I told you to bring a lawyer, and you bring your sister?"
True to his word, promptly that night at 8pm a car obviously foreign to the neighborhood pulled into a 'no parking' zone across from her apartment.
Although Lizzie had been home since around five, she was caught slightly unprepared for her meeting with Fitzwilliam. Her last order was unfortunately steak fajitas, and she felt a deep melancholy about the changes in her bodily response towards carne asada because she knew on a soul level she'd never be able to eat it again after today. After peeling her uniform off and taking a bath, she let an hour go by while she checked her emails (still nothing from the Gogurt people), checked her MySpace (10 new pic comments. Her little sis Mary replaced her with My Chemical Romance in the top 8), and checked the hot topics (ohh Jenn).
When Lizzie emerged from her bedroom on a Judge Judy commercial break at 7:45pm, Jane poked her head out of the bathroom while furiously wrapping a curling iron in her hair. "Shouldn't you be getting dressed?"
"What makes you think I'm not dressed?" Lizzie sarcastically asked as she walked towards the kitchen on the bottoms of her pjs.
"He told you eight!" Jane's shout echoed out of the bathroom. "And I wish you'd throw that dumb shirt away!"
Lizzie giggled. In fancy cursive script the words 'fucking classy' were written across her chest.
"And stop clothing shopping at Spencer Gifts!" Jane added.
When the doorbell rang while Lizzie was in the middle of an exhausting search for fruit snacks, she didn't think much of it. She figured maybe Charlotte had forgotten her key again.
It never occurred to her Fitzwilliam's driver could be standing behind that door, and in her rush to throw on a pair of jeans and run a brush through her hair it also never occurred to her to change her shirt.
Frowning, Fitzwilliam's eyeline ended at 'classy'. "And you wear that," he hissed.
Lizzie bit her lip and tried very hard not to blush. "Well, I keep a guy on retainer but I gave his office a call after I clocked out from my shift at Chili's and he's on vacation," she sarcastically replied.
"Ms. Bennet, there's no doubt you've seen the gossip headlines about Mr.Darcy…"
Lizzie put her attention on Fitzwilliam's attorney with a big smile. "Oh I'm aware," she said.
"So we're in somewhat of a unique position here; Mr.Darcy is vulnerable right now to the whims of the DMC board of directors. And it's very important for control of DMC to remain in the family…"
A slightly ominous looking folder was placed in front of her.
"We understand you're an actress. Perhaps you can look at this as the role of a lifetime…"
Scanning over the legal jargon Lizzie suddenly felt her mouth go very dry. Her vision blurred out- surely she was reading this wrong:
"...of course Mr. Darcy understands the gravity of what he's asking of you, which is why we want to offer you five million in compensation…"
She slid the folder over to Jane just to be sure. Jane couldn't help the "oh my god" that came out and put a hand to her mouth.
"You want me to marry you?" Lizzie looked at Fitzwilliam as though he had grown three heads.
"Yes," he said.
"To save your image?"
"Only for a short time."
"Twenty months is almost two years," she said.
"Short enough to make it look believable," he said.
"Ms. Bennet please feel free to have your attorney go over the contract, but you'll find that Mr. Darcy has every intention on being fair. You and the child will be well taken care of…"
"Ten million," she said.
"Okay," he said.
"Lizzie." Jane leaned in to whisper. "Don't jump the gun, let's get someone to look over this first."
Lizzie nodded with a sigh and turned to Fitzwilliam. "I'm willing to consider it."
Relief washed over his face.
**
Ten million…
Fitzwilliam's driver once again pulled into the no parking zone across the street from her apartment, and in the backseat with her head against a blacked out window, Lizzie breathed very deeply and very slowly through her nose.
A supportive look crossed Jane's face as she laced her fingers with her sister's. "You know, we've got time to decide," she said putting her key in the lock. "I was thinking we could call Bill Collins and have him take a look at that contract- first consultation is free…" she trailed off pushing open the front door.
Lizzie swallowed and concentrated hard on getting her words out. "But he's a personal injury attorney."
"Well, what happened?"
Charlotte who'd been anxiously waiting on the end of the couch for the last hour was on her feet immediately at the sound of Jane's voice. She took one look at Lizzie's shell shocked face and frowned. "It's that bad?" she asked.
"It's unexpected," Jane said.
Wordlessly Lizzie passed that ominous looking folder to her best friend, and paused for the reaction-
"Holy shit! Are you serious?"
before flopping down on the couch.
"Five million, Lizzie…!"
"Ten," Lizzie said as Jane sat down beside her.
"Holy shit," Charlotte repeated under her breath and fell back onto the empty spot on the other side of Lizzie.
"We don't know if we're gonna take it," Jane hastily added.
"You're kidding, right?" Charlotte snorted. "I'm tired of telling Sallie Mae I haven't spoken to you in five years, Lizzie. Take the money."
**
According to a profile inside of the December '05 issue of Allure, Caroline Bingley was sleek. She kept her supermodel frame on high heels at all times to maintain a sense of elegance and maximum intimidation.
She spoke through an unfriendly pout (everything was 'the sex' to Caroline as she strongly believed that an icon should have their own catchphrase), and she styled her platinum hair on most days in a severe bun that held an energy similar to that of an emotionally unfulfilled Huntington Beach housewife who threatend her stepchildren with Swiss boarding school on a daily basis.
She adored being candid about her experience growing up with a famous sibling. To Allure she said, "I'm so proud of my little brother that it's strange to me how people want there to be like this I dunno- competition between the two of us. It's like just because I got into acting first and was absolutely loving my time on Days of Our Lives, which was very memorable and successful, that I must be jealous of Charlie. Like acting was fun, and I had offers after I left Days but I just wasn't passionate about continuing. I'm much more in love with music and that's where I'm focused."
And to her best friend, Lou-Lou, in a cramped bathroom with a line of coke on a compact mirror carefully balanced under her nose she said, "mom never even took me on fucking auditions! It was always about her precious golden boy Charlie! You know what I did on Days? Skipped in to ask for ice cream and got kidnapped by Stefano DiMera. They aged my character from ten to twenty in six fucking months of me being down a well. How was I supposed to grow with that kind of part? My talent wasn't being nurtured. Anyway I'm working with this top German producer and the demos are the sex. He's like Max Martin only better than Max Martin, you know."
But Caroline had a penchant for being cagey when it came to questions about her six years on/off relationship with Fitzwilliam Darcy; she walked out on ET when an interview supposedly in promotion of her new single, 'Bangin'' turned into a grilling about her ex swinging at photographers.
('Bangin'' peaked at #210 on the world dance chart. Its popularity was astronomical in Brazil.)
"Oh my god, how cute is that? Two sisters dating two best friends- Lou, isn't that too cute?"
"Soo fucking cute."
According to Lizzie, and after 11/2 personal encounters to draw from, Caroline Bingley was a huge bitch whose modus operandi was to make Lizzie feel as inadequate as possible.
As part of her "consideration" of Fitzwilliam's offer, Lizzie agreed to two things: that she would be seen out in public with him just once, and that she would meet his sister. So dinner arrangements for an evening were made at the Ivy. Lizzie could easily afford one item on the menu as long as she didn't drink or tip. It was exactly the type of place where two girls from Simi Valley could be sure to bask in the less than stellar glow of their working classness.
Under the guise of a wish to catch up with "Janie! omg", Caroline showed up with her minion Lou-Lou in tow.
"That top is the sex, Lizzie." Caroline smiled a smile that was about as warm as the arctic circle. "Where'd you get it?"
Lizzie pursed her lips and stabbed at a crouton with her fork. "Target," she said.
"It's soo cute. I love Target they have such cute things. Lou, don't you just love Target?"
"Yeah it's suuch a cute store."
"Super practical."
Charlie shot Caroline a disapproving look. Fitzwilliam kept his eyes glued to his plate. Lou-Lou commandeered the bottle of wine.
And Jane sighed, a tiny sigh. Completely unnoticeable to everyone except for Lizzie.
"I love your top, too" Lizzie said pointedly ignoring the increasingly terrified look on Jane's face.
"Thanks." Caroline beamed. "It's Stella McCartney," she said, giving herself an appreciative once over.
"It's cute." Lizzie grinned turning to her sister. "Isn't it cute Jane?"
Jane hard swallowed her sip of water. "Yes, it's really beautiful Caroline," she said softly and genuinely.
"But it must be like super tiresome to wear though." Lizzie paused to carefully chew. "What with every slight chill in the air getting indicated by your nipples."
Jane's eyes were in danger of escaping from her head. Charlie took a sudden deep interest in his meal. Lou-Lou ordered another bottle.
And Fitzwilliam smiled, a tiny smile. Completely unnoticeable to Lizzie.