Part Two
Betty awoke with her alarm clock this morning, which is unusual seeing as every morning she woke up exactly three minutes earlier so she had sufficient time to get out of whatever dream she had that night. After letting the office know she would be working from home, feigning an illness, she jumped into the shower and thought about last night. She loved Daniel that was for sure, but is that love a non-platonic, heart-breaking soul-wrenching love? Or just a hey-of-course-I'll-post-your-bail friendship love? Letting the hot water rush over her body, she scrubbed away all the worries and concerns and left strawberries in their place. Getting out of her shower, she quickly decided that shopping would be the best idea for her now, get the creative juices flowing. That's a lie, she knew it, but she needs new furniture and she will work on the magazine at least a little bit today.
The next hours were spent in trendy furniture boutiques with purples and blues and yellows and rugs and pots and pans and paint swatches and wallpapers and recliners and real coffee tables and wood and glass and plastic and plush and shag. The good news she got everything she needed.
The even better news she knew what to do with Daniel. All the shopping was a lot of fun but she knew it would be more fun with Daniel. She craved his approval like some sick drug. And as she thought this in between choosing Cheerful and Quilt Gold for her sitting room she realized that she didn't need Henry's or Gio's or Jesse's or Matt's opinion like she needed Daniel's. So she finished shopping and had them deliver the furniture to her apartment later in the day and she decided she was painting tomorrow, thank god for the weekends, her landlord had given the clearance to this morning when he heard she was finally decorating and all she had to do was call for her help.
Daniel was lying in his new bed staring at his new ceiling. He had been there most of the night just staring and he awoke several hours ago but still he remained staring and watching in as many as twenty scenarios, each more ludicrous than the last, his hopes of loving Betty shattered by his own absurd psyche. She has a boyfriend, she's batting for the other team now, she's so offended by his advances she throws herself under a bus, she's pushed under a bus, she gets fired and has to go back to New York and is so devastated she vows never to look at anything to do with magazines ever again, on and on and on. He got so lost into one about her finding an underwater village that he almost missed his phone vibrating against the wooden night table. Almost. He scrambled to pick it up, not checking the caller ID.
"Betty?" Hope laced his voice and he sat up in bed for the first time in 12 hours.
"No, your mother Daniel. But speaking of Betty have you found her? Spoken to her? Told her how you feel?"
Daniel flopped back onto his pillows, "Yeah I did Mom and she said she 'had to think about it'. What does that even mean? Is it a lost cause?"
His mother had no time to answer because a rapid knocking came at his door. "Hold on Mom, somebody's at the door."
"I'll call back Daniel, alright? Just don't be calling me at all hours of the night because of the time difference, got it?"
"Yeah sure Mom. Love you," With that he hung up and trudged out of his bed not bothering to throw on sweatpants over his boxers. The knocking picked up speed and Daniel grumbled, "Yeah yeah what is… Betty?"
Betty grinned up at Daniel letting the smile transform her face, "I need help painting my apartment tomorrow, you in?"
Daniel looked back stunned at the girl, no woman, in front of him, "Uh sure Betty what time do you want me there?"
"Oh can you come over now? I'm moving around and putting together furniture and could use another pair of hands, oh," Betty finally noticed that Daniel was in a wife beater and a pair of boxers and blushed, her voice going loud now that she was uncomfortable, "I can wait a few minutes if you want to fix…" she waved a hand towards Daniel, "this."
"What? Oh! Sorry Betty I'll be right out," and he shut the door in her face.
Then just as quickly opened the door, "You'd probably want to come in."
"Yeah."
"Right. Well make yourself comfortable and I'll be right out," Daniel beckoned her in and shut the door behind her then ran off into the bowls of his apartment to find suitable labor clothes.
Betty sat down on Daniel's couch and took in her surroundings. Everything was so… dark. The walls were navy blue all the couches were black even the plates, which were sitting in the sink, were a deep purple. So unlike the furniture she just bought. Betty nibbled her lip and was just starting to really worry Daniel would hate her apartment when he barreled out in jeans and an olive t-shirt.
"Ready to go Betty?" Daniel asked walking to the door.
"Uhm yes Daniel, sure," she stood up and smoothed out her skirt. They left his apartment and Betty was daring enough to try to reach for Daniel's hand as they walked down the hallway to the elevator leading to the street, but she just grazed his hand and he shoved it into his pocket like he'd been burned. This idea was not turning out the way Betty had planned that's for sure.
The car ride to her apartment was uneventful but when they got to her place the landlord was waiting with most of her furniture in boxes in the tiled lobby, "Betty you need help getting all these boxes upstairs?"
"Nope Andrew I got the help right here," Betty gestured at Daniel as he stared at the stacks in front of him.
"Jeez Betty you buy out the store?"
"Might as well have. Let's carry these up Daniel, sound good?"
"Yeah but can we at least ask your landlord for help?" Daniel said in a hushed voice.
"Oh you big baby, fine," Betty said sarcastically, "Hey Andrew I lied we do need your help after all!"
Andrew's eyes lit up and he gave a smile, "Alright Betty that's great! Let's get these boxes up there!"
Daniel now regretted letting Andrew help. Lugging these boxes up the stairs was no picnic but did Andrew have to keep taking Betty's boxes, looking like a heavy lifter?
After getting all the boxes Andrew tried to weasel his way into Betty's apartment, "Well do you need any help building, I mean it's a huge job for just two people to do…"
"We'll be fine Andrew don't worry," Betty stated and Daniel got a little chipper inside. Yeah, take that Andrew, Betty wants my help.
Once the door was shut Betty went to change, carrying boxes was never fun, but in a skirt it was near impossible. It was nice of Andrew to keep taking the boxes from her, but she was still an independent woman.
She came out in a pair of raggedy jeans and a purely Betty t-shirt from Mexico. Daniel looked up from the directions that he pulled out from the box of what seemed to be a bookshelf and smiled at the very Old Betty outfit, "So are you ready Betty?"
Betty looked up and smiled, "Yes I am but I have something I need to say to you first."
Daniel looked up from the directions and took a deep breath, "Yeah Betty what's up?"
"You're a great man and you mean so much to me…"
"Oh. So it's gonna be this speech," Daniel heaved a sigh and stood up to leave, "You know Betty I don't need to be here for you to give me this speech."
"Now just wait Daniel, I haven't finished a sentence yet!" Betty pointed at Daniel, "Now you just stop right there, you hear me?"
"Fine. Now what do you want to say to me?" Daniel crossed his arms and stood defiantly.
"I want to say that you're a great person and you mean a lot and whenever I do something even when you were mad at me and I had just moved here I would always ask myself, 'Gee I wonder if Daniel would think this is a good move. Because the truth is that you matter to me. Your opinion matters and what you say to me matters and when we left on bad terms it crushed me inside and while I don't think I love you in that heart-stopping, soul-crushing way…I do think that… I could get there with some time."
Daniel stood there and his arms slowly uncrossed and started to walk towards Betty while she stood there looking down at the floor and wiping her hands against her jeans. Daniel got to Betty and tucked a finger under her chin, tilted her head up and Betty knew what was going to happen.
"Daniel, like I said. I'm not there yet. Please don't hate me I just can't kiss you yet. You aren't someone I've ever even thought to imagine kissing me."
"Okay Betty. I hear you, and I'll try to keep myself contained the best I can. Can I at least hug you?" Daniel took a step back from her and held his arms out as an invitation.
With relief laced into her voice, Betty sighed, "I can certainly handle a hug!"
"Thank God because if you said no I'm pretty sure that would've killed me!" Daniel said as he wrapped his arms around his best friend and, he wouldn't admit this to anybody, sniffed her a little bit, taking in the scent that was just Betty, no enhancements.
"You know Daniel Meade I'm pretty sure you're a bigger drama queen than Marc is," Betty muffled into his shoulder.
Daniel pulled back, but not letting go of Betty, "Now that is just mean. Marc's worked really hard for title of Drama Queen and for you to take that away from him? That's just rude!"
Betty laughed and took a step back, breaking the embrace, "Alright enough fun now let's go I wanna finish building this stuff before we lay down tarps for painting tomorrow."
"Wow you're a real go-getter, huh?"
"That hasn't changed, I mean I did get excellent in initiative on my performance review!"
And they spent the afternoon and most of the evening covered in plastic wrap and power tools and yellows and blues and purples. With all of the furniture finally in place and everything to Betty's liking, she turned to Daniel, "So…do you like it?"
"Betty, it's extremely you, I love it."
"Good," and for the second time that night they hugged.
When it finally ended Betty looked up into his face and opened her mouth and her stomach promptly rumbled. "Well I guess it's time for dinner. Do you wanna stay? You can pay this time and I could use your help with this magazine thing, seeing as you know a thing or two."
They chuckled and Daniel nodded, "Oh and speaking of the magazine Betty I would like to apply for your assistant position."
Betty stopped pulling out yet another take-out menu and looked at Daniel, "Really? I thought that was a joke."
"No I'm serious, I mean I wanna see if I can get by on talent alone and starting as an assistant is the way to go."
"Well if you want to Daniel, I'm taking interviews on Wednesday of this upcoming week."
"You'll see me there."
And with that they ordered a pizza and worked on the layout and articles until late into the night.
"God it's almost midnight, time for you to get home Daniel," Betty said with a yawn.
"Really? You're tired because I could stay up for a couple hours more, why don't I keep working and you go get some sleep and"
"Daniel, we talked about jumping the gun already, didn't we?" Betty shook her head with a smirk.
"Yeah we did, but it was worth a shot, right?" Daniel stood up and wiped his hands against his pants, "Well I'll see you tomorrow, huh?" They both walked to the door, "Goodnight Betty."
"Goodnight Daniel, thank you so much for all the help today! I owe you big time." And then she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, "I'll see you tomorrow Daniel."
Daniel stared at her for a few seconds, a little stunned at what had just happened, "Yeah… goodnight Betty, see you tomorrow."
"Night," Daniel walked out the door after that and Betty shut it and gave a little smile and then shuffled off to bed, grinning.
Daniel looked at the door for a few minutes after it shut, first smiling then grinning then chuckling as he thought over what had happened today. And with another soft chuckle he walked down the stairs leading from Betty's apartment.