An: Sorry for the delay...I am working on way too many projects lol
"So I was totally buzzed last night and you will never guess who I ran into..." Amanda rambled excitedly as she sat at Betty's desk with her feet, strapped in the latest Prada heels, propped on the edge. In between telling her rather long story, she paused to check her makeup in her pocket mirror vainly. Betty watched dumbly as Amanda slowly applied strawberry lip gloss to her already flawless full lips.
Sighing annoyed, she shoved Amanda's feet off her desk before trying to ignore the chattering blonde who was popping her gum loudly and twirling her hair around on her index finger. She had enough going on in her head without having to hear Amanda re encounter some drunken adventure she had at the bar the previous night. With everything happening with her relationship with Matt, and her boss Daniel, she had no patience for any other distractions. She was about out to tell Amanda for the hundredth time to go away when an alarm went off softly in her desk. Glancing down at her watch, she sighed relieved when she saw that it was time for lunch. At lunch she would have time to sort her thoughts out by letting Christina in on everything that has been happening. Christina was the one person who was level headed enough to make sense of everything which is why Betty always went to her for advice. Not bothering to stop Amanda's endless babbling, she grabbed her purse and was heading towards the elevator that would take her down to the cafeteria when she found Claire Meade standing in the middle of the hall with a disturbed look on her face.
"Hello, Mrs. Meade," Betty said cheerfully.
Usually Clare Meade would walk around the office with a warm smile and a carefree expression plastered on her face, but today was different. Something was off, and to say that the older woman looked bothered by something would have been overstating the obvious. Her face was pinched with tension and there was a deep troubled look in her eyes. Hearing Betty's greeting, her head snapped up and she afforded Betty a fleeting smile. The older woman's face seem to brighten somewhat at the sight of the perky Latina assistant.
"Is everything ok?" Betty asked gently.
Claire nodded.
"Actually....you are just the girl I wanted to see. Care to join me in my office for a brief little chat?" she asked hopefully.
The latina girl smiled apologetically.
"I would, Mrs. Meade, but I promised Christina I would meet her for lunch," she started.
Claire Meade smiled tolerantly.
"Humor me, Betty. This will only take a moment," she said in a tone that let Betty know that the polite invitation had just became mandatory to accept.
"Sure," Betty said forcing a smile before following Mrs. Meade to her office.
Pushing open the door to the office, Betty was surprised to see Mark sitting in one of the chairs in front of Mrs. Meade's huge mahogany desk.
"Have a seat Betty," Claire said curtly which Betty obeyed meekly.
No sooner then her backside had touched the seat, Mark was leaning in close to her as if he had something to share with her.
"I knew it. Since Conner stole all that money, they are starting to cut personnel and they decided to start with the assistants," Mark whispered to Betty petrified.
Betty felt her heart plummet into her stomach. She couldn't get fired! She loved this job and she needed the paycheck to pay her mounting bills. She began to wonder if Daniel knew about his mother's plans to terminate her.
Claire smirked.
"Relax. Neither of you are getting fired. The reason why I called you into my office is because there is a highly inappropriate situation going on in this office and I believe the both of you are aware of it," Mrs. Meade asked cryptically.
Betty and Mark exchanged a nervous look. All of a sudden, being fired didn't seem so bad considering the conversation about to take place.
"Mark, you should tell her," Betty whispered frantically.
Mark smiled a little too sweetly.
"I have no idea what she's talking about,"he lied easily.
Clare stared him down evenly.
"It would be ill advised to lie to the person who could crush your career with the snap of their fingers," she said evenly.
Mark gulped and the smile faded quickly. Apparently, the thought of losing his job was all the motivation he needed to tell the truth.
"Ok, I admit that I was constantly borrowing that insanely expensive Gucchi scarf from Christina's closet, but I swear on Cher's life that I will return it immediately. I swear the only one who saw me in it was my boyfriend Cliff," Mark started nervously.
Claire waved him off annoyed.
"It's not about a damn scarf, Mark, and you both know it. It's about your conniving boss Wilhemina and my son Daniel," she said agitated.
Betty began to squirm nervously in her chair, and Mark's breathing once again became shallow. She was starting to get a bad feeling of what this conversation was going to consist of, although she was completely baffled over how Claire had found out. She was pretty sure Daniel would rather die then to admit something that awful to his mother.
"W-what, about Daniel and Wilhemina?" Betty asked, her voice slightly high pitched.
The way Claire was glaring at her let Betty know that the older woman wasn't fooled one little bit.
"Let's cut the innocent act. You both know that my son and that witch, Wilhemina, were...involved last night," she said tersely.
Mark began to wheeze slightly.
"I know nothing. It was Betty who told me," Mark confessed.
Betty stared at him dismayed.
"Mark," she protested.
"It doesn't matter how anyone here found out or who told who. What matters is that it's happening and it makes me completely disgusted. Not only has Daniel done the unthinkable and slept with the same woman that had been his father's mistress for quite some time, he has knowingly slept with a woman who do anything to rule over this company," she said evenly.
"I know it's hard to digest, Mrs. Meade, but it's Daniel's life and as unhappy with the situation as we all may be, I don't think there's anything we can do about it," Betty said softly.
Claire grinned darkly.
"Oh I disagree, Betty. There's plenty I plan on doing about this situation and that's the real reason why you and Mark are here. To help me," she paused before continuing in a sterner voice, "We all want the same thing here. Betty, you and I care a great deal about my son Daniel, and for some god awful reason, Mark cares about that troll of a boss of his..."
Mark made a face of displeasure. While he we was the first to gossip about Wilhemina's woes and troubles, he was the closest thing to a friend that Wilhemina had and he wasn't ashamed to admit that while making his loyalty known.
"Not to speak out of place, Mrs. Meade, it was Willie who called the authorities on Conner. She tried to save this company, not ruin it. Say what you want about Wilhemina Slater but she has worked to hard to see this company flourish," he said in defense of his boss.
Mrs. Meade snorted rudely and stared down at Mark as if he was some kind of insignificant insect. Everyone knew how Claire felt about Wilhemina. Wilhemina had executed a lot of unethical business and personal plots that had nearly ruined Claire Meade.
"Mark, do you honestly think that her one chilvarous act can make up for all the times she has tried to destroy my faimly?" she demanded.
"Wilhemina Slater may have done some questionable things over the years, but she would never want to see the company destroyed. Your family was just an side bonus for her," he said timidly.
"Mark, your loyalty is blind. To Wilhemina, you are no more then are cute queer little puppet," she said scathingly.
Mark blushed.
"You really think that I'm cute?" he asked batting his eyelashes flattered.
Betty rolled her eyes. She could always count on Mark to find a compliment in a statement that was meant to insult him.
"Mrs. Meade, I understand that your are upset and rightfully so, but I don't see how we can stop either of them from...being...together," Betty forced the words out of her mouth almost as if she had tasted something foul.
Claire's face twisted into an ugly snarl.
"They have become far too civil to one another over these past months. Daniel needs to be reminded that he and Wilhemina are not friends or anything of the sort. They are rivals, and I believe that is time for Mode to see the two clash once more. Once they are reminded of all the reasons why they hate each other, none of us will ever have to worry about them ever getting involved again!"
Betty knew the older woman had a point, but the whole plan just felt wrong to her. While she wanted to do everything in her power to prevent Daniel from being manipulated by Wilhemina, she wasn't really comfortable with orchestrating or manipulating a plan to turn them back into bickering and hostile coworkers. Over the past few months she could tell that the two had grown to begrudgingly respect each other, and, to the surprise of everyone in the office, learned to work together. The magazine had enough troubles to bear then to having to worry about two fueding co editors.
"I don't know about this, Mrs. Meade," Betty said hesitantly.
Claire nodded completely understanding.
"I'm sorry, Betty. I do not wish to ask you to do something that you are not comfortable with. My only motivation here is to protect my son, your boss, from making the biggest mistake of his life with Wilhemina," she said gently.
Mark quickly interjected.
"Betty, she does have a point. I mean none of us knows how long those two have been doing the horizontal tango. What if they have some kind of spat and let thier pleasure interfere with this business? We all risk getting caught in the middle and I have already been through enough of Wilhemina's little life drama. I don't even think I have it in me to go through anymore," he said dramatically.
Betty nodded silently before starring down at her feet.
"You know that I would do anything to protect Daniel," she started.
Mrs. Meades smile was sinister and chilling and it reminded Betty of the look in a cat's eyes, before it pounced and ate the helpless canary.
"So are you with me, or not?"
Betty nodded reluctantly causing Clare's smile to widen. The older woman walked behind down her desk and lowered herself down to the insanely expensive brown leather chair.
"Great! Now that we are all on the same page, we must learn the next time they plan on being alone together ," she started.
"Well Daniel had a business dinner with Wilhemina later on tonight that he had me schedule, but I don't think that is hardly the appropriate place or time to," Betty interjected.
Claire cut her off with an pleased smile.
"That's perfect, Betty. All you need to do is supply me with the time and the location of this dinner, and you can leave the rest up to me. Mark, your only job is to be my eyes and ears. Whatever Wilhemina confides in you about Daniel or anything else relevant, I want you to come and report back to me," she said firmly.
"I will end this thing between those two if it's the last thing I do," she said darkly before walking out of the office leaving Mark and Betty starring after with a feeling of dread and uneasiness.
