Pride, Prejudice and other bad first impressions

Chapter 20

The studio fit me to a T. It was a small studio in a nice building on the UWS, with a large window that made the space bright. The bookcases were filled with an interesting assortment of books, art books, photography books, memoirs, classics and also new books. It was a lovely selection of Pemberley Press books that I knew I was going to love perusing during my stay. The furniture and appliances were all new and modern, but the rugs and art still gave the studio a comfortable atmosphere.

I had to admit that I was nervous on my first day. The chances of running into Will Darcy were slim to none. I Google mapped the Archive and saw it was housed in a separate building from the corporate office, separated by a courtyard. There would be little chance of me running into Will, because why would he need to go to the Archive at all? Surely, if he needed something from there, he had an assistant who would fetch him. From what I understood, I would be working in one of the offices in the Archive, where I would be safe and sound from any awkward encounters.

Mrs. Reynolds was lovely. She had already obtained my badge, so I didn’t even have to go into the corporate building, and risk the chance of running into Will. She held my orientation in her office, welcoming me to the company, letting me know what my duties would be, and assuring me that I would fit in well at Pemberley Press.

“Have you been here for very long?” I asked.

“Oh yes, too many years to name without giving away my age. Since the Original Mr. Darcy founded the Press.” Mrs. Reynolds smiled at me.

“It is quite unusual for any company to have such a young CEO.” I mentioned. I had to reckon the picture of Will that I had with this amazing building, and this wonderful person in front of me, who had been extolling the positive attributes of the company she worked for. I had to admit that I was particularly curious.

“Will Darcy is an excellent young man.” Mrs. Reynolds offered. “He is going to take this company into the future with ease, especially by developing media and technology projects. He believes that treating his workers well and with respect, opening up boundaries and limits, will lead to more growth.”

“Interesting.” I leaned in closer, yearning to hear more.

“When E-books became popular, he didn’t run away from it, instead he embraced it fully. Why not create electronic books with additional content, links to YouTube videos, other interactive Web experiences. Why his sister is working on a fabulous project at the moment.”

“Gigi Darcy works at Pemberley Press?” I had thought that she was in college, and I had imagined that she was gone to one of the Ivy Leagues or something. That was how Catherine DeBourg had made it seem.

“Oh yes, in fact, you will be sharing her workspace. I should introduce you at once!” Mrs. Reynolds got up and took me by the arm. My pulse started to race, but I couldn’t think of everything to say, so I just followed her down the hall. We stopped at a door and entered a small office. A pretty girl, with short dark hair was sitting at an iMac, turned and stood to greet us.

“Gigi, this is Elizabeth Bennet, our new intern for the digitization project..” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Elizabeth, this is Gigi, William’s sister, who is currently working on a wonderful project.”

“Lizzie, right?” Gigi asked. My heart leapt up into my throat. So Will had spoken to her about me.

“Yes.” I squeaked out.

“Well,” Mrs. Reynolds smiled. “I do have some things to get to, if you don’t mind showing Lizzie the digitization software, Ms. Darcy?”

As soon as the door shut, I felt like I could hear my heart beating. I was sharing an office with Darcy’s sister. And she knew enough about me to call me ‘Lizzie.’ How much had he shared with her. Did she know about his declaration of love, and my refusal? Did she know that I knew the whole sordid story about her and Wickham? I swallowed my fears and took a seat in the swivel chair next to hers.

“Have you worked with this software before, Lizzie?” Gigi smiled at me. When I nodded, she went on. “Well, the truck here is ready, and there is a binder here with a list of AARC2 tags for the digitization.”

“Thanks so much.” I said, finally. “Are you interested in library science?”

“Well,” Gigi said. “Technically I am still undecided. But Posh Magazine has a special place in my heart. It’s what actually brought my parents together, so it was my idea to go ahead and digitize the collection. It’s sort of in honor of my mother.”

“That’s lovely.” I said. “So you are working on the digitization project with me?”

“Oh no,” Gigi smiled. “I just know the basics thanks to Mrs. Reynolds. I’m actually developing my online app/community. It has come out of the work I did this summer with my internship. But your project is sort of my idea. I thought it would be nice tribute to my mom. And Will agreed, so Mrs. Reynolds said she would find an intern so that the project could move forward and I could do my own work. What you're working on is a bit too close to my heart."

"Your mother was editor-in-chief of Posh, right?"

Gigi nodded and smiled. "I was eleven when she passed. I used to spend hours here in the archive flipping through the back issues of Posh."

"It's lovely that you are honoring her memory with this project. Tell me more about what you are working on personally."

"This summer I did some work with girls who had self esteem issues or were going through a difficult time. We did a lot of self expression art and writing projects, and I thought that it would be a great idea for Pemberley Press to get involved, so I proposed a digital social media site where girls could share their stories and poems and it could be a safe space to learn more about themselves and express who they are and what they are going through."

"That sounds amazing! Are you designing the software and website?" I was surprised that someone as young as Gigi had that sort of knowledge and drive.

"Well," Gigi laughed. "I do have some support, but I was sort of emo in my teen years and spent a lot of time learning html to design my Myspace profile. I had some difficult years, but at least I learned some valuable skills and came out stronger in the end. It made me determined to help other girls and start this project."

"Does it have a name yet?"

"That will be the hardest thing. I want it to have some impact you know, like Tumblr or Twitter or Wattpad. But I still want it to be tied to the legacy of Pemberley."

"How about Posh?"

Gigi smiled and her eyes sparkled at me. "I kind of love that. I have to run it by Will, but I think he'd love it too! You sre brilliant, Lizzie Bennet."

We fell into our work, me scanning and tagging the back issues of Posh into the software and Gigi coding away, occasionally stopping me in my work in order to ask my opinion on something, or me stopping her to show her some amazing photo or tidbit from the magazines. We worked a lot, but also had a good repoire, and I was relieved that the desk situation would not be as awkward as I had imagined.

When lunch time came, Gigi insisted on ordering in. She asked if I had ever had Mongolian and when I asked her if PF Chang's counted she sighed and ordered us lunch through Seamless. Gigi Darcy was apparently a foodie, and she wanted to share her food knowledge with me. I was more than happy to oblige, and she promised me that she would take me on a culinary tour of NYC without ever leaving the archive building.