The Story of Lizzy and Darcy: A 'Pride and Prejudice' adaptation by Grace Watson

Author:Grace Watson [Watson, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21: The Top Floor

As the weeks went on, my new life started to finally settle down to something resembling normality. I went back to fetching coffee and photocopying, Charlotte started her new job, Will and I continued to be friends. Darcy was never mentioned except in passing mundanity – usually Will quickly ringing her to ask her to buy milk, or complaining that she hadn’t done her washing up the evening before. He never asked me about what had happened when Darcy and I spoke; he had either gotten all the information he wanted from Darcy, or had decided not to pry.

It was very strange, having your best friend date your supervisor. Most of the time it was just in the background. Colin had yet to set foot in our flat, let along stay the night, so in my head I usually tried not to make a connection between Colin-Charlotte’s-boyfriend and Colin-my-supervisor, or between Charlotte-Colin’s-girlfriend and Charlotte-my-best-friend. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for both of them. I just hadn’t quite got used to the thought of Charlotte’s boyfriend being the rather eccentric man I shared offices with. They were, certainly, better together than anyone could have expected, but I still struggled to get it straight in my head.

Occasionally, however, it was unavoidable.

“Lizzy, may I have a word?” Colin asked me one morning. He had started calling me Lizzy after a very embarrassing incident when he called me Elizabeth and I didn’t realise, and he kept calling my name until I eventually twigged. It had been so long since anyone had called me Elizabeth that I usually didn’t respond.

“Of course,” I said, putting aside the stapling I was doing for the fifth-floor offices.

He looked slightly embarrassed, rocking back and forth on his feet. “Well, as I’m sure you are aware, this weekend will mark a month since Charlotte and I first went out together, and I wanted to get her a gift. I wanted to know if you had any ideas.”

Hmm. This would be an interesting conversation.

“Well, er, Colin, I think it might be nice if you got something that… represented your relationship. Maybe a reminder of a date you went on, or something that referenced an in-joke.”

His whole body lit up at the thought, making him seem about three inches taller. “That’s a wonderful idea! Such as a poster from a film we saw? Or a voucher for a restaurant we go to? Or a scrapbook of all our meetings so far?”

“Maybe something between the first two and the last one,” I quickly intervened. “Maybe save the scrapbook idea for a whole year. But yes, something along those lines.”

“Brilliant! I’ll get thinking right away,” he said, practically skipping off down to his office. “Oh, I forgot!” he called down from the end of the corridor. “Miss de Bourgh wants to see you as soon as possible!”

Hang on a second.

“Colin!” I called back. “What do you mean?”

“Miss de Bourgh would like you to go to her office! A very high honour indeed, I should say!”

You could put it that way.

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