Chapter 2: Business as Usual

Claire Meade looked at her son warily. She loved him dearly, but he could be careless sometimes and it usually ended up making the company look bad. "What happened?" she asked.

Daniel looked at her, unsure how to proceed. He chose the most obvious opening. "I was drinking last night at the party. I guess I had kind of a lot because…"

Claire held up her hand. "You're talking to an alcoholic. You don't have to tell me why you were drinking. What did you do?"

Daniel took a deep breath. "I don't really remember all of it but…I think I slept with Betty." He cringed.

One second was all it took for Claire to compose herself. She had been bracing for a lot worse. "Well, drinking can lead to random sex." She was trying to lighten the mood, but she saw Daniel tense a little more. "You said you don't remember. Maybe nothing happened."

Daniel eyed his mother doubtfully. "Maybe, but somehow I get the impression that something happened." He told his mother about the underwear ( he had given up being embarrassed in front of his family a long time ago) in his bed and the weird greeting he had gotten from Amanda. He also told her about his small remembered flashes. After he stopped talking, Claire shrugged.

"The easiest way to resolve this would be to ask Betty," she pointed out.

Daniel gaped at her. "What, I'm just supposed to say, 'Hey Betty, I don't remember, but did we have sex last night?'?"

"Well I would try a little more tact, but yes. That would be the simplest way to get to the bottom of it."

"Mother, it's insulting. That's the kind of thing you're supposed to remember doing. You certainly don't broadcast it if you don't."

Claire threw up her hands. "Or, you could ask Amanda and get her version of it. You can decide later. We have that meeting with the new designer to get to." Claire stood.

"Right, the meeting." Daniel froze.

"Don't tell me you forgot about it."

He flashed her an uneasy smile. "Of course I didn't forget."

"And you have your proposal ready?"

"I um…" This was just the sort of thing Betty usually reminded Daniel of. He couldn't believe she hadn't at least called him, or left the proposal on his desk with a friendly note. That was what Betty would normally do. Letting Daniel forget about it was very un-Betty like. Claire shut her eyes briefly.

"We'll just have to wing it. We're out of time. Please tell you me you at least remember what the designer does."

"I'll figure it out." Feeling uneasy and just a little bit sick, Daniel followed his mother into the hall. He fixed a smile on his face before he entered the conference room where people were already waiting for them.

"Hello, everyone. Welcome to MODE."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Betty was just sure that she wasn't really the female eye Wilhelmina had been talking about when she had sent Betty and Marc out accessory shopping. She knew Marc would suffice. She didn't know why she had agreed to go except, in some small way (maybe not that small), Wilhelmina terrified her. Mostly the errand got her out of the office so she didn't have to worry about seeing Daniel. She hadn't talked to him since she had snuck out of his apartment and truthfully she had no idea what she would say to him when she did. It had been strange for Wilhelmina to suggest that she accompany Marc, Betty had jumped at the chance to leave. "This works right?" Marc asked, holding up the gaudiest piece of jewelry Betty had ever seen. She guessed it was high fashion, but such things had never been high on her priority list. Marc realized the same thing at that moment. "What am I asking you for?"

Betty shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know why Wilhelmina asked me to go." Marc shrugged and smiled conspiratorially at Betty.

"At least it gets us out of that meeting right?" He elbowed Betty in the ribs. She froze mid-step.

"The meeting!" She turned around and walked briskly back in the direction of the office. Marc grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to get Daniel his pro-…posal…" She turned around and looked at Marc. "That's why she asked me to come. So that I wouldn't be there. So Daniel would look like an idiot. I can't believe I fell for that! I have to get back. With any luck it hasn't started yet."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Marc said throwing an arm across Betty's shoulder. "I'm sure after last night you were, shall we say, distracted?" Betty stopped.

"What about last night?"

"Oh nothing. You'd better go if you're going to stop Daniel from making an ass of himself." Betty considered questioning Marc further to find out what he knew about last night, but awkward or not, Daniel needed her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daniel was a little past making an ass of himself. He swallowed and loosened his tie once more. He looked at the door as if he was expecting his proposal to miraculously walk through the door. Of course it didn't and he once again glanced around the room at all of the expectant faces turned toward him. His gaze fell on Wilhelmina who arched an eyebrow. He looked back at the designer. "Why should we buy a spot in your next issue?" she prodded.

"Ah, MODE is one of the top selling fashion magazines… We have some possible concepts for the photo shoot…that um..." He looked down hoping that his folder had magically appeared. Had he been a lesser man, or at least alone, he would cry. It was moments like these that made Daniel realize how much he took Betty for granted. He opened his mouth to go on, but was interrupted by Wilhelmina. She stood and smiled sweetly at him. She laid out her copies of the proposed photo shoot out in front of her. Daniel braced himself. This was the part where Wilhelmina made him look like an idiot.

"I believe what Daniel is trying to say is that MODE is one of the top selling fashion magazines. If we run your designs in our next issue you'll gain American publicity. Given the popularity of your line in Paris, your designs would be very big here in New York. What we want to do with our next issue is showcase them." She stopped and looked over in annoyance as the door opened and Betty rushed in.

"Sorry. I'm sorry I'm late." She put a folder down in front of Daniel without looking at him and sat down over on the side.

"Who is this?" the designer said in her thick French accent indicating Betty. Daniel looked up.

"My assistant Betty Suarez."

The designer nodded. It was clear from the look on her face that the meeting was over. Daniel just hoped that Wilhelmina had impressed her with the beginnings of her speech. Not that it mattered. The meeting had been a train wreck from minute one. "Give us a bit to look these over. We'll come back with a decision tomorrow." Wilhelmina smiled cordially.

"Of course, we'll be waiting." The designer and her entourage got up and left the conference room. As they were walking out, Marc came in. Wilhelmina shot him a withering look. He smiled apologetically. Annoyed, Wilhelmina turned her attention to Daniel. "What the hell was that? Couldn't you at least pretend that you want to save this magazine?" Claire stood up.

"Don't talk to him like that." Claire glared at Wilhelmina who fixed Claire with an icy gaze of her own. Daniel stood and edged his way around the two women to go back to his office. He heard Betty's familiar steps following him.

"Daniel, I'm so sorry," Betty started. "I completely forgot about the meeting. Wilhelmina asked me to go with Marc to pick out some jewelry or something…I don't even know…and after last night-" Betty slapped her hands over her mouth. Daniel whirled around to face her. "I guess I was a little distracted," she finished.

"Betty, I looked like a jerk in there! If I'm ever going to get rid of Wilhelmina, I have to do better than that. I need you to be there, to help me. I can't do this without you." Betty flinched a little.

"I said I was sorry," she said quietly. She blinked in an attempt to clear away the tears that had suddenly sprung to her eyes. They were in Daniel's office now. He moved to look out the window. He felt bad about shouting at Betty like that. He knew he shouldn't have, but his ego had always been something that was easily bruised (and Wilhelmina could bruise it like no other) and he was more than a little shaken up with the knowledge that something had indeed happened between Betty and him last night. He knew they couldn't work like this. She was too distracted to do her job and he was too distracted to roll with anything. They had to get past this if they were going to regain their working friendship (if that was even possible). Betty might hate him or resent him for forgetting, but he had to bring it up. He cleared his throat. Still staring out the window he started.

"Betty, about last night…"

Betty sniffed and Daniel turned to face her. "Daniel, what happened last night?" Daniel stared at her.

"You…you don't remember?" Betty shook her head.

"I've tried, but I can't remember anything other than waking up in your apartment this morning." She sat down on the sofa in the corner of the office.

"Well crap. This isn't going to work out like I'd hoped. How are we going to move past it, if neither one of us can remember what happened?" he asked, sitting down in his desk chair.

"We don't remember, we could pretend it didn't happen. As far as we know, it didn't."

Daniel shook his head. "We're going to keep getting grainy flashes of it until it all comes flooding back. We need to try to figure out what happened so that we can talk about why it happened and put it behind us."

"That's deep, Daniel," her voice was dripping with more sarcasm than she had meant it to. She was surprised at how hurt she was by his eagerness to push last night out of his mind permanently. She had never really entertained the idea that Daniel and she could be anything, but she had never been as actively opposed to it as Daniel seemed to be.

"I hate to say this, but maybe we should talk to Amanda. She seems to know something," he went on.

"So does Marc," Betty added. They caught each other's eyes before both standing simultaneously and exiting the office. Daniel was determined to figure this out, even if it meant consulting the office gossips.

A/N: Sorry about the lame meeting. I didn't want to linger on it too long. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. I hope to update this and the rest of my fics soon. Thank you for reading and reviewing. If anyone has any title suggestions, I'm open to them.