Chapter Text
The elevator ride down to the ground floor of Hearst Tower was a long one, so Darcy took out his phone and caught up on recent texts from Lizzie (who had taken to texting him several times a day whenever she needed a break from working on her thesis).
Writing about hyper-mediation. Makes me think about how sexy you look in a bow tie. ;)
I’m glad you’ll be coming back to San Francisco soon.
Is it weird that I miss you more when you’re across the country?
It’s not like it makes a difference, when I don’t get to see you either way.
Darcy directed a sad smile at the screen of his phone and typed a response: Not weird at all. I miss you too, and I will be glad to return home.
Then another: Remind me to wear a bow tie for our next video chat. (He couldn’t quite bring himself to return the winky face.)
The elevator doors opened and Darcy looked around the lobby for Bing, who was going to take him to the airport.
Instead, Jane was there, smiling and waving at him. “Hi, Darcy,” she greeted as he approached. “It’s so good to see you!”
“Where’s Bing?” Darcy asked. He felt the rudeness of his words the moment they escaped his mouth, but Jane Bennet’s sudden and unexpected presence made him feel more than a little wary. She was smiling and she had greeted him warmly, but (recalling Charlotte’s observation from one of Lizzie’s early videos) she would have issued the same greeting had Darcy been her closest friend, her mortal enemy, or the mailman. Darcy was not a lifelong scholar of the Many Moods of Jane Bennet (or particularly adept at reading facial expressions in general), and since his past actions had caused her considerable pain, he knew she could not be blamed for hating him.
But she was still smiling. “Bing is working on an rooftop gardening project,” she explained, “and it went later than he expected, so I’m here instead!” She grinned at him and made a little ta-da motion with her hands. Then she looped her arm through his, directing him toward the door where Bing’s driver was waiting. “And anyway, I haven’t gotten a chance to see you before now, and that didn’t seem right.”
Darcy was silent. At lunch the other day, Bing had brought up the possibility of planning an outing with the three of them (including Jane), but Darcy’s pronounced discomfort at the idea had made him back down. The truth was that Darcy had no idea what to say to Jane, how to face his past mistakes, and he had spent so much time struggling with his inner demons lately, he was ready to take a rest from it and just let the remaining demons be sit comfortably for a while.
But judging by the steely look Jane gave him when they were seated in the car, this was not likely to happen.
“Darcy, have you been avoiding me?” she asked bluntly.
“I—I don’t—” He was struggling to find the right words, but they weren’t coming to him.
“I was really looking forward to seeing you,” she said, her expressive eyes mirroring the disappointment in her voice, “so I could tell you how happy I am for you and Lizzie, and thank you for what you did for Lydia, and then Bing said you wouldn’t be available, that you were really busy, but he looked like he was hiding something, and just now, when you saw that I was here instead of Bing, you made your awkward turtle face.”
“My what?”
“You know…” She affected a pronounced frown and drew her chin back into her neck. “I’m William Darcy, and I’m an awkward turtle,” she said in the low voice he recognized as her impression of him. She broke character and sighed. “Look, if you’re mad at me because Bing dropped out of school, I wish you would just tell me. I can handle it, I’ve heard it enough from his family—”
“Jane, that’s not—” Darcy sputtered, horrified to hear that Jane thought he was angry with her—it could not be further from the truth. “I’m not mad. I respect Bing’s choices, and I can see that he’s happy here, with you and with the life he’s building for himself. And even if I did disapprove of his choices, I would not blame you—you have done nothing wrong.”
“Well, I’m glad you feel that way.” Jane gave a small smile, but her wide eyes were still intent upon his, searching, questioning. “But I still don’t understand why you were avoiding me.”
Darcy looked down at his hands. “I did not think you would want to see me, given all of the things I have assumed about you, all of the things I have done that have caused you pain. You have every right—”
Jane placed a hand over his, and that was enough to silence him. Her hand was very small, like Lizzie’s. He missed Lizzie’s hands. “That’s all in the past, Darcy,” Jane said firmly. “Right now, we have every reason to be very good friends, and no reason to avoid one another except for the stupid ones we made up in our heads. So let’s forget about those, okay?”
Darcy nodded, but he still felt he needed to apologize. “I am sorry for the role I played in convincing Bing to leave you. I was wrong. You’re—you’re good for him,” he said.
Jane smiled. “I forgive you. Friends?” She held up her hand for him to shake.
Darcy shook her hand. “Friends,” he agreed.
At that moment, his phone buzzed in his pocket, probably with another text from Lizzie. He fished it out of his pocket, and was pleased to find that he was right.
You’d better wear a bow tie… Lizzie wrote, and nothing else.
Darcy was sure that Jane could see him going red in the face, and when she said, “Oh, is that Lizzie? Tell her hi from me!” he thought he could detect a note of teasing in her voice.
Well, if Darcy was going to be subjected to embarrassment, he could at least make sure he wasn’t the only one.
I will take that under consideration, he replied to Lizzie. By the way, your sister (who is sitting next to me at the moment) sends her greetings.