Searching for Mr. Darcy

Scene Six

Dashwood hopped into Maisie's lap and rubbed his face against her chin.  She scratched absentmindedly behind his ears.  She'd been staring at the Facebook page for five minutes and the notifications hadn't stopped.  The shares were no longer coming from people she knew, or people who knew people she knew.  Total strangers liked, shared, and commented offering her advice, or in some cases, dates.

So, this is what it's like to go viral, she thought.

As the cat jumped down, Maisie reached for her cell phone and called Talia. It rang several times before going to voicemail.  "Grrr..."  Switching to text mode, she typed out a plea for help.

"The notifications won't stop! What have I done??????"

Her gaze bored into the screen, but Talia didn't respond.  The stupid ellipses that showed someone was typing didn't even appear.  How could her best friend abandon her at a time like this?

Maisie returned her attention to the computer, moving her mouse to hover over the settings of the page.  But she still couldn't bring herself to delete it.  Had Drunk Maisie inadvertently done something kinda brilliant?  She'd never managed to get people to notice her, but here were thousands of strangers who not only wanted to help, but thought what she was doing was funny, smart, and worthwhile.

Was it?

Her phone rang and she jumped in her seat, knocking the cursor away from the 'delete page' option.  "Talia! What the fuck?"

"You tell me," Talia responded.

"I must have done it last night after your sangria, which I am never drinking ever again, by the way."

Her friend laughed.  "You always do the best stuff when you're drunk.  Remember that time you ordered a giant, inflatable flamingo online and it showed up at your mom's house during one of her Bible study sessions? Priceless!"

"Luckily, evangelicals don't see flamingos as particularly sinful."

Talia laughed again.  "Have you set up any dates yet?"

"Are you crazy?"

"I'm not the one who announced to the world that the only boyfriend I'll be satisfied with is a carbon copy of a fictional character."

"You sorta are - if you hadn't shared it, none of this would have happened."

"You're welcome."

"Talia!"  Maisie found herself half-amused, half-exasperated.  "What should I do?"

A deep breath could be heard on the other end of the phone.  When Talia spoke again, her voice was calm and measured.  "Let it play out.  Ride the wave.  It's about time you had some excitement in your life, other than the few nights a week you let me drag you to a bar."

"I have plenty of excitement in my life, thank you very much."

"Knitting on your couch, watching the Great British Bake Off while Dashwood unspools your yarn, is not what I'd call excitement."

Maisie smiled in spite of herself.  "Hey, sometimes both the cat and the ball of yarn fall off the couch and it's pretty funny."

Talia laughed.  "Leave the page up.  Interact with the people commenting.  If you don't set some dates up, then I'll do it for you.  Seriously, what do you have to lose?"

It was Maisie's turn to take a deep breath.  Naturally, there was the risk that she'd meet a psychopathic serial killer, but the odds on that seemed fairly slim.  Talia could run background checks on anyone she was interested in.  And the buzz would die down in a few days.  "Nothing, I guess.  What the hell, let's meet some men!"