Searching for Mr. Darcy

Scene Five

Clay told Maisie all about his new job and relocation plans over the course of the brunch.  One of his former professors had an opening at his firm and remembered how well Clay did in his contract law courses.  It didn't take much arm-twisting to convince Clay to move back.

"My parents have been begging me ever since I left, and if I'm being honest, I'm not a 'spread my wings' kind of guy.  I'm a homebody.  I missed Carolina."

"Carolina missed you, too."

He smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but they were interrupted by Maisie's brother-in-law.

"Maze - is this your phone?  I found it in the kitchen, buzzing like crazy."  He handed over her crappy, oldest version they still sell iPhone and moved on, back into the throngs of people who were gathering around Momma Frampton to sing "Happy Birthday."  Maisie slipped it into her purse.

"Don't you need to check that?" Clay asked.

Maisie shook her head.  "It's just George, or Talia.  They can wait until I get home.  I'm catching up with you."

"You don't see that every day."

"What?"

Clay gestured toward her bag.  "A person so unattached to their phone they're able to not only leave it in another room and forget about it, but then not check it when it's finally returned to them.  Your willpower is extraordinary."

"I bet you say that to all the girls."

He laughed.  "Hardly."

****

Brunch and her mother's need for attention wound down at quarter-past two.  Maisie said goodbye to Clay, her sister and the twins, and Momma Frampton, then took the long way back home.  She liked driving - being in control of the wheel felt like being in control of her own destiny somehow.  Dashwood was waiting at the door when she finally got back.  He seemed to have forgiven her for Talia's presence over the weekend, because he wouldn't stop rubbing against her legs until she picked him up and scratched behind his ears.

They lounged on the couch together, watching trashy television, for the rest of the afternoon.  Maisie loved how quiet the apartment was when it was just her and Dash, but her phone rang after dinner and she figured it was best to stop ignoring it.

"Hey, Talia."

"Are you not going to respond to any of my texts or Facebook messages?" her best friend demanded.

"I haven't looked at my phone all day."

"Why not?"

Maisie shrugged, then remembered Talia couldn't see her.  "It was so peaceful, and you know I need some time to myself after an outing with Mom and Mary Poppins."

"You didn't think that through when you sent me that page last night."

"Huh?"

Talia sighed, exasperated.  "You know, the Mr. Darcy page."

"What Mr. Darcy page?"

"Stop kidding around.  You know I'm the funny one."

"I literally have no clue what you're talking about."

There was a long pause.  Finally, Talia said, "You better log onto Facebook.  Call or text me after you've seen it."

"After I've seen what?"

But Talia just made a smooching noise and disconnected.  The call screen disappeared and Maisie looked at her notifications.  There were texts from George and Talia, as she'd expected, but also from nearly everyone in her address book, and a few unknown numbers.  She had so many Facebook notifications, the screen wouldn't even tell her what they were, just the dizzingly high number.

"What the-"  She jumped up from the couch, which Dashwood did not like one bit, and in a leap and bound had her computer open on the breakfast bar.  The window still had her Facebook page open from the night before's drunken browsing.  Wait a second, she thought.  It wasn't her profile page.  It did have a picture of her, though, along with hundreds of comments, and according to her notifications, over a thousand shares.

Beside the profile picture, the page name.  Something her inebriated brain thought was a good idea, not to mention possible, but that her sober one was completely mortified by.  She'd never live it down if she didn't shut it down immediately; but even as she went to the settings to delete it, more and more people liked the page.  More comments posted to the wall.  People wanted to help her.

Apparently, she was "Searching for Mr. Darcy," and hundreds of random strangers thought it was a brilliant idea.