Page 16 of First Impressions
Served him right.
“And he asked about you.”
Beth clenched her teeth to keep her jaw from dropping. “Wait, what? What did he say? What did you say?”
“Well, Charles wanted to speak with dad alone in his office, so that left Mr. Darcy and me alone for a few minutes. He was very awkward at first, you know how he is, asking me questions about my job and working for family, about our younger sisters and if they wanted to work for the firm; and that led him to questions about you, what you liked to do, if you liked your job, things like that. I think he thought I would just assume the questions were to be polite and not notice that he had subversively guided the conversation onto you, but it was obvious he wanted to know more about you.”
Don’t get excited, Beth. You don’t care what he thinks or how he feels about you.She tried to keep reminding herself of that even though she was powerless to stop the rush of pleasure that swept through her, knowing that he was interested in her and not just attracted to her body.
“What did you tell him?”
“Mostly general stuff about your work and how achieving your goals is so important to you. That you have a very strong and determined personality, which he said he had already gathered; he said that you had impressed him,” she paused here to look at Beth, who looked like she was about to faint.
“He said what?” Beth choked out. Mr. Intolerable continued to leave her speechless even when he wasn’t physically there.
“Well, it almost seemed like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud. He started to drift off into his own world when I began to talk about you, he closed his eyes and started to rub his forehead like he had a headache, and when I stopped talking he kind of stared right through me and quietly said that you had truly impressed him. I was shocked too, based on everything that you’ve told me he’s said and done so far, so I said that you were one of the most impressive people I had ever met and that you would be happy to hear that he agreed.”
Jane gave Beth a quick smile as she got up to go make them a cup of tea.
How does one go from ‘tolerable’ to ‘truly impressive’?
She hadn’t done anything except kiss him, and she wouldn’t consider her kissing skills as ‘impressive’. Ok, maybethere was everything else that he knew about her, that he’d seen and heard about her from being at Longbourne and around her and her family for the past few days. Her guard down, she felt proud that she had impressed him. Proud and excited, which was new for her because she had never cared about impressing men. She was confident in who she was, whether they wanted to appreciate her or not; but knowing that Darcy did gave her a sense of satisfaction that she had never experienced before.
As Jane began heating the water she continued her story, “At that point, he seemed to come back to reality and almost like he was embarrassed or regretted his compliment, because he quickly asked me if any of our other sisters were as headstrong as you - like he was trying to distract me from what he had said. I told him that you must have been adopted because, unlike the rest of us, you weren’t willing to be dominated by anyone; you make your own path to success and aren’t content to just docilely follow others.” Jane’s light humor pulled Beth from her preoccupation with Mr. Darcy’s comment. She shook her head and laughed as Jane placed a cup of green tea before her on the counter.
“Is that all you had to say about me? What did he say after that?” Beth jokingly asked, inside dying to know more.
“Well, by the time I said that, Charles came back and our conversation was interrupted. I hope I said the right thing. He seemed more agitated after I said that, but maybe it was just that Charles had returned.”
“Haha, there is no right or wrong thing. I don’t care what he thinks of me.”
Except she was really starting to and it was a problem.
Why did she care so much what he thought of her?
It’s not like she was overwhelmed by his billionaire status and wanted to impress him for his money; and she certainly wasn’t thrilled with his personality thus far.
And if she did impress him, why was he so rude and cold to her? Why could he admit this to Jane, but not find one pleasant thing to say to her in person?
After all of her rational thinking and planning, here she was watching as her feelings became entangled with this manwithout him even present. The amount of pleasure she received from hearing about his compliment was soon stifled by her aggravation with herself; for the first time, she realized that she had wanted to impress him, wanted to show him that she wasn’t just like everyone else - blinded by his status and fortune; and mostly, that she wanted to put a dent in his arrogance and egotism.
Jane was right, she wanted to dominate him. She wanted Mr. Intolerable to look at her with respect so that she could bring him down a notch or two for his impudent comment about her being barely ‘tolerable’; she wanted him to realize that she was his equal.
Realizing that she had been quiet for a few minutes, she took a sip of her tea and asked Jane,“Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”
“Well, I didn’t know where your head was at and I didn’t want to bring him up if you were just trying to move past the whole situation. I’m sorry. I knew I should have said something. I just didn’t want to upset you; I’ve just never seen you get upset over a guy before.” The remorse on her sister’s face told her that she was truly sorry, not that Beth would have thought anything different. Jane was an open book.
Not wanting to discuss her earlier resolution regarding Mr. Darcy or how he had just shattered it with one compliment, Beth redirected their conversation back to Charles and asked if Jane would be seeing him the following day. Thankfully, Jane didn’t prod her about what she had decided to do about Mr. Darcy. Unlike the other women in their family, Jane listened to help and support her, not to get caught up in some new drama.
“Well, I think he will be at the office tomorrow, but he will definitely be at dinner tomorrow night. Mom has been texting and calling me every ten minutes about the menu and the table settings and what drinks to serve and what she should wear. I think I’m beginning to see her like you do!” She joked even though she was incapable of such an opinion.
She should have known that Charles and Mr. Darcy would be invited to their family dinner, but her mind wasn’t in the most stable place these past few days. Preparing herself forwhat she already knew the answer to be, she asked Jane if Mr. Darcy was also invited to dinner tomorrow night.
“Yes, and I’d be prepared for mom to be on her matchmaking game if I were you. Are you going to be ok? I can always tell them you are sick or something.” Jane’s face grew concerned as she realized Beth didn’t know that Mr. Darcy was planning on being there.
“No, it’s ok. I will never hear the end of it from mom if I don’t go. I’ll be fine.”She hoped.
“Well, if you want me to put my purse outside your door so that you can trip over it and hurt yourself, just let me know. I’ll bring the doctor’s note with me and everything to exculpate you.”
