Mr. Darcy, I Presume?

Due to his mother's favorite holiday tradition, Pride and Prejudice and Christmas Dessert, Mike Darcy grew up painfully aware of his surname.  When he began attending high school, where she taught literature, he braced himself for the inevitable greeting.  He exhaled slowly when he realized on the second week of ninth grade that his mom taught American Lit.  The seniors could razz him, but they would have to notice him first. By the time, in fact, that anyone who would think to pick on him for his name he had already made a name for himself on the field.

Mike Darcy's talent as a quarterback earned him a spot on the varsity bench freshman year.  He even ran a couple plays that fall.  By senior year, he was legendary.  

Cherie was shocked to discover that he was single.  Guys like that don't stay on the market for long.  Yet, here she was, heading to the door of Sakuma on the arm of GC's most eligible bachelor.  The group had begun their experiment on Tuesday, and by Thursday night, Mike had stopped by her house under the pretext of getting Economics notes from her.  That alone was fishy because a) Mr. Moore doesn't give lecture notes, b) because he podcasts his lectures, c) Mike has a higher grade than her, and d) He wasn't absent.  So, she already had put on lipgloss, changed her shirt, and straightened up her hair in the 10 minutes it took for him to come over.  She didn't know why she was so nervous.  This was only step one in her three step plan.  If her endgame was Joe, why get gussied up (mom's word) over Mike? She knew the answer.  She needed to feel pretty in the worst way.  She didn't know why.  She didn't bring it up to her ex-model turned feminist mother.  She'd read enough of her mom's psychology texts to know it had something to do with her dad, and that made sense to even her, on some level. After all, you don't come out of a divorce in which your dad is thrown in prison for killing 3 people in a drunk-driving accident, one of the victims being his secretary/girlfriend, that led to your mom's lame reconciliation attempt and subsequent miscarriage without a few scars. Even so, knowing why something came about doesn't make it any easier to accept.  Besides, there are worse things girls with daddy issues can do than wear a little lip gloss for a boy they only barely like.

She was at the bottom of the stairs before he could ring the bell a second time, and they were out of the condo before Kai could show Mike his turtle, Zeus.

"Bye mom, be back by midnight," she'd called as she reached the elevator.

20 minutes later she was sitting on a toilet at Sakuma wondering what on earth she was going to say to Mr. Darcy.