THE BRIDGE/CH 1

"You went on an all-night date with your boss? The same guy whose watch costs more than our house! Betty, are you crazy? What were you thinking?"

Betty looked at her sister, and for the first time in her young life, she saw something there that she never imagined. Jealousy. Hilda seemed jealous of her. That was a switch. Usually, Betty was the one envious of her prettier, much sexier sister. Betty had never envied Hilda's difficult times, however. As much as she knew she loved Justin, having a child in high school was no picnic, Betty was well aware.

But now…this was something Betty was definitely not used to. It seemed that ever since she had started working for Daniel Meade in Manhattan, Hilda had been pushing her to settle for Walter. NOT to reach for her dreams of working in magazine publishing. It enraged her to know her sister felt she somehow had no choice but to stay with a jerk who cheated on her, because that was the best she could do.

Yes, she had to wear braces. For now. Yes, she wore glasses. So what? Yes…maybe she didn't have the best taste in clothes, and she wasn't one of those nine feet tall glamazons at Mode. She certainly wasn't a fashionista or a movie star or a size zero like Amanda. But she had good points, too.

She was smart, and tried to be kind and forgiving and she could be pretty, too. She had a tiny waist, and tiny feet and big boobs (she blushed just thinking that one, but…whatever!)and she was easy to talk to and able to get along with a lot of different types of people. Why couldn't Hilda see those things about her sister, too? Why did she only see the negative? Daniel seemed to see her for who she really was.

After all, he had asked her to dinner. He asked her to crash the wedding, to walk onto the Brooklyn Bridge with him and talk until the wee hours of the morning. Nobody was forcing him to spend all that time with her. And they both had a great time together.

Was it a…date? Of course not! Well, not really, Betty thought. Just two friends, having a good time together. All night. Okay, so…maybe it would have been a good date, if it WAS really a date. Maybe it would have been the perfect date. But she knew it wasn't. After all, this was Daniel Meade we were talking about. He could get any woman in the city he wanted into his bed. He was a playboy. A rich, handsome playboy. He didn't go out with women like her.

Women who snorted when they laughed, who actually ate food, who sometimes wore socks with her heels. If she wore heels at all. After all, the man had just gotten dumped by Sofia Reyes on national TV. It wasn't as if he was out, looking for a woman right now, anyway. Understandably, he was a little gun-shy and they had just been 'hanging out' to pass the time, that's all, she reasoned.

But that didn't stop her from having one hell of a good dream about Daniel when she finally was able to fall asleep. This was the weirdest dream she ever remembered having.

Just as she started to drift off, she heard little taps on her window. This didn't really feel like a dream. She imagined herself going to the window to see Daniel, still in his same overcoat, standing below her window.

She called down to him, "O Romeo, Romeo…wherefore art thou, Romeo." She giggled, seeing him down on the side yard, throwing pebbles at her window. "I always wanted to say that."

He grinned up at her, "Too bad you don't have a balcony. Uh…oh, right. What does he say, anyway? I forgot? It's been way too long since I had any lit classes. Oh, yeah…something about the moon, right?

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet, I mean Betty is the sun. Wait…where does the moon come in? I forgot, sorry."

Betty giggled, "It's okay, Daniel. What are you doing here in the middle of the night, anyway? Am I dreaming? I feel like this night is never-ending."

He smiled and shrugged, looking somehow shy as he dug his hands in his coat pockets and looked down at his shoes, finding them suddenly fascinating. "I told you, I didn't want to go home to an empty apartment. We were having such a good time earlier talking…I sort of didn't want the night to end, you know? Sorry. Do you mind? I can go if I'm keeping you up."

She smiled down at him, thinking he looked unbearably handsome right now and very boyish in spite of being quite a bit older than she was. She tried to stop such thoughts from crossing her mind, however, knowing this was just his reaction to being dumped; something she was certain had never happened to the man before in his life.

He simply needed a friend right now. She still couldn't quite bring herself to reconcile this Daniel to the one she had discovered, hiding out in his loft, in his bathrobe. It just went to show you, everyone had their own insecurities.

She wasn't sure if she really was dreaming or not, but she didn't want the night to end, either. She took a deep breath and started climbing out her window, just as she and Hilda (mostly Hilda) had done for years in high school. Often, Betty had followed her sister on her dates with a local bad boy named Bobby Talercio.

She had had a terrible crush on him, as well and used to 'interrupt' Hilda and Bobby in their heavy make-out sessions with her journalistic questions meant merely to keep her sister from doing what she eventually ended up doing with Santos, later, after Bobby got sent to juvenile detention.

Daniel seemed genuinely surprised at Betty's athletic ability to climb out of her window. He helped her down when she got closer to the ground, spotting her and merely laughing slightly when she accidentally fell on top of him. "Sorry. It's been a long time since I did that. I guess I'm out of practice."

He shook his head and helped her up, brushing off his coat and pants. "No problem. I never had you pegged as a bad girl, Betty. So, tell me, did you sneak out of your window like that often in school? That was kind of…hot, actually."

She laughed, hearing Daniel Meade refer to anything she did as 'hot'. "Uh, yeah, sure, Daniel. I climbed out all the time, meeting secret boyfriends and going off with them to make out!"

His eyebrows raised, "Really?"

She rolled her eyes, "No! In what universe do you see me as having secret boyfriends, Daniel? Or any boyfriends, for that matter. I told you, I never even went to my own prom."

He shrugged, "You didn't miss much. I don't remember mine. It was a private school. It was lame, I know that. But…I'm sorry you missed it. I know it's more of a big deal to girls. I would have taken you if I had known you back then. Although…they probably would have thought I was some kind of pervert, being so much older than you, I guess."

She giggled at the thought of Daniel, a much younger version of him, taking her to prom. What would girls like Kimmie Keegan have thought or said had THAT been the case, she wondered?" She shook off the image and looked around, then shivered.

Daniel noticed and took off his coat, putting it on her. He called for his car. "You sure this is okay? You won't get in trouble?"

She shrugged, and smiled, glancing back at the house, "I'm over twenty-one, Daniel. I don't need anyone's permission to leave the house."

He raised his eyebrow, "I see. So that explains why you climbed out your window!"

She stuttered, "Well…I just didn't want to wake everybody up, that's all."

He grinned, "It's okay, Betty. I think you're lucky to have a family that cares so much about you."

"You would think they did." She said, somewhat sarcastically.

He caught the meaning behind her words, "You don't think they do?"

She shrugged, as they walked. "Lately, my sister seems determined to match me up with my ex. It's like she is saying he's the best I can do, so I shouldn't have any expectations for anyone better."

"The one who cheated on you?" She nodded as he shook his head, putting his arm around her. "No way! Don't go back to that creep, Betty! If he cheated once…he'll do it again. Believe me; I've seen my dad do it enough to my mother. Run, do not walk away from that guy!

You deserve WAY better than him. You're amazing. You're sweet, and kind, and beautiful and smart and you have this fantastic heart and an ability to look at people and see their good points even when they can't see any about themselves. You forgave me when I treated you like shit that first week and turned around, saving my ass, then gave me the credit in front of my old man!"

She blushed, looking down at her shoes as they walked, partially so she wouldn't trip but also because she found it impossible to look into those eyes of his right now. "You…uh…really think I'm beautiful, Daniel? Me?"

He shook his head, and stopped, to hold her by her arms, and when she kept looking down, he finally lifted her chin with his finger to force her to look into his eyes, "Yes. I do. Believe me, Betty, you're beautiful. You may be young and have things you're working on right now. But…that doesn't change the fact that you are going to be a knockout."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, right. I understand. You mean, in a few years, when I get the braces off and I lose weight and I learn how to dress and…"

He shook his head, "No, I mean right now. Okay, wait. You know what? I have an idea. Come with me, Miss Suarez." As his car pulled up, Daniel ushered her inside.

She looked around, "Where are we going, anyway? I don't know too many places that are open this early."

He leaned back in the seat, running his hands through his hair, and grinning, "Mode, please." He told the driver. Betty looked at him curiously.

"Isn't it kind of early to be going into Mode? Besides, it's Saturday. The offices are all closed."

He shrugged, wagging his eyebrows with a twinkle in his eye, "I think they'll still let me in, Betty. My name is on the building, after all. Don't worry, princess. You're with me, now. You'll see. Things are going to change for you. Just wait till I'm done with you, girl!"