Betty bounced down the stairs looking back once to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Daniel was here and he'd invited her out to dinner. She could hardly believe it. They were going to make amends for this stupid rift that was between them after all. Her heart was soaring.
She cut across the centre of Trafalgar Square and then turned left heading toward her office. As she approached the busy street she looked left quickly first and then looked right as she simultaneously stepped out to cross.
Suddenly there was the blast of a car horn and the squeal of breaks. Everything seemed like it was happening in slow motion as the bumper of the car approached her. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out…
Betty sat upright in bed. Her heart was pounding, her hands sweating, and her chest tight with panic. Relief flooded in and she started breathing normally once she processed her surroundings. A dream, it was only a dream.
With that realization came the corresponding disappointment and it felt like lead in her stomach. Daniel wasn't in London. He hadn't asked her to dinner. In fact, they still weren't even speaking.
It had been almost a month since she'd landed in London and she still hadn't heard from him, but not from a lack of effort on her part – she'd sent emails, texts, and left messages on his phone all to no avail before she left New York. She'd heard about him though, through Marc, Amanda and Mrs. Meade. Apparently he'd stepped down from Mode but there was a noticeable lack of explanation from any of them as to why. And although it was probable Amanda and Marc didn't know, it seemed likely Claire Meade did and yet she wasn't volunteering any information in that regard. Betty hadn't wanted to pry so she had just left it, even though her curiosity was killing her.
She looked at the clock on her bedside table - it was twelve thirty. Great, a two hour nap and now she was wide awake thanks to that dream. Dropping back to sleep quickly seemed unlikely so she climbed out of bed and went out to the tiny kitchen of her small London flat to make herself a cup of chamomile tea.
She turned on her laptop as the drone of her electric kettle filled the silence in her apartment. The benefit of living an ocean away from most of the people you care about was that it was still early in New York; maybe someone was online. While it booted up she made the tea and processed her options. It was Wednesday night so Justin had drama rehearsal and Hilda would probably still have clients because Bobby worked late on Wednesdays so she usually did too. She decided to Skype Amanda instead. Lately it was fun to talk to her. She always seemed to have interesting celebrity gossip to share. Whether or not the gossip was true was debatable, but it was interesting to hear anyway. Plus she was kind of sweet more often then not lately and almost never insulted her on purpose anymore. A lighthearted, amusing tidbit of gossip might be just the thing to take her mind off of that dream.
"Ev'ning Gov'na'," Marc responded in the most pathetic British accent he could muster when his face appeared on the screen.
"Isn't the accent getting a little old, Marc?" Betty asked. He always did that when he spoke to her lately.
"Aren't your eyebrows getting a little bushy, Betty?" Marc retorted.
"Where's Amanda?" Betty asked, ignoring his insult.
"She went out and she's not home yet. Nice look," he said sarcastically indicating her flannel bunny pajamas and messy hair.
Immediately regretting she didn't straighten up a little before Skyping, she put her hand up to her head to smooth her hair out a little.
"I had a bad dream and now I can't sleep," Betty offered as an explanation.
"Aww." Marc almost seemed sympathetic. "What did you dream, that they outlawed donuts in Great Britain?"
"Nooo, if you must know, I dreamt I was run down by a car."
"Hmm. Was I driving it?" Marc was intrigued.
"No! Why would you ask that?" She was horrified that he would think that.
"Because if I was driving it, then I've had that exact same dream before. It ranks right up there just behind the one where I single handedly secure a sweep for Mode at the MAMA's and anything with Jake Gyllenhaal." He changed the subject. "Hey, I saw that interview you did for your new magazine on the British news."
"Really?"
Lindsey Dunne had set up a publicity blitz in order to get the word out about the magazine before the first issue was to hit the newsstands, but it was mainly local London media and certainly nothing that would have reached the States. Betty figured he must have seen it online.
"Yeah. You did a good job, Suarez. I guess under all those tacky, hideous patterns and cheap manmade fibers, lies the heart of a not terrible managing editor."
"Aww. Thank you Marc." Betty was touched; Marc must be in a good mood, there was almost a compliment in there somewhere. "You know, I'd hug you right now if I was there," she grinned at him.
"Ugh…" he shuddered. "About that interview, you know they say the camera adds ten pounds but in your case I wouldn't worry about it. That god-awful colour you wore completely washed you out and distracted from your weight issues."
She ignored his insult again. "How did you find it? You must have Googled me." An excited smile broke across her face.
Marc winced a little. "Cool your jets Betty. I was only trying to see if you grace London with the same type of humiliation you did New York. I figured if you did something particularly mortifying it might make the news, seeing as you're running a magazine now and all."
Betty heard the door of Marc's apartment and Amanda's greeting. "Hey snarky Marc."
Marc turned away from the computer. "Hey randy Mandy. The furry one is one line." He whispered behind his hand to Amanda "It's too late for me, but save yourself."
She hurried over to the computer excitedly, shoving Marc off of the chair so hard that he fell to the floor and then she took his place in front of the computer. "Heeey Betty," she said with a lazy, sultry voice and then her face approached the camera until only her lips were visible and she puckered making an exaggerated kissing noise.
"Hi Amanda. That was a….warm welcome."
"I just miss you Betty - you and your erotic Mexican personality."
"I think you mean exotic, right?" Betty said correcting her, although with Amanda you could never be too sure.
"Actually, I think she means neurotic," Marc said snidely. He'd picked himself up off of the floor and grabbed another chair so they were both in front of the computer.
"I miss you too." Betty said to Amanda trying to ignore Marc. "How's business this week?"
"Fabuloso. Spencer hooked me up with some other soap actors he works with and I've got two new clients."
"That's great, Amanda. You guys seem to really be getting along."
"We are. He's vain, catty, snide and totally melodramatic. He's everything I always hoped my biological father would be." she sighed with a smile.
"Oh. Well, that's…uh, great, I guess," Betty said with uncertainty.
"And I finally see where I get certain traits, you know? Like, I've known for a while that my terrific fashion sense comes from Fey but I can finally see where I get my people skills, insightfulness and sensitivity. So how's Africa?" she asked almost in the same breath.
"Amanda, I'm in England," Betty reminded her again for about the fifth time since she'd moved.
"Oh, right. Well, how's the Queen?"
"She's—" Betty wasn't sure how to answer that but it didn't matter because Amanda didn't let her finish.
"And how's your love life, hmmm? Have you met any brawny British chaps to jolly good your tally-ho or whatever the expression is in their language?" Amanda waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"I think the separate expressions you are referring to are 'jolly good' and 'tally ho' and they don't have anything to do with sex," Betty explained.
"Mmmm. Don't they?" Amanda asked unconvinced, giving Betty her bedroom eyes.
"No, they don't," Betty insisted, a little disconcerted that Amanda could make even those expressions sound dirty.
"Really? Are you sure Betty?" she asked again with the same deep voice and expression.
"I'm pretty sure. Anyway...I don't have a love life right now," Betty said trying to steer Amanda away from there.
Amanda nodded understanding. "It's the outfits, right?" Amanda pinched the shoulder of her blouse. Then she looked sympathetically at her and added "And the hair? You know I thought your fashion sense had improved a little before you left but you seemed to have slipped back into old habits."
"Amanda, these are my pajamas," Betty explained trying to smooth her hair with her hand again. "Actually, I don't have much of a life at all apart from running the magazine."
Marc piped up with a mocking sarcastic tone. "Aww, poor Betty has so much work to do as a managing editor that she doesn't have any time for herself. It must be so awful to have to run your own magazine."
"Not awful Marc, but definitely busy. I have staff I need to manage that I'm just starting to get to know. I have to hire new staff to fill in some positions so I'm interviewing people and I need to stay on top of all the current events so I can make sure the magazine is relevant. It's very time consuming. Not that I'm complaining though, I really love it." She gave them a huge smile.
Marc rolled his eyes. "Oooh quick Betty, get your camera so you can take a picture of me not caring."
"I would care Betty but all got from that was blah, blah, blah, 'positions' blah, blah 'stay on top'," Amanda replied.
"So how's Mode, Marc?" Betty asked, desperately hoping to move to a safer subject.
"Mode's great. Willie's giving me some extra creative projects to work on. I just finished selecting the outfits for the cover shoot that we're doing for next month's issue."
"That's great. So, what's it like with Wilhelmina solely in charge?" Betty wondered.
"Picture Kim Jong-il without the soft edges."
"At least she's capable," Betty replied in some attempt to find something positive. "She never would have been left in charge if the Meades didn't think so."
"Yeah, that sure was a surprise, wasn't it? I never would have guessed Daniel would let Wilhelmina take over after all the stuff that happened between them," Amanda commented.
"Well I guess that's all water under the bridge now," Marc said nonchalantly as if he'd never been a cohort in any of the scheming and then he added in a poorly veiled attempt to change the topic, "But what's Daniel doing now, I wonder?"
Betty shifted uncomfortably. She didn't want to talk about Daniel.
Amanda responded. "I don't know. I haven't heard from him for a while. Hasn't he shown his face around Mode since he left, Marc?"
"No, he hasn't."
"What about you Betty? Have you heard from him?" Amanda asked.
"Uh, no, honestly I haven't." Betty tried to keep the obvious regret out of her voice.
"Still not speaking, huh." Amanda looked knowingly at Marc. "That must have been quite the fight you two had before you left."
"It wasn't really a fight, more like a regretful communication error," Betty clarified. She glared at the screen but it was aimed at Marc.
He smiled sheepishly; obviously it wasn't lost on him. His demeanor changed a little. "Look Betty, you can blame me for the 'communication error' if you like but you'd taken the job long before I interfered and you didn't tell him yourself for some reason. Besides, it's been a lifetime since then and it's hardly my fault you haven't spoken to him. I doubt you've already forgotten his cell number."
Betty knew Marc was right. It wasn't his fault she hadn't called Daniel since she arrived in London. But she figured she'd already done her part at trying to reconcile, and he obviously wasn't interested. Why did she have to be the one to extend the olive branch in order to make things right again. Was she the only one who cared about their friendship?
She sighed deeply. "Can we talk about something else, please?"
"I didn't realize this was such a sensitive issue. If it's bothering you so much, just call him."
"It's not that simple Marc. I think he hates me. In fact, if he knew it was me calling, he probably wouldn't answer his phone. He didn't return any of my calls before I left New York."
"Well that was weeks ago. Surely he's not still holding it against you."
Betty shrugged feeling rather doubtful about that.
Marc continued his argument with exasperation bordering on annoyance in his tone. "I have no idea why, but for some reason he's always respected you and valued your friendship. I'm sure he can't hate you forever."
"Maybe you're right." Betty considered it a little.
"Of course I'm right."
"So are you going to call him?" Amanda wondered.
"I'll think about it."
A large part of her wanted to. She always had such an uneasy feeling whenever she and Daniel were on the "outs". Unfortunately, deep down she knew she had her own unresolved issues to deal with before she could reach out to him. Mainly she had to stop being so angry with him. And that was getting increasingly difficult to do the longer this estrangement continued.