19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Lizzie
The drive to the hospital is quiet for a while. I drive my Jeep, focused on the road. It’s dark and warm outside, but inside, the air conditioner blows cold air on us while the glow of the radio casts the car in dim light.
There aren’t many cars on the road tonight, and the drive to Chicago isn’t a quick one. According to the GPS on my phone that’s hooked up to the car, it’s about an hour to the hospital.
I have a Jonas Brothers playlist playing softly, trying to lift Will’s spirits, but I don’t know if he’s even listening. Not that I blame him. He’s staring straight ahead, completely spaced out.
I reach over and touch his hand, letting him know I’m here for him. He wraps his hand around mine, holding on. We stay like that. No words needed for the rest of the drive.
Once we pull up in front of the hospital, I ask Will, “Do you want me to come in with you?”
He nods without hesitation. I park the Jeep near the emergency room entrance, and we walk hand in hand to the hospital doors.
At the front desk, I tell the nurse, “We’re here for Mr. Darcy. His dad.”
I glance over at Will. The nurse checks the computer to see where Mr. Darcy is.
Before she can finish telling us, someone calls out, “Will?”
We both turn toward the sound of his name. A tall, pretty, brown-skinned woman with eyes just like his and long, waist-length dark braids rushes toward us.
I let go of his hand.
She throws her arms around him. His sister, I assume, based on how much they look alike and the way she’s hugging him.
I’ve hugged my sisters enough times, through both happy and hard moments, to know what a sibling hug looks like. This is the kind of sibling hug I haven’t had to give yet. The kind where you’re terrified you might lose one of your parents.
Mentally, I thank God for that. Then I silently pray for the Darcy siblings. God, please don’t let them lose their dad tonight. Help them, Lord.
When she finally lets go of Will, she steps back and looks over at me before looking at him again. Her eyes are a little red, and she looks like she’s been crying. Even so, she manages a small smile.
“And you are?” she asks, still smiling as she eyes her brother suspiciously.
“I’m Lizzie. I’m Will’s...”
I don’t know what to say. His friend? His business partner? His former boss? Yes.
But I can’t say I’m his girlfriend. Not like this. Not here.
Not in the hospital while they’re dealing with the possibility of losing their father. How could I? The words get lodged in my throat. I can’t say them.
Will jumps in before I have to. “Georgiana, this is Lizzie Bennet, my girlfriend. Lizzie, this is my little sister.”
Georgiana raises her eyebrows at Will.
“I’m not little anymore, Willy. I’m grown. Just younger and prettier than you, dear.”
I love her instantly. I smile back at her, and when she wraps me in a tight hug, I know she’s someone I want to know. I also make a mental note to call Will “Willy” just to mess with him at some point.
But messing with him is the furthest thing from my mind as we get on the elevator and head to where his dad is. His sister gives him updates along the way.
Their dad had a heart attack.
He’s been admitted to the hospital. Their mom has pulled some strings to get his own suite with around-the-clock care from the best doctors at the hospital.
I try not to react when I hear all of this. It sounds completely normal to them. Will isn’t surprised by any of it.
My mind is filled with more questions than answers, and I begin to wonder who exactly this Will Darcy is that I’m pretending to date.
When we get to his dad’s hospital room, I stop outside the door, unsure if I should go in. His sister goes in first.
“I’ll let Mom know you’re here. Dad is sleeping.”
Will nods before turning to me. “What’s wrong?”
“You should go. Be with your family. I can go back to the waiting room.”
“No,” he says quickly. “I need you with me. I can’t face them alone.”
I want to protest and remind him that his sister is here. But I can’t bring myself to say it. I also don’t want to point out how casually I’m dressed in leggings and a baseball cap or that I don’t want to meet his family for the first time looking like this.
Then I realize that’s ridiculous. None of this is real anyway. So why am I so nervous? Why am I second-guessing all my fashion choices right now?
He holds out his hand for me to take. My nervousness intensifies, but the moment my hand slips into his, I forget that it’s all a lie. I walk into the hospital room as his girlfriend.
The room is spacious. There’s a hospital bed, a small kitchenette, an extra bed for guests, a couch, and a TV.
It looks immaculate. I have to do a double take. I’ve never seen such a luxurious hospital room before.
A couple of nurses move quietly around the room, checking Mr. Darcy’s vitals. A doctor speaks with Mrs. Darcy before exiting the room, promising to come back later to check on the sleeping man, who lies connected to several monitors with tubes beneath his nose.
Mr. Darcy looks like an older version of Will. Seeing him lying there so still, his chest slowly rising and falling, makes him seem surprisingly fragile.
Mrs. Darcy stands at his bedside. Even worried, she looks elegant, just like her daughter. She’s wearing a cream-colored cashmere wrap dress that matches Georgiana’s cream-colored sundress. Suddenly, I want to run home, change my clothes, and hide.
I don’t feel like I fit in here. That’s not a feeling I have very often. Usually, I couldn’t care less what people think of me. But something about Will and his family is making me question everything.
“Will,” his mom says, spotting him from her place beside her husband’s hospital bed.
She walks over and wraps Will in a hug. He hugs her back. I quietly step back, watching them.
For the first time tonight, I miss my own parents. Even though Mama and I spend a lot of time aggravating each other. Well... Mama is the one doing most of the aggravating. Papa is the opposite. But he lets Mama get away with it, which doesn’t help much either.
When Mrs. Darcy’s gaze falls on me after she breaks away from hugging her son, I hold my breath. I feel like I’m being examined. Like I’m the one lying in the hospital bed being scrutinized by a doctor.
What does she see when she looks at me? A successful Black woman?
A cafe owner who loves her small town, her family, and her friends and just wants to be happy and unbothered but somehow got mixed up in a crazy plan to pretend to be in a relationship with her son? No. She couldn’t possibly see all that.
She looks at me, then her eyes move over to Will. He gestures for me to come stand beside him. No. Not just beside him. He wraps an arm around me and pulls me close.
We’ve been following the rules we made in our fake dating guide without even realizing it. It’s all come so naturally that I hardly think about it anymore. It happened so fast.
I swallow, ignoring the questions in my mind that threaten to spill out. We’re just good at pretending. That’s all. That’s what I tell myself. That’s what I have to believe.
When his mom looks at us, I want to scream that it’s all a lie.
Is it all a lie? What about what he told me back in my kitchen? I can’t think about that right now.
His mom finally smiles at me and reaches out her hand for me to shake, not a hug, but at least she doesn’t order me to leave or call me a fraud. I think: This is why we’re doing this.
He needed someone beside him. Someone to help him face his family. Someone to prove to them that he’s worthy of his inheritance. But how can a fake relationship do that?
My thoughts jumble together. I have the urge to pray. To talk to God about all of this. About why I’m living a lie. About what I’m even doing it for anymore.
I know lying isn’t something God likes. It’s not something I usually do. So how did I end up here? In this hospital room. Meeting Will’s family. Showing them that he has someone in his corner.
And how did I end up caring so much about him so quickly? Maybe I cared all along. Maybe I just kept telling myself I couldn’t care about him like that.
That we could never be together. But we aren’t together, I remind myself as I go over to the couch and sit beside his sister. Maybe I’m jaded, but I don’t know if telling the truth about us would help him right now.
I look around at his family. The stiff conversation between him and his mother, even though she hugged him only moments ago. The way Georgiana looks uncomfortable, like she’s been caught in the middle of one too many calm, carefully controlled family arguments.
And now, somehow, me. A girl from Selah Falls. From a family that is the farthest thing from rich. Sitting in the middle of a wealthy family drama that feels like something people would tune in every week to watch just to see what happens next. Can I fake it well enough to fit in? I don’t know.
Will’s mom asks him to come into the hallway with her. He hesitates, but follows her.
“I’ll be back,” he tells me. “I’ll bring you something to eat too.”
When Georgiana leans over and whispers to me, “How did you two meet? My brother never tells me anything anymore.”
I know I have to fake it for now. I go back through my memory to that night we made up the rules for this fake dating thing and pull out the story of how we came to be.
The rules are:
Only for the summer. Break up when fall comes. (Working on it. It’s late-August, so we’ve got a little time but at this rate I do not know if we will make it…)
Kissing is fine: cheek, forehead, and sometimes on the lips. (Pecks, not make-outs.) (Working on it…no kisses yet.)
Holding hands is cute. (DONE… without even thinking about it.)
Compliment each other whenever we can, but make it meaningful and realistic. (Working on it...but we have done this in private, so that counts…right?)
Remember our origin story of how we got together. (Focus on this one now.)
Call each other by our real first names more often. (Working on it. But it is not as bad as I thought it would be.)