In spite of himself, Daniel chuckled at her, "Sorry, did you just say what I think you said? You actually curse now? Since when does Little Miss Perfect use foul language?"

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but it has been almost ten make that ten FUCKING years since we've worked together, maybe you don't really know me as well as you THINK you do? Apparently, you see me as some kind of...MONSTER! When all I did was...follow you around like a damn puppy, waiting on you, hand and foot, cleaning up your messes!

And yes, I realized the minute I said it...that metaphor doesn't really work, since I was supposed to be the puppy, not you...but I'M FURIOUS at you! You really...see me like that? WHY? What did I supposedly do to you that was so terrible, other than move away from New York and accept a great job opportunity?"

He had to admit, seeing her, yelling at him, with her hands on her hips, brought back a lot of good memories. She actually looked...well, kind of hot and sort of adorable when she yelled at him.

He smiled, shrugging as he tried to keep his cool and not react to her little tirade. He was going to show her that at least one of them had grown up (okay, at least partially so both she and Shelly would stop calling HIM five years old!).

He took a bite of his bagel and followed it with a sip of coffee, then made a face, and handed it to her, "I think I got YOUR coffee by mistake! This has cream in it!" She switched with him, but stood, waiting for him to react.

Finally, he took out her laptop and slid it over to her, "If you're done with having your little tantrum, maybe we could get to work? I emailed you the copy of my draft. Do you have a printer? I like to have a hard copy to look at."

She let out a breath then narrowed her eyes at him, seeing he wasn't going to react to her calling him out and had no intention of telling her what had made him write what he did about her in the first place. At least...not yet.

She realized she might have to work with him for a while, and try to build back at least a portion of the rapport she once had with this man so she could get him to open up to her and tell her what he thought she had done to justify his written slander. She vaguely remembered Shelly saying something yesterday at lunch, but it was all far too fuzzy from the Bloody Mary fiasco to fully recall.

"Fine! If you're not going to talk to me...let's just get to work, shall we?" She grabbed a bagel and sat down at her laptop, opening the file and waving to a cabinet, "I have a printer over there, but...I'm not sure how much white paper I have. We might have to print part of it in pink."

"Pink? Pink paper? Seriously?"

"Yes, Daniel. Pink! I printed some invitations out for a friend a while ago and he wanted them to be pink, so I have a lot of that ream of paper left."

"Was it Marc?"

"No, it was someone I work with at Dunne. I haven't heard from Marc in a while. How's he doing?"

"Okay, I guess. Last I heard, he got married."

"Married? Oh, right! To….Cliff, wasn't it? Justin did tell me that! That's awesome that they...made up and got back together. Especially after Marc cheated on Cliff! That was great that they were able to work things out."

Daniel raised his eyebrow, "Wait, Marc CHEATED on the guy...and he just FORGAVE him? That's...wow, I didn't know that! Huh! Well, apparently, some people think that's...okay! Personally, I HATE cheaters! I mean...if you're going to make a commitment to someone, you don't cheat. Period! Otherwise, why bother! I guess after seeing what my father's affairs did to my mom and our whole family, I have no tolerance for that kind of behavior."

Betty wasn't biting. She wanted to yell at him again, and say something very sarcastic, like, was he kidding? He was the original "Mister sleep with a new girl every night" for years back in his "day" and now he claimed to be what, a priest or something? Since when? Where did he get off, judging poor Marc? Him of all people!

But she said nothing and kept typing, and when Daniel had loaded her printer, she sent a copy of his manuscript to it. The first thirty pages or so were white, and the rest were a lovely shade of bright pink. Daniel made a face, seeing his work so….bright was, well, somewhat emasculating, but he told himself it didn't matter. He could reprint it in whatever damn color he wanted after they got it edited and he got home.

Betty started grabbing up the pages and reading through them, apparently looking for something. "Veronica first shows up in chapter three, if that's what you're looking for, Betty."

She looked up, and shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, as she skimmed quickly through the previous chapters until that section finished printing. As it turned out, that's precisely the portion that started out in pink. How appropriate, she thought!

"I'm trying to think of a good title, for one thing. Shelly said you hadn't come up with one yet that sticks."

He looked surprised, "Really? I told her I wanted either "Moon shaker" or Shattered Dreams. What's wrong with those?"

Betty made a face, "Well, to be honest, they both suck! Moon shaker sounds like a rip off of a bad James Bond Movie from 1979 and the other one...well, sounds like either a Hallmark Movie or one of those cheap Romance novels that old ladies read when they're... frisky!"

"Frisky? You mean...horny?"

"Yes, Daniel! I was...trying to be...nice, but fine, you don't want this to seem too...horny, like Shades of Grey or something, which translates to corny! And that title will put you in the dimestore bin faster than pudding cups! The title is important! That and the cover mean a lot. Particularly to a first time author!

If you're already Stephen King or Dan Brown or someone immediately recognizable, you can pretty much come up with any title you want and put it on a brown paper bag and it will still sell a million copies. But unfortunately, you're not at that point yet.

I mean, don't get me wrong, this is really excellent work! You did a great job on it. Especially for your first novel. But people don't know who you are yet as a novelist. But trust me, when I'm done, they will, DB!" she smiled.

He wasn't sure how to react to her compliment. It was unexpected. But he supposed, knowing Betty it really shouldn't have been. She was always honest with him, well, up until her betrayal, that is. That was always something he admired and respected about the woman. She didn't sugar coat things. So when she paid you a compliment, it was sincere!

"Thank you, Betty. That...means a lot coming from you. So, do you have a better idea for a title then?"

She shook her head, "Not yet. I think we need to go through this, chapter by chapter and start trimming the fat, deciding what sections are going to make the cut."

"I thought you told Shelly it didn't need that much editing?'

She shrugged, "I have to do something to earn all the money you're paying me to be your editor! Besides, you know me better than that, Daniel. That's what I always say!"

He laughed, nodding, "That's exactly what I told Shelly! So...this David guy at your work, she...hooked up with him before?"

"No, I don't think so. Why, do you like her now? I thought you were trying to get rid of her?"

"No, I'm not...yes, of course, I LIKE her! She's a very nice woman! And she is a great agent, she loves my book and she's...well…"

"A very beautiful woman? Who thinks you're totally hot, of course. Just your type!"

"She said I was hot?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes, Daniel. Of course she did! All women think you're hot, because you are, okay? There, did we stroke your ego enough for the day? Can we please get back to work now?"

He sat down next to her, wearing his stupid half smile that meant he indeed, knew exactly how hot he was, "So do YOU think I'm hot, Betty?"

She turned to look at him, and shrugged, "I think you've aged a bit. Your hair is getting thinner and I think you should seriously rethink that goatee! It makes you look...older, but trying to look 'cool' or something. You're not a beatnick drummer from the sixties! But, yeah, sure; you're still 'hot', for a guy in his forties!"

He stroked his beard and made a face, "Thanks, I think! Older, huh? I've had girlfriends who didn't complain about my age!"

"I'm sure. Were these women your age?"

He shrugged, "They were usually a little younger than me."

"A little? Are we talking like five years younger, or my age, or...like Petra-gate young, mister cradle-robber?"

"You don't have to be so mean!"

"I tried to be nice, but you...went there, Daniel! Look, if we're done with the pep talk for today, I think...you should take the laptop and do some rewriting of this whole section in the second part of the sixth chapter."

"That was my pep talk? It used to be...cheery!"

She shrugged, "Are we ready to work? As I was saying, you basically say the same thing about 'Dale's' cousin there as you already went into too much detail about here, in the first chapter, see what I mean? Maybe try to close your eyes, and give us some of those intense sensory details like you did in chapter three? That was one of my favorite chapters!"

The way you describe seeing Veronica for the first time and you make us feel how you felt, we can literally hear the train and feel the wind rushing by as he sees her and then when she turns and smiles at him, it's like...we can almost hear how fast his heart is beating!

But then she turns around and he runs after her! It's exciting, it's sweet and it's mysterious. We know then, as he watches her cross the rails that he's supposed to end up with this girl. And then, when she trips and he has to run and rescue her...it's funny and sweet, because we identify with her...um...clumsiness."

He nodded, watching her describe his words of how he felt, not necessarily when they first met, and she ran into the glass door, although that certainly made an indelible impression on him, as well, but after he had done nothing but abuse and humiliate her for her first week at Mode, and yet, she forgave him and came back, only to save his ass with her brilliant ideas for Fabia Cosmetics.

The "meet cute" he was actually describing was at the end of that week, after she saved the account for him and then he watched her cross the street, tripping on her way across. He had seen her spirit, even back then and recognized that Betty Suarez was someone special, that this girl was definitely going places in her life and he wanted to get to know her better.

He had no idea what the hell he was doing back then. Of course, neither did she, but she had done her research as usual, had the statistics down and knew her shit enough to impress everyone in that conference room, including Wilhelmina Slater herself.

If he only could have bottled the look on the diva's face when Betty started spouting off numbers about "Fabia's demographic being first-time mother's, blah, blah, blah", well, he had been so damn proud of Betty back then, he wanted to kiss her! And the look of genuine pride on his father's face was priceless!

"Thank you, Betty. I never thanked you enough for...well everything you did! You really...helped me so much back in those first days at Mode! I know I never would have kept my job if I hadn't had you as my secret weapon!"

She stopped chewing her bagel and took a sip of the coffee, then looked at him briefly, nodding, "Sure! Of course. It was my job! No problem-o!"

He smirked, okay, she was clearly still slightly pissed about his little tantrums when he first found out about her leaving Mode to move here. But after all, she DID just accept the damn job without even telling him about it! It was kind of a shock at the time! Besides, at least he didn't...kiss some girl!

He blew out a breath, then got up and started pacing, trying to get that damn image out of his head, "Excuse me, I need some air!"

She looked down, sifting through the work, and made two piles, one that she needed him to make changes to and the other where she liked the work, just as it was. Frankly, she was surprised at how much she truly DIDN'T want changed. She knew that quite often, she thought she loved someone's work, but by the time she got done 'tweaking it", it bore little resemblance to the original work!

She didn't want that this time. She had been sincere; he really had done a great job! This was a great first effort. And she didn't want it to lose it's originality or warmth. It had a sweetness and hopefulness in the first two thirds of the book that was...well, inspiring.

And the final third was truly tragic because you are so invested with these two characters by then, you feel certain they will eventually end up together. When they don't...it's beyond sad, it's truly tragic! If they could only have at least remained friends!

But then again, knowing Dale's true feelings about Veronica, that simply wasn't possible. He couldn't stick around and watch Veronica sleep with a bunch of different guys, like he had done to her in the beginning. After all, by then he was madly in love with her. And when he finally realized she didn't love him back, he shut down and lost hope.

Oh my god, wait? So THAT was what this was really all about? It wasn't...just about her being a "stone cold business bitch" now, it wasn't anything to do with her working too much! This was...well, personal! It had to be! But what had changed? She had to know. Her heart started beating a mile a minute.

She ran outside, "DANIEL! Can we talk?"

"What?" he quickly snuffed out a cigarette.

Betty ran around and looked at him, rings around his eyes that looked as if he had been crying. She chose to focus on his unexpected habit at the moment, rather than why he might have been upset in the first place, "YOU SMOKE now? Since when?"

He shrugged, "Since...none of your damn business, that's when! What do you want from me, Betty? I'm not perfect like you, okay? I never claimed to be. Yes, I smoke sometimes when I get nervous now, okay? I gave up… other things. I still drink on very stressful occasions, too, but since that often leads to...a recurring of my first addiction happening…

I found that smoking doesn't do anything quite as terrible as me, ending up with my sister in a hospital bed, or with a strange woman in my bed, or even a hangover, just a nasty taste in my mouth! The lesser of evils, you might say! It's not illegal! It won't get me beat up. Besides, don't all writers smoke?"

Betty glared at him, with her hands on her hips, "They say many were alcoholics, too. Do you want to ask your mom or Tyler how much fun THAT is? I might have some mouthwash if you're that desperate!"

"Very funny! Look, don't worry about it! I won't smoke inside your place, okay? I just...needed a damn cigarette!

"How long have you been smoking?"

"Two years. Off and on. I don't smoke often. Only when I"m…"

"VERY stressed, yes, so you said. WHY am I stressing you out so much, Daniel? I'm NOT some...evil, mean person! I'm NOT that bitch, Veronica! Please...talk to me! Tell me why you hate me so much!"

He had substituted his cigarette for a stick of gum and was chewing it as he turned to avoid her gaze, "I never said I hated you, Betty. Besides, like you said, you're not Veronica. She's just a character I made up that ...was slightly inspired by you. You always like inspiring people."

"Sure, but in a GOOD way! Veronica is...is...NOT a good person! Please...tell me...what I did!" she was practically whispering now, and sobbing.

He sighed, and pulled her to him in a hug, "Don't cry! You...it's fine, Betty. I don't want to upset you. I don't smoke a lot, I promise, okay? Maybe...once a week is all. I know it's a really bad habit. But so is...having sex all the time with strangers! And pills. And drinking! I just...tried to find something that didn't hurt other people as much, it only hurts me!"

"And people who...who...care about you! Promise me you'll stop?"

He looked down, nodding, "Okay,Betty. I promise. I'll start drinking mouthwash instead!" he smirked.

She hit his chest, "Very funny! You...you...never answered my question."

"Which question?" he didn't want to have this conversation right now. Or ever, actually. He had been doing a good job of avoiding confronting her about it for nine years now. Why start now?

"WHAT did I do that upset you so much? I know this can't still be about me leaving New York and taking my job! I mean...so I left Mode and took a job that was a really good opportunity? THAT isn't it!

You were SO mad at me! Then you came here and...then you just...left! Why were you so mad at me in the first place? And why did you leave so suddenly? I need to know!"

He stepped away from her and walked back inside, with her following. He kept turned away from her, "Because… things were...just starting with us, Betty! They were just beginning. I followed you here, I gave up everything...I was so excited! Then I asked you out, and you said yes, but then...when I went to pick you up, I...I saw you kissing some other guy! I...it hurt! How could you...why would you...DO that to me?!"