Classy

Chapter Thirteen

SOOOOoooOOo. This chapter deals with *vague gesture at Wickham bullshit*, which includes the discussion of drug addiction and alcohol addiction in the younger Miss Darcy. Please be cautious if that's a trigger for y'all.

Love, Cam

♡

Frankie Bennet

In which I decide I will die on this hill

I had vowed to myself to let it go. Whatever Maya and Madeline knew of each other was in the past. Whatever they had shared, whatever had caused them to fall out - and I had to assume there was a falling out, given Gates' unbelievable reaction - it was none of my business.

But it was bugging me. I was about two seconds away at any given moment from just grabbing Maya and shaking her and shouting 'TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW'. I was going to die of curiosity. I just wanted to know.

"Please stop over-thinking this," Jane begged me, after my third explosion of 'BUT WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE' of the evening. "They clearly had a work dispute, and Maya was fired. That had to have been it - or redundancy, and Maya took it badly enough to have an argument. Madeline is lovely but she isn't the most tactful person in the world."

That earned her a snort of agreement.

"Exactly," Jane said gently.

"And tell me again exactly what Gates said?" I asked, pleading.

Jane sighed, but gracefully responded with, "Gates told me, once you'd left for your date, that Madeline and Maya did not get on after Maya left Midori Enterprises, and that they had worked together for several years before she left two years ago. Happy?"

"No," I groaned. "I have to know..."

In all fairness to me, Gates was being cagey as all hell about it. I'd asked him directly, and he'd practically tripped over his own feet in an effort to get away from me. He'd also categorically refused to talk about Madeline, citing that she was just 'super busy' at the moment and he hadn't seen her. Which I knew was nonsense, because they were literally living together.

There was a knock at the door, and I sprang to my feet, letting excitement overrule my nightmarish curiosity. Maya was here for our third date, and I was really looking forward to it. I beamed, opening the door, trying to overrule my own nerves. This was a bit of a big step for me; Thomas was away with Will, and Jane was heading out with Gates for the night, so I had invited Maya over to the apartment for a movie night.

"Hey!" she greeted me cheerfully, holding up an external hard-drive. "I have so many movies, you have no idea."

"Oh my God, that is dedication," I said, eyeing the device. "Come on in."

Maya stepped into the apartment and took off her boots, leaving them lined up next to my own. She waved at Jane and said, "Hi! You must be Jane - Frankie literally never stops talking about you."

I grinned at them both. "True."

Jane was already walking over with a pleasant smile on her face. "Lovely to meet you, Maya, I'm sorry I'm going to be rushing out on you before I can get to know you properly."

"We might be here for thirty-five years yet," I said, nodding at the hard-drive. "I feel like I'm about to get an intensive pop-culture education."

"Accurate," Maya smirked, and pulled out a bottle from her bag. "I brought some non-alcoholic fizz. I had no idea there was so much alcohol-free wine, this is a sparkling rosé because I fancied something sweet. Do you want a glass before you go, Jane?"