Paths Cross
Hi here's the next chapter! I'll post the continuation tonight when I get home :D love you all! hope you enjoy! :D
For entertainment only! :P
Chapter 5 - Catching Up
As soon as the time hit 1:15, Betty was already ready and getting her bag to head to lunch. "Got to go-see you later Allison-bye" Betty quickly said in a blur, running off with a smile. Allison laughed.
Daniel stared at his watch for the past hour checking for the time. When it turned 1:20 Daniel anxiously left his office.
"Where are you off to?" Amanda asked wondering why he seemed like he was going to see a gorgeous model or something making sure he looked good. "Going to pick up a model?" she asked mostly to entertain herself. She was kind of bored. And Marc was too busy right now.
"No, I'm going to lunch..." With someone way better than a stupid model, he thought. "...I'll catch you later." Daniel quickly said and ran off.
Daniel was more than pleased that when he reached Gio's that he and Betty arrived there at the same time and it was obvious that she was just as excited to see him as he was to see her, from both of them racing to get there on time. "Hi" they said in unison.
They both laughed at their eagerness to see one another.
They laughed realizing that both of them seemed like they just ran a marathon. "Perfect timing, huh?" Daniel said shooting her a grin. Betty smiled. "Yah."
"Uh... after you..." he opened the door for her not knowing what to say, suddenly feeling nervous.
Betty smiled and walked in. "Thanks."
They sat at a table sort of close to the window. There was a silence for a moment. It seemed as though they were both taking in the fact that they were actually meeting after so long.
Daniel felt entranced by her presence; she looked breathtaking, even more so than when he saw her earlier. And the smile that was on her face filled him with warmth.
Betty looked at Daniel kind of surprised that she was actually sitting here with him like this now. He still looked so handsome, she thought. There was this sort of sparkle in his eyes that was intoxicating.
She smiled when she saw him smile at her, so sweetly, she felt butterflies.
"So, uh...this is really...wow...that we're here...sitting like this...meeting after a year." Betty said looking at him. "I'm kind of still wondering if this is a dream or something."
"Me too...how are you, Betty?"
"I'm good. Busy. Nervous. Excited. Surprised." She said thinking she sounded like a dictionary spitting out words. Daniel laughed. "So all that, huh? Why are you all of those things?" he asked curiously.
Betty smiled. "Uh...good in life, busy in work and life, nervous about work, excited to see you, surprised to see you, good to see you." She laughed making Daniel laugh. "Well, that's nice."
"So, how are you?" Betty asked jokingly.
"Hmm...Let's see...I'm good. Excited. Happy. Surprised. Amazed. Hmm...I think those are enough...for now." He said with a playful grin.
Betty laughed. "So, why are you all those things?" she asked in wonder.
"Well, I'm good in life...and sort of work...and excited to see you, happy to see you, surprised to see you, amazed to see you in front of me, and good to see you." He said smiling brightly. "Mostly everything I'm feeling right now is because I'm seeing you." He added.
"Well...then, I think that's nice, too." She said smiling brightly.
"Gio!" Betty said grabbing his arm as he walked by. "Betty! Hey, how's it going?" the young guy with black hair said hugging her and then looking to Daniel, then smiling slightly. "So...no Allison today, Betty?"
"Oh, no Gio, this is Daniel Meade; I worked for him shortly as his assistant at MODE magazine. We were just catching up." She smiled looking at Daniel and then back to Gio.
"I know him, Betty. I served sandwiches at MODE for a while." Gio said looking at Daniel who smiled looking at him.
"Oh. Okay. Well, then I guess everyone knows each other." Betty said smiling looking at both of them.
"It's good to see you, Daniel." Gio said smiling, but Daniel could tell that he was wondering why they were together.
"Yep" Daniel nodded simply.
Gio took their orders, talking to Betty in the process, looking at Daniel a couple of times "Okay, I'll get that right out to you."
"Thanks Gio!" Betty said smiling brightly. "Anytime" Gio smiled and walked off.
"That was kind of weird." Daniel said looking at Betty. "Why?" Betty asked confused.
"He looked pretty surprised to see us together. I think he likes you, Betty."
"He did ask me out a couple of times, but we're just friends. We hung out before, but it was just a friend thing. I didn't see us being involved in that way. But, that's kind of cool that he knows both of us."
"We had him serve sandwiches at MODE for a while, but since no one really eats, we just decided to let him go. It's too bad; he makes great sandwiches, so that's why I come here."
"Cool. I'm surprised I've never seen you in here. I come here a lot, too."
"I usually order it and have my assistant bring it for me."
"Oh. Okay. So, how's the whole assistant thing going? Still give your assistants a hard time?" Betty said with a grin.
"Betty, I've been through 30 assistants since you left, all of them were worse than the last. You, Betty, were the best assistant I ever had. I hated myself for ever letting you get away. So, I just finally had it with going through so many assistants so I just got Amanda to be my assistant; she's wanted the job for such a long time, so I just got her to be my assistant. It works out, I guess. She's a really great friend to me now."
"Wow. Okay, well that's good." Betty was shocked at his confession.
"Betty, I would just like to say that I'm still really sorry for how I treated you when you worked for me. I know that what I did was crappy and mean, but do you think we could be friends, Betty? You know maybe start over?"
"I would love that, Daniel." She said with that brilliant smile. He realized he would probably never get over it. How happy he was to see her smile in front of him. It was like he was dreaming.
"Betty, can I ask you something?"
"Sure." She looked at him curiously noticing the deep look in his eyes.
"You're really here, right?"
Betty stifled a small laugh "Yes, I'm here Daniel. I'm the same Betty that was your assistant for two weeks."
Daniel smiled "Ok. Just checking" Betty rolled her eyes smiling, despite the butterflies she felt at his happiness to see her.
"So, Daniel, can I ask you a question?"
"Anything Betty"
"Um...how did you...uh recognize me? I don't look anything like I did when I worked at MODE. I'm just surprised that you could tell this was me" Betty laughed realizing that sounded funny.
"It's your smile, Betty. I could never forget your smile. I saw that beautiful metallic smile of yours and I knew it was you." Betty couldn't help the bright smile that came to her face. She blushed at his comment.
"Thank you, Daniel. Um..." she blushed again not knowing what to say.
"You look great, by the way." He said his eyes bright.
"Thank you" Betty smiled blushing again at the way he looked at her. His eyes were so warm and patient and filled with admiration. She was amazed he was looking at her that way.
Daniel laughed slightly "Am I going to make you blush the whole time, Betty?"
With that comment Betty her cheeks reddened.
"I'm not going to lie, you look totally cute, but" he laughed again, noticing he made her blush again.
"Should I hide my face or something, Betty?" he laughed now making Betty laugh, her laugh filling the entire café. Boy did he love that laugh.
Betty tried to stop her laughing noticing that people were watching their table now. "I'm sorry" she said trying to stop.
Daniel laughed again slightly. "It's fine, Betty. We just gave this place a free show."
Suddenly Gio came over with their food, not even looking at Daniel. Daniel watched as Gio placed the food on the table and was looking at Betty. "So, Betty, enjoy your food."
"Thanks Gio." She said giggling. Daniel looked at her and smiled. Gio looked at both of them and then walked away leaving Betty and Daniel to look at each other and start laughing again, noticing the look on Gio's face.
"See what I mean, Betty? He must totally hate me or something for having lunch with you and making you laugh or something." Daniel said, then taking a sip from his drink. Betty laughed. "Ha-ha, wow, I've never seen him that jealous before." Betty laughed again.
Betty and Daniel started eating, "So, Betty, this Allison person, was that the girl that you were with earlier today?" he said grinning remembering her comment and shocked expressions.
"Oh...ya, oh my god, she would not stop bugging me about having lunch with you today, and asked me so many times how I knew you. She's great though. I've worked with her for almost a year now. She was my best friend when I started. She's like a sister to me." Betty said smiling.
"That's great, Betty. She seemed nice."
"Is that before or after she said you were cute?" Betty said with a grin. Daniel just laughed.
"So, Betty, where do you work now?"
"I have an internship at the New York Review. I'm actually applying to YETI in a few months before my internship is up, so hopefully that can get me somewhere closer to creating my magazine"
"That sounds promising."
"I just wish I could take Allison with me. She's so great."
"Who knows maybe she'd come with you." Daniel said optimistically. "So, you said you want to have your own magazine?" Daniel asked surprised, wondering if she had ever told him that.
"That is why I was really excited to be working for you, even as your assistant, because MODE is great when it comes to magazines, but it just wasn't me. That's not what I want to write about."
"Wow, Betty. I had no idea. I wonder how things would be like if you would have been at MODE. I'm sure you would have brought some great light to it."
"Aw...that's sweet, Daniel. Who knows? Let's just live in the moment. Forget about the past."
"Sounds good to me, Betty"
"So, to starting new" Betty said holding out her glass of water. Daniel brought up his glass and knocked it against hers smiling.
After taking a sip of his soda, he looked to her, "So Betty, are you married? Do you have a boyfriend?" Daniel asked curiously.
"Nope. Just me." Betty responded nonchalantly although, she couldn't deny the fact that part of her got butterflies because he asked that.
"What about you?" Betty asked curiously.
"Nope. Just me. I'm not married and I don't have a boyfriend" Daniel said jokingly.
"Ha-ha, very funny. I'm kind of surprised though."
"About what? That I don't have a boyfriend?" he asked shocked.
"No" she laughed. "That you're not with someone."
"Why's that?" he asked curiously.
"Well, it's just that you're Daniel Meade."
"Ya, so?" he said kind of upset with what she was implying. "It's just that..." Betty started to continue, but Daniel interrupted "Betty, I'm not the same guy you met a year ago. I've changed since I met you. Mostly because of you"
"Me?" Betty asked surprised.
He nodded "I pretty much stopped all those one-night hook-ups and I've had only one serious relationship since I met you, and I'm sure you saw how that ended."
"Yes, I'm sorry about that. You know, I completely hated her for what she did to you."
"Oh ya?" Daniel said with a slight tone of appreciation. "She was so mean. I can't believe she would do that. I wanted to slap her!"
What?" Daniel said his eyes big in surprise at her forwardness. She was clearly not the shy girl she was when he first met her. Confidence definitely suited her.
"It's just, she made me so mad. I mean there you are completely in love with her and she uses you for a story. How low can you be to do something like that?" Betty said, clearly upset just talking about.
"Wow" Daniel laughed at the fact that she was upset. He felt so...flattered that she thought so much of him towards this. "Thanks for the support Betty."
"Well she's the one that lost you, so she's going to have to live with that."
Daniel felt his heart open up at her comment.
"I wish someone would feel that way about me." Betty said not realizing she said it out loud. "Well, how do you know if someone doesn't already feel that way about you?" Daniel asked taking her off guard.
"Oh, you mean Gio? I told you Daniel, he's just my friend."
Daniel laughed. "I wasn't talking about Gio, Betty. I just mean, there is a guy out there that will fall in love with you so hard that he would never be able to do enough to show you."
"Wow. You really think that? Did you feel that way about Sofia?" Betty asked curiously. "Actually, I didn't. Part of the reason why I guess I felt attracted to her was because she was playing hard to get and then it was the whole having a family thing. But there was no real connection beyond that. I realize now that it was an impulse. I just thought that I loved her."
"I guess that kind of makes sense. I mean how do you really know when you love someone?"
"I'll tell you when it happens. But, I think when you find the right person, you just do know. Like you feel like you can never go a day without that person." Daniel said trying to think about it. Betty nodded in understanding. Daniel looked back to her, "So, Betty, How about we make a deal?"
"What's that?" Betty asked curiously. "How about when we find that person that makes us feel that way, we tell each other."
"Hmm...Okay." Betty smiled.
He held his hand out to her "deal?"
She smiled brighter placing her hand in his "deal"
Lots of loveee! 3