Chapter Text
“Do you think he’s happy?”
Brandon doesn’t even look up from the dress form. “Hmm?” he mutters through the pins between his teeth. Lori knows he’s only pretending to not pay attention to her because he’s annoyed she’s stopped steaming the petticoats. They are suppose to be wrinkle-free by tomorrow, which is why they are staying late. Everyone else in the department has gone home for the night.
“Mr. Darcy.”
Brandon jumps up and swipes the pins from his mouth, but he continues working, as if to show Lori that she shouldn’t stop everything just to chat. “I didn’t hire you to gossip,” he says.
Embarrassed, Lori gets back to work, focusing on the hiss of the steamer. It’s white noise, like the in-between channels on the radio or the rumble of a space heater. She hopes it will wash out her thoughts, but they remain there. Stuck.
“I mean, yeah, he’s hella rich, handsome, successful,” Lori muses ten minutes later. “But to lose his parents like that …”
Brandon blinks at her. “Hella?”
Lori refrains from rolling her eyes. “San Francisco born and raised, what do you want?”
“I want you to focus on your work.”
Lori quickly returns to steaming. She knows she’s lucky to get a job in her field a year out of school, even if it is as a wardrobe assistant. She may have wanted to work in a theater, but the production facility at a fast-growing media company is a good start, especially one with as many employee benefits as Pemberly Digital. She knows that. But she’s three weeks in and has found little excitement in doing grunt work and helping someone else execute their vision—especially if that vision is boring. Hearing the women (and Jim) from the secretarial pool gossiping about Pemberly’s young CEO in the dining facility has become the highlight of her day. She’s heard all about his mother’s fight with cancer and his father’s unfortunate boating accident. Being very close with her own parents—though less so with her mother—she couldn’t imagine how he coped.
“No.”
Lori steams her hand by accident and bites her lip as she shakes it out. It takes her a moment to realize Brandon is answering her question from before, which is unlike him. He’s a taciturn man, hair graying at the temples from a life lived beyond his years. He doesn’t comment on the lives of others often, so when he does, you listen.
“But not because of the death of his parents,” he adds.
“What do you mean?”
Brandon gestures for Lori to continue steaming. Apparently, if she wants to hear more, she needs to keep working.
“People who lose their parents still find it possible to be happy. Because happiness is a choice. And Mr. Darcy has simply chosen not to pursue it.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes other things are more important. Like the well-being of his sister. And he is very much concerned about this company and the people who work here. It is his family’s legacy, after all. It’s all he has left of his parents, so he puts everything he has into it.”
Lori nods. She noticed this from the very first day, when Mr. Darcy had summoned her to his office. Apparently, he liked to personally greet all the new hires. Lori remembers how nervous she had been, and how glad she was that she had worn a cardigan that covered her tattoo sleeve.
When she entered the room, he had been talking on the phone, demanding that the shareholders meeting be pushed back because someone named Thomas’s wife was in the hospital. Lori was surprised by how young he was, and evermore so when he hung up. His confidence instantly vanished and was replaced by seven layers of awkward. He greeted Lori curtly, welcomed her to Pemberly Digital, and then seemed at a loss for words. She threw him a line, mentioning how much she loved watching Stories of Ann Radcliff as a kid with her Aunt Betsy. Mr. Darcy told her how there was a plan in the works to remaster it and release it on Blueray and DVD with all sorts of extras—maybe even stream it on Netflix.
Their conversation was soon interrupted though by the arrival of a girl not much younger than Lori, with short dark brown hair and beautifully pronounced eyebrows. She just about threw herself at Mr. Darcy and began to babble on about some new Mediterranean fusion restaurant that someone named Fitz had recommended. Mr. Darcy gently reproached the girl for ignoring Lori, so she spun around, her high-waisted circle skirt flaring out, and introduced herself as Gigi Darcy, Mr. Darcy’s sister. On finding out Lori was to be assisting Brandon Lopez in the wardrobe department, she begged Lori to sketch her a few ideas before her brother ushered her out. He had seemed exasperated, but offered to pay Lori extra to fulfill his sister’s wish. Even though she needed the money, Lori told him she would do it free of charge. Gigi had inspired her.
She rarely saw Mr. Darcy after that first meeting, but when she did, he would give her a polite greeting before moving on his way. Recently, he asked how her sketches for Gigi were coming along and she showed him what she had so far. He said very little, only that Gigi would be pleased.
“Why does it matter to you?” asks Brandon, bringing Lori back.
Lori mulls over her answer a bit before she replies. “He’s a good man, and he’s been through so much,” she says. “He deserves happiness, don’t you think?”
“I believe he is content with the way things are.”
“But being content and being happy aren’t the same.”
“I never said they were.”
Brandon pulls the riding jacket off the dress form and marches over to his sewing machine without another word. Lori's worked with Brandon long enough to know that bothering him while he’s sewing is a sure-fire way to get herself fired. Instead, she is left thinking that all the money and success in the world wouldn’t be worth living half a life.