Page 41 of First Impressions
“I can’t believe this. He’s crazy about you Jane; you should get your hopes up. Is that why mom said those things last night? Did you tell her all this?”
“No. Well, yes, it’s why she probably made comments about an engagement but I didn’t tell her. I think she saw Charles talking to me alone and then when we got back to the table, our conversation kind of continued on the topic of marriage which I’m sure she was trying to listen in on.”
“Did she ask you about it after you left last night?”
“Well, no. That’s the other thing. Charles brought me home last night.” Jane’s face turned beet red.
“Seriously? What happened? Did he stay here?” Beth asked, astounded; she couldn’t have in a million years pictured Jane having sex before marriage. They both had dated before and had donethings,so they weren’t completely innocent, but Jane wanted to save that type of intimacy for marriage andBeth, she had just never been attached or attracted enough to anyone to want that.Until Darcy.
“Oh, no. Absolutely not. Charles is a gentleman. He brought me home and then he just stayed for a little bit before leaving; he wanted to make sure I was ok after the drinks that I had had.” Charles was really perfect for her.
“So, what happened? Did he kiss you? Stop avoiding the question,” Beth prodded.
“I’m not! Yes, he kissed me. We did a lot of kissing, but that was it. I promise. You know I wouldn’t have sex with someone without being married, especially with someone whom I’ve only known for such a brief time.” Beth calmed down when she heard that her sister was still the same person she always knew her to be.
“Ok, ok. Well, how was it? Was it magical? Is he a good kisser?” By this point, Beth had completely forgotten about everythingshehad done last night; she was too wrapped up in her sister’s story.
“I think so. I mean, I really liked it. I haven’t kissed that many people, Beth.” Jane rolled her eyes.
“You’ve kissed more than I, that’s for sure.”
“Well, he was definitely the best yet but that’s all I’m going to say.” With that secretive comment, Jane stood up and went into the kitchen to heat some water for tea.
“I just can’t believe all this, Jane. I’m so happy for you.” Beth stared after her sister.
“Thank you,” she said shyly. “So, what happened at the ball last night? I saw Char dancing with Bill; I hope you said something to her about that. Wait a minute, I also saw you dancing with Mr. Darcy as we were leaving! Something must have happened between dinner the other night and that.”
Beth felt her face starting to heat; thankfully Jane was still in the kitchen where she couldn’t see her.
“Well, apparently Char and Bill are dating now. I know, I was floored too, but that’s what she told me this morning.”
“What! That’s crazy. I mean, awesome for her. I guess I don’t know him well enough personally, only professionally. In spite of his quirks, he is a very nice guy, very much agentleman.” Jane could find goodness in the Grinch given the opportunity. “What about Mr. Darcy though?”
Beth started the story slowly, deciding as she went how much to divulge. She began with how she tried to blow him off at the beginning of the evening, not wanting to put herself in a position to be hurt. She moved onto the bathroom scene and her brief conversation with Anne.
“I saw how they interacted, I wonder what George has done to make him so mad. He seems like a nice enough guy and Lydia really likes him, that’s for sure.”
“Lydia likes anyone who is good-looking and willing to give her the time of day.” Beth rolled her eyes, thinking about how shallow her younger sister was.
“Beth!” Jane scolded her, “Did something else happen with him though? Mom called me this morning, mostly about Charles, but she asked if you or I had heard from George; she’d heard that something happened and wanted to make sure he was ok.”
“Well, yeah. There’s that too but I’ll get to that later. So, I was really pissed that Darcy sent her to chase after me and warn me to avoid George. You can’t just tell me that he is a bad guy and then not give me any reason to believe you. Especially if I’m just meeting you for the first time. So, I said that and left. Dinner was pretty uneventful. I was mostly stuck between mom and Mrs. DeBourgh the whole time, who said in no uncertain terms that Darcy and Anne were a couple.”
“Is that when you starting choking? I was worried.”
“Yep. After dinner though, Darcy asked me to dance - this was the first time - and I was about to say ‘no’ but then George came over and said that I had promised to dance with him. Since I was pretty drunk by that time and angry at Darcy for sending Anne after me, I figured what better way to annoy him than to dance with someone who he clearly hates; it probably wasn’t the best idea, but it felt good at the time.”
“Oh, Beth.”
“I know, I know. So after that, I managed to avoid him until the end of the night when he asked me to dance again. Well, I think I ran into him and started to fall; I wasn’t very steady on my feet at that point in the evening and he asked meto dance, but since he was already holding me I think we just started dancing. That part is a little fuzzy still.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No. Well, he said ‘please’ when he asked me to dance. I wasn’t sure that word was in his vocabulary,” Beth said wryly, continuing before Jane could comment, “As I was going to leave though, George came back over to us and said some inappropriate things to me; he was completely wasted though, I doubt he even remembers. Anyway, what he said really set Darcy off, so Darcy punched him.”
“Oh my God, Beth! Is he ok? Why would he do that?” Jane was shocked.
“He’s fine. Darcy had some of the hotel staff come over and take him to his room and I think he even had a doctor sent up to the room to check on him. I would be surprised if he remembers any of it,” Beth finished knowing that she’d reached the point in the story where she had to take the leap and tell Jane everything. On a sigh, she heard her stomach grumble and, reaching for her phone asked Jane, “What time are you leaving for dinner?”
