Betty checked her watch for what must have been the sixteenth time in the past five minutes.
11:22.
The movers were now fifty minutes late, which meant that she ran a risk of breaking her promise to Daniel.
Again.
She told him that she'd be able to make it for half a day at least, because her new landlord swore that there was absolutely, positively no moving on weekends and she had to arrange furniture arrivals on weekday mornings. She was forced to sacrifice her morning to be certain that none of the movers damaged any of the furniture that Betty knew darn well she was too clumsy to assemble on her own. This was the third time in the past four weeks that a furniture delivery was late, and it was starting to get annoying.
She got her living room furniture; that was good. She knew that it was a good couch because Hilda and Justin practically fell asleep on it when they visited the other night. Her dad said it was perfect, but he had a tendency to say that everything she did was perfect. Well, except for the dining set she got from an internet sales page, which he claimed looked used even though she was pretty sure it wasn't. At least he was dependable; he came to check out her furniture as often as possible.
If her dad was delivering the furniture, it would have gotten here sooner.
Hell, Henry could have delivered the furniture faster from Tucson himself.
No. No thoughts of Henry. Absolutely not.
Or maybe Gio could have delivered it - if he didn't decide keeping his distance from her was best after she pretty much turned him down.
No, no, no…no thoughts of Gio either.
She promised herself.
She made her choices. They made theirs. She could not be the substitute mother for Henry's baby. She would not abandon everyone she loved on Henry's behalf. Meanwhile, she would not be in a relationship where Gio called all the shots, coerced her into trips she wasn't ready to take and made every decision for her.
She was her own person. For the first time in a while.
Unlike Henry, she had no baby. Unlike Gio, she had no plan. She had nobody to impress, nobody to help, nobody to care for – it was about time that she loved herself first and foremost and that was that.
If only the movers loved Betty just as much.
She was about to pick up her phone and call to find out where they were when…
BUZZ!
She went over to the buzzer that signaled someone was ringing her apartment. She imagined for a moment how excited Henry was every time she saw him push his apartment button to respond to a food delivery, as though it were the most innovative and novel concept on Earth. Henry was fascinated by such simple things.
Stop.
Thinking.
Of.
Henry.
She scolded herself and buzzed the movers in. Today they'd be delivering her full size mattress. She'd been making use of the air mattress Daniel had gotten her as a housewarming gift for the past few nights. It wasn't too bad, but she really needed a REAL mattress, a REAL bed. Once that happened, it would be complete.
She, Betty Suarez, was on her own. For the first time in her life.
The movers brought in her mattress and laid it down gently upon her full bed frame. She gave it a full inspection the way her father taught her to. Everything seemed to be okay. She lay down on it and resisted the urge to bounce up and down, smiling to herself.
It was funny; for someone who missed Henry so desperately – who secretly missed her family as well – she never felt so free before.
It was only then that she realized that the movers were still there. She made sure that they were fully paid, signed a few sheets of paper that she didn't read on a clipboard she was sure was older than she was, and let them out.
She had to get to work. But before she did that, she took a moment to look around the room and smile.
This was her place. Her own studio apartment. Sure, it was about the size of her living room at home. Sure, it had paint that chipped in certain places here or there. Sure, it was not what she'd always dreamed of living in as a little girl. But this was HERS. This was something that wouldn't leave her, that couldn't be taken away as long as she kept on top of her expenses. Nobody else could have this. Nobody.
Player Magazine was not at ALL what Daniel expected.
Then again, nothing was at all what Daniel expected.
Alexis wasn't. She sold her own brother out and gave the best opportunity he ever had to Wilhelmina, which was, quite possibly, the biggest stab in the back he could have imagined. She neglected to tell Daniel that she had relations with the model who mothered the child Daniel thought was his, and that Alexis – not Daniel –was the father. Or, as it was, Alexis was the second mother who was once the father. Of course, Daniel only found this out after he had become really happy with the idea of being a father. Then it was taken away from him just like everything else he ever loved.
At least he got a nephew out of it, and that still filled a big void in him.
The way his nephew looked at him; nothing could have replaced that. Daniel didn't have to be perfect, didn't have to run a magazine as smoothly as ever, didn't have to come home with the prettiest model in the runway show – he just had to be there, and he'd be the kid's hero. Even upon finding out that Daniel wasn't his father, young Daniel still admired him, still respected him, and did so in a way that nobody in the world had ever done before.
It was as though he had left the shack he was living in before and found himself a mansion; he was free to explore these opportunities he never had before.
And then what did Alexis do?
Place him in a magazine that sent him right back down to the shack.
It was amazing; for years Daniel considered himself a player. Well, who was he kidding? He still WAS a player. No matter how much satisfaction he got out of being a role model, he still couldn't help but love the admiration he got from women. Beautiful women, who wanted nothing more than to sleep with him. How could he complain?
Sadly, however, when you were Editor-in-Chief of Player magazine, you didn't get much play.
More often than not, women gave him the silent treatment. He was no longer the guy who had access to the models, clothes and trends – he was the one encouraging all the jerks they've ever dated in their lives to be jerks.
And, well, the people at Player – they WERE jerks.
Which made him almost uncomfortable to have Betty there with him.
He couldn't let her go as his assistant; he knew nobody would be up to the kind of job that she could do. No matter what snide remarks any of the guys at the magazine uttered about her, no matter how they made a total mockery of her when they thought Daniel couldn't hear him, no matter how many times advertisers had suggested that he have an assistant that reflected better on the magazine (because why would a true player have a sweet, soft spoken girl without much sex appeal at all as assistant to the Editor-in-Chief?), he knew that she was an asset to his office.
For many reasons.
For one, if he hired any old assistant – any hot girl, it would distract the guys. They would care more about getting her into bed than getting their work to him.
Not that Betty was so repellant that he never thought anyone could like her. True, at onset, she was almost what you would call ridiculous, but once you got to know her, there was something that made her cuter than you remembered. Nevertheless, Betty wasn't that kind of girl; the kind that would take any guys' number and flaunt herself for attention. He knew it, and he respected it.
Besides, she was a good assistant. He didn't imagine having anyone else under his wing. She knew everything about him; his quirks, his moods, his gestures, EVERYTHING. He didn't quite feel ready to have someone else fill in her shoes.
And, lastly…he wasn't ready to share her.
That was rather selfish of him, he admitted it, but why should anyone else get to have an assistant as good as she was? Why would anyone else get to have the companionship that Daniel sought in Betty? They started in this company together and they would stay in this company together.
No. They could take away his job, they could take away his opportunity to be a father, they could take away his pride, but they could not take away Betty – she was Daniel's and Daniel's alone.
That may have been part of the reason why Daniel didn't seem to make many friends at his new job.
The guys seemed nice enough – until the subject of Betty came up. They'd poke fun at her braces, they'd comment on her weight, they'd imitate her high pitched voice, and it all made Daniel feel something he never felt before. A rush of adrenaline would hit him; he'd feel furious all of a sudden, and an urge to rip every one of these guys apart limb from limb would momentarily pass. He thought of Betty – sweet, naïve, hard working Betty, sitting at her desk typing and not even realizing that everyone so nice to her face was saying such hurtful things behind her back.
If he didn't fear Alexis would completely remove him from his post, he would have acted upon his urges and, for a rare moment in his life, let out his aggression physically.
He couldn't do that, though. He may feel angry, but, hey, when he first met Betty, say it or not, he had the same first impression.
And realizing that only made him hate himself as much as he hated them.
This cloud of thoughts invading his mind at his desk was interrupted, ironically enough, by the appearance of a very rushed looking Betty. Her hair was more disheveled than usual, and it looked as though she threw on her multicolored jumper and bright blue tights in the dark with her eyes closed. Her glasses sat on her face in a slightly crooked way.
"Betty? Are you okay?" He asked, allowing her to catch her breath before replying.
"Daniel," she panted. "I'm…sorry…I'm…l…late."
"You're not…" Daniel turned to his clock.
Wow.
She was late.
Half an hour late.
She was supposed to be here at twelve.
"…that late," Daniel finished. "It's okay; it was kind of a slow morning. Why don't you take a few minutes and just check the messages?"
Betty nodded, still panting, and walked awkwardly over to her desk. Daniel was about to go and ask her how the movers did when his phone rang. Betty reached over to get it, but he signaled to her that he would get it on his own, and she went straight to check his emails.
"This is Daniel Meade."
"Daniel, it's Alexis," came a cold voice from the other end. He and Alexis hadn't gotten on so well since firing Daniel put Alexis in their mother's dog house. Naturally, Alexis would find a way to make this his fault.
"What's up?" Daniel asked.
"Deadline is in two days, Daniel, and I still haven't approved those last few pages I asked you for."
"I told you, Bill from features was out for a few days and he'll have it to you by the end of the day."
"So your guys are taking vacations right before deadline? Are you insane?"
Naturally.
Daniel screwed up. Again.
No. Daniel didn't. Alexis was wrong. Daniel would show her.
"One of my guys just went to visit his sick mother in the hospital. Because, you know, there are some people that actually care about their families more than their jobs."
Silence.
He had her.
He grinned to himself.
"Whatever," she muttered. "Just…make sure it's back by the end of the day. Oh, and Daniel? I need to see Betty."
Betty?
What did she need Betty for?
"Why?"
"Well, not that it matters, Daniel, but…"
"She's my assistant. Of course it matters. If she's missing a lot slows down around here."
"…what I was saying is that I know she's a freelancer and I wanted to give her an assignment. We haven't decided which of the women's magazines it will go into; it'll depend on the space available, the article tone and how it's written. But an advertiser's given us a pitch and we want to shoot for next month's issue."
He looked at Betty, looking eagerly at Daniel's emails and writing notes down on different color post-its, organizing her thoughts in the anal style that she ordinarily did. If he went in and told her that she had a big freelance assignment, she may throw a hyperactive fit and put her post its in complete and utter disarray by accident.
But it would be fun to watch.
Nevertheless…why Betty? That was an odd request. He could understand his mom asking, but Alexis cared more about work than making people like Betty happy.
Was this assignment going to make her look like a fool?
"What's the assignment?"
"That, Daniel, is between Betty and Meade's advertisers and myself; it's supposed to be completely secret so nobody else grabs the marketing scheme. Now can you please send her in?"
"Now?"
"Now." With that, Alexis hung up the phone and Daniel looked at Betty, whose feather pen was now moving so quickly it seemed as though she had two fluorescent green feathers floating on top of it instead of one.
He had to look at the bright side – she wanted to be a writer. She truly did. And, well, she was, at best, average in the writing department at this point. Sure, she had potential, but she'd never really allowed herself to take the opportunity to use it. Even if this was a crazy assignment, it would get her one step closer to where she deserved to be.
He had to tell her.
He walked to his door, looking over at her desk and trying to say her name in a way that wouldn't startle her too much, for she was in deep concentration.
"Betty?"
She only jumped a little bit, spastically let her pen fall to the floor and dropped one post it; not too bad by Betty standards.
"Yes?"
"Alexis wants to see you."
Daniel knew immediately that was the wrong way to phrase it, because he saw a look of terror immediately cross Betty's eyes.
"Look, okay, I took one bagel, but I thought the tray was for the whole office! I had no idea that it was for an advertiser's meeting until I saw them all coming in…"
Daniel had to laugh. Betty was a trip and a half when she wanted to be.
"No. She has an assignment for you. A freelance writing assignment." Betty's eyes glowed and her cheekbones were dramatically raised as she showed her most vibrant, excited, metallic smile.
"Get out! Which magazine?"
"I don't know. She said it was top secret – between you and her."
"Oh, but, Daniel, I could tell you, of course."
Daniel didn't understand why, but hearing that from her made him smile. Almost as excitedly as Betty did.
"No, I don't think so. This is your gig. Go get it and do just what she says – if it's none of my business, we'll keep it that way."
"Fine," Betty said, still smiling and excitedly prancing over to him with her hand extended. "But I have to at least get a high five on this one; come on!"
Daniel happily complied, and as he did, he noticed that, after his hand met hers, she took it for a minute and clumsily intertwined their fingers as she jumped up and down.
Maybe it was because he never had any reason to notice before, but he couldn't ignore that, even with a spastic move like that, her skin was really soft.
"I've got another assignment!" She said, releasing his hand in what, surprisingly, made Daniel disappointed.
He giggled along with her, though.
There simply were not enough Betty's in the world.
"Well, why are you still here, then, huh? Get outta here! Go on!" She gave him one last smile as she practically danced to the elevator.
He walked over and looked at the messages she wrote down, trying to ignore the memory of her soft hand or the happiness he felt knowing that she felt she could tell him anything – tell him everything…
"Hey, where are the doughnuts? Suarez was excited, so they must be around!"
Daniel's head turned sharply around. Again, two of the guys in photo were discussing Betty as though he didn't hear them.
"Maybe it's Taco day on Monday instead."
"Hey, what are you two, thirteen-year-old girls?" Daniel heard himself say before he could think about what was escaping his mouth. "This is a magazine. How about you try growing up and getting back to work?"
They stared at him, shocked and embarrassed; Daniel had never replied to any of their comments before. But they weren't going to spoil her happiness; not today, when she was so excited.
He went back to read his messages, hoping that Alexis wouldn't spoil her happiness, either.