Thank you to everybody who reviewed the last chapter and those that are reading this story. Certain elements of the show are getting frustrating and I need your encouragement to continue. I'm currently snowed-in in the DC area. Reviews will make me feel better sense I'm stuck at home.
I'm mad at the writers of the actual show for their little surprised involving Amanda and Daniel still being "fun buddies". Since the initial incident in the Bahamas, there was no indication whatsoever that Daniel and Amanda were still sleeping together. I actually thought I was going against canon by keeping their relationship going beyond the Bahamas incident.
Fortunately, I wrote in a really good reason why Amanda broke off the relationship. In the gossip universe, Daniel made the silly mistake of calling Amanda Betty during sex. In my universe, Amanda has too much self-respect to keep sleeping with Daniel after the incident. Of course, she forgets to tell Daniel that they are not fun buddies anymore.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ugly Betty. If I did, I would treat the show much better than ABC ever did. There is some actual dialogue from episode 4.13 written by Gail Lerner used in this chapter
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Chapter 21: Like a Burrito to the Head
Amanda couldn't believe she was leaving her apartment 3 hours early just so she could have an early morning web chat with Matt. Losing a few hours of sleep didn't matter. She could take a nap in the closet later, like she has been doing for the last few days.
It was probably for the best because every time Marc made his special breakfast energies smoothie this week she would throw up. She has been throwing up a lot lately. She even threw up on Matt's mom the other night at the charity banquet. She was wearing this really nasty perfume that caused Amanda to be sick. According to Matt's last e-mail she somehow managed to beat Betty for worst first impression ever. Great Amanda is finally better than Betty is at something and it is a bad thing.
At first she was happy that she was throwing up so much because that would mean she could fit in that really cute pair jeans she bought that were a size too small. However, they still didn't fit. Actually, her current outfit was a little tighter than usual. Maybe it has something to do with the strange cravings she has been having lately. She was currently munching on a blueberry whole-wheat bagel with fat free jalapeno cream cheese and sugar free blackberry jelly when she ran into Daniel sneaking out of Betty's apartment again.
"I'm starting to think Betty had the electric door installed just so she wouldn't have to buzz you in any more." Amanda said as she saw him locking Betty's door. It turns out her suspicions about the key were correct.
"It's not what it looks like." Daniel said as he started walking down the stairs with her.
"Of course not. You and Betty are still too much in denial to be fun buddies. These walls are very thin. If you and her finally hooked up, I would have heard everything. You are not very quiet when you orgasm. The fact that you brought an overnight bag seems promising. Although I'm sure this is just another "we think were just friends" sleep over."
"You're not jealous?" Daniel asked her with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Why should I be jealous? I'm not your girlfriend. I know you love your chubby friend in a not a friend way." Amanda said this as she continued to walk down the stairs with Daniel. Daniel didn't say anything to her until they made it down another floor.
"So why are you leaving the apartment this early?" Daniel asked her completely changing the subject. It looks like Daniel decided avoidance was the best strategy.
"I have to do something personal that requires a computer. Because I am the only individual at Mode that don't get a company computer for home, I have to go into work. Marc won't let me use his new computer because he thinks I'm responsible for the last one being stolen. That was so not my fault."
"Why are you going in early? Don't you usually do stuff like that while you're supposed to be working."
"Do you have any idea how boring it is to be a receptionist? At least when Matt was there I got to work on special projects. I doubt that Matt's replacement will let me do anything beyond holding her calls." The situation gave her another reason to miss Matt.
"When I was 16, I spent the summer as the receptionist at the food magazine. I read a lot of comic books that summer." He said with a laugh.
"See you do understand. Anyway, I rather do what I need to do before the entire office gets there. Since we are both going into work, do you want to share a cab?"
"How do you know I'm going into work first?"
"You have a 7:30 breakfast meeting with the head of Bryan's Boutique. I scheduled it because Marc was stuck working with Willie. You don't have time to go back to your apartment after your little sleep over. That explains why you brought an overnight bag."
"What if someone sees us coming into work together?" He was acting as if they were still fun buddies.
"The entire office thinks you're sleeping with Betty. Nobody is going to think anything. Now if you and Betty shared a cab it would be completely different." Amanda said as she got a cab.
Amanda was too depressed to be giddy about Marc's promotion. Her hour-long chat with Matt didn't help. He's doing great in Botswana. He's currently working with an AIDS education program in the capital. He loves what he's doing. That is more than she can say for her current job.
She keeps thinking back to Helen from a few months back. Becoming her was Amanda's worst nightmare. Her and Monique ran into her Saturday when they went clubbing with Gio. She was still behaving in the way Amanda used to. When she sees Helen, the pink song Sober plays in her mind.
She's afraid she is going to end up like Helen. She's afraid Matt will not want to come back to her because she's such a loser. She is afraid that when he does come back he'll go back to Betty despite everything because Betty is actually going somewhere. She is afraid she was going to be a receptionist when she was 60.
Monique suggested that she applied to be Daniel's assistant again. Monique argued that not only would it help advance her career it would allow her to force Daniel to acknowledge his feelings for Betty.
Matt even suggested that she work for Daniel again. He actually believes that she could do better and this would be the first step. He trusted her to be around Daniel as his assistant. Although that was probably because they both knew Daniel was too caught up in the chubby one. The fact that Matt trusted her and believed in her made her love him even more.
Marc suggestion to do the same was the final push she needed to ask Daniel to be his assistant again. Of course, Daniel came up but the most stupid reason to say no.
"Won't it be awkward now that we are fun buddies again?" Had he really been so caught up with Betty that he was unaware that they stopped sleeping together several weeks ago? At least he remembered her name this time.
Amanda decided to mess with him a little bit. When they were actually sleeping together, Daniel didn't want anything to happen in the office. Daniel said it was because he didn't want his professional image to be tarnished. Amanda knew it was because he didn't want Betty to know he was with someone else even if it didn't mean anything beyond friendship. Daniel Meade was very good at lying to himself.
"Fun buddies," Amanda said the words as sexy as possible as she jumped on top of his desk.
"There are cameras everywhere." Daniel whispered to her quickly. Amanda got off the desk as if nothing happened.
"You're not worried about the cameras you're worried about your chubby lover catching me on your desk. Don't worry, I don't think of you that way anymore. You do realize that we haven't slept together since before Christmas? I don't think we're fun buddies anymore or at least we're not fun buddies with benefits."
"I thought we were just busy. Monique has been grooming you into the second coming of herself. Every time I ask you to come over you say you're busy with Monique." Daniel said in a genuine confusion.
"She's just been giving me a lot a career advice. I don't want to die a receptionist. I told you this morning how boring that job is. I need a challenge. Besides, you are the one who has practically been living at Betty's apartment. I see you more in my complex than I do here."
"You and I did have breakfast Saturday. I think that's the only time we've been together outside of work since I brought you home drunk from Monique party."
"That doesn't count. That was more of a friend thing. Also, it occurred after you spent the night with Betty." Amanda said sitting in one of the chairs in his office.
"I was watching movies with her. I fell asleep." Amanda just rolled her eyes when he said that.
"You practically lived there. You know it might be easier if you actually moved in with your girlfriend. I bet you already have a toothbrush at her apartment." His mouth opened wide at that comment. She was probably right.
"We've been working on a lot of projects together lately. It's been completely professional." Amanda tried not to laugh but couldn't help herself.
"I don't care what you're doing with Betty. I already told you I know you love her."
"How can you be so sure I love her?" She decided it was time to let him know the real reason why she stopped sleeping with him this time around.
"The last time we were together you called me someone else's name when you..." she left the last word out in case anyone from the rumor mill was listening.
"I'm sorry. She hasn't even been gone a year yet. You both have similar coloring." Daniel apologizing for anything is a rare occurrence. She could actually tell he was genuinely sorry. Unfortunately, he assumed that he called her Molly.
"You didn't call me Molly." She said quietly not looking at him. "You called me Betty."
"Oh," was all he said as a shocked expression took over his face.
"It doesn't matter. I want to be your assistant because I think I can be helpful. Also if I get extremely bored again I may do destructive things like make jewelry out of all the paper clips again."
"How can you be helpful?" Daniel asked her quickly.
"If you hire another Lexie, Betty is going to cut off your favorite body part." Daniel shifted uncomfortably when she said that.
"This is sweet little innocent Betty. She would never do anything like that." There goes that denial again.
"This is the same girl who chased me down a water slide for Matt. She is not as sweet and innocent as she was during her bad hair poncho days. You remember how angry she got when you hired Lexie. It was even worse with Natalie. She hated her because she took her favorite toy."
"She had a legitimate reason to hate Natalie." Daniel said defending Betty.
"If you think Betty was only upset with Natalie because of the cult thing, you're still drinking the phoenix water. If you hire another sexy girl, you know Betty will be upset. That's not going to happen with me. We've already slept together so the awkwardness is out of the way. Also it's not going to happen again because you are emotionally unavailable. I'm not going to sleep with someone who wants to be with someone else anymore. I'm not my mother." That part was said in a whisper so low that Daniel could not hear it.
"Besides Daniel I have a boyfriend." That was the one thing that Matt clarified very quickly.
"You have a boyfriend? You don't do boyfriends." Daniel said with a hint of surprise.
"I'm trying something new. I want to be your assistant again because taking my career seriously is something new for me."
"Fine you can be my new assistant as long as you find someone to take over your old job. " At that, Amanda started shrieking. She instantly knew whom to hire for her old position.
Things are not going good with the great Betty Daniel conspiracy. Matt sent her an e-mail telling her to check out the interview Daniel did regarding Betty the other day for that silly award she won. It wasn't good.
Marc already uploaded the file of Daniel recounting Betty's worse early moments to the Betty bad outfit site. Thanks to Betty's recent makeover, they haven't been adding a lot of new material lately.
After watching the clip, Amanda knew two things. First, Daniel remembered everything Betty wore three years ago but he couldn't even remember that he hasn't had sex with Amanda for weeks. That right there told her he was seriously in love with Betty.
The second thing was Daniel was desperately trying to remember Betty as she used to be. He was trying to keep her in a box. Monique suggested that Daniel was trying to think of Betty as she was, in order to keep her at arm's length. Amanda agreed with her.
The situation escalated when Betty did the same thing to him at some big interview. According to the rumor mill Daniel and Betty had this big lovers' quarrel in the middle of the shoot that Marc was overseeing. Marc said it was really ugly.
According to Betty's son Justin, Betty ate half a pan of chocolate brownies in an effort to get over the Daniel blues. Justin said, "She's acting like they just broke up. She did not even stress eat after the break up with Matt."
Instead of just sticking to the chocolate brownies and writing in her diary, she decided to use her blog. Betty posted this rant about what a dick Daniel was being. The entry reads more like a rant against an ex boyfriend then a best friend. Apparently, Amanda wasn't the only one who saw it. At least two other blogs are running stories about Betty being Daniel's lover.
If she wasn't worrying about trying to fire Helen as the new receptionist, she would have read her e-mail from Matt warning her about the entry. But she didn't and she was unable to keep Daniel from seeing the blog.
According to Marc, the argument that followed was really bad. It was all over the rumor mill that Betty and Daniel broke up because Daniel is a jerk. Amanda agreed with the jerk part of that statement completely.
Being a good assistant, Amanda felt it was time to intervene.
"You have to leave soon if you want to get to Betty's award ceremony." Amanda said as innocently as possible. Because she was completely in tune to the rumor mill Amanda already knew why he wasn't going but she didn't want to give anything away.
"I'm not going." Daniel said like an angry toddler.
"Does Betty not want you there?" Amanda asked playing dumb.
"That is the last place I want to be. I can't believe she could ruin my reputation like that." Amanda had to try hard to suppress a laugh.
"Do you have any idea how great you are at lying to yourself? Do you really expect me to believe this is about her slamming you on her blog. I've said worse things about you before to Suzuki. You use the appearance excuse when you didn't want anybody to find out that we were sleeping together again as well. That was a lie to. We all know you're so angry about this because you care about how Betty sees you. You love her."
"Betty is just a friend who decide to humiliate me in public. I don't care what she thinks." Amanda just started laughing.
"That's a lie. As much as you argue otherwise, you care more about how she sees you than anything else. You're in that stage between lovers and friends. The problem is you are both afraid to move beyond that. It's obvious you are trying to push Betty back into that box as your little assistant. As long as you think of her as that person, you can push how you feel away."
"You've been spending too much time with Monique."
"It has nothing to do with Monique, I'm just naturally intuitive. You hurt Betty with what you said. Your acting like a prick."
"I have a right to be upset. She hurt me. I can't believe she wrote those things about me."
"There is the real reason why you are upset. If you keep thinking this is only about your reputation, you are lying to yourself. You love her and she hurt you."
"This is not about…" he stopped in the middle of the sentence and quickly grabbed his coat "I need you to get me a town car."
"Sure, where are you going?" Amanda said as she saw Daniel run out of the office. She could only hope that he was going to Betty.
"I don't know if I can take sharing an office with her." Marc said to her as he sat on the front of her desk. He was currently hiding from Betty for some reason.
"It can't be that bad."
"They're all over each other. It's disturbing." Marc said in complaint.
"Didn't you agree to help us get them together?"
"Don't remind me. It was a strategic career move. Monique's evil plan did help me get this job so I am forever in her debt. I believe her ability to scheme is on par with Wilhelmina. Your plan may work after all. I have no problem with than being together. It's just nobody likes watching their crush with somebody else. Why does she get all the hot guys? It's not fair."
"Shouldn't you be in your own office working?" Daniel said sneaking up behind her and Marc.
"I would be working but too much fluff makes me nauseous. Since you and your lover are done for the morning, I guess I can go back to my own office now." Marc said as he walked away and Amanda followed Daniel into his office.
"Are you going to make snide remarks this morning?"
"Why should I? Fluffy behavior doesn't make me nauseous. Although your cologne is making me sick. What are you wearing scent of rotting garbage." Amanda said making a slight gagging motion."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I've just been really sensitive to different smells lately. I'm just happy the perfume people are not coming in this week. Everything has been making me sick lately."
"Are you sure it's not your breakfast?"
"I don't think so. I only had peanut butter and honey on jalapeno bread. Don't worry the peanut butter was reduced fat." Amanda said as she handed him his messages. "You're 11:00 is running late and Leila from DLS Lingerie wants to know if you can do lunch Wednesday.
"I don't think that's going to work. I have lunch with Betty on Wednesday. See if Leila will take Thursday." Being a good assistant she didn't point out what Daniel was really doing.
"So how did things go last night. It's obvious from the fact that Marc sought refuge at my desk that you and Betty finally kiss them made up. I don't mean that literally unless you two snuck off to the men's room again." That comment just resulted in Daniel rolling his eyes at her.
"You probably already know. I got a Google alert this morning about the entire thing being on the Internet. Nothing really helps the image of this magazine like me being pelted with burritos." Amanda personally hopes that burrito to the head made Daniel finally admit to himself that he was in love with Betty.
"I personally enjoyed the scenes of you shielding Betty after she made the cat loving villagers angry. Although I didn't like the speech. Do you really think anybody besides Betty will believe the real reason why you were being such a dick was she intimidated you?"
"She does intimidate me." Daniel said defensively.
"Yes, but not in a professional way. You're scared of the way she makes you feel."
"Where are you getting this stuff from?" Daniel said giving her a "are you crazy" look.
"I told you I'm intuitive. All the signs are there. Besides, every time I accuse you of being in love with her you don't deny it. That tells me that you do love her."
"I'm sorry." It was as close to a confession as she would ever get without alcohol being involved.
"It's okay. I think you and her are supposed to be together."
"She only sees me as a friend." His sad expression told her it was time for him to find out the truth.
"No she doesn't. Yesterday while you were getting pelted with burritos, I save some documents onto your personal drive. They will tell you everything you need to know. We'll talk after your next meeting." After he reads the excerpts from Betty's diary he will know the truth.
"I will look at the documents later, although I don't know why. One quick thing before you leave. You wouldn't know why several phone calls have been made to Botswana in the last couple of days from the company phones?" Fortunately, for Amanda her recent morning sickness came back at that very moment. She quickly ran to the restroom before Daniel could question her.
A/N: Who wants to take a guess at why Amanda is throwing up so much?