Betty and Becks made there way down the street and hailed a cab. Becks held the door for her and slipped in beside her. "Spring and Thompson " Becks told the driver
"Soho? You know I only have an hour right?" Betty's voice was a bit edgy
"Yeah, well if your 20 minutes late it won't be a big deal. This place serves pretty fast."
"Where are we going?" she looked at him suspiciously.
"Bistro Les Amis, best french food in Soho." he grinned at her "you'll like it."
"The one time I had french food I thought it was disgusting." she was thoroughly annoyed. Why did she agree to this? Sighing she resigned herself to stare out the window.
"Where and what did you eat?" he asked
"Some where on Park, with Daniel I don't remember the name. He ordered escargot, yuck. I didn't eat it, I stuffed it into my napkin." Betty was laughing now.
"No wonder your afraid of french food. For your information, I don't eat escargot. I will eat about anything, but there is something nasty about snails. Trust me Betty, I'll order you something you like. Give it a chance, better yet give me a chance. He was close to her now looking down at her. Betty burst-ed out laughing.
"OK, fine. Does that look actually work on anyone?"
"On everyone, or so I thought." he smiled at her and for the first time it was sincere.
Becks paid the cabby and they made their way into the restaurant. The hostess looked up at the ans smiled.
"Mr. Scott, so nice to see you. Right this way.'' she lead them to a table towards the back.
She handed them two menus and walked away.
"Come here often, I see."
"Yep, like I said best french food in Soho. I live a few blocks away so I eat here pretty often." Becks didn't even look at his menu. He reached over and snatched Betty's menu out of her hand. She looked up at him surprise evident on her face.
"How am I supposed to order with out a menu?"
"Your not, trust me, I think I know what you'll like." A waiter approached them filled their glasses with water and asked if they were ready to order.
"Mike, I didn't know you worked lunch." becks said to the man
"I usually don't but I'm covering for Freddy." Becks motioned towards Betty
"Mike this is a friend of mine Betty." Mike smiled and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you, its about time Mr. Scott here dinned with a woman. So,what can I get you?" Betty looked over a Becks a little shocked.
"OK, she'll have the Croque Monsieur with with frites and for me the steak and frites, rare please."Becks handed him the menus.
"OK, what did you order for me?" Betty was feeling a bit out of sorts. Becks wasn't so bad, in some ways he reminded her of Daniel.
"I ordered you a Croque Monsieur." He said smiling at her
Betty laughed "I know that, I heard you order. What is it?"
"Ham and cheese sandwich." he said laughingly
Betty laughed along with him.
"So tell me, why has your day been so bad?" he asked
"It's nothing, I think I made a bigger deal of it than I should have." she shrugged her shoulders.
"Either way I'd like to know. You know give you and outside perspective." he looked sincere. Why not she thought, it can't hurt.
"Well Daniel and I got into an argument." she proceeded to tell him everything that transpired. Becks listened without interrupting. The waiter brought them their food,asked if they needed anything else and quickly walked away.
"This is a ham and cheese?" she said looking at her plate
"Sure is, did I mention the cheese is melted on the top of the bread."
"No you didn't." she picked up a fork and knife and cut through the sandwich "It's very good." she said surprised.
"I had a feeling you'd like it. Simple but with an edge, kind of like you." he said while chewing his steak.
Betty rolled her eyes "Oh Brother, are you ever not cheesy?" she was smiling though.
"I don't know, never been called that before. By now the woman is eating out of my hands. Your refreshingly different."
"Thanks, I think. I take it you don't bring women here often." she said
"What makes you think that?" he was devouring his food, his eyes only leaving his plate for a few seconds at a time.
"Well, Mike said it was nice to see you dinning with a woman." Becks looked up at her and smiled.
"Your right, I don't bring dates here because I like this place. I come here at least four times a week. This is my personal place, somewhere I can be alone."
"So why did you bring me here?" she was in awe, Becks was human, who knew.
"Well for starters, I know your not gonna show up here everyday hoping to accidentally run into me, so you can cry to me about my not calling you. Also, I'm pretty sure that no matter how hard I try, your not gonna blow off work to accompany me home. And I guess I wanted to try something new, I must say, we have had decent conversation. I've enjoyed myself. But if you change your mind about the sex, I'm down." His cocky smile was back in place. Betty couldn't help but smile back.
"Nope, no sex. But I agree the company wasn't bad." she give him a wide smile.
"I'd say the company was great." he said to her. The waiter brought the bill and even though Betty offered to pay her part, Becks was having none of that. He took care of the bill, shook Mikes hand, and helped Betty into her coat before walking out and hailing a cab.
"Meade Building." he told the cab driver.
"So, Betty." he turned to look at her "Would you be interested in doing this again?"
"Like a date?" she seemed a bit puzzled.
"well yeah, or as friends if that's what you want." he looked disappointed.
"Friends is good, see my boyfriend just left to Africa. I still miss him, he hasn't been gone long. I don't think I'm ready to date, but I wouldn't mind having a new friend."
Becks smiled at her "Friends it is, for now. I mean if you ever change your mind, just say the word."Betty giggled no matter what Becks will be Becks. She dug through her handbag looking for her phone to check the time. She noticed she had a few calls from Daniel. She listened to the message he left her and decided to call him back.
"Who are you calling?" Becks asked
"Daniel, he said it was urgent." Betty held the phone to her ear waiting for him to pick up.
"Daniel, what happened?" Daniel asked her where she was
"I'm in a cab, on my way back from lunch." she decided not to mention Becks after all he asked where she was not with whom. He asked to see her to pass by his office when she returned. "OK" was all she said.
"Everything OK?" becks asked
"I think so, he was very vague. All he said is he needed to talk to me when I got back."
All of a sudden Betty looked worried.
"Relax, its probably no big deal. We are almost there, while you go in and get settled I'll pop in and pay him a visit. By the time you get to him, he'll be calmed down." The cab pulled up to the building,again Becks refused any money from her. They walked in while in the elevator Becks realized he liked her. She was the first woman he could have a conversation with. "Hey, you know I would really like to read your blog. Will you write down the website for me."
Betty smiled at him "Sure". She dug through her purse for her pen & pad and scribble the website.
"I'd love to hear your thoughts after you've read it." she never thought she would want to his thoughts on anything. However today she realized there was a lot more to Becks than what met the eye.
"Count on it." once again giving her a flirtatious smile.
Once out of the elevator Betty walked to her office, while Becks made his way to Daniels.
Daniel was pacing when Becks stormed through his door "Danny-Boy, long time."
"What the hell were you doing with Betty?" Daniel asked obviously mad.
"Having lunch, other than that we weren't doing anything." Becks couldn't help but smile.
" I know you were having lunch and I know Betty wouldn't do anything more with you. My question is why Betty? You never liked her remember, said she was a bad influence on me." Daniels angry expression didn't change.
"Dude that was like two years ago. Anyhow she's cool, we had a nice time. If she wasn't on the rebound I'd definitely try to get her to date me. But as she put it we'll just be friends." Becks was sincere, Daniel knew him well enough to tell he wasn't lying. However that just made Daniel feel worse.
"Friends? You don't know how to be friends with a woman. And Betty isn't the type you play with. So do us both a favor and just leave her alone." Now Becks was angry.
"You know what Daniel, your not the only one who can change. And who are you to tell me to leave her alone? If she doesn't want to talk to me she wont. Stop acting like I'm trying to steal your girlfriend. If you care so much about her then why aren't you apologizing instead of yelling at me." Daniel was shocked
"She told you we had an argument?" he didn't know why, but he felt betrayed. Daniel sat down and rubbed his face.
"Whats going on with you?" Becks was worried about him, he looked dejected.
"I really messed up, Becks. I let Wilhelmina get to me and I took it out on Betty. To top that off I still haven't found time to read her blog, even-though I told her I had. Now she's pissed off at me and she has all the reason to be.'' Becks knew what was really going on, even if Daniel wouldn't say. He had a thing for Betty, but if Daniel wasn't going to come out and say neither was he. He wasn't about to get that ball rolling, as much as he loved Daniel like a brother, he wanted a chance to get to know Betty. Becks put his hand on his shoulder.
"Talk to her, from what I can tell she considers you a good friend. She'll forgive and forget. I'd read her blog first, before you try apologizing, you know in-case she quizzes you." Becks laughed
Daniel felt a bit better "Your right, tomorrow I'll talk to her during lunch." Daniel looked straight at becks "We always go to lunch on Wednesday."
"Point taken, I wont drop in tomorrow." Becks slapped him on the shoulder and walked out. Daniel can have his Wednesday lunch with Betty, but he decided to call Betty later and make plans for Thursday. Becks smiled as he made his way home.