CHAPTER 9:

Wilhelmina's dimly lit living room provided the perfect setting for the couple's second date two nights later. The previous day was incredibly hectic with back to back meetings that even the lunch date they had planned had to be cancelled. Now the new couple sat plopped up on the couch with Italian takeout food containers sprawled on the coffee table along with their dinner plates, wine glasses and a bottle of Pinot Noir.

"Spaghetti and meatballs? That's your favorite dish?" Wilhelmina asked, her lips twitching into a smile.

"Why does everybody react like that?" Daniel replied as he stabbed the fork on his squid ink pasta.

"You're serious?" She asked, smirking.

"Uh-huh. I know everybody expects something complicated like those meals with names I can't pronounce." He joked.

"When one leads the life of privilege, it's expected." She admitted before taking a sip of her wine.

"Well…I'm a simple guy." She elevated her brow at that reply which elicited a small chuckle from him "I know I was born rich and all that, but when you're a kid you hardly care about the fancy food you're expected to like. A simple peanut butter sandwich or meatballs or waffles was enough." He said "Your turn…what's your favorite meal?" He asked.

"Steak au poivre." She answered causing him to cock his head, his brows furrowing.

"Really?"

"Yeah, what were you expecting?"

"I don't know, perhaps some unpronounceable salad?" He quipped.

"I like salad niçoise, but my absolute favorite is endive and arugula salad. Contrary to what people may believe, I do eat meat." She admitted.

"While we're at it, what's your favorite restaurant? Just so I know where to schedule our next date."

"I don't have a particular favorite. I'm resilient to change, I like to explore. Thus, if it's nice, quiet and there are no paparazzi lurking outside, I'm willing to give it a shot. So, surprise me." She replied, whispering the last part.

"Great. What's your favorite cuisine?"

"French and Italian."

"Both?" He queried.

"Yes, they are the top two, I guess. However, I hardly ever care that much about origins, if a dish tastes good and its consumption is not a threat to my life expectancy…or my weight, I eat it." She replied with a shrug. "Though, I must confess that I favor certain restaurants because of their wine collection. Is that bad?" She added and Daniel responded with a cackle.

"Not at all. Back in my party boy days, I liked this one night club and almost always went there with my friends, nearly every Friday, Saturday and at times Sunday nights. My friends thought it was my favorite spot but the truth is, it was like five minutes away from this 24 hour takeout joint. They had these really incredible cheeseburgers you wouldn't believe." He proudly recounted.

"You favored a club because of a burger restaurant situated close to it?" She inquired in disbelief.

"We all have our demons." He shrugged. "To this day, I'll never know why but cheeseburgers seemed to taste better at the end of a night of drinking." He said with a hint of wonder. They both descended into a spell of hysterics. "Despite spaghetti and meatballs as my all-time favorite, I'm more eclectic about my food. Steak, burger and fries, kung pao, tacos and pizza." He listed.

"So, basically, the bachelor menu."

"Yeah, pretty much." He agreed.

As the couple's laughter from one of Daniel's jokes died down, their little bubble was popped by Willie as she brought up a more serious topic. They've only been dating for 49 hours and 23 minutes after all.

"Daniel, uh…I need to…we need to address something." Willie said carefully after their laughter died down.

"About?" He questioned.

"I feel like I need to explain to you what kind of a person I am before we get into this…deeply. I want you to know what you're getting yourself into and frankly I want to know what I'm getting myself into." She explained.

"Okay." He nodded in understanding.

"I'm not into playing games. I thought I was done with that over a decade ago, however it happened with Connor and I don't want to be part of it anymore. It's kind of a bitter pill to swallow but I'm not 25 anymore. I don't have time for games."

"I know what you're referring to." He said remembering his behavior towards her upon realizing his feelings for her. Offering his apologetic explanation, he began, "Wilhelmina, I just didn't know how to talk to you and be around you anymore. I had just realized my feelings for you and I didn't know how to handle them. Especially when I didn't think that you'd feel the same way because of...our history. I will never do something like that to you again. You have my word and I'm afraid a promise is the best I can offer."

"Well, Good. And another thing we should discuss; people who are in relationships sometimes argue and sometimes they go to work angry at each other and unfortunately you and I work together. So please let's not take our personal life to the office and let's not take work outside the office when we're together."

"Willie, I'm glad you brought this up because I was planning on making a semi-romantic lame ass speech about this subject and your approach is much better. We're both adults and we're gonna handle our relationship like a pair of adults." He said as his hand moved to caress her forearm.

"I'm glad to hear that. I know it won't be easy but let's try." She said.

"Now let's move on…what are your pet peeves? So that I'll know what not to do to piss you off and screw this thing up." He joked with a hint of honesty.

The pair conversed effortlessly as they sat across from one another at their now favorite bar. However, between the drinks and the laughs, Daniel's uneasy and edgy demeanor became too much for Wilhelmina who chose to ignore it at first.

"Daniel, what's going on?" She asked languidly.

"What?" Daniel asked coyly.

"Oh, come on. You've been…I don't know…distant all day. You barely said anything to me at work today."

"Well, I got your message loud and clear. I didn't want you to get the wrong idea if I spoke about something not work related." He replied, the disdain in his tone causing her eyes to flash with guilt.

"Oh, I see." She whispered flashing back to an incident that occurred that morning. After arriving at work that morning Daniel made for Willie's office and attempted giving her a little good morning smooch and to say the least; her reaction was not what he had expected. She only told him in a hushed tone that they had to keep things strictly professional. Therefore, the personal aspect of their relationship had been on pause mode since then and it seemed as though Daniel was having a difficult time navigating through it.

"I thought we talked about that two nights ago."

"We talked about not letting our personal arguments interfere with work and vice versa." He argued.

"I thought we had what is known as an unspoken agreement. I wasn't trying to be mean."

"An unspoken agreement?" Inquired Daniel, his brows knitting.

"Yes, I didn't think we needed to lay down the ground rules about fraternizing at work. We have to be professional." She explained.

"C'mon no one was around."

"We have janitorial staff that gets in before business ours who could use some National Inquirer and TMZ money."

"So it's about the media, you're worried about what the press is gonna say?"

"And you're not? She asked in dazed exasperation.

"I guess I am, given that my wife died few a months ago and we have a business which can't afford another PR disaster. But I'm trying to figure out if that's all there is to it or if you're not sure about me." He accused.

"I'm saying that we have a history, Daniel and not a pretty one. And I can drag out adjectives out of my vocabulary to describe it but I'm afraid we don't have all night." She deadpanned.

"Willie I'm aware of our history but we can't let that get in the way of enjoying our relationship." He reassured her, sliding his hand across the table to cover her smaller one.

"All I'm saying is that we can't be running around stealing kisses and feeling each other up at work like a couple of horny teenagers. We have to be careful."

"Like we're having some kind of sleazy affair?" He breathed disdainfully.

"I'm sorry if it looks that way. The media will destroy us. I like you a little too much to allow that to happen so soon. I want to see where this goes." She replied somberly, squeezing his hand lightly.

"I know and I want that too. But, may I say something?" Not waiting for an answer, he continued. "Why hide it, Willie? I mean, people are going to find out eventually." He argued.

"That's true. But maybe if they found out way down the line, when we have connected and stronger together…maybe they won't come between us." She reasoned and as she voiced her fears, he knew that she made sense.

"I get that, I really do. It's just that I spent a lot of time hiding my feelings and my relationship with Molly. And then when we finally came out, we were short lived."

"I get where you're coming from, I really do. But I promise I'm not going anywhere, Daniel." She offered lovingly.

At seeing him cross his jaw in a clear attempt to bite back a remark, Willie quickly added, "Daniel, whether we like it or not, there other people involved, you have your family, your moral compass; Betty and we have the press lying in wait for another scandal and advertisers to keep happy. We've got a lot to lose, especially you." She continued "Think of your mom, Betty, Alexis, and all your friends. Imagine their faces, their reactions when they find out, imagine the headlines, Suzuki's shit eating grin when he breaks the damn story. So please…let's take our time and keep this under wraps."

"You're right" He relented. Even though he was feeling disappointed and wanted to protest, he knew he had to respect her wishes if he wanted to stay in a relationship with her. "Now with that out of the way, let's order some food." He cheerfully suggested.

"What?" She scoffed.

"Food"

"No, I heard you. This is a bar." She whispered her lip turning up in disgust.

"I know that, Willie."

"But…" She began to protest.

"Trust me, the food's good here." He reassured.

"Daniel, it's a bar."

"C'mon…they have the best curly fries." He coaxed, grinning.

Daniel was thankful that his shrink was not an exclusive grief therapist because not only was therapy helping with his moving on from Molly, it was also helping him with other aspects of his life. The breakthrough came after he recounted Molly's death and the Community of the Phoenix cult saga. It forced a reflection of his actions following Molly's passing. Firstly, instead of spilling her ashes in Tibet like she wished, he spilled only half with the intent to keep the other half but the urn got lost at JFK. He got sucked into a cult and got manipulated into alienating his family and friends under the promise of 'seeing' Molly and 'be with her forever' in exchange of 'small donations' which were not small at all. This was the epitome of his inability to let go which revealed something deeper. It revealed underlying abandonment and loneliness issues which went back to his childhood. Therefore, his family issues were brought to light, starting with his father, a constantly busy businessman who preferred spending his free time with Alex; his heir more than he did with Daniel, his mother's drinking and constant rehab stays including one that lasted an entire year, his brother's achievements being shoved in his face implanting a sense of superiority on young Alex whose bullying eventually left Daniel with nine toes, creating a near three decade sibling rivalry. Such an upbringing can do serious harm to a child; one that might lead to a child seeking fulfillment their entire lives, usually from material things. Daniel was sadly the textbook example of this with girls, sex, partying, cars, art collection worth millions.

With Molly, came something he never knew, not from experience nor the example of his parents; love. For the first time in his entire life, he felt normal and he was thinking about having a family of his own with her and then all of sudden it was ripped away. For the past month along with his relationship with Molly, his relationships with his family and his past romantic entanglements were explored. However, there was one particular relationship that hadn't enjoyed a discussion yet and he had been dying to talk to someone about it. He fidgeted on the sofa listening intently to Doctor Sanders as the session neared its end.

"I have a confession." Daniel said nervously.

"Daniel, you don't confess to me, you just talk to me. Remember this is completely voluntary." said the older man.

"Right, sorry. It's just that I…uh…I've started seeing someone." He confessed.

"And how's that been going so far?"

"It's been great. You don't think it's too soon?" He queried.

"Only you can answer that. What do you think, actually more importantly how do you feel about it?"

"Honestly, I feel like I'm ready. The woman I'm seeing…is uh…Wilhelmina, my business partner." He revealed. Not even the years of experience assisted the therapist in masking his shock and maintaining a neutral expression and there have been a lot of confessions on that couch. From the way his leg twitched and his eyes bulged to the soft gasp that escaped his mouth down to his mouth momentarily hanging open.

"We've been dating." Daniel awkwardly added. The older man simply cleared his throat.

"Okay. So, tell me, when did this begin?"

"As you know she's the one who suggested I come see you. She's been helping me a lot, she's been there to listen. We started spending a lot of time together during and after work, talking and going out for drinks. She's been wonderful to me this whole time and…I don't know I just started liking her more and more and I don't know when but I developed feelings for her."

Suddenly the therapist remembered the mention of a friend a number of times. Daniel had spoken highly of this mysterious friend; how they went out for drinks after work and talked about Molly. How the friend supported him when the people closest to him were too busy to lend a crying shoulder. Little did he know that the friend in question was his other patient.

"How long have you been going out?"

"For about two weeks?" answered Daniel.

"And how is that going?"

"Good…good, we've been taking things slow."

"You made a good call on that decision." Said the shrink.

"Well, we had some sort of disagreement last night at dinner, though."

"What was it about?"

"Well, it had to do with an earlier incident. I tried to kiss her good morning at work and I tried to flirt a little but she dismissed me. We went out, we talked and she made it clear that she doesn't want people to know we're dating because of our history." He recounted.

"And what's your view on the matter?"

"Well, I disagree. Life is too short."

"Despite seeing each other for only two weeks?"

"You agree with her?" Daniel queried, his forehead creasing.

"No, I'm trying to understand your argument."

"Well, I told her she was right and left it at that."

"You left it at that?" Queried the older man

"We ordered food and we talked and enjoyed our night. I didn't wanna fight with her."

"Why is that?"

"What do you mean? it's still early to fight."

"That doesn't mean you are not allowed to have disagreements." Argued the shrink.

"It's still early on in our relationship and it wasn't worth it, you know Wilhelmina. I would've lost the argument anyway."

"Well that's another issue we have to discuss in one of our sessions." The older man suggested.

"What?" asked a confused Daniel.

"The 'losing the argument' part. There isn't supposed to be a winner and a loser. That's how arguments often end but it shouldn't be nor should you feel that way. That's a mistake many couples make." He explained.

"So how do I not feel like I lost when I argue with Wilhelmina?"

"My advice to you is that when you disagree and argue with your significant other, do not argue to simply win the argument instead argue to understand her view and hope that she does the same. Thus, do not be dismissive and give in without stating your side and understanding hers. It might sound a little cliché but communication is key." The therapist continued. "Relationships begin with mutual attraction and shared interests but there are some differences which you have to work through. Maybe you could view this disagreement with Wilhelmina as a blessing rather than a setback. It might help you figure out sooner rather than later where things are headed. Unfortunately, we ran out time but we can continue this at our next session if you prefer."

"Sure."

That afternoon after talking to his shrink, Wilhelmina's suggestion started making sense. Even though he didn't wish to be in a secret relationship like some dirty love affair, he began to understand that it shouldn't be about what he wants.