Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter. Thank you to everyone who has left kudos.
Marc and Amanda make their appearance in this chapter because I love them both to pieces and had to get them in the story as soon as possible. Unfortunately, they are going to be a bit bitchy in this chapter because I have to write my two favorite characters, after Betty and Daniel, as close to their first season characterizations as I can. I'm surprised how different it is writing pre-series Marc and Amanda compared to writing post-series Marc and Amanda. There was definitely a lot of growth in those four years. However, the Betty effect should kick in eventually.
Some things in this chapter have been taken from the pilot episode and episode 3.2 but it's going to be different.
The Hudson offices are going to have the same layout as the Mode offices but with some more masculine touches.
Chapter 5: Don't Listen to Marc, Mandy, or Your sister
Monday, January 31, 2005
"Betty, please come out of the bathroom!" Daniel said pleading with his girlfriend on the other side of the door. She has been locked in there for the last 20 minutes since an incident with the glass doors of death in the conference room. Although, Daniel is pretty sure she was already crying when she ran headfirst into the conference room door.
According to the receptionist, that Daniel still hasn't learned the name of, Betty may have accidentally overheard Marc and his best friend, that keeps hitting on him, talking about how shocked they were at the fact that Daniel was sleeping with the girl with the ugly teeth and crazy hair. Even after rejecting her several times, Amanda has yet to realize that he was not interested because of Betty. Until last Wednesday, they were sure he was a closet case and that Betty was his cover to keep up his happy heterosexual reputation. (This rumor may have started because someone may have overheard him telling Jamie that he would sleep with Marc just to piss off Bradford if he didn't have a girlfriend.) Of course, they were wondering why he could not get a prettier person to act as his cover.
The receptionist also mentioned the fact that most of the office believed that he and Betty were having sex and that was why Jamie hired her. Considering this was Hudson, Daniel is not that surprised that this rumor was already going around, despite the fact that Betty has only been there a week and a half. Daniel could deal with those sorts of rumors (it is not like it's the first time) if actual sex was involved. Unfortunately, they were still in the not sex stage. Right now Daniel was only happy about that because he could honestly tell people that Betty's bedroom skills had nothing to do with her ability to get this job.
"No," the fact that he heard Betty sniffle broke his heart a little.
"Nobody cares that you ran into the conference room door. I think I have done it a few times myself. I may have been drunk at the time but…" he stopped when Betty cut him off.
"You're not making me feel better," she said with a sad sigh.
"I thought making a fool of myself would do that." He said with a light laugh.
"It may be helping a little." Betty said after a moment.
"I thought so." Daniel said with a smirk.
"I don't belong here. I'm just some girl from Queens who two weeks ago was clean up after cats to pay the bills. Half of the office thinks I'm only here because we're sleeping together due to Marc walking in on us Wednesday."
So it only took him three days to break Jamie's no fooling around with Betty in his office rule. He couldn't help it. Somehow Betty managed to convince a photographer that Alex pissed off a few months earlier to do a shoot just by sending him a sandwich from the old neighborhood. That called for Betty getting special "dictation" in his office. Of course, he's not used to the new door and he forgot to lock it. Marc saw him going down on Betty. That ended the speculation about him being a closet case to be replaced with the thing about Betty getting her job on her back.
"Yes you do. In addition to getting us a brilliant photographer to do our first cover shoot post Alex you managed to come up with a use for Alex's old office." Betty suggested that they should make Alex's old office the new staff lounge. The old lounge will be converted into Jamie's office. His father's willingness to pay for the renovations out of the general budget was as close to an apology as they were ever going to get.
"Also you managed to convince upcoming menswear designer James St. Jimmy to do fashion week. Marisol and Marc could not do that after weeks of groveling due to my brother also pissing Mr. St. Jimmy off." Now that he was doing more than entertaining the advertisers at strip clubs, he has realized that Alex pissed off a lot of people in this industry. Actually, he was starting to wonder if his main job was entertaining the advertisers due in part to the fact that Alex had pissed off a lot of people.
"Marc doesn't like me and that was before Wednesday even after I helped his friend with her ridiculous assignments from Wilhelmina." Daniel was sure she was blushing behind the door. She's so cute when anyone brought up anything 'not-sex' related.
"I'm sure you haven't realized this before but most people say nasty things to you because they're jealous. Those people who made fun of your teeth and called you granny panties were angry that you had a 4.0 GPA. Amanda is Amanda and I think saying mean things is how she says that she likes you. Your sister is mad at you because you got to go to college on scholarship and she had to change diapers. Marc is utilizing the rumor mill because he's frightened by you." Considering the apology and groveling that he has already received from Marc since Betty locked herself in the bathroom, Daniel was sure that was the case.
"I don't believe you," she said with another sniffle. He hated the thought of her crying. He just wanted to hug her, which was why he got down on his knees and crawled under the door.
"What are you doing?" Betty asked backing away to give him room to get inside.
"If you won't come out, I just have to come to you." Daniel said as he put an arm around her but Betty pulled away.
"What's the real reason why you're crying in the bathroom?" Daniel asked wanting to know why his girlfriend was so upset. She didn't seem like the type of person to be easily hurt by gossip.
Friday, February 21, 2005
Betty was happy when she made it to school Friday morning without seeing her former boyfriend. Her dad threatening to kill him did no good, but her sister threatening to chop off his favorite part did. Of course, this threat was only made after Hilda caught him with the skank next door but Betty was just happy that her sister was being supportive.
Her marketing class seemed to last forever, mostly because she knew she would see Daniel afterwards. The same could be said for the train ride into Manhattan. It seemed to take twice as long as it actually did but at least she had time to read the first two chapters of the Namesake for Junior English.
The meeting with HR was overwhelming but at least that snooty guy that would barely take her resume from last spring was not there. Actually, the woman was really nice and told her all about her new job. Technically, she would be Jamie's personal assistant/intern and would be doing any special project that he assigned. Right now she would be working with Jamie's regular assistant on logistics for Hudson's Five to Watch fashion show. She was going to ask Daniel what that really meant. It probably involves catering but she's not sure if models actually eat. But these were male models, so who knew.
She was a little worried when they gave her a new blackberry and laptop. She was sure that Daniel called in a special favor until the HR lady explained that because of her school schedule she was being given telework privileges. She would only be coming into the office, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays she would be working from home. She wondered what type of things they would have her do. She wondered if Jamie would let her do any writing. What would she write for a men's magazine? Granted she knew more about Hudson than Mode magazine but she still wasn't sure she could write anything for it. Betty just kept telling herself repeatedly that this will be better than cleaning up after cats especially when their angry owner's start hitting you with her purse.
It took so long that Betty was scared she was going to be late for her lunch with Daniel. She had only five minutes to get up to the Hudson offices by the time everything was over with.
The place was beautiful although Daniel was right about the mood of the office. Everyone was very somber and dressed in black, except for the guy sitting up front wearing purple talking to another girl in a short cream dress that was a little inappropriate for the workplace. Betty smiled to herself when she hears the girl talk about how editor yummy was completely ignoring her despite his reputation as a man slut as well as the crazy/impossible assignment her new boss gave her. Betty was sure 'editor yummy' was a reference to Daniel.
"Marc you have to come back. I don't think I can do this anymore. She scares me. I haven't had a piece of bread since Monday. She gave my emergency chocolate to fat Carol. She wants me to give her Botox injections and I have no idea how to get that stupid crown thing for the April cover." The woman said on the verge of tears. Betty almost felt sorry for her.
"Snap out of it Mandy. You will go back down there and give her the Botox injections and you will like it and you will figure out a way to get the crown." The guy named Marc said sort of shaking her.
"But she hates me and she scares me. You're my best friend. Getting to stare at the yummy editor is not worth ruining this." She said pleading most likely referring to her boyfriend again.
"Wilhelmina hates everyone." The man said putting an arm around her.
"I think she sort of didn't hate you. She was furious when they took you away and she's taking it out on me. All she does is talk about you." She said as she started to cry harder.
Betty was sure this conversation was going to keep going on and she decided that she needed to interrupt.
"Excuse me, can you please tell me where I can find Jamie Hunter's office?" As much as she wanted to know where Daniel was she should probably see her new boss first.
"Are you the before or maybe the in between?" The girl referred to as Mandy asked as her tears started to subside. "The outfit is ok, even if it's from a diffuse collection."
"Thank you, my boyfriend picked it out." She said sort of blushing.
"But the only excuse for hair like yours is an all week sex marathon. Considering you started blushing when you mentioned your boyfriend picked out your outfit, I don't think you're that type of girl." Mandy said looking at her deviously.
"I'm sure that was the look her boyfriend was going for." She heard Jamie joke as he approached with Daniel.
Daniel looked like he was about to kiss her but she gave him a quick look. They needed to be professional. She didn't want the entire office thinking that she only got her job because they were sleeping together, not that they were actually sleeping together but it was close enough.
"Amanda shouldn't you get back to Dragon lady. I really don't want her coming back up in an attempt to steal my new assistant." Jamie said sternly. Of course, by that point Amanda was making her way towards Daniel and placed an arm around him or at least try to. Daniel pulled away quickly and moved closer to her.
"Please don't make me go down there. She scares me. I still don't know how to get the crown thing. I would rather spend time around you and Daniel. You know I could have gone to the club last night. I'm willing to do anything involving alcohol." She said now trying to flirt with Jamie, instead of Daniel. The guy in purple was rolling his eyes.
"I promise Marisol will protect you." Jamie said putting an arm around her and leaving her to the elevator.
"What just happened?" Betty asked kind of surprised.
"That is Amanda, Marc's sort of best friend and she is a little ... I'm not sure how to describe her except that she is Amanda. She was the receptionist at Mode until Monday after a series of events resulted in Marc moving up here and Amanda being promoted to his old job. I think I told you about Wilhelmina." Daniel explained.
"I think you called her an ice queen." Betty said remembering his angry rant on the way back from the mall last week.
"Don't speak ill of my former boss, she's not evil just high maintenance. Besides the ice queen of Mode is Faye." Marc said bitterly.
"I agree." Betty heard Daniel mumble under breath.
"According to Mandy, the divine Ms. Somers has known her since she was a little girl yet she handed her over to Wilhelmina as a beautiful sacrifice. I am the first assistant that Wilhelmina Slater has had for more than three months since she became creative director at Mode. She makes everyone do something nearly impossible like get that stupid tiara and nobody has ever been able to do it. If it wasn't for her shoe habit Mandy would have left yesterday." The guy explained.
"I think that title applies to both women equally along with a few more derogatory ones. The only carbohydrates you were allowed to consume came from alcohol." Jamie said returning. "I admire you for being a good friend but can you please take her into Alex's old office the next time she gets slightly hysterical. Please remind her that I'm not interested and Daniel actually has a girlfriend." Marc actually snickered at that.
"Yes, Mr. Hunter. Although, the girlfriend thing has not stopped Mandy before. Actually, the boyfriend thing has not stopped her before." Marc said with another snicker.
"It is Jamie. Also, I'm worried that Wilhelmina may be using her to spy on what we are doing for fashion week so please don't say anything." Jamie told him with a sigh.
"Of course Mister—Jamie." Marc said quickly.
"So you're not doing all the prep work for fashion week alone, I brought in Betty Suarez to help you. She's a third-year student at Queens College majoring in business and marketing. She's also going to be helping Daniel on a few feature projects." She smiled at that.
"You're going to help me put together a fashion show?" Marc said looking at her dubiously.
"I assume that I probably will be helping you with things like ordering catering and putting gift bags together. I'm aware you have more experience than I do and I'm just here to help." She said trying to put the man at ease.
"If you knew anything about Fashion Week, you would know that nobody eats. You had to have your boyfriend dress you, who apparently has good taste for a straight guy." He said giving her a look that said you know nothing. Betty kind of agreed with him.
"Thank you." Daniel said putting an arm around her that instantly eased her fears. "Since, I'm the one choosing most of the designers, I think that's a good thing.
"You're dating her?" Marc asked as his mouth opened in shock. "That does explain her hair."
"They met at Daniel's grief support group." Jamie explained using the same cover that they have been giving to everyone else.
"People do strange things after the death of someone close. I almost had sex with a girl after my dad died." Marc said with a shiver. Daniel just glared at him. Betty actually felt pains of sympathy for the guy.
"If it makes you feel better after my mom died, I slept with a guy who I now have to have a restraining order against." She said with a smile in an effort to be comforting.
"Slightly," He said shrugging. "Now I remember why your name is so familiar. You are that girl that the prick in HR would not let into the STARS program, despite the 3.7 GPA, because of her bad wardrobe. That guy has always had bad taste, which is why he never called me back. Like Mandy said your outfit is okay but the hair needs a gallon of moisturizer and some sort of styling product. Although, I'm guessing he's responsible for that." He said pointing to Daniel who had his head in his hands. At this point, Jamie was furious and Betty was really confused.
"Also, I know the name of a good orthodontist and I'm assuming that Jamie was kind enough to get you dental." He said pointing to her teeth. Apparently that was the last straw for Jamie.
"I think we need to talk more about fashion week details in my office right now." Jamie said grabbing him by the arm. Betty could hear the screaming from the hallway as an asthma inhaler came out. The only thing she could make out was, "Do you want to scare all the competent people away to Isabella? I told you not to mention the HR thing," and "Just breathe; I can finish yelling at you once the medication kicks in."
"Daniel what is he talking about?" Betty asked Daniel in complete puzzlement. Thanks to the open layout of Hudson most people were staring at her.
"What is your favorite food to eat when you're having a bad day?" Daniel asked not answering her question.
"French fries, they are my go to food during times of stress." She told him.
"Okay, French fries it is." Daniel said as he instructed the receptionist to hold all his calls after he returned with his coat. She's sure it's a new office because there were boxes everywhere and he's not sharing with two other people like he told her about before. Thanks to the Walter situation they haven't really got to talk that much in the last week. She was very happy to have a blackberry right now.
On the way to one of the best French fry places in Manhattan, Daniel told her what Jamie would be expecting her to do. Not once did he explain what Marc was talking about until she had a very large serving of cheese fries.
"Daniel, just tell me what's going on. I'm a little worried. The last time anybody refused to tell me something until I had food was when my mother died. I'm never going to be able to eat a Snickers bar again. You're not breaking up with me?" She asked realizing that the whole situation was a little too good to be true. Mandy or whatever her name is seemed to be very interested in Daniel. She seemed more like the type of girl he would actually be in two.
"No, I'm still interested in being with you. If I thought that I could get away with it, I would take you back to my hotel room but you're not into that sort of thing." Daniel said giving her hand a little squeeze.
"Yeah but that girl Mandy was into you and would go back to your hotel room. She called me the 'before', whatever that means." Betty said eating one of her French fries.
"As I said before Amanda is kind of like that. She flirts with everyone, even Marc. Let's just say, he's more Jamie's type." Daniel said taking one of her fries as his fingers brushed hers again. He was taking her fries because he got a salad.
"Isn't everyone Jamie's type?" Betty asked enjoying the contact of his fingers.
"He doesn't date the stupid or shallow. That pretty much rules out most of the people at Mode. Don't listen to what Amanda said earlier. You're pretty and don't require airbrushing."
"What about what Marc said about me not being hired because of my wardrobe?" She asked and Daniel almost choked on his stolen French fry.
"I was hoping you would forget about that." He said taking a drink of his diet soda.
"I have an excellent memory."
"You have an excellent everything." Daniel said grabbing another one of her French fries. They were already in the habit of eating off each other's plates after knowing each other for just three weeks. Actually, she thinks he only got a salad so he could take her French fries.
"Okay, Jamie asked me to give him your resume. I didn't want to ask you, so I called a friend in HR and asked her to pull up the resume you submitted last summer. Jamie was impressed and wanted to know why we never saw your application. It turned out that there was somebody in HR who skipped out on EEO training. Despite how high your GPA was nobody received your resume for the program because the idiot decided to not forward qualified people because they didn't look the way he wanted them to. What is your GPA now? I know you said you had some problems because of your mom being sick." He asked with genuine concern.
"3.46, I have to maintain a 3.5 to keep my scholarship. Are you telling me that I wasn't hired because of the way I look. That's illegal." She blurted out, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.
"Very illegal and unfortunately you were not the only one. There was a guy from NYU with a 3.9 GPA and his resume was also put in the 'round filing cabinet' because he came to the interview in Birkenstocks and had dreadlocks. Another person's resume was only sent to Diversity Business because she utilized a wheelchair." Betty didn't know what to think of what Daniel was telling her. The fact that Daniel looked upset made Betty feel a little better.
"Does it make you feel better to know that the guy was fired after we found out what he was doing?" Daniel asked after a moment of silence.
"Just a little." She said taking another fry.
"The people that matter are going to see the real you. The people that don't see how wonderful you are don't matter." He told her trying to make her feel better but a part of Betty didn't believe him. That part sounded suspiciously like her sister.
Daniel was so tempted to kill Marc and his friend for screwing with his girlfriend self-esteem. 10 minutes with her and they have managed to undo all his good work for the last three weeks.
"I think losing an internship opportunity matters." Betty said bitterly. He could sense that she was upset. He knew that Betty would be heartbroken when she found out what happened last summer. That's why he didn't want her to find out. Unfortunately, Marc screwed up.
"Yes and the Washington Post wanted you instead. Jamie wants you at Hudson now. You're even getting to telework. I would love to do that." He said taking her French fries again. He only got a salad so he could still some of her food.
"Would you actually work?" She said as she grabbed a piece of chicken from his salad.
"With you, yes. Let's finish lunch and then we can go back to the office so I can give you the grand tour and get you up to speed." He said with a smirk. He personally was tempted to give her a tour of the steam room but he doubted they would get to do anything fun. He wanted to kiss her right now but didn't because he wasn't sure Betty could handle being all over the tabloids. He saw her face when Marc expressed his shock over their relationship.
"I think Jamie mentioned something about helping you with a shopping on a budget article."
"It was originally supposed to be a Business wear on a budget article, but Jamie is thinking about doing a welcome to the real world/workforce issue in May for recent college graduates. So it may become an article about dressing to impress on your first job interview." Daniel explained.
"So it's supposed to be dressing to impress the boss on a college student's budget article." Betty said with a slight frown.
"Exactly and since you are the only college student I know I thought you could help. I can pick you up Tuesday after your morning lecture and have you back in time for your five PM class. You can take me to that Wal-Mart place that Jamie says I must go to. Why exactly did you decide to take a class that late?" He asked confused. Daniel never took really late classes or early ones for that matter, except for writing. Those were the only type of classes that he would risk his partying schedule for.
"Because it was the only time available and a lot of the classes at Queens College are designed for commuter students who work full-time. I'll go with you but I personally think this is just some way for you to get paid to go out with me. That sounded a lot better in my head." Betty said after a moment with a laugh. His Betty was back.
When Jordan received a very detailed phone call with specific instructions not to make Betty self-conscious about her wardrobe or hair, she was 99.9% sure that Daniel Meade has finally found the one woman to take him off the competitive dating circuit for good. Personally, she felt Alex should have delayed his suicide long enough to see Daniel grow up. Unfortunately, if Alex didn't do what he did, she wondered if she would ever see this side of Daniel Meade.
Of course, Jordan was sure that the changes in Daniel were more Betty related than anything else. She made him want to try. She had something about her that made everything seem possible. So with Betty by her side she found a two-bedroom in Chelsea and therefore took the first tentative steps in creating her post Alex life. She probably could have afforded something more extravagant but growing up the way she did, Jordan did not like to spend money unnecessarily. What's the point of having a $20,000 a month apartment when you're only going to be there one week a month, if that.
"I think that went better than I thought it would." Jordan said as they sat at the karaoke pizza place three blocks away. She loved pizza but usually couldn't eat it when training. Due to the whole Alex thing, she hasn't exactly been following her training diet.
"That guy almost tried to rent you an apartment with the shower in the middle of the living room." Betty said.
"Which is why I told you to always look at the apartment first, the one across was fine. Now that I have a two-bedroom, you can come visit until your little ex-boyfriend problem is solved." Betty mentioned something about him completely ignoring the restraining order when they were looking at apartment number four of the morning. Her mom had a similar problem with one of her former boyfriend's and let's just say there's a reason why her mom was so eager to take a job in Cleveland besides the reputation of the hospital. Just like Daniel, she was a little worried about the whole Walter thing, which is why she decided to get a guest room.
"I'll think about it." Betty said putting a slice of pizza on her plate.
"Thankfully, because we found something by 2 PM, we can still make the appointment with John Luke." Jordan said grabbing her own slice.
"I assume that he is your hairdresser?" Betty asked dubiously.
"Yes but he's kind of a friend too. He's been trying to get me to come in for my husba-boyfriend died hairstyling therapy session for a couple of weeks now." She said correcting herself.
She and Alex only discussed the M word one time at Thanksgiving before everything went down. She was forced to attend a very Mead corporate Thanksgiving at Bradford's townhouse where everyone kept asking her and Alex if they were ever going to get engaged and Jamie managed to break a wine glass. She said she wasn't completely opposed to getting married but Alex freaked out and disappeared for the rest of the night. In hindsight, Jordan couldn't help but wonder if her words sent him over the edge. Was there anything she could've done to keep him from killing himself?
"You guys were together for two years. It probably felt like your husband did die. You're kind of acting a lot like my dad except…"
"I keep having sex with my dead boyfriend's boyfriend." She said taking another bite of pizza. Her trainer was going to kill her if she kept eating like this. At least, she had the good sense to order a salad and steamed vegetables. The most cardio that she's had in the last three weeks has been sex with Jamie. It happened again last night and this time she wasn't even drunk. Actually the whole thing made more sense in her sober mind because Jamie was about as close to her dead boyfriend as she was going to get.
"I'm not judging you." Betty said looking at her pizza. The strange thing was Jordan knew Betty wasn't going to judge her.
"Even I know it's not a good coping strategy. I'm sure a new hairstyle is a better way to deal with everything." Yes, having sex with Jamie was bad. Although, it was probably better than the drinking. She was currently proud of herself for drinking water with lemon instead of wine or beer. The sex with Jamie thing probably wouldn't happen again mostly because Jamie spent most of the time 'complaining' about his new assistant who keeps stopping by with food at the strangest times. Maybe they could just do the conversations with out the sex. She was starting to see why Alex liked Jamie so much. Maybe if she realized earlier, they could have come to some sort of agreement and Alex wouldn't be dead right now.
"Again, I'm not one to judge, remember Wilbur- I mean Walter. Now Daniel has me doing it." Jordan's response was to laugh.
"Maybe quality time with your friend/hair stylist will be good for you. You did invite me just for moral support and not because you hate my hair?" This question did not surprised Jordan at all. Sometime last night before they decided to use sex as a coping strategy, Jamie mentioned the whole incident with the girl who keeps hitting on Daniel and why he felt horrible about causing his new assistant to have an asthma attack.
"Is this about what Amanda said to you yesterday?" Jordan asked calmly.
"No—maybe—yes," Betty stammered out after a minute.
"Jamie said that Amanda is a nice person except she's a little… Essentially she has not learned the fine art of self-censorship and its best not to take anything she says seriously." Jordan said as opposed to directly quoting Jamie and saying that Amanda is a "sweet bitch with a good heart that hasn't yet learned that designer labels are not everything".
"So there is something wrong with my hair?" Betty asked and Jordan realized that Daniel had a right to be worried about her self-esteem.
"You're a college student who works part-time. You should see what I looked like on a workout days when I'm training for an event. Right now, it is taking all my energy to just put on lipstick. I was a disaster the first few days after..." Jordan said remembering those dark days after Alex died. She didn't even change her outfit for two days.
"I was kind of the same way. I may have borrowed a lot of things from my mother's closet. The puffy coat that Daniel doesn't like was actually hers." Jordan wanted to put her head in her hands. She was already writing Daniel a text message to lay off the puffy coat.
"It's not that he doesn't like the coat it's probably more that it doesn't fit your personality." Jordan told her with a smile.
"Daniel keeps saying that he would still like me if I was wearing a burlap sack but I don't believe him. Have you seen Amanda or that girl he took to Alex's wake? I can't compete with that. Jamie's new assistant keeps emailing me information on orthodontists and invisible braces." She said again looking at her pizza.
"Maybe Marc is just trying to be helpful and you are planning on getting braces anyway." Jordan suggested but Betty just gave her a strange look.
"Jamie says that Daniel isn't at all interested in Amanda. There's a better chance that he would sleep with Marc and that's only because he's really mad at Bradford. I'm sure Daniel told you the real reason why Bradford hired Marc." Betty's response was to laugh.
"As for Bambi or whatever her name actually was, she completely abandoned Daniel at his brother's funeral when he needed emotional support more than anything else. She also called his mother a drunken lush and a coldhearted bitch when Daniel was not around. You don't even want to know what I overheard her say about Alex in the bathroom after we spread his ashes." It was all nasty and Jordan was personally glad that Daniel let go of the girl the next day.
"Trust me, that girl may belong on the cover of Mode but I have never met an uglier person. You can't fix an ugly soul. I'm almost tempted to start singing TLC." She said remembering the song from college.
"I think the song Unpretty was what got me through junior high." Jordan smiled to herself as she remembered they were in a karaoke pizza place.
"I think you need some TLC therapy." Jordan said getting up from the table and started to drag Betty to the sign-up area.
"You want to sing?" Betty asked.
"You told me that you love karaoke. That's why you knew that there was a pizza place here." Jordan told her as they kept walking.
"That's because I was planning to take Daniel here tonight." She said blushing. That right there was the only reason why Jordan believed that the two have not gone all the way.
"I don't think Daniel's planning to let you out of his hotel room." Jordan said with a snicker as she looked over the song choice book. Fortunately, Unpretty was available.
"I doubt that- I'm not…" Betty stammered as her cheeks became the same color as her pink dress.
"The guy is painting his apartment for you. He would never do something like that for Amanda or anyone else for that matter. He likes you. You just need to believe in yourself and reciting the lyrics of TLC will help." She said dragging Betty to the stage.
At 6 PM Betty showed up to his hotel room practically bouncing with equally bouncy hair. It was a little shorter but still long enough for him to run his fingers through it. She looked good.
"I see that Jordan talked you in to actually getting your hair done." Daniel said as he gave her a quick kiss before letting her in to his hotel suite.
"It happened sometime during TLC karaoke/self-esteem therapy. I decided to try something that would be easier to take care of and John Luke gave me an entire tutorial on proper hair care." She said as she placed a giant bag from the salon on his coffee table. He assumed it contain lots of hair care products.
"TLC karaoke therapy?" Daniel said raising one eyebrow.
"Jordan made me sing the songs Unpretty and Video," she explained as she sat down on his couch.
"I don't think that is a TLC song." Daniel said sitting next to her as he placed an arm around her.
"No, we went through a lot of girl power songs. Also after a very angry rendition of Emotions, where I think Jordan finally broke through some of her issues with your brother, I did Bug A Boo. We may have worked on my Walter issues as well." She said with another blush.
"I would've loved to have seen that." He said smirking.
"Well if I didn't take Jordan to that place, I was going to take you tonight and you would've got to see that. I love karaoke." She said with that Betty bounce that he liked so much.
"We will definitely have to do that eventually but I think that's more of a group thing. We can invite Jordan and Jamie there in a couple of weeks." Betty frowned at that.
"Won't you be in Paris by that point?" She asked sadly.
"That depends on if my mom can get through a 30 day program without running again. My dad's assistant Helen called to inform me that my mom was now in a new rehab center called Forest Hills after running away yesterday." Daniel said sadly. He wanted his mom to get better. He didn't want to deal with her death too.
"I'm sorry," She said squeezing his hand.
"It's okay. I don't want to talk about it. Besides, I have to get you back to Queens in a couple of hours. We should probably have dinner." Marc was kind enough to get him reservations at a very nice Italian restaurant that wouldn't be teaming with paparazzi. He wants to keep their relationship quiet for a little while. Betty was already having to deal with Wilbur stalking her, she didn't need fashion TV doing the same.
"I thought you were going to show me some of those things that you couldn't write because my nephew has a tendency to read all my emails." Betty said as she kissed him in a way that made him very happy that she was wearing a dress. Daniel was a little shocked at how aggressive she was being but he liked it. Just a couple weeks ago she was freaking out about him trying to have phone sex with her.
"Good plan. Although, I'm not used to girlfriends that actually eat but don't you actually want to eat." He said reflectively pulling away.
"You know I've always wanted to try room service at a big fancy hotel." She said being bouncy again.
"Room service it is." He said as he returned to kissing her. Okay, his hand may have been halfway up her skirt within 10 seconds. He was starting to enjoy this not sex stuff of her, especially when room service brought up with cream, hot fudge, and ice cream. She actually was into the human Sunday thing.
Betty was hoping to sneak back into her bedroom when she got back to Queens at 11:30. Unfortunately, someone was waiting for her. Fortunately, it wasn't her overprotective father or sister but rather her nephew.
"Where were you? I wanted to see your new hair. How long does apartment shopping really take?" Justin said half asleep from the couch.
"A really long time, especially when the person you're shopping with is trying to avoid any neighborhood that reminds her of her dead boyfriend. Shouldn't you be in bed?" She asked.
"Shouldn't you or at least be studying?" He said crossing his arms.
"I will have you know I did most of my reading last night after I got home from Hudson." The new laptop was a godsend. She no longer had to share the old computer in the living room with everyone. Homework would be a lot easier now.
"Is that chocolate sauce?"Justin said pointing to the stain on her dress. She just hoped that he didn't notice any of the other 'stains' on her dress.
"Ice cream may have been involved at some point. You know I'm a messy eater. I came home covered in cheese sauce yesterday." Why did she let Daniel talk her into eating ice cream off of his stomach? Oh, yes, because a little tiny traitorous part of her mind was afraid that if she didn't do something like that he would go straight for Amanda. It went pretty well despite her burning him with hot fudge. Apparently, Daniel likes a little pain.
"I'm 10, not three. I'm pretty sure that stain is not chocolate." Justin said with a shiver. "Also, I don't think the guy at the salon gave you a I-just-got…" Betty gave him the look. "I wasn't going to say that word. I was just going to say I-just-got-out-of-bed-hair."
"No, you weren't. You're too young to know that word." Betty said in horror. Her 10-year-old nephew should know nothing about sex.
"I go to public school in Queens. What do you think we talk about at lunch? Maria Martinez told me it's possible to get pregnant without actually having sex sex because it happened to her sister. So you may want to be careful with those stains on your dress." Despite that being ridiculous, Betty was mortified. Betty was pretty sure her sister tried to say that's what happened when she got pregnant with Justin.
"I don't think I can get pregnant that way." She said with a blush as she just essentially admitted that she did certain activities with Daniel that led to the non-chocolate stain on her dress. "It's probably not best to get your answers to your sex questions from Maria or anyone else other than your mom or grandpa."
"I'm sure I can get the answers to my questions from you because apparently you've been having a lot of practice." He said pointing at her dress again. "Did you have fun with Daniel?"
"I'm not answering that question. You are 10 years old." Betty said that first before remembering that Hilda got pregnant with Justin at 16 and maybe she shouldn't just dismiss Justin's questions because it made her uncomfortable. She really did not want to become a great aunt before 30.
"But if you have questions and you don't feel comfortable talking to grandpa or your mom, you can come to me." She told him sincerely.
"My friend Jake says it's weird that I like shopping and said that I'm kind of gay." She frowned at that. She thought of Alex at that moment. Did people say that sort of thing to him growing up? Was that why he committed suicide and covered up his relationship with Jamie?
"Jake probably isn't your friend if he says stuff like that. My new boss Jamie is pansexual and he's a really great guy. Jordan likes to jump out of airplanes and swim across the English Channel and she dated Daniel's brother for two years. What you like doesn't determine who you are and who you sleep with doesn't either." Betty explained, thinking that maybe she should take her own advice.
"Are we going to hug? Because you're still covered in that substance I don't want to think about." He said pointing to her dress again. Betty is never going to live this down.
"Not right now. You probably will want to hug me when I let you know that Daniel said that you can help us next week with the article he's doing about dressing for success on a budget. There may be shopping involved." That's when Justin hugged her despite his earlier misgivings.
"Thank you, thank you." He said quickly before he started staring at her neck. "Do you know that you have bite marks on your neck?" He said pulling away, slightly creeped out again.
"I don't want to answer that question," she said blushing.
"You may want to wear a turtleneck tomorrow." Justin said with all too innocent of a voice.
"You threw away all my turtlenecks." She said referring to the purging that Justin did on her closet earlier this week. If Daniel did not take her shopping last weekend she wouldn't have hardly anything to wear. (Considering she just found out she missed out on an internship because of her wardrobe, maybe it would be good if she started dressing more professional.)
Justin was kind enough to leave the little mermaid pajamas for sentimental reasons as well as a few other things from her mother. She would've been furious if it wasn't for the fact that Justin was blackmailing her with the fact she was dating New York's most fashionable bachelor. She wanted her father to at least know Daniel before he started threatening him with bodily harm.
"Because they were covered with snow people and Christmas trees. You have a couple of very nice black and cream ones in your closet that came from your boss Jamie with a card that said sorry Marc is an idiot." She smiled at that.
"The card also said that you're probably going to need them if Daniel is anything like his brother. How would he know that if Jordan was the person dating Daniel's brother?" Betty went scarlet at that before running up the stairs as fast as possible. That was one question she didn't want to answer.
As much as he tried, Daniel cannot help but laugh.
"I think I did something like that to Alex one time." He was starting to see that the relationship between Betty and Justin was more like a big sister and little brother relationship then an aunt and nephew one.
"Daniel, it's not funny." She chastised. Daniel was just happy she wasn't crying anymore.
"It is a little should've told me this last week. Although, I'm kind of worried that you pretty much just told me that we went as far as we did because you're worried about me ditching you for Amanda or somebody like Bambi. I like you and we are going at this at your pace. No one has ever died of blue balls." He told her pulling her close to him. He wanted to punch out whoever was responsible for her seeing herself this way.
"I didn't say that. I said I may have been a little bit more aggressive because of that. It was my sister that said I am only having sex with you because I think that's the only way I will keep you. Actually, she said it the other way around." Betty may have mumbled something else but he didn't hear her.
Daniel is not surprised Hilda said something like that. Their first meeting did not go well at all, despite bringing a television set. She kept bringing up the age difference and essentially accused him of using Betty as a quick fuck and she didn't even know about his crappy reputation.
Obviously, Betty never told her sister what Wilber said after Betty discovered him screwing around on her but before he became obsessed. He was sure he was never going to have a very good relationship with Betty's sister. That may be because when Betty wasn't around he may have said something like, "Unlike your son's father, I'm not going to run away if the condom breaks, so stop acting like I will." Considering the icy glares he received the rest of the night, that was probably the wrong thing to say.
In contrast, Betty's father actually liked him. Though, again that may have something to do with bringing him a television set. It was not a big deal because it was Alex's and they were going to give it to charity anyway.
During their second meeting, just after he dropped Betty at home Friday after work and a quick dinner, Hilda called him several Spanish curse words that he still hasn't looked up yet. The hostility was probably caused by the fact that she caught him making out with Betty on her front porch but that was no excuse. Let's just say Daniel was happy that Betty and Justin met him in town Saturday afternoon.
"What exactly has your sister been saying to you?" He asked after a moment but Betty just stiffened in his arms and said nothing. "Regardless of what she actually said, I can tell you right now its complete shit. You need to stop listening to her, because she's just jealous."
"Hey are you guys done having sex in here? I really need to pee." Daniel heard Amanda ask and he can't help but roll his eyes.
"We are not having sex. Please stop spreading those rumors about us because they are not true." Daniel said opening the door and dragging Betty behind him. "Why are you not upstairs?"
"Kenny from accounting is sneaking into the ladies bathrooms again at Mode and Marc said I needed to bring up something from my new emergency supply of chocolate because we made the chubby one cry and his new favorite crush is mad at him." Daniel was sure she was talking about Marc having a crush on Jamie. He's not really that surprised.
"I'm sorry for what you overheard me and Marc say even after you helped me get the tiara which Wilhelmina did not use." Amanda said giving her a box of very nice chocolate. "Your hair is much nicer now and the sex must be really good if you and Daniel are in the bathroom together. I shouldn't have said it and I'm sorry but this doesn't mean we're friends. Also, I will stop trying to actively sleep with your boyfriend. Jamie is hotter, even if Marc is so in love with him already. I wonder if they would do a threesome?" Betty took the box from her tentatively.
"Apology accepted and thank you for no longer trying to sleep with my boyfriend." Daniel personally thinks that Betty is only accepting the apology because she's Betty. Daniel just wanted to know exactly what they said to send Betty hiding in the bathroom. He is sure there's more to the story.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Betty was exhausted after a very long day of snide comments and whisperers, despite helping Amanda get a tiara for a magazine that was not Hudson in between classes the day before, in addition to all her other duties. Jamie asked her to help because he was really tired of Amanda coming to his or Daniel's office to cry. Betty recognized the curator* from the cancer ward and they were able to borrow the crown for the photo shoot for a large donation to the hospital in memory of the curator's recently deceased daughter. The Museum will also be featured in an upcoming issue of Hudson which was Amanda's suggestion. Despite what happened that day, all she could hear was people in the elevator talking about how she got her job on her back. Apparently, Marc told everybody about what he saw Wednesday. She was starting to realize that Meade Publication was as vicious as high school with just as much gossip.
She almost forgot about what everybody was saying about her during her very nice dinner with Daniel until her sister accosted her after she caught her making out with Daniel on the front porch and called Daniel several nasty things in Spanish that she is not repeating.
"He's just using you. You're just a means to get off to him. He's only with you because you're letting him fuck you." Her sister said harshly as she slammed the door to Betty's room. At least, she was kind enough not to say anything until they were away from her father.
"Daniel is not like that." Betty said as she sat on her bed.
"Guys like him don't go for girls like you." Her sister said something like that Sunday too and has repeated it multiple times this week. Jordan told her not to pay attention, but it still hurt to hear her sister say something like that. Jordan also offered Betty her new guest room just in case Betty was tired of dealing with her sister.
"You mean girls with bad hair and bad teeth? Obviously, I'm the ugly sister that nobody would be interested in as a person and therefore Daniel is only interested in me because I'm spreading my legs. Do you really think so little of me?" Betty asked trying to keep the tears out of her eyes.
"So why exactly did you come back home tonight and last Saturday so late? I'm sure you guys were just playing checkers." Her sister asked not answering her question or maybe in a roundabout way she did. That told Betty that her sister really did see her that way.
"It's not that late. I had dinner with Daniel before he drove me home and I spent most of last Saturday with friends." It was sort of true. Daniel was a friend. Hilda's response was to laugh.
"Justin may not have known what those stains were Saturday but I did." Betty almost said yes your son did know what those stains were but kept silent on the matter.
"I'm so tired of you telling me that I'm not worth somebody like Daniel. He is not who you think he is and I don't have to settle because I'm not beautiful like you. The guy that you wanted me to go back to after I caught him cheating is the reason why we had to change our phone number. Despite the restraining order, I'm pretty sure I saw him staring out the next-door neighbor's window when I was with Daniel on the porch. Daniel was the one who helped me find a lawyer to deal with the Walter thing." Betty said as tears pricked her eyes.
"And we both know how you're expected to pay him back." She spat out bitterly.
"Daniel and I haven't had sex and it wouldn't matter if we did because I will be 21 in less than three months. I've been past the age of consent for a long time. Don't hate him because of what you've been through. Just because the condom broke and Justin's father is a horrible person, does not mean that you need to take it out on me." Betty said practically screaming.
"I'm trying to protect you because he will leave you the exact same way." Betty's response was to walk out of her bedroom and locked herself in the bathroom. She was so tired of this. She cried until her phone started to ring. She was hoping it was Daniel but it was actually Jordan. She quickly told Jordan everything. Jordan again reminded her not to listen to her sister.
"I do have my guest room setup if you need it." Jordan told her sincerely. Betty was seriously considering that especially in light of the fact she keeps running into her ex-boyfriend.
"I think that might be a good thing for at least a few days."
To be continued
*Because this takes place more than three years before the events of Filing for the Enemy I figured it wouldn't be practical for the tiara situation to play out the same way. That is why I decided that Betty and Amanda would deal with a different curator this time around.
A/N: Because I have a little less than two months left to finish Starfleet Family Values before the new film comes out I'm going to be putting this story on the back burner for a while. It may be a couple weeks before there is an update. I will try to get something out before I go on vacation but I will not make any promises.