Matters of Chance

Chapter 7

Elizabeth walked out of the guest bedroom to the smell of food cooking and the sound of sizzling. She took a deep inhale and looked over to the kitchen. To Lizzie's surprise, Darcy wasn't at the breakfast bar. Instead, Jane sat in his place, chatting to Charles who was stirring up veggies in a pan.

Lizzie sat in the chair next to her sister, who snapped out of her conversation and looked at her. Before Jane could say anything, Lizzie lightly whacked her sister on the arm.

"How come you didn't tell me you were back?"

"I was helping Charles with the cooking," Jane looked over at her boyfriend and beamed, "He's making stir fry."

Charles looked over at them and grinned, "Actually, we are making stir fry. Jane did an excellent job chopping the vegetables."

"And, it's vegetarian."

Lizzie smiled. "I suppose I can forgive you guys, but only if the food is up my expectations."

Charles laughed. "I'll do my very best, Lizzie Bennet."

Elizabeth nodded and stood. She walked over to the couch to let her sister continue her one on one conversation with Charles. Lizzie sunk into the red leather sofa and took out her phone. There were no notifications. She scrolled aimlessly through the apps until she decided to open Instagram. She tapped on the tiny icon in the bottom right corner and her profile popped up on the screen. The pictures on her page were mostly her with family, the majority of them from more than a year ago. She pressed on one of the photos and it expanded on the screen. It was her and her family at Mary's highschool graduation. She smiled, remembering how Lydia and Kitty screamed from the audience like Mary's own personal cheerleaders.

She looked closer at the picture. In it every Bennet daughter's hair was neatly braided. It was Jane's handiwork, she always gave her sisters intricate braids for any special event. Elizabeth ran a hand through her hair. She set her phone down. With both of her hands she grabbed her hair. She separated the mass into three big sections and began weaving them together. She stuck her tongue out in concentration as she worked, forcing her clumsy fingers to loop one strand behind another. She was careful when she was finished to hold the braid tight before it tried to unwind itself with one hand. Her other wrist had a spare hair elastic on it. She tugged it off with her teeth and looped it several times around the end of her braid. She was so absorbed in her little project that she didn't notice that someone else entered the room.

Darcy stared at her from the entrance of the living room. Elizabeth looked up and made eye contact with him. He coughed and looked away. He walked over to one of the plush, white living room chairs and sat down. Lizzie narrowed her eyes and opened her phone's selfie camera to look at her braid. It wasn't bad. Some tiny pieces of hair had escaped from their place, but otherwise, Elizabeth thought she did a pretty good job. She glanced up at Darcy, who was also looking at his phone. Just because it wasn't perfect didn't mean he had to look down at her for it. She'd like to see him try to make a better braid.

Charles walked up to both her and Darcy with plates of veggie stir fry and white rice, along with forks and napkins. He smiled. "Here you go! I'm going to go get Caroline."

Within a few minutes, all of them were gathered in the living room, munching on stir fry. Jane and Charles sat next to Lizzie, and Caroline sat in a chair next to Darcy.

"How'd you learn to cook so well, Charles?" asked Lizzie.

"My family owns restaurant chains," Charles said, "so my father thought it would be good for me to learn to cook, especially when I start taking over."

Elizabeth smiled. "You mentioned that you were partly here for work."

Charles nodded. "I'm looking at Seattle as a possible restaurant location, although I'm here more so because I like it." He beamed at Jane, who gave him a smile in return.