You have no idea.
“I mean, the rest of us peons get rejected regularly, but William Darcy… When was the last time a woman turned you down?” Ricky’s sympathetic smile took the sting out of his words.
Darcy rubbed his jaw. “I haven’t been rejected since…I don’t know if I’ve ever been rejected.”
“I’m trying hard not to hate you at this moment.” Ricky grinned. “Did Elizabeth say why she turned you down?”
Darcy grabbed a roll and buttered it with unnecessary vigor. “She doesn’t like me.”
Ricky gave a low whistle. “That’s harsh.”
“The problem is that I can’t…get past it. I keep thinking of her. I’m fixated. This has never happened before.”
“There are plenty of women who’d be happy to date you.”
“That’s not the point. I don’t want them. I want… She’s so smart, you know? And funny. And she calls me on my bullshit. And I can’t stop thinking about her or staring at her picture on my phone. I wonder what she’s doing at that moment. And who she’s doing it with. And, my God, why won’t she at least agree to one date? Maybe I should ask again, but what would make her change her mind? And—”
Ricky held up his hands. He chuckled. “Okay, I get the picture. You’re in love with her.”
Huh? “No, don’t be ridiculous. I’m just obsessed.”
Ricky spread his hands wide. “Sounds like love to me.”
Darcy mentally reviewed his word vomit to Ricky.
Oh God. I am in love. I’m in so much trouble.
“Great.” He dropped his head into his hands. “What should I do?” He could hear the desperation in his voice.
“Hmm.” Ricky rested his chin on his hand as he regarded Darcy. “Well, you have two options. A: suck it up and move on. Eventually you’ll forget her and find someone else. Or B: try to change her opinion of you.”
Darcy winced at his cousin’s stark assessment, but he wasn’t wrong. “I’ve tried moving on and forgetting, but I’m more obsessed every day. I thought it would get better when I didn’t constantly see her on the set, but it’s just gotten worse.”
“Sounds like Option B, then.”
Darcy shrugged miserably. “I don’t think I have a choice, but how do I do it?”
The waiter deposited salads in front of them. Ricky speared some lettuce onto his fork. “I’d be happy to help, but not liking you…that’s a pretty big obstacle to overcome.”
Darcy glared at his salad as if it were personally responsible for his plight.
After a moment Ricky continued. “I mean, it’s not something easy to fix, like calling her ‘Babe’ or making fun of her hair.”
“I’d never do that,” Darcy said fiercely.
“Good. Well, we’ve identified two things we don’t need to fix. That’s progress.”
Darcy growled at his cousin, recognizing when he was being teased.
“Did she mention what she doesn’t like about you?”
“She didn’t give me a bulleted list or anything.”
“But she probably had reasons for turning you down. What were they?”
Now Darcy was forced into thinking about that horrible conversation in his trailer—the last thing he wanted to remember. “She believed lies Wickham had told her, but I fixed that.”
“Good. What else?”