Lydia raised a hand to stop her. “It’s 2026. You need to hear people’s details from them. They could have changed it since the last time you saw them.”
Jane shook her head. Elizabeth grimaced.
"Elizabeth Anne Bennet."
"Age."
"Thirty-four."
"Occupation."
"Freelance Writer."
"Interests."
"Music. Writing. Arguing with people who are wrong about things."
"I am putting music, writing, and culture."
"That is not what I said."
"It is a better answer." Lydia kept typing. "Now. This part asks what you are looking for. Answer honestly. Do not saysomething like someone who does not fix my things without asking."
Jane made a sound.
"I was not going to say that," Elizabeth said.
"What were you going to say?"
"Something real," Elizabeth said. "Something that does not require me to be smaller than I am. Someone who pays attention."
Lydia looked up from her phone.
For once she did not say anything. She just looked at her sister for a moment. Then she looked back down and typed.
"Someone who pays attention," she said. "Got it."
Jane put her hand over Elizabeth's briefly. She said nothing.
The kitchen smelled of coffee. Outside, the morning continued without asking anyone's permission.
***
The pasta water was taking too long, and Mia had been quiet for eleven minutes, which was, in Elizabeth’s most recent experience, never a good sign.
They were making dinner together, the two of them, the kitchen warm and smelling of garlic and the olive oil Elizabeth had put in too early and was now trying to compensate for. Mia was at the counter, tearing basil with the focused attention of someone who was thinking about something else entirely.
Darcy was not in.
Elizabeth, knowing Mia was just seconds away from starting something, stirred the sauce and waited.
“So,” Mia said, tearing a basil leaf in half and breaking the long-fought silence. “About last night.”
Elizabeth kept her eyes on the sauce. “What about it?”
“You and Mr. Darcy. Eating toast at two in the morning.”
“He made toast. I came downstairs because I thought someone had broken in. There is a difference.”
