Betty sat on the couch, comfortably nestled next to Henry and stared pensively at her bowl of mint chocolate chip. The Wizard of Oz was playing on the TV- hence the green ice cream. She supposed in an off-handedly amused sort of way that this was Henry's attempt to make up for that disaster at the theatre a few weeks before.

And what a spectacular disaster it had been, she reflected. What was supposed to be this dream date with Henry- their first attempt at acknowledging their relationship publicly- had turned into the exact opposite. A veritable nightmare on many levels, in fact.

Looking back on it now, she thought there was probably something to the fact that the tickets had been near impossible to get on all counts. At the time, she had just chalked it up to karma kicking her in the ass, maybe for being kind of mean to Gio. Although he had deserved it.

First she had been striking out at the box office when Daniel had materialized out of nowhere and had (correctly) assumed that she was making plans to go out with Henry, who was kind of in Daniel's dog-house at that moment. She had somehow successfully convinced him otherwise, with the end result being that he had given her tickets to the freaking sandwich guy- although as much as it rankled, she had to admit that one was probably her fault since she might have….misled Daniel about her date. When she tried to get the tickets back, Gio had been his normal insufferable self and in the end, had walked off with both her tickets, thus leaving her to procure more from Amanda at a ridiculously high price. Upon arriving at the theatre, she had immediately run into Gio and (she was sorry she had to say it) his obnoxiously rude 11 year old sister. To top it off she got stuck sitting with him after all that anyway when Daniel unexpectedly showed up with tickets for seats right next to theirs. Why Gio had continued to keep up the charade honestly baffled her….she entertained the notion that he might just be slightly sadistic. Meanwhile, poor Henry had been saddled with the kid and forced to watch Betty's fake boyfriend put the moves on his girlfriend for the sake of the show.

She thought she should feel much worse about that honestly. At first, she did. She had been just as horrified as Henry. But every time her mind dredged the memory up (which was a lot more than necessary) she tried in vain to not remember the feel of Gio's arm around her shoulder, or his warm breath on her neck as he whispered into her ear when she asked him what he thought he was doing. Or the somewhat intoxicating scent of him…a mix of leather, his deodorant or cologne- whichever it was, and the smell of his clothes.

Why why why did Daniel have to decide to see 'Wicked' that night? She wondered for what must be the billionth time.

Eventually, Gio's 'familiarity with her person,' as Henry had quite angrily put it, resulted in not only them being discovered by Daniel (who she had assured she was absolutely not dating Henry, and would have been bad enough) but by everyone in the house and eviction from the premises with a lifetime ban from that particular show.

That was a little steep, she thought to herself; after all it had been completely an accident, and really- wasn't being goggled at and gossiped about by half of New York bad enough?!

Her thoughts were completely disrupted by a noise on the TV. "I'll get you my pretty, and you little dog too," the wicked witch cackled onscreen. Betty wondered grimly if the iconic line was being directed at her. It sure felt like it. Normally she really loved this movie- munchkins, sparkly magic slippers, and multi-colored horses…what's not to love? Tonight though, she was dismayed to find that she had other thoughts weighing heavily on her mind. Thoughts that she was slightly ashamed of, because even though it was Henry's apartment, Henry's living room and Henry's arms wrapped around her, her thoughts were not on Henry at all. Or wicked witches or little dogs in any incarnation. Betty couldn't figure out what her problem was- she had never had this problem before, but tonight she was having a horribly hard time casting Gio from her thoughts even while she was practically sitting on top of another man. Worse, a man who happened to be her boyfriend, and as such deserved to be foremost on her mind, she thought a bit guiltily.

She was actually finding it hard to believe that Henry couldn't hear the traitorous thoughts in her head, given her proximity. She was also extremely relieved that he couldn't. Because he would not be happy, and to tell the truth, she wasn't overly happy with her own thought train of late. Even going over that ill-fated night in her head and trying to focus on all the ways it had disappointed, she knew that the worst part was….that all of that wasn't really the worst part.

Lying to Daniel about Henry had been dumb. Picking a fight with Gio over her tickets had been stupid. Letting Gio go along with the game and thinking nothing would change had been a mistake of monumental proportions.

From the moment his warm hand enveloped hers in the lobby, in front of Henry no less, she had been uncomfortably….aware…of him in a way she never had before. She felt like she was sitting too close and the theatre felt kind of warm. It was hard to concentrate on the action onstage. She started noticing things like his smell, and his breathing, and just how right it felt, even if it was scaring the hell out of her. Now she was thinking that it was somewhat ironic that she had technically been 'on a date' with Gio, by default, before Henry, for all intents and purposes. Annoying Gio. Quacking Gio. Despite herself, it made her smile.

As if on cue, Henry stopped the movie and shifted towards her. "Hey beautiful, penny for your thoughts? They must be good from the looks of the smile on your face," he asked with a somewhat mischievous look on his face. She jumped at his address and her heartbeat raced. Was that accusation she heard in his voice? Oh God…I'm caught. He knows.

"Wow," he said with a smile. "You must really be into the movie tonight…it was clearly an inspired choice. You jumped a mile high."

She laughed nervously on the outside, and felt rather like someone was smothering her in concrete on the inside. Fleetingly, she had wondered if it was possible to feel any guiltier, and Henry had sure stepped up to the plate and knocked it clear out of the park.

He smiled again and started to get up, holding out his empty bowl. "I'm getting some more- you want some?"

Now completely dislodged from her (wholly inappropriate, she thought) reverie, color had started to bloom high on her cheekbones.

"Hey, you look warm- want me to open a window?" Henry asked, noticing her cheeks. She was warm all right, and shamefully it had not a thing to do with anything in this room. "Wha..? Oh no, thank you," she said.

"Is that a no to the ice cream or the window?" Henry teased. "Wake up, daydreamer."

Betty blushed even more furiously now- if Henry only knew what she was dreaming about, he wouldn't be in such good humor. She looked away from him quickly and glanced down into her now fully melted bowl of ice cream.

"Ah…no more ice cream, thanks. If you wouldn't mind the window though…" she hedged, trying to rein in her discomfort and keep Henry from getting suspicious.

Great, now I'm getting paranoid. Damn Gio.

"Anything for my Betty," Henry said as he got up, kissed the top of her head and walked out of the room. Sure- drive that nail in a little deeper, she thought. Betty smiled back weakly and watched Henry go. As soon as he was out of sight, she let out a deep breath and dropped her head into her hands.

"Betty!" she scolded herself. "What are you thinking?! Get it together!"

Henry popped his head back in and said "Are you talking to me?" He wore an expression that was something between perplexed and bemused.

She let out another nervous giggle and blurted out, "Oh no! Something tickled my arm and it felt like…a feather."

He looked at her for a minute, the perplexed look fully winning out this time, but then shrugged and said, "oh, ok," as his head disappeared from view again.

She fell back against the pillows and wondered how she would make it through the rest of the evening. She got up, went into the bathroom, and locked the door behind her. She sagged against the door for a minute, then walked over to the mirror and glared at herself.

"Ok, now that's enough of that now," she scolded her reflection. She turned the cold water on and splashed a little on her face. "Gio's not sitting around thinking about you, so stop thinking about him. You have a perfectly wonderful boyfriend!"

Just thinking about the fact that she was thinking about him made her blush again. She gave herself a little shake, made an exasperated sound, smoothed her hair and skirt, and walked back out into the living room. Henry didn't seem to notice that she was gone- he had turned the movie back on and was commenting to himself on the improbability of multi-colored horses.

The sneaky voice in her head said, "Gio would have waited for you…" For the merest fraction of a second, she wondered if she could leave the apartment without him noticing; maybe go get a sandwich….GAH!

She hung her head in something like defeat and glanced at the clock. Only 4 hours to get through….