t was Valentine's Day and at about 8 in the morning, 21 year old Betty had walked into her cubicle to find a boquet of flowers with two candy heart lollipops. She smiled to herself as she fingered the little card in the thick of the roses, knowing before even opening the it that it was from her parents.
It had been 2 years since she moved to Los Angeles from a small town up north and being an only child she just knew that her parents missed her with every being, mostly because they called every weekend and never failed to send her something on a holiday. Any holiday!
The card read 'Dear Weasel, we love you and we know soon enough you'll get what YOU love!" Betty blushed a little at the mention of her kiddie nick name and then tucked the card away. She had moved here to work in television and radio and although she was working an television studio, answering phone calls and filing was not exactly what she had dreamed of. But hard work and determination and luck would rear its head soon right? Right?
"Aww someone is loved!", her office partner Shirley chided.
Betty quickly sat down and removed the cover off her type writer, "It's just from my parents. Did Charlie get you anything?"
Shirley blew a raspberry and tossed her coat onto the rack by the door, "Ya right! Listen honey when you've been married as long as we have you're happier when there's no surprises! Here hon, these came in last night after you left. I tell you ever since that Monkees tv show started up it's been nothing but typing all day long!"
Betty took the stack of papers from Shirley and nodded, "No rest for the wicked."
3 hours later Betty was on her knees at the filing cabinet munching on a sandwhich while digging through even more stacks of paper to pass along to human resourses when Shirley put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey girl, why don't you get out and take a walk, no one should ever eat lunch while they're working!"
"Oh, well I want to get this done for Mr. Konrad."
Shirley smirked, "He'll probably forget he even asked you to dig those up. Look go for a walk, get out, come back in half an hour or so and I'll be done by then, I can help you out."
Betty nodded and stood up, she smoothed out her knee length skirt and made to walk out the office but she quickly bee lined back and snatched one of the candy lollipops to suck on while she walked. A little sugar never hurt anyone, "See ya later than Shirl."
The studio lot was a beautiful place to walk and if you had time to explore you could find all kinds of gorgeous little hide outs or pic nic areas. Betty loved going onto the street lots that were all done up to look like streets in small town america. She'd sit on the benches in the "parks" and read or just watch people coming and going. She was walking down a corridor to do just that when someone snatched the lollipop out of her hand.
Betty quickly whirled around to look at who had done it and was met with a cheeky grin from Mike Nesmith of "that new tv show" the Monkees. He was that old standard, tall, dark and handsome and rumor was that he was a bit of a diva. He stuck the candy out toward her and as she made to grab it back he quickly pulled it up out of reach. Betty stood back for a second with her hands on her hips. Was this really happening, was this guy serious? He bent down so his eyes were level with her 5'2" frame and handed the lollipop out once more to her but instead of reaching out to grab the candy she quickly ran forward and pulled his blue/green wool hat off his head.
Mike stood up quickly and grabbed at his hair before once more holding the candy out, "Give that back." he drawled.
Betty shook her head causing her short brown curly hair to bounce, "Nuthin doing! Give me my candy back and you'll get your hat back."
Mike's eyes narrowed and he lifted the lollipop up above his head, "Give me that hat or I'll smash this."
Betty squeezed the hat tighter in her hand and looked at him. She couldn't tell if he was serious or if this whole thing was meant to be funny so instead she just stood her ground,
"Nope! If you don't give me that sucker I'm throwing your hat out a window." He had to give in now! This was a prop, not just something he could go into any store and buy. She'd seen the promotional posters come through the office and knew that this knitted hat was his character.
He quickly brought his hand down as if he was going to throw the lollipop and Betty finally caved, "Ok, Ok, I'm sorry here take your hat."
She stuck her hand out with the hat and Mike quickly snatched it back. When he had placed it back on his head he handed her back the lollipop and smiled, "Hi I'm Mike Nesmith. Who are you here?"
Betty cautiously took the lollipop from his hand and stared at him for a second trying to understand what was going on. "I'm Betty Bonett, I'm one of the girls in the offices dealing with YOUR fan mail and paper work."
Mike knocked her on the shoulder like a big brother would do to his kid sister and ruffled her hair, "Well keep doing what you're doing! You're doing a great job Babs."
Was he for real? Still not sure if this was just friendly kidding around or not she reached out to touch his arm as he turned to leave, "Wait - would you have really smashed my candy?"
Without hesitation Mike nodded, "Yup."
Betty smirked and put her hands on her hips, two could play at this game, "Oh well jokes on you then cause I have another one in my desk."
Like a flash Mike snatched the lollipop back and threw it on the ground smashing it into tiny pieces. As Betty stood staring at the decimated candy, Mike leaned down and kissed her cheek, "See ya around Babs!" and away he walked.
Betty looked at his retreating back and then back down at the mess. Her mind was trying to process what had just happened. One of The Monkees just called her babs, kissed her cheek and smashed her lollipop! She touched her cheek where his lips had been and felt a little flutter in her stomach before she remembered and looked at the candy once more. "What a jerk!" she said to no one in particular and turned on her heel to stomp back to the office.
Later that day Mike was walking off the set and making his way back to his dressing room to take a break while the sets were being changed and lights were readjusted. A kid of about 19 followed behind closely carrying Mike's black beauty and a clipboard and was relaying messages and timetable information to the musician.
Mike entered his dressing room and motioned for his assistant to put the guitar on the stand while he grabbed a towel and wiped some of the sweaty make up off his face. A twang rang out in the room and Mike spun around to find the kid trying to pick up the guitar that had tipped over.
The Monkee drew himself up to his full height and marched until he was chest to chest with Martin, "WATCH IT!", Mike roared so loudly that his assitant coward a little, "My son went without milk so that I could buy that guitar! How 'bout I do that to you?!"
Martin backed up a bit his hands up, "Mr. Nesmith I - I'm sorry I - it was a mistake, I thought I had clipped it - "
"Get outta here!" Mike waved him off and shook his head. The Texan sat down and put his head in his hands. His day had started off by fighting with his wife about something that HE thought was trivial but that she thought might be worth taking his son back out to Texas for. Then when he asked to see Don about maybe working another of his songs into the show he'd got the run around for that and THEN on set his only direction had been to "run around and have fun." What does that even mean?
He sighed and laid down on his couch he had tucked away in the corner. Martin would have to go too, that kid couldn't find his own ass out of a paper bag and Mike was getting tired of explaining even the simplest of actions to him. Weren't assistants supposed to assist you? Not make things worse?
He was just about to nod off when Micky stuck his head through the crack in Mike's door, "Hey Mike - I'm gonna go get a beer, wanna come with me and run lines for the next scene?"
"Ya sure Mick, lets go." Mike hauled himself up and joined Micky on his way to the comissary.
The comissary was almost empty since it was near the end of the day so Micky went to grab the beer while Mike was sent to pick out a table. As he scanned the room for where he wanted to sit his eyes fell on a girl with a mess of curly hair and a black sweater. He snapped his fingers in realization, the girl he'd teased this afternnon. I'd better go apologize he thought knowing some people didn't really know how to take his humor. Really she looked to be a sweetheart and truth be told kissing her cheek allowed him to breath in an intoxicating smell of strawberries and flowers.
He walked through the maze of tables and knocked her on the shoulder with his fist, "Hey kid why the long face?"
Betty glared up at him, "Oh gee, I don't know. Some jerk stole my candy my parents sent me for Valentine's Day and smashed it - have you seen him?"
Mike's temper flared a little, couldn't she see he was trying to apologize? He jutted his jaw out and put his hands on his hips, "You've got a real attitude problem you know that?"
Betty stood up and poked him in the chest, "And you've got a chip on your shoulder! Get over yourself!" She pushed the chair back into the table violently and then stormed out.
For a split second he was about to go after her and teach her a lesson. He'd teach that girl with that cute little figure and sweet little ass that he was the one in charge! He'd find out who she reported to and have a word with him - wait a minute...that was it. He'd get her back alright. He sat down at the now empty table and smiled to himself, she wasn't so bad really. She was nice to look at, had a cute little body and a temper that might make things a little more interesting around here. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, she had no idea what she was getting herself into.
"Why the weird grin Mike?" Micky asked startling the Texan out of his wicked thoughts.
"Huh? Oh nothing never mind. Lets just get this shit done so we can get outta here!"
