“Umm ... Mr. Darcy, you do know that sounds a lot like a marriage pact.”
“Maybe.” He grinned, then took another bite of the carrot. “Alexis, play ‘Love Shack.’
Taking her into his arms, he twirled her followed by a B-52 dance session in his kitchen.
Regrettably, she didn’t move in with him, and Jane only got worse.
An hour after Jane’s meltdown in the car, Lizzy dropped her suitcase on the living room floor, flipped through Saturday’s mail, then mindlessly trudged to the bedroom. For all her good intentions and positivity, she felt spent and angry at so many things. The second she saw William enter the ballroom, feelings of love lost, resentment, and self-repudiation resurfaced as she witnessed the sadness behind his blue eyes when they locked with hers. All she wanted to do was cry out, “I’m so sorry! I have never stopped loving you. I should never have believed your love wasn’t pure and true.” And once she got over the shock of his engagement and client relationship with La Tempera, she mourned losing him all over again. Even she had technically moved on with George. What had she thought—that William would pine for her the rest of his life? No, but still, she didn’t expect to actuallyseehim in the arms of another. Then, in a strange twist, she discovered hehadpined for her. For a very brief moment time had frozen; feeling and light returned to her heart, but it was too late.
“Marry me, forever, Lizzy.”
Although remaining silent, she wanted to scream, “You’re too late!” If only he’d counteracted her argument on that terrible night with a proposal, she would have rethought everything, snapped her out of her illogical mindset. Instead, he just barked at her, then shut down. But who could blame him after her side-blinding?
Entering her bedroom, she considered how, back then, another woman in love would have been stronger and had greater clarity when it came to Jane’s opinions and interferenceover their relationship. She didn’t deserve the gift of William’s love.
A different person would have let Jane experience life and manage its disappointments without a guiding hand. She wasn’t responsible for ensuring her sister’s happiness or regulating her unhappiness. Someone like William would never have been so weak-kneed or weak-minded as to allow another’s taunting suggestions and poor advice to hijack his happiness or hurt someone. She hated that she had been born a sucker and hated that everyone took advantage of it! Hated that she was a people pleaser and a selfless giver and fixer of lives to her detriment. William was right all those years ago:“It’s code for ‘people take advantage of you because you have a charitable, loving heart’.”Had she only ignored her sister’s deliberate machinations, everything would be different. Still, she, not her sister, owned it from beginning to bloody end, including her foolhardy actions at the wedding reception.
After a morning of playing Olympiad-sized mental gymnastics, she plopped down on the edge of the bed, verbally berating herself and analyzing her sister. “Jane never adjusted to city life and never found her way or spread her wings to better herself. You held her hand like an idiot, and even after you left for Paris, she floundered for sixteen months in that dead-end coffee shop job until your return. Then! she proceeded to make you feel guilty for leaving, painting, and doing what you love, all while you continued to pay her rent from your savings just to prove your love to your big sister!”
Dropping back on the bed, she wrapped her arms around a throw pillow, staring up at the ceiling. That Jane adored George should have sent warning bells off from the start. A laugh burst from her lips at the thought that the two would make an interesting love match worthy of psychological analysis.Internally, she felt a tinge of joy at the prospect of telling Jane that the wedding was off.
“Where have you been?” she asked when George exited their hotel bathroom following the wedding reception.
“Like I said, I passed out on a deck chair.”
He came up behind her, nuzzling her neck. “Let’s fuck,” he said.
“Ew! You smell like booze.”And perfume? “You know how I feel about sex when you’re filthy drunk.”
That really wasn’t the reason, but it was the only viable excuse she could make. After everything that happened at the reception, she now saw him with jaw-dropping clarity. Already disgusted by his comment to William about his late parents, “let’s fuck” was the nauseating cherry on the cake. In fact, coupled with his insulting manners the other night in the restaurant, he downright repulsed her. The prospect of sex with George made her flesh crawl.
“Don’t you wanna take care of me? My chin hurts,” he moaned, turning on his seduction voice.
“You’ll be fine. Put some ice on it.”
“But, my dick also aches.”
“Then maybe you should put ice on that, too,” she cut, shirking away from his caress down her arm.
His continued crudeness was bringing about his demise. If her own head didn’t swirl from the drink, she’d kick him out of her hotel room and her life, but she needed to be of sound mind for the inevitable break-up. The clock ticked fast toward “I do,” though.
“Hey, you owe me after leaving me on the dance floor. I was defending your honor, you know,” he complained.
“I’m not in the mood for this, George.”
“Ah, spoken like a true ice queen. You’re cutting me off because he’s here,” he sneered.
“He, who?”
“Darcy, the obnoxious ...billionaire ...who still wants to screw you.”
Jealousy, coupled with sexual vulgarity, were vile traits in her opinion; two George mastered.
“William has nothing to do with your foul liquor breath and crudeness. Neither of which are arousing. You’re letting your envy and the booze cloud your judgment.”
Naked, he sat on the bed. “Jealous? Of him? Hardly. So, how long did you two date?”
She shrugged then turned, walking to the bathroom for her satin robe. Escape was her only thought. “A few months.”
