A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I recently discovered Charles De Lint and Peggle. On with it.

Disc: I don't own "Ugly Betty"

Daniel pulled on his tux and looked himself over once more in the mirror. He tried to ignore the inexplicable butterflies that had risen in his stomach. It wasn't like he didn't see Betty every day, and this wasn't really a date. For some reason he was having trouble not feeling nervous. A soft knock on the door startled him out of his thoughts. He turned and found himself facing his sister, Alexis. "Hey, she said stepping into the room, "mom said you were up here."

"Hey. I'm just getting ready for the party." He furrowed his brow. "I really have to go?" Alexis nodded.

"Plus I'm sure you have some beautiful woman waiting for you." Alexis looked him over. "Oh, Daniel." She came over to straighten his tie.

"I asked Betty." He could feel the blush rising to his face.

"I know, mom told me. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"What else did mom tell you?" Alexis shrugged and looked down at her feet. "It's nothing," Daniel assured her. "Betty and I talked and we're fine. It's not like it's a date. I had to take someone to the party and I enjoy spending time with Betty…" He turned back to study himself in the mirror.

"Sure, Daniel. Just be careful." She left the room and after one more moment of hesitation, Daniel picked up his jacket and headed out to go pick up Betty.

"There. Perfect." Hilda stepped back, admiring her work.

Amanda put a hand on her hip. "I gotta' hand it to you Suarez, Betty looks hot." Betty smiled as she examined herself in the mirror. She looked better than she could ever remember looking. The dress Marc and Amanda had picked hugged her body in all the right places. It was bright fuchsia without being garish. Amanda and Justin had applied her makeup in a way that looked natural, but made her skin look flawless. Her lashes were a mile long and her dark eyes seemed to be bottomless pools. Hilda had piled her hair on top of her head, securing it with several sparkly butterfly shaped clips leaving a few curly wisps to frame her face. They were a perfect match to the butterflies in her stomach. Once more she pushed them down and shoved away the thought that they had anything to do with excitement over her date with Daniel. It wasn't even a date, not really. She was nervous because this was an important event and she had to try so hard not to embarrass Daniel. She smoothed out her dress one more time then headed for the door. She was stopped when Amanda grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"It's almost time for Daniel to pick me up. I was going to go downstairs to wait for him."

"Betty, you don't go wait for the guy to show up. You make him wait." Betty raised an eyebrow. "You sit up here and when he shows up, you say 'I'll be down in a minute, I'm just finishing up'. You wait five minutes or so then you go down there." A knock on the front door cut Amanda's tirade short.

"I got it!" Justin yelled up the stairs. "Oh hey, Daniel," his voice drifted up the stairs.

"Hey… is Betty around?" Butterflies started up in Betty's stomach at the sound of her boss's voice. She started for the door but was stopped by Amanda once again.

She rolled her eyes. "Amanda, this is ridiculous. It's not even like this is a real date." She pushed past Amanda and exited the room. Slowly she descended the stairs and as Daniel came into view her breath caught. She had always known that Daniel was good-looking, to deny that seemed to be irresponsible, but tonight, there was something else. "Daniel," she barely breathed as she took in his normally messy hair, his startling blue eyes. As she met his eyes he saw something there as he took her in.

"Betty, wow you look…" he trailed off and cleared his throat. "Ready?" he offered her his arm. Betty slid her arm through his and grinned at Hilda who was lookingat her like a proud mother. "I'll have her home at a reasonable hour, Mr Suarez," Daniel assured Betty's father before sweeping her out of the house. He helped her into the towncar and slid in next to her.

"So…" she started, glancing over at Daniel, "I've never been to one of these things. How does it work?"

Daniel looked over at her and smiled his nonchalant smile. "You smile pretty and kiss up to as many people as you can. Sorry about dragging you into this," he added, his smile becoming aplogetic.

"Smile and kiss up, I can handle that," Betty said definitely.

"I figured you could. That's why I asked you." Betty couldn't tell why, but his comment hit her like a punch to the stomach. She recovered quickly and smiled.

"I won't let you down, boss."

Daniel helped Betty out of the car. Her jaw dropped as she looked around. The party was held in the Meade building and Betty had never seen it this packed. There were sports cars and town cars lining each side of the street, women in their fanciest clothes, men dressed in three piece suits. People surrounded the car as Betty and Daniel stepped out. There were admirers (mostly women) and reporters wanting to know who Daniel's date was. Daniel's smile was radient, the smile of a man who done this a thousand times, as he led Betty into the building. As soon as they were away from the throng, he let out a sigh of relief.

"That was intense," Betty said looking up at Daniel.

"Wait. That was only the beginning." As soon as the words left his mouth, he was surrounded by sponsers who all wanted a spot in the next issue of Mode and other magazines who all wanted to know his secrets. Betty quickly learned to stand by Daniel's side and smile. She learned to laugh in all the right places and quickly became the perfect compliment to Daniel's easy and suave façade. She found it all exhausting, but she found that she wanted nothing more than to make Daniel look good. She wanted to please him, though she couldn't quite figure out why.

After an hour Betty's face hurt from smiling and she wanted nothing more than to grab a drink and sit down. She found the perfect opening and she took it. Excusing herself she headed over to the bar. She ordered a tequila sunrise for herself and a scotch on the rocks for Daniel. "Betty?" a voice behind her said. She jumped slightly and whirled around, nearly spilling the drinks all over the owner of the voice. She came face to face with a stunned looking Matt. "Wow, it is you. I didn't recognize you. You look so…amazing." Betty felt herself blushing.

"Hey, Matt. Thanks. My sister and Amanda threw this together."

"That color really suits you."

"Thank you. Amanda helped me pick it out. You look really good in that suit…"

Daniel had finally pried himself away from a particularly persistent marketing representative and headed for the bar where he was too meet Betty. He stopped short when he saw Matt. He and Betty were laughing and talking and generally looking cozy. Daniel felt his cheeks growing hot and a strange dull anger began to creep into his mind. Betty looked up and saw him but before she could speak he turned on his heel and was gone.

Betty was looking over Matts shoulder, her mouth formed a 'D' but nothing came out. She couldn't be 100 percent sure, but Daniel had looked angry just before he turned away. "Betty." Matt's voice broke through her thoughts. She shook her head and forced herself to look at him. "I asked you what you've been up to."

Betty smiled uncomfortably. "Oh you know, this, that… Listen Matt, this has been fun. I have to go."

"We were having a good time," Matt replied.

"Yes, it was nice talking to you again, and we should do it again sometime, but now… I just remembered some work that I was supposed to get done by tomorrow. You know how they get about deadlines." Betty pulled herself away from Matt and ran as fast as her heels could take her.

"He's upstairs," a passing voice called to her. She whiled and found Claire Meade watching her.

"Thank you Mrs. Meade," she called back, breathlessly. She climbed onto the elevator and pressed the button that would take her up to Mode.

Daniel leaned against the confrence table barely focusing on the designs laid out in front of him. He figured if he was going to be up here hiding from the party, he might as well get some work done. It turned out that it was hard to work on layouts when everything you saw was a bright, angry shade of red. He slammed his fist down on the table. There was a part of him that wished they had never gotten involved with Matt's dad. If they had just let it go, Matt wouldn't be down there talking to Betty. Oozing his way back into her life. Daniel knew they had had no choice in the matter. The magazine had been going under and they did what they could. He threw himself back into one of the many chairs that lined the table and put his head in his hands. There was a soft knock on the door.

"Daniel?" Betty's soft voice drifted across the conference room. He looked up quickly and smiled easily.

"Betty, how's the party going?"

"Fine. What are you doing up here."

"Um, I just remembered that I need to get this layout done." He looked at the still scattered pages. "It's not going so well."

"Do you need help?" Daniel waved her away.

"No, I'm fine. Go back down and enjoy the party. I'm sure Matt's missing you." His tone was slightly more scathing than he had meant it to be.

"Is this about me talking to Matt?"

Daniel laughed loudly. "Of course not. Why would I care if you talked to Matt?"

Betty looked down at her feet. "Maybe because of what happened between us."

"What happened between us didn't mean anything…" Betty felt her hands ball into fists at her side. Still looking down, she spoke through clenched teeth.

"Just because it didn't mean anything to you, doesn't mean it didn't mean anything to me."

"Betty…"

"I went along with it and agreed with you because you were so adament about it. I thought you were serious and didn't want to cause you any extra trouble by disagreeing. Now you're getting bent out of shape because I was talking to Matt? If it really meant nothing to you, it shouldn't matter who I'm talking to." Betty looked up and was surprised to find Daniel's face just inches from hers. "Daniel…"

She gasped as his lips closed over hers. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled back to whisper in her ear. "You really do look amazing tonight." She tangled her fingers in the short hair at the back of his neck and pulled him back into a deep kiss. She felt his tongue slide across her bottom lip. She parted her lips slightly, inviting him in. An intense heat was starting to build in her lower abdomen and working its way up. She pulled him closer, wanting even more of him.

"Well isn't this cozy…" a cool voice said from the doorway. Horrified, Betty and Daniel looked up.

"Wilhelmina…" Betty's eyes widened as Matt stepped out from behind Wilhelmina.

"Betty?"

A/N: Wow… Sorry it's been quite a while. I had to take a break from it so that I could get my direction back. I'm planning on trying to update my other stories too. I hope that you enjoy this chapter.