Page 45 of First Impressions
Taking a deep breath, she dialed her dad’s cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, dad.”
“Hey, how’s everything going? How’s Jane holding up?”
“As good as can be expected, I guess,” she responded, “That’s actually why I’m calling you. I honestly think it would be better for Jane to have the whole week off and away from everything.”
“Of course, sweetheart; whatever you think is best for her. I can only imagine how she feels.”
“Yeah, the problem is I doubt I can convince her to stay out of the office for the rest of the week; she’ll show up regardless of what you or I say.”
“Well, you have a point there. Maybe it will be good for her to do a little work, to take her mind off of everything?” He suggested.
“Maybe. I have to go to the Hamptons for work this weekend and I wanted to bring Char and Jane with me - to get her out of the city and just have a girl’s weekend. I was wondering if you think you could convincingly tell Jane thatyou don’t need her to come in on Friday? She won’t take off of work if I just ask her to.”
“Oh, sure. That’s not a problem. Bill wanted to meet with me anyway, so maybe I’ll schedule that for Friday. Then she’ll see a legitimate reason for what I’m saying.”
“Great, I think it will be good for her.” Unable to stop herself, she continued, “Have you heard anything from him?”
“Not anything that I didn’t already know. I tried to call him immediately after I spoke to Mr. Darcy. I obviously wanted to verify what Darcy had just told me, but the call went right to voicemail. Early this morning, though, he emailed me basically stating what Mr. Darcy had said on the phone. I wish I knew more,” he said regretfully.
“What did Mr. Darcy say to you?”Why did she continue to punish herself?
“I thought your mother would have told you. He said that Charles had to regretfully put the deal on hold to return to Boston indefinitely. I tried to ask more questions, not just for Jane’s sake but for the firm, but you know how intimidating he is; he brushed them off with vague answers and then said that someone would be in touch.”
“Oh.”Mr. Intolerable was definitely the reigning king of avoiding answers.
“You know, I was in shock at what he was saying. It barely had time to sink in before the conversation was over but I didn’t want to press or pry and somehow make the situation worse.” The guilt in her father’s voice was palpable. It seemed like everyone blamed themselves a little for the situation that Jane was in.
“It’s ok. I’m sure you did the right thing. Jane will be ok, she’s strong.” Beth tried to reassure him, if only she could say the same thing about herself.
“Are you ok though, Beth?”
This is why she hesitated on calling him; he knew her too well.The realization hit that he was the first person who had asked her if she was ok; everyone else had jumped to Jane. She didn’t blame them; Jane was the obvious victim. No one knew about her and Darcy. She felt her eyes starting to tear up and her throat constricting.Stop, you can do this.
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” She managed to get out with only a little shakiness to her voice.
“You just seemed upset and distracted the other night; I just wondered if it had anything to do with Mr. Darcy.”
Damn, the man was perceptive.“Nope, just a lot going on.” She wiped away the tears that had collected in her eyes. “Listen, I have to get back to work; thanks for asking and thanks for helping me with Jane. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”
“Ok, love you too.”
Before she had the chance to think about anything other than work, Beth set her phone down on her desk and decided to go tell Phil, in person, her next steps with the DeBourgh account. She walked out of the office and left all thoughts of Darcy’s betrayal behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The restof the week leading to Friday passed by quickly, relief setting in on Wednesday when Beth got her period. At least she didn’t have to addthatcomplication into this mess. She kept busy with work but forced herself to leave on time so that she could get home to Jane. Tuesday night, she was stuck on a call with a client until after five and when she got home, she found Jane just sitting on the couch crying; she consoled her and tried to take her mind off of Charles by talking about their weekend plans, but it took almost forty-five minutes for Jane to come around. Beth decided then that she didn’t want her sister to be alone for too long right now; she was just too emotional. After that night, she made sure she got home before Jane. She was equally sure that Jane took extra care to hide her tears, even though Beth could still hear the occasional sob from her room as she was falling asleep.
When Friday morning rolled around, they both seemed to be in better spirits at the thought of getting out of the city for the weekend. Char picked them up and Beth navigated them to the DeBourgh mansion in Bridgehampton, using the directions that Mrs. DeBourgh’s assistant had sent her.
They didn’t talk of Charles or Darcy the whole time, even though it seemed like a giant elephant in the car with them. Thankfully, Char subtly distracted them with entertaining stories of her more recent embarrassing blind dates that her mom had set up for her. That had led Beth and Jane to open up an entertaining discussion about Bill.
“I still can’t believe you’re dating Bill Collins,” Beth said to her friend as she finished laughing about Char’s last story.
“Yeah, yeah. Tell me about it.”
