Pride and Prejudice

a dream come true

Lizzy's POV

Today was not the day to have this conversation again, nonetheless, here I was, on the phone with my mom while she ranted about my singleness.

"Lizzy, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must want a wife."

"Mom, I've told you before and I'm telling you again, I have high standards. Most rich guys probably are not looking for wives at the same time, you are sometimes, literally, shoving us at them. Men have their own minds and opinions. If we were to meet the occasional man with money, lots of them are stuck-up jerks and don't fit what I have been praying for my future husband to be."

I listened for a few more moments to the phone, then I couldn't believe what she said.

"You have driven by his house how many times?"

"Nineteen."

I shook my head against my phone, "Mom, that is worse stalking than what I do!"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I'm just a concerned mother of five daughters. None of whom are married, might I add."

"But-" 

"Lizzy, you know there are going to be lots of guys at the gala tonight. Hopefully, you can find a man to marry. I mean you should be married already! You are twenty-seven years old! You must try to get guys with money or at least good jobs! At this point, I just want you married."

I glanced around the room and realized I needed to go.

"Hey mom, please stop your ranting. We can revisit the conversation for the umpteenth time later. I've got to get ready for tonight. See you later. Love you, bye."

I waited for her to say "love you too" then hung up the phone. 

Mom, men are not our property, no matter what you think. 

I looked around at the chaos unfolding in Jane, Charlotte and I's living room. All four of my sisters were stuffed into the room getting ready for the annual charity gala tonight held by the Richards family at our local convention center. The proceeds from the gala go to poor African villages, but the main reason for the excitement was because of the new guy in town, not because we are helping out people in third-world countries.

"Girls," I called, "mom has driven by Charles Bingley's house nineteen times."

"It was seventeen when we left the house earlier." My younger sister Katie said, "She is so obsessed with him. When I showed her all the links you sent me about him, she went crazy."

I stared at her in horror, "Katie! That was just supposed to be for you, Lydia and Mary."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Did you really think I would keep it between us? Half the reason why I asked you to look him up was so I could tell mom. She was nagging me asking for more information on him.''

Two of my younger sisters, Katie and Lydia, had texted me so many times begging me to look up Charles Bingley, so I had to do it to get them off my back. I'm usually the one that ends up finding info out about people online. The two of them would rather I work for the FBI because of my online research skills than have my current jobs that I love, being a history instructor at the local college and a business partner with my twin sister Jane in our interior design and event planning business. Sure I do have good capabilities to do online research, but it is best to get to know whoever you are looking up in person. Not everyone matches the information that is online about them.

I continued to question Katie, "Mom obviously knows that his name is Charles Bingley, and where he is living in Merytown. What else did you show her? Please tell me that you didn't show her the links that contain the information saying that he is a Harvard graduate, rich, charitable, and lives in New York City."