop asking, otherwise he's fine to work with.”
“Well, I hope something will get through to him.” Jane thought about it for a moment. “You could tell him you already have a boyfriend?”
“I could, but I shouldn't have to, you know? He should just respect the no and stop thinking persistence will work.”
Jane shrugged. “Well, those are the only solutions I can come up with.”
“I know, and I'm sorry—I shouldn't shoot down your ideas. I need to think about my options, for sure. Thanks for looking out for me.” Lizzy took her sister's hand and gave it a squeeze. They smiled at each other. “Enough work talk, alright? Go see your boyfriend, I want to catch up with Charlotte.”
A little while later Lizzy and Charlotte were still on the loveseat together with fresh glasses of wine. They shared a lot of laughs and Lizzy was feeling significantly loosened up. It helped that Darcy had kept his distance after their earlier interaction, despite the fact he kept glancing over at them.
“We're taking off,” Richard called out to Charlotte while Darcy put on his coat beside him; “thanks for having us!”
“Thanks for coming,” she shouted back. “Just let yourselves out.”
He acknowledged that with a salute and the two of them were out the door in a moment. Lizzy gazed thoughtfully at the space on the front mat they recently vacated. “They're related, right?” she asked, turning back to Charlotte.
“Cousins, I think.”
“So it's not a coincidence that Darcy's first name is the same as Richard's last name? What's up with that?”
Charlotte shrugged. “They come from money, real blue bloods,” she said. “Maybe it's a way to splash around their prestigious family name.”
“Hm, maybe,” Lizzy replied. “Like a bat signal helping old money find each other, eh? Darcy's definitely not beating the douchebag allegations with that one.”
Charlotte burst into laughter. “He can't help what name he was given,” she defended him, “and you're the only one making those allegations. What's he ever done to you, anyway? And don't say Jane, that's water under the bridge now.”
“He just is, alright?”
“Gotta do better than that, Bennet.”
“Okay, okay,” she sighed. Lizzy was by no means drunk, but she'd had just enough to decide now was the time to go for it and spill to her new friend what she'd been holding in for two months, since the first time she'd ever met Darcy. “We were out somewhere, a bar—Assembly, I think it was called? I’d already met you and Charlie, but it was our first time out as a group where I met him and the others. I was on my way to the bathroom and I passed Charlie and Darcy waiting at the bar together, but they didn't see me. And Charlie was like, ‘So Jane's sister, eh?’ Kind of wink wink, nudge nudge about it.”
Charlotte laughed. “I can picture it, yeah.”
“And Darcy said—” Lizzy scrunched her nose, trying to remember exactly how it went. “He basically said, ‘Meh, she's alright, but you know I'd never go for someone like her.’”
Charlotte sucked in air through her teeth. “Ooh, yeah, that's pretty bad,” she said.
“And I don't care if every man I meet isn't interested, I mean I'm not a ten like Jane, but coming from him?”
“Totally,” Charlotte agreed. “You're better than alright, but he's something else.”
“I know,” Lizzy cried. “It's not like I don't have any takers,”—one awkwardly persistent coworker still counted—“but I could never pull someone like him, and I know that but I don't need to hear him saying it out loud!”
“You could pull someone as hot as him for sure,” Charlotte argued. “He was just being a dick.”
“There you go,” Lizzy finally laughed. “I rest my case.”
“The court finds the defendant to be a douchebag in the incident at Assembly,” Charlotte pronounced smilingly, “but I've known him longer than you, and he's really okay. Maybe a bit of a snob sometimes, but you should try to let it slide, especially since you're around him so much now.”
Lizzy sighed. “I'll try. I just don't like him, but maybe one day I'll get used to him.”
“That's the spirit, or close enough,” Charlotte smiled. “Cheers to maybe someday getting used to him.”
They clinked glasses and took a drink. Lizzy finished off her wine. “I'd better get going too, it's getting late,” she said, checking the time on her phone.
At that moment Jane came over to her. “Are you almost ready, Lizzy?” she asked.
“I was just about to ask you that! It's a nice night, we can walk home.”
“You always want to walk,” Jane pouted. “It's cold and I'm tired. Let's just take a cab, I'll pay.”
“Okay, whatever. Is Charlie coming with us?” She looked around to find him.
“Not tonight, he left a second ago with the Hursts. Goodnight, Charlotte, thank you so much for hosting,” Jane turned to their other friend.
“Next time at your place!” Charlotte said cheerfully, walking them to the door. They were the last ones to leave and Lizzy heard the lock click behind her.
She felt good leaving that apartment. It'd only been a couple of months since she moved to the city to live with Jane, but she felt like things were already coming together for her. She had a decent job that paid the bills, she was making new friends, especially Charlotte, and best of all, she was far away from her parents.
She felt optimistic about her future.
The next night Lizzy stayed in. Jane was out with Charlie and planned to stay the night at his place so Lizzy had their apartment to herself. She made good use of it by getting into her coziest pajamas, dimming the lights, and settling in for a romcom with a glass of wine. It was a chilly winter night and their windows weren't the best, so she grabbed her snuggie for good measure.
A knock on the door interrupted her only ten minutes into the movie, and just when she was getting really comfortable. Annoyed, she hit pause and padded over to her entryway, only to become confused when she saw Darcy through the peephole.
She glanced at herself in the foyer mirror, frowned, shrugged, and opened the door. “Hey, Darcy,” she said politely. “Jane and Charlie aren't here, if you're looking for them.”
He smiled. “I know,” he said, “I wanted to catch you alone, because—well, there's no sense in fighting this anymore, right?”
Lizzy blinked. “Um, fighting what?”
“You know,“ he gestured between the two of them. “This.”
Lizzy looked down at her Flamin’ Hot Cheetos snuggie with her hot dog slippers poking out from under the bottom, then over to his deep green dress shirt, black slacks, and perfectly coiffed hair. “I'm sorry, I'm still not following. We're very different people, sure, but I didn't think we were fighting?”
Darcy huffed and straightened his shoulders. “Let me try again. Elizabeth, would you like to go out for a late dinner with me tonight?”
“Oh!” Lizzy gasped. She stared at him stupidly; her surprise nearly took the wind out of her and she needed a moment to make sure she hadn't heard him wrong. Did he really just ask her out? It honestly didn't make any more sense than his lead-in, but at least she knew unequivocally what he meant. She was equally certain she had zero interest in accepting, though, and she pulled herself together when she realized he was standing there waiting for a reply. “You ever heard of asking in advance? Actually, no, it makes no difference. Thank you for inviting me, but I'm not interested.”
That was his cue to say something along the lines of Okay then, see you later, and she waited but instead it was his turn to stand there agape.
“What—you already have other plans?” he finally asked incredulously, looking pointedly into her living room with the clearly visible movie and single glass of wine.
Lizzy flushed. “Alone time is a plan,” she said, “and I'd like to get back to it, so… thanks again, and I hope you have a nice night.”
“So you're refusing me,” he checked, “and not just for tonight? Seriously?”
“Correct.” She nodded decisively. This was an incredibly surreal conversation. “We don't really know each other well anyway, so no hard feelings, I hope.” She almost felt bad for the guy, or she would have if she liked him better. And she might have liked him better if he didn't do things like become completely dumbfounded over her turning down one stupid dinner. What a knob.
The door was still swung open, he hadn't even come all the way in, so she took hold of the doorknob in the hopes it would send him a hint it was time to go. What else was there to say, anyway?
“Wait a second!” she burst out, before he even moved a muscle, as something suddenly occurred to her. “What did you mean earlier about fighting this?” and she did an exaggerated imitation of the way he'd pointed between them. “Was asking me out something you were wrestling with? Not just an impulse when your BFF had other plans?”
“Well, yes,” he stated simply, as if it were obvious. “Like you said, we're different people. We have different tastes, come from different backgrounds—”
“You don't even know me,” she said icily. “And why on earth would one dinner require such great deliberation?”
“It’s not the dinner I was worried about! Of course I enjoy your company, but if my family were to meet you, you wouldn't exactly fit in.”
“Oh my god.” Lizzy would have started laughing, if she weren't feeling so insulted. “I don't know where to start with that one. I know you rich types like to stick together, even though it's really fucking stupid, so I'll let that one go for now and pretend you didn't just leapfrog to me meeting your family before going on a single date—”
“It's not stupid, there are reasons we don't tend to mix—”
“I'm honestly the most hung up on you secretly liking me all this time.”
He tilted his head quizzically at her. “Why wouldn't I?” he asked. “You're so clever, and you make everyone laugh, and you're really attractive. I don't even know how you're single.”
Lizzy's eyes widened. Just when she thought she couldn't be more surprised tonight.
“And our eyes always meet across the room, and I thought—I just thought it was mutual,” he finished lamely. “I've never been turned down before.”
Finally, the absurdity got to her and she laughed. Hard. “Okay,” she said when she saw the tight set to his jaw. She cleared her throat and straightened up, trying to become serious again. “Okay. I can't answer for anyone else you've dated, but generally speaking, women like men who show them they like them. You know, by smiling at them and having actual conversations and such. Months of aloofness followed by a surprise date request isn't usually a winning strategy.”
Darcy scowled. “I need to act aloof,” he said curtly. “I can't fall for some gold digger.”
“So you were, what, all this time watching me to figure out if I might be one of them? Like, you were evaluating my worthiness because I'm not upper class enough?” Her jaw dropped as it dawned on her: “Wait, wait. Is that why you tried to break up Jane and Charlie? You thought Jane Bennet was a goddamn gold digger?”
Darcy's eyes flashed at having that thrown back at him. “It was a misjudgment,” he clipped. “I acknowledge that.”
“That's not good enough,” Lizzy cried. “Do you have any idea—”
She shook her head as the memories came back to her. Hours on the phone every night consoling her precious sister who lived so far away, for days on end, weeks. Lizzy made the decision to quit her job and move to the same city as Jane during that time. She couldn't stand not being there for her and never wanted Jane to be alone again. Only for Charlie to come crawling back to Jane when Lizzy was already committed to moving, but she came here all the same. She needed to stay close to protect her sensitive big sister.
She felt overly warm in her anger, and realized she was still wearing that fucking snuggie. She threw it on the floor and crossed her arms, trembling.
“You have no idea how much it hurt Jane when Charlie broke up with her,” she finished saying. “And Charlie trusted you, but you—you don't know nearly as much as you think you do, and you didn't even consider her feelings. You're just an arrogant prick.”
“You don't know me as well as you think you do, either,” he retorted. “You think I'm heartless, but I care a lot about the people who are close to me, even if I don't show it all the time—”
“Oh, my mistake,” Lizzy spat sarcastically. “You only pretend to be heartless, you're so good at pretending that you'll stomp all over the sweetest girl in the whole world, and you'll make me feel unwelcome every day when I'm just trying to meet people in a new city—” She paused for a second, finally absorbing how much his snubbing had actually hurt her, the first night she met him and every time since. And now she knew he'd been silently evaluating her to see if she was good enough to be his girlfriend, too. “Well guess what, Darcy, we are what we pretend to be. I don't think your heartless shtick is just an act.”
He stared at her, lips a thin line, expression otherwise blank. For the briefest instant, she wondered if she'd gone too far. But no. He didn't look like his feelings were hurt. Probably because he didn't have any.
He still didn't move, so she grabbed the doorknob once again and actually took his arm lightly to turn him around. “Goodnight,” she said coldly, and closed the door on him, making sure to lock it.
She moved back to her couch in a daze. After staring blankly in front of her for a minute, she looked over at her mostly-full glass of wine and took a big gulp.
What in the world…?
She grabbed her phone, itching to talk to Jane about what just happened, as she always did. She opened her texts and started typing, You'll never guess what—
She erased her message without finishing it and put her phone face down on the couch arm. Jane was busy. She was out having fun with her sweet man, and she didn't need to be interrupted. Lizzy stared unseeing at the paused image on her TV screen, at a complete loss on what to think or how to even begin processing things.
Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed the remote control and pressed play. It was one of her favourite movies, but she didn't laugh or cry at any of the usual times. She was much too dazed to pay any attention at all.
Monday morning rolled around and she was back at Meryton Inc. It was customary for some of the people in her area to dink around the break room for a bit on Mondays before settling into work, she'd realized early on, so to fit in she did the same, even though she wasn't a coffee drinker. She got there first today and filled her reusable bottle at the water cooler. It emptied just before her bottle was full, so she looked around and spotted the stash of refill jugs nearby. She'd just wrestled off the empty one and was struggling to lift the full one onto the cooler when in walked none other than Will Collins.
She wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with him today.
She pointedly ignored him, focusing on the water cooler situation, but when he cleared his throat she didn't have much choice but to turn and give a half-hearted greeting.
“Let me get that for you,” he said gallantly, and wrested the jug out of her arms.
Lizzy would have been mad at his presumption but, well, it was heavy and she really could use the help. “Thanks,” she said.
He finished up quickly and turned to her, grinning. “Have dinner with me and we'll call it even?”
Lizzy's strategy all day Sunday had been to avoid thinking about her fight with Darcy, but she did know she was still angry with him, and Will was really not helping her opinion on men as a whole. She was tired of this, tired of guys she didn't like asking her out and tired of having to justify saying no. She was tired to her bones of this man in front of her and the thought sinking in that this wasn't going to ever stop made her tiredness reach new depths she didn't know existed. And she remembered Jane and her suggestions the other night.
“I actually have a boyfriend,” she said before letting herself think it through, “so I'm always going to say no. Thanks for the offer, though.”
“Oh, wow!” Will exclaimed. “I had no idea. Gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I'll stop asking, I swear!”
The lie had rolled off her tongue so easily, and the effect was so immediate, Lizzy wished she had done it sooner. She normally would have felt disgusted that some imaginary man was taken more seriously than her, but she was too weary. She was just glad it worked.
A squeal from the doorway made her whirl around, and there was her coworker Lydia, one of the several younger girls in her department.
“You have a boyfriend!” Lydia cried. “Why didn't you ever say so?”
“Oh, uh…” Lizzy cast her mind desperately for something to say. Right, this was the other reason a fake boyfriend was a dumb idea: the follow-up questions. “I just like to keep my work and personal life separate.” Not bad, Bennet. She mentally high fived herself.
“Come on,” Lydia whined, “I want to know everything! What's his name? What's he like?”
Lizzy couldn't think. The only men she even remembered existing were Will Collins, who was also now waiting curiously for her response, and… Fitzwilliam fucking Darcy. She tried desperately, but she really and truly couldn't think of any other man besides those two. Seconds were ticking by, and this was way too long to hesitate if she'd actually had a real boyfriend to name. “Darcy!” she blurted out in a panic.
Now she wanted to high five herself… across the face.
“What a cool name! Darcy!” Lydia gushed. “What's his last name?”
“Actually, that is his last name.”
“You call your own boyfriend by his last name?”
Shit. “Nobody ever calls him by his first name. He's fine with going by Darcy.” At least she assumed it was fine, seeing as everyone called him exclusively by that name, not that she'd ever asked.
“Okay then,” Lydia said skeptically. “Well, what's he look like?”
Now this, Lizzy could answer. “He's tall, a little taller than Will, I'd say,” she said, glancing over at him. “He has curly hair, I've always had a weakness for men with curly hair. He's very handsome. Definitely out of my league.” She giggled nervously. They were going to call her out for sure.
Far from calling her out, Lydia was captivated. “No way he's out of your league, you're so pretty! So how long have you been going out? How did you meet?”
“Um, he's old friends with my sister's boyfriend, so I met him through them and then he asked me out… a bit later.” There, no lies yet, which meant nothing she would have to remember after. Distantly, she wondered what restaurant he was planning to take her to on Saturday night had she said yes. Not going there.
“You're killing me, Lizzy,” Lydia pressed, “I need more deets!”
“Deets on what?” came another new voice. Lizzy looked over, and her heart sank on recognizing Kitty, another one of the giggly young ones always gossiping together at work. This was going to spread to everyone by lunch.
“Lizzy has a hot boyfriend named Darcy, and I'm trying to find out more about him but she isn't really giving me anything at all,” Lydia said to Kitty.
“Fine, fine—” Lizzy thought some more. What did she know about Darcy? Almost nothing, really, after two months of seeing him nearly every weekend, and she wasn't exactly eager to change that. “He's the only person alive who calls me Elizabeth, and I think that's… sweet. He's too old-fashioned to call me Lizzy, I guess.” She laughed again. She actually thought it was annoying proof of how stuck-up he was, so now she was one lie in. Besides the overall, much larger and easily disproved lie about him being her boyfriend, of course. “He's quiet, but I talk a lot, so we balance each other out.”
“Awwww, I bet you two are so cute together,” Kitty said, smiling.
“No, we're just regular people, really,” Lizzy said hurriedly. “Hey, I have to go, I was supposed to be at my desk ten minutes ago. See you around!” And she rushed out of the break room, leaving the girls to their excited whispering and Will Collins to whatever he was still doing in there.
Back at her desk, she began to freak out. Lying about already seeing someone was one thing, a means to an end, but Darcy? She hated that guy, and every single second of that conversation where she was forced to think about him was absolutely agonizing. Now she was committed to acting like she liked him, while at work. And she knew so many other men, too! Why didn't she say Richard Fitzwilliam? Or anyone she knew from her hometown? Or just make someone up? Or, she could have fled the conversation before having to give a name, and told Lydia later she made it up to get Will off her back. She could have done anything else.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. She mashed the heels of her hands into her eyes and lay her head down on her desk.
A new thought, the most horrifying of all, jolted her upright. Her eyes widened and her hands clenched into fists. Her nails dug into her palms but she didn't even notice.
What if Darcy found out?
But no, she rationalized to herself after a moment of serious panic, he would never find out. No one in this place would have any reason to know him. They would never even meet him. This was a solidly middle-class job, and Darcy and his kind were… not. Besides, all they had to go on was a last name and the fact he had curly hair. Even if they did cross paths, which they never would, they wouldn't recognize him. In fact, the folks at work would probably forget this whole thing in a week or two.
Everything would be just fine.
Twenty minutes after her shift was supposed to start, Lizzy turned on her computer and opened her Outlook and her spreadsheets. The boring familiarity of this work soothed her and she let her mind clear. She didn't think about Darcy and how furious she was with him. She didn't think about her coworkers and the lies she told them. She breathed deeply and leaned back into her chair.
Everything would be just fine.