Page 11 of First Impressions
“Of course he’s not, Beth!” interjected Charles, breaking the tension. “You are one of the top publicists in the country. I’m sure many people and their businesses wouldn’t be where they are without you, not to mention everything that you do for this firm - it’s quite an accomplishment. You and Jane are some of the smartest people I know. Don’t mind Darcy, if he was easily impressed then it might force him to lighten up - heaven forbid.”
“I can’t afford to be easily impressed. Nowadays, even participation is considered an accomplishment. There are only a handful of people whom I would consider truly accomplished,” Darcy explained.
“Well, I’m surprised with the achievements or attitude necessary to acquire your measure of ‘accomplished,’ that you even have a handful of people to consider,” Beth retorted with the appearance of jest to the rest of the table, however, Mr. Intolerable knew she had meant it; his mouth thinned and his eyes darkened.
Before the conversation took a wrong turn, Mr. Bennet suggested that Beth should take Jane back home to recuperate for the rest of the day while he went over the purchase contract with Charles and Darcy.
The girls said their goodbyes, Charles promising to call Jane later to see how she was feeling. Mr. Darcy didn’t speakto her again, just a brief nod of his head before he turned to cross the street back over to the office.
Chapter Ten
“Are you ok, Beth?”Jane asked as soon as they walked in their apartment door. “You were really antagonizing Mr. Darcy at lunch. What’s going on?”
Beth sighed, still in disbelief about the words that were about to come out of her mouth. “Mr. Darcy kissed me,” she stated bluntly as she plopped down on the couch, staring off into space.
“Wait, what? Oh my gosh. Why? Are you ok?”
Unable to look Jane in the eyes as she related the entire incident, Beth rose from the couch and went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. Who cared if it was only three o’clock - she needed it. As she sipped her Pinot, she told Jane everything that had happened at the firm earlier.
“I just don’t get it. One minute, I’m tolerable, the next he is kissing me, and then not even an hour later, he is staring daggers at me, shocked that I know anything about the world we live in. First, privately insinuating that he does find me impressive and then publically insinuating that I’m not very accomplished. My brain can’t figure out what he is trying to achieve.”
Jane sat there for a moment, processing everything that she had said. “And he didn’t say anything about the kiss? Or his comments?”
“Nope. Not even a hint of an apology or explanation.”
“Hmm. That is really weird. He does seem like an odd man, very reserved and secretive. He seems like he shields himself from everyone, but I imagine all of those emotions build up and erupt at some point.”
“That’s one way of putting it; I mean have we ever heard anyone call him by his first name? Even Charles calls him Darcy. I wonder if he lets anyone in - not that anyone would want to be let in considering how proud and prejudiced he is. Still, I can understand the reserved part; I just don't understand how you can go from barely tolerating someone to kissing them. I can’t think about it any longer. My brain hasbeen going around in circles for hours now. I don’t even know how I’m going to be able to be around him anymore,” Beth said as a whole new wave of anxiety came over her at the thought.
“Well, why don’t we stay home tomorrow and take a day for you to gain some space?”
“I don’t know. Things seem to be really great between you and Charles; he’s definitely really, really into you. I’d hate to keep you from him.”
“It will be fine. Do you really think that he likes me though?”
“Are you kidding? He’s practically obsessed. I mean you could give him a little more encouragement,” Beth suggested. She could tell her sister really liked Charles, but Jane was more reserved when it came to showing affection - maybe because of her personality or because she didn’t want to put herself too far out there and get her hopes up.
“I know, I should,” Jane admitted. “I just get afraid that I’m imagining it or something, and that if I seem too interested, I’ll be let down again.”
“I know, but you need to start reciprocating, otherwise he might get the complete opposite impression and think that you don’t care at all.”
Jane acknowledged her point. Their conversation continued for some time, fluctuating between Charles and Mr. Darcy, passing the rest of the day quickly. Beth decided that her sister was right; she should work from home tomorrow to regroup and emotionally prepare herself to face him again. She would stay home and send Mrs. DeBourgh all the information she had gleaned today.
If Anne wanted Mr. Intolerable, she could have him.
Chapter Eleven
Beth was neverone to back down from a challenge, but she had to admit that taking the day to work from home was a welcome relief. As Jane had suggested, she called her dad that morning and said she was going to stay home with her sister to help Jane recover and make sure she was taking it easy by not putting too much pressure on her ankle. She made Jane breakfast and forced her to stay on the couch and off her feet even though she said her ankle was feeling much better this morning.
Trying her best not to continue to think about the incident that had kept her up all night and invaded her dreams, she got right to work. She first sent a quick email off to Phil, just checking in and letting him know that everything was going well at the firm and that she would keep him posted with any details on the DeBourgh account.
She knew she didn’t really have to check in, that Phil trusted her to get the job done right, but she always felt an internal obligation to keep him in the loop. With that sent, she touched base with some of the vendors for Longbourne’s Charity Ball to make sure everything was on schedule. Even though she was a publicist by trade, she had been moonlighting as the event planner for Longbourne for almost seven years now. She had to admit that she enjoyed the details and the organization slightly more than she enjoyed actually attending the parties that she planned. She also composed a few PR pieces to send to local media as well as some social media posts to promote the charity event. All in all, it didn’t take very long since she’d been doing these tasks for the firm for the past several years. She enjoyed working with her father on certain things, but she didn’t know how Jane could workforhim. Beth was far too independent and determined to make her own mark to ever have considered working at the family firm, in spite of how many times it was proposed.
After a blessed two hours of mind-numbing distraction, Beth was forced to redirect her thoughts to the one man whohad previously dominated them. Bringing up a new email to be sent directly to Mrs. DeBourgh, Beth distilled all of the information - or lack thereof - that she had learned the day before.
Mrs. DeBourgh,
Please see below some of my preliminary findings on the topic we discussed earlier this week:
