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Caroline surrounds herself with successful people. Bing the Doctor. Darcy the CEO. There are others, but these are the most important, the two planets that orbit closest to Caroline.
Bing doesn't really count as someone Caroline surrounds herself with, though. Her twin, they share a womb for nine months and it isn't unusual for them to share a bed in the years that follow. He spooks easily as a boy (and sometimes as a man) and in those moments, she's the calm one, the soothing one. She brushes away the hair that sticks to his sweaty forehead. She rubs his back until his breathing evens. She even lays there through snoring that often disrupts her own sleep. That's how dedicated she is to her brother. She's forever willing to forego anything for him and she knows he's willing to do the same for her. They're a pair, a matched set, and without one the other is lacking.
Where there's Bing, there is always Caroline.
In high school there are rumors, disgusting rumors that there is more to Bing and Caroline than familial love. It makes sense to everyone else. They're always close, almost always with each other, and he talks about his sister an awful lot when they aren't together. She's perpetually single and he dates, but never for long with Caroline frequently cited as the reason behind his breakups. But there are no successful people in high school. Student body presidents, captains of sports teams, actresses, actors, singers. That isn't success. At least, not the sort of success Caroline is looking for. Success in high school is often fleeting and Caroline is an oracle, but the only future she can see is Bing's.
Caroline is calculating and shrewd. Caroline is manipulative. Caroline has high standards. Caroline is successful because of the people surrounding her. On her own, Caroline is a question mark.
She's only ever been conditionally intelligent, smart where it matters and less so when it doesn't. She is clever enough to get into the same college as Bing, though not clever enough to share his field. But that doesn't matter. They have different classes, different friends, but they always find one another in the end. She does whatever she can to help him achieve his success. She learns anatomy and biology, neither of which interest her, but he needs her help studying. She'd do anything for him.
When they meet Darcy in college, she's clever enough to realize he's perfect for them. Bing likes him right away and so does she, but for different and far more primal reasons. She uses her brother to crack his icy exterior and once it happens, they both slide in, settling in close to Darcy's heart. Bing becomes his moral compass and Caroline becomes his agony aunt. She's always been the only one who understands how Darcy truly works. Or so she thinks. She wants to settle in somewhere lower than his heart, like the pit of his stomach which is always where her longing for him starts or perhaps even lower than that. She wants to consume Darcy's life in the same forceful way she consumes Bing's. But there's a distance there she doesn't see and because she doesn't see it she has no hope of ever crossing it. Not for lack of trying, though.
When Darcy graduates, several years before Bing and Caroline, they celebrate with drinks on the floor of Darcy's dead father's study. And when Bing, messy and red-faced, passes out before they do, they keep drinking. She makes the first move, her lips desperate on his. Darcy kisses her back and lets his hands explore the length of her body, as if testing to see if she's a good fit against his. Darcy is like Caroline, calculating and shrewd with high standards. He tests the heft of her breast in his palm, the warmth of her skin, the pull of her lips against his. She thinks he might be willing to lose himself in her when Bing shifts in his chair in the corner and begins to snore. Darcy jerks away from her like she's a flame and in this rejection she becomes a flame, angry and embarrassed. They don't ever talk about that night, though she thinks about it a lot.
Caroline's opinion of Darcy takes on a bitter edge and she hates him a little now, but the force of her feelings for him only grow.
Bing has always had a nasty habit of falling in love easily. Caroline thinks she's above such things, but she isn't, not where Darcy is concerned, at least. But because she thinks she's above such things, she watches her brother closely to see that he doesn't get hurt and she's relieved she has Darcy to watch with her. That doesn't stop girls from taking advantage of his naivety. But Caroline is always there to pick up the pieces and Darcy is always there to make the problem go away. They're a good team.
When Bing decides he wants to buy a summer house in the obnoxiously small town their mother grew up in, Caroline is surprised when Darcy doesn't dissuade him. She thinks about putting her foot down, but in a show of generosity doesn't. Darcy hasn't taken a real vacation since Hurricane George blew through his sister. She thinks he might almost need it more than Bing does. She mostly hopes the change of scenery will make Darcy see her in a different light.
It doesn't and she hates him a little more.