Love Never Goes Out of Style
Chapter 1:
Betty woke to pounding on her door. She squinted, and felt around her night stand for her glasses, but the continued knocking caused her to drop them behind her bed, where she couldn't reach them.
She sighed, finally giving up, and feeling around for her robe, while she yelled out,
"Who is it?" She forgot the search for her robe and went for the bat under her bed, and stood at the door, ready to swing if she needed to.
"Betty, open up, please! I have to pee!"
"Daniel?" She took off the deadbolt and opened the door to see an obviously drunk Daniel in her doorway.
He looked at her, holding the bat, "Are you going to use that?"
She put down the bat and pulled him in, looking around, "No, but if you don't stop yelling, my neighbors are going to call the police. What's wrong? Why are you drunk?"
"Amanda broke up with me. So she could date Tyler, of all people, can you believe that? Isn't that twisted? Aren't there laws against dating brothers or something?"
Betty shrugged, closing the door, and pointing to her bathroom, "I don't know, Daniel. There's the bathroom. I'll make us some coffee."
He ran into her bathroom, then came out as she was making coffee. "Thanks.
I'm sorry I woke you. You don't have to make me coffee. It's...what, five in the morning?"
She yawned, "Five thirty. So, you haven't been to bed yet? Are you really that upset about Amanda breaking up with you, Daniel? I thought you said it wasn't that serious?"
He shrugged, leaning against her counter, and folded his arms across his chest, "It wasn't.
To be perfectly honest, I think my pride is just hurt. The guy comes into town and pushes me aside.
My mom is crazy about him, Alexis and DJ like him, and now...Amanda.
I don't know. I guess I feel like I'm invisible or something. You know?"
Betty stared at him in disbelief, "You're asking me? Hello, Daniel, girl who had adult braces and still wears glasses here.
I often wished I were invisible, instead of sticking out like a sore thumb all the time."
Daniel stared at her, "Yeah, I'm still sort of getting used to how hot you look without your braces."
She blushed. Even slightly drunk, Daniel noticed his thoughtless comment's effect on her, "Sorry, I didn't mean...I just meant, you look great. Say, where are your glasses, anyway?"
He figured he had better change the subject fast. He didn't want to make her aware of the tension he had been feeling between them lately, because that would make it too real and Daniel didn't know if he was quite ready to confront his changing feelings head on right now.
Besides, she was really freaking him out, with her braces now a thing of the past, AND not wearing her glasses. Not to mention the stretchy fabrics she had been sleeping in didn't hide her very curvy figure like her usual interesting work attire.
Daniel felt like he needed her to have her glasses on, to remind himself that this was Betty, after all, just his friend, Betty.
"Oh, I dropped them behind my bed, trying to reach for them when you were pounding on the door."
"Sorry. Here, let me help you find them, Betty."
He followed her into her bedroom and helped her push the bed away from the wall slightly. She spied the glasses, and tried to reach them.
Daniel found his mind wandering a bit too much as he stood, watching her bend over in front of him.
He had to turn away, to avoid staring at her backside in ways a former boss/best friend simply shouldn't be staring. What was wrong with him, anyway?
He gets dumped by Amanda for his half-brother and now he's over at his best friend's house in the middle of the night, waking her up and having highly inappropriate fantasies about her?
Wow, he really did have a problem! Since Molly's death, he had only been with a few other women, and mostly had depended on Amanda to listen to him and 'take care of his needs'.
But even Daniel realized, Amanda needed more, of course. She was entitled to have a real relationship with a future, something he had never been able to offer her.
He knew he had never been in love with her, and he cared about her as a friend too much to continue wasting her time if he couldn't give her what she wanted and deserved.
But Betty...she was in a whole different category. She had always been the one Daniel depended on to talk to about anything and everything.
They had become extremely dependent on one another over the years. She was the best friend he had ever known. The person he felt closest to in his life.
Lately, however, he had noticed himself looking at her...well, differently. He couldn't pinpoint when things began changing exactly.
Maybe when she started sneaking around with that Zacchary Boule guy, the playwright with glasses, or perhaps when she got her braces off right after that.
But something had definitely changed in how he was seeing and thinking about his best friend, that was for sure.
Something seemed very different between them. He noticed she didn't seem as comfortable around him, either. There was some indefinable tension they had never had before that had started to emerge between them.
Betty was trying to calm her racing heart. Why the heck should she be nervous around Daniel all of a sudden, she thought? It was just Daniel, for goodness sakes!
But lately, Betty noticed that whenever Daniel was around her, he seemed to make her feel...different. She couldn't put her finger on when it had started. Something about the way he had looked at her when he had caught her dating Zachary Boule, perhaps.
She had felt like she was somehow cheating on him. There had been a certain look in Daniel's eyes when he saw Zack leave that night. Ever since then, and now even more since she had gotten her braces off. He kept staring at her strangely. It made her feel...tingly, excited, nervous.
After watching her struggle for a few minutes (and frankly enjoying watching her a bit too much), he saw that her arms were too short to reach the glasses, so he came up behind her, and leaned over, "Here, let me, Betty. My arms are longer."
She seemed to jump a bit, as he spoke, then moved aside for him to fish for the glasses for her. The sound of his voice made the pit of her stomach lurch for some unexplained reason lately.
He crawled on the floor, and stretched out his hand, finally feeling them on his fingertips and grabbing them. "Got em!"
He stood up, and cleaned them off with a tissue, then walked over to her, and placed them on her face, looking into her eyes as he did.
She really had amazing eyes. And now, that smile...okay, keep it clean, Meade!
He couldn't help feeling his heart racing as she reached up, to adjust her glasses, while he still had his hands on them.
Feeling her hands on his, he started sensing his palms sweating and his breath catching.
What the hell was wrong with him? This was Betty, for God's sake! Betty Suarez. Why did he suddenly feel like his mouth was full of cotton?
She licked her bottom lip and chewed on it, looking up at him. "Thanks." She said, quietly.
He cleared his throat, and nodded, mindlessly, trying to think of something clever to say.
Now he was having trouble making simple conversation with her? What was wrong with him?
"Uh...I'll go make that coffee, now, I guess, so I can get out of your hair."
She rolled her eyes, rushing past him, "Please, Daniel. You can't make coffee. You'll burn down my kitchen! And you're not in my hair. Go sit down on the sofa.
You can turn on the television if you want. I usually end up waking up at about six or seven on the weekends anyway, so this wasn't that bad, really.
Are you sure you want coffee, though? You need some sleep. You could take a nap if you want to. I'm up now. I could let you have my bed, while I shower and change."
"Maybe in a little while, thanks, Betty. I'll just have one cup of coffee.
Since you're already making it for yourself. Besides, I'd like to talk first. I don't expect to just come over and jump into your bed."
She looked at him strangely, and he stuttered, "I mean...you know, uh...go to sleep here."
She nodded, smiling. "I know what you meant, Daniel."
After a few minutes, she brought them both coffees, and sat down next to him.
He had on a basketball game, turned down low, but didn't really appear to be watching it. Instead, he seemed intent on watching Betty carefully.
He was trying to determine what was so different about her that had him on edge, and feeling suddenly uncomfortable and strange around her after all these years.
"Thanks."
"Sure. So...Tyler, huh? How are you doing with talking to him? Any better? He did come all this way to meet his family."
He shrugged, "I don't know. I don't know what to say to the guy. And now I really have no idea.
Nice to meet you, uh...brother. Oh, by the way, make sure you're nice to my ex... whatever the hell Amanda was to me or I'll kick your ass?"
She shook her head. "No, of course not. But you could start out talking about your mother.
And he's met Alexis and DJ now, so talk about your family, the thing you both have in common.
If you think about it, Daniel, you've been given a gift. You have a brother, now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"
"I guess not. I just hate that he's Hartley's son more than anything. But, I suppose that's not his fault. You know what? I'm done talking about me.
How about you? What's going on in your life, Betty? Is Hilda driving you crazy yet?"
She nodded, "Definitely! She wants some crazy bachelorette party and the only thing that seems important to her is that it involves travel. She was all jealous that Bobby said he was going to Atlantic City.
Not because he was seeing strippers, mind you, but just because he was traveling! I don't know where to take her to impress her."
Daniel's eyes lit up, "I do. Take her to London! You can cover London Fashion Week, so it'll be all expenses paid. Maybe if you don't mind, you could take Amanda with you, too.
Then, I could talk to Tyler alone and try to get to know him."
She thought for a second, "Daniel, that's brilliant! Thank you! London! Hilda's going to be blown away at going to London. That's amazing. Oh my God!" she threw her arms around him, hugging him.
He grinned, hugging her back, happy to at least help her solve one of her problems for a change.
As he held her close, however, he couldn't help but be a guy, and notice she wasn't wearing a bra. Her 'girls' being as they were, not small by any means were practically in his face, so a guy could be excused for at least noticing.
She seemed to stiffen in his arms, as if she had suddenly realized the same thing he had at the same exact moment he had. She blushed and got up to run out of the room, "I'll uh...be right back."
Sure enough, when she came back, although still wearing her same black yoga pants and red and black long sleeve shirt, he could instantly tell she had put on a bra.
He smiled, turning up the sound slightly and pretended to be into the game as she settled back down next to him, and took another sip of her coffee.
"Did you forget something?" he finally asked, not being able to resist teasing her.
She shook her head, while drinking her coffee, "Mmm mmm. No, why? Are you tired? Did you want to go to sleep?
Don't feel like you have to stay up to be sociable or something, Daniel. Seriously, if you're tired, just go to bed. It's fine. I understand."
He wasn't quite done teasing her, "Is there any particular reason you seem so anxious to get me into bed tonight, Miss Suarez?"
She blushed, and he laughed, pointing to her crimson cheeks, "You're so cute when you're embarrassed, Betty!"
"Daniel! Stop teasing me." She shoved his shoulder, which led to him shoving her back, then her shoving him a bit harder, and finally, Daniel grabbing her foot and tickling it, well aware of how ticklish her feet were.
She shook her head vigorously, trying to pull her foot away, but he held it tightly and tickled her mercilessly, till she was breathless from laughter.
"Daniel...stop! Please!"
They heard a key and saw Amanda and Marc practically fall in the door, they had been leaning on it so hard. They both looked at Daniel and Betty, their eyes wide and their mouths practically open.
"Ooh, it's the lovers. We finally caught you two in your foreplay! I knew it. Look, he's a foot man, just like his father!"