Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. Also, thank you to everyone who gave well wishes for my mother. Her surgery went well. As predicted, I wasn't able to work on any new material when spending way too much time in hospitals. However, I wrote the draft of this chapter before I left and managed to proofread it on the train back to DC.
Chapter 25: Wicked Schemes of Mice and Faye Somers-Suarez
On his first Monday as co-EIC of MODE US, Daniel was going over ideas for the December issue with Marc in the office that was formerly occupied by Faye Somers. Yes, it was disconcerting to now occupy an office where he's pretty sure his predecessor had relations with his father, but Wilhelmina hated the fact that he had this office. Because of that, Daniel was willing to do anything to one up Wilhelmina, even if it means occupying an office that he finds slightly creepy or pretending that he still had no idea that Alex was his son. Besides, Lysol can deal with a multitude of sins.
Mind games were pretty much a normal part of his stint as Wilhelmina's co-EIC. He knew that going in. He expected nothing less of a woman who blackmailed a scared 21-year-old into breaking up with him by threatening the life of her unborn child. However, Daniel is certain that she never expected him to fight back.
Wilhelmina was supposed to be there to criticize every single one of Marc's ideas and completely undercut Daniel's authority. But according to Nico, she was terrorizing the accountants for refusing to pay for her Botox injections. Amanda's boyfriend was wonderful, especially when he had the brilliant idea to have the most uptight member of the numbers people audit Wilhelmina's expense account for the last three years. Nico was kind enough to make sure this meeting could only happen during this time slot. At least this way Daniel could talk to Marc without his former boss glaring at him.
Daniel was also happy for the reprieve from the games and always having to be on mentally. For the first 48 hours Wilhelmina was trying to be nice to him, Okay, Wilhelmina tried to trick him into doing a dominatrix and leather filled shoot for Fabia Cosmetics in the guise of trying to help Daniel find his footing at MODE. Daniel did not fall for it at all. In addition to Faye's warning, he was used to these sort of games after more than a year in Paris and recognized it right away because Claudette and the big boss had been playing it for months.
Claudette and the Paris EIC pretty much hated each other because she refused to let Claudette take any time off to spend with Lucy during the last few months. Worst of all she did not let Claudette leave a shoot early so she could be with Lucy when she passed. Honestly, the woman barely allowed Daniel to leave, and that's only because his mother is technically the woman's boss. As a result of her lack of compassion, Claudette has been subtly sabotaging her work by suggesting silly ideas or feeding the woman bad Intel about potential advertisers.
Because of Claudette, he can recognize what Wilhelmina was trying to do. Unlike his former big boss in Paris, Daniel knows enough to realize he's being lied to. He knew all about the car crash, and, therefore, knew that Wilhelmina's original idea would be a disaster and at best, something more suitable for the pages of Player. After more than a year at MODE Paris, he was well aware that her proposal for the shoot was completely wrong for MODE and Marc agreed with him. That led to the end of the fake niceness and the first of many shouting matches between the other EIC. Daniel and Marc came up with something else that fit more with what the cosmetic company needed.
In the end, their idea was scrapped because Alex managed to escape the daycare and was caught playing around with the makeup right before the presentation. Considering Alex is just starting to learn to walk he thinks that Amanda may have helped her nephew get to their floor, but he has no proof. Fabia loved the idea of mother and baby playing around with the makeup.
Marc also had the idea of using cute babies for January's New You Makeup Makeover section, because who doesn't love cute babies covered in blush (except for the poor person in charge of cleaning upset baby). They even got fame baby photographer Margarita (the woman only needed one name) to do the issue. Margarita never does Fashion magazines after an infamous incident with a certain Vogue EIC sometime during the 90s. She finds the genre overly pretentious, but she was willing to do it for the chance to photograph Faye Somers-Suarez's grandson for her 2007 baby calendar. Wilhelmina was not happy with either of these coups. In addition, Betty was not entirely happy that her child was becoming a baby model but went along with it for the sake of the magazine.
After the photo shoot disaster, she switched tactics and started pumping Nico for information about Daniel's weaknesses. However, Daniel's secret assistant was only giving her harmless information or deliberately misleading her. Wilhelmina was trying to get on Nico's good side, due to the fact the 16-year-old now held a 5% stake in Meade Publications and Bradford left her a sizable trust fund (low 7 figures) and they decided that they should use that to their advantage.
Daniel was worried about Nico spending so much time around a woman, who obviously only sees her as a piggy bank. She insisted that she would be their inside woman and nothing he could say to her would convince her otherwise.
That meant that he and Nico would be having minimum contact with each other for the foreseeable future. Daniel understood, but DJ was not happy about losing his best friend. It was another thing that made him feel like the world's worst parent.
It was hard losing another friend, even if it was only going to be temporary. Things with him and Jamie and Jordan were still complicated. They went with him to Coney Island Saturday to help secure advertisers for MODE and Hudson, but Daniel was positive that the whole thing would have descendent into absolute chaos without DJ and the advertisers playing buffer.
He loved them both, it's just they did not trust him with the Alex or Alexis secrets and he wasn't sure what to do. He doesn't know how to express what he feels right now. He wants his friends back, but everything is just so complicated and his emotions are still raw.
He's still not sure if the Betty situation was better or worse, although it was equally complicated, just maybe in a different way. They were talking by text message and work-related emails, but that was about it. He doesn't know what to say to her, and he wasn't even sure anymore how to start a conversation with her that's not about work or Alex.
But the truth is, they're not even talking about Alex, at least not in the way they should. Daniel is sure that she knows that he knows that Alex is his son, even though he's playing dumb for Wilhelmina. It's obvious that she does because she made him one of Alex's emergency contacts at daycare and she will let him spend time with Alex whenever he wants.
She even allowed him to take Alex to Coney Island alone last weekend. Of course, she didn't ask to come with him and he didn't invite her. It was probably for the best because it would have just made things too awkward, despite the advertisers being there.
But they haven't sat down and had that talk. For all, he knows she could still be under the impression that he's completely clueless about Alex. For the past week, he's been playing the role of "Uncle Daniel" in front of Wilhelmina perfectly. It's imperative to the plan (and more importantly, for Alex's safety) that Wilhelmina still think that he was unaware of Alex's paternity.
Wilhelmina's manipulations were another thing that they were not talking about. Okay, honestly they were avoiding each other. If she entered the room, he left. Even the night that Faye invited both over to dinner, Betty had plans with her friends Tim and Chloe and couldn't be there.
The most time they spent together was when they were trying to convince Margarita to work with MODE. That almost turned into a disaster when Daniel almost blew up, but Alex saved the day with his cuteness. In the end, Margarita agreed to work with MODE because she saw how much they loved their son and each other (in addition to wanting to photograph Faye's grandson). Neither, he nor Betty corrected her.
In a way, he was glad that Betty had classes this afternoon and would not be with her boss for this meeting. Okay, even though Ruth was not an actual administrative assistant she was smart enough to schedule this meeting with Marc when Betty would not be present. For her last semester, Betty had afternoon classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and would be leaving the office by 1 PM each day. Daniel is pretty sure most of his meetings with Marc would be happening when Betty was in class for the foreseeable future.
Daniel found it a little weird that he was getting along so well with his creative director. Just like everyone else close to him, Marc knew for over a year that Alexis Summers was the person formally known as Alex Meade. Maybe it didn't hurt so much because he and Marc only had a professional relationship. Technically, he was Daniel's assistant for a few weeks before he moved to France.
Then maybe it was a case of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They both wanted to take Wilhelmina down by any means necessary and the only way to do this was to work together. Marc was smart and knew what he was doing. He was also very blunt and pointed things out when Daniel did stupid things. Today's stupid thing was pulling Alex out of daycare so he could sit in on their afternoon meeting as soon as Betty was gone for the day (Alex preferred to eat lunch in his office, anyway).
"You do realize that that if you keep pulling baby Suarez out of daycare for "Uncle Daniel" playtime, even Wilhelmina is going to figure out that you know that you are Alex's father." Marc gestured at the toddler playing in the corner, post-lunch.
"You know that I know?" Daniel asked incredulously and Marc gave him this look as if he thinks he's an idiot. Although he sees that look a lot less lately, he remembers it from the pre-DJ days very well.
"Everybody but Betty and Wilhelmina know that you know that Alex is your child. The shallow half of the office thinks that you're keeping the child on the down low because Betty is not supermodel pretty. The other half of the office that has worked with Betty thinks that she is keeping it a secret, because she doesn't want people to think that she got her job on her back, even if anybody that knows Betty knows that is not the case. Thankfully for you, Wilhelmina severely underestimates your intelligence and is convinced you are a bleeding heart, who adores babies because you feel guilty for missing his own son's early years." Marc snickered. Apparently, Nico was doing her job well.
"Betty still doesn't think I know?" He ignored the Wilhelmina thing. He doesn't care that Wilhelmina Slater thinks that he's stupid. He did get straight A's in all his writing classes (even if he'd barely bothered to show up for any other classes). That assumption of hers can be quite useful.
"She lets me hang out with Alex whenever I want. I am one of his emergency contacts. Are you sure?"
"That doesn't mean anything. I am also an emergency contact for baby fashionista. Betty is very trusting." Marc shrugged.
"You're also her best friend and her boss." Daniel said pointedly.
"We're not friends." Marc denied.
"Okay, we are friends but she is more Cliff's friend than my friend. Okay, we're friends." Marc finally acknowledged. "I don't know how it happened but once the little churro gets a hold of you she doesn't let go."
"She's like that." He said with a smile.
"At this point, I think it's just pure denial. She expects you to yell at her for keeping Alex's paternity from you. The fact that you turn a section of your office into Alex Playland doesn't exactly correlate with this idea she has in her mind."
"I have not turned a part of my office into Alex's Playland." He says defensively. Marc just points his hand at the collection of stuff animals lining the floor.
"Those are DJ's toys." Marc just gave him a look at that.
"Well, DJ did pay for most of them. He likes having a little brother." Daniel told him with a shrug as he heard a commotion outside his office.
Look, I don't care if Mr. Meade is in a meeting, Ms. Slater wants him to sign these right away." He heard Nico said a little loudly.
"She is calling her Ms. Slater." Marc asked incredulously.
"Probably because it beats the alternative," Daniel said as he opened his door.
"Nico is always allowed in." He told Ruth quietly, so no one else would overhear.
"Not if Betty is in there, I'm too young to walk in on something like that." Nico smirked as she walked into his office. Daniel quickly shut the door before behind her.
"There is nothing like that going on with me and Betty." He told her defensively.
"At the moment, anyway." Marc said pointing to Alex and Daniel just rolled his eyes.
"Which is just a shame because maybe if you guys were doing something in your office, we all would not be exposed to all this sexual tension."
"Nico," Daniel admonished.
"Just because I'm 16 doesn't mean I am innocent. I'm only six years younger than your girlfriend and only four years younger than her when you've got together and made that adorable little heartbreaker." She said this in a way that made him feel like a dirty old man.
"Why are you here?" Daniel asked as he crossed his arms.
"I thought you were supposed to keep your distance from Danny boy, otherwise mommy dearest will get angry."
"Hiding from Carlo." She said with a shiver as she sat on Daniel's desk. "He is so creepy. He's making me track down lavender goat's milk and almond baby butter for Friday's shoot.
"I didn't even think that particular pop superstar/supermodel ate food." Daniel said incredulously.
"None of the Models eat Daniel, at least in this country." Marc said with a shake of his head. "You were spoiled by the French models. Those are beauty treatments. Deidra from makeup can help you out."
"Duly noted," she smirked. "Wilhelmina is okay if I hang out with you now. Actually, I think she's planning on making me your assistant again. Carlo is threatened by my presence."
"Which explains why he is sending you on a wild goose chase for obscure beauty products. Really, you would think that he would come up with something more creative." Marc remarked.
"I doubt that's the only reason she is making you my assistant again."
"I may have convinced her that the wonderful Ruth is the secret of your success and without her, you would fail miserably." Nico smirked and Daniel wasn't surprised at all.
"She never did look over your portfolio of work from MODE Paris?" Marc asked dubiously.
"No. I'm not even sure she's familiar with your writing work from Hudson." Nico confirmed as she got up from Daniel's desk.
"So she's planning on you being her double agent?" Marc asked dubiously.
"Exactly. Although I think at this point it's a triple agent. I'm okay because I get to play with Alex now." She said walking over to the one-year-old. At this point he was willing to do anything that would get her away from Wilhelmina, even for a little bit.
"You can't be serious. You were the one who started claiming your little plastic surgeries as business expenses. I learned that trick from you." A furious Wilhelmina Slater told her as she sat with her, Claire, and Harry or something from accounting. Honestly, she couldn't bother to remember.
The only member of accounting she knew by name was Kenny and that was because the man was sleeping with her daughter. Other than his pension to sneak into the ladies bathroom because it's cleaner and he is a little germ-o-phobic, she has yet to find fault with the man. Unfortunately, she was working with Harold or something, because it would be too obvious to Wilhelmina if her daughter's boyfriend were the one auditing the MODE accounts.
Honestly it doesn't even matter because all the infractions were real. They knew it would be because she's known for years that Wilhelmina has gone over budget because of creative accounting. Unfortunately, she could never say anything. At first, it was because Wilhelmina threatened to go to the press about Amanda. You could convince her to do many things if you put Amanda at risk. It was one of the reasons why she is probably the least mad at Betty for not telling anyone about being blackmailed. (Oh, she was angry, but mostly at Wilhelmina.)
Once she knew about her affair with Bradford, she used that. Faye never cared if Claire knew the truth. Actually, she wanted her to know the truth. Maybe part of her felt that if Claire knew what her husband was doing; she would actually leave him. She did eventually, but not until a little French boy stole her heart and made her realize that she had to stop drinking and she couldn't do that if she stayed in a toxic marriage with Bradford. However, Faye did not want anyone to think that she got her job on her back. She earned MODE through blood, sweat, tears, and giving up her only daughter to be raised in suburbia without her.
Once, Amanda knew the truth and she lets go of Bradford for good, Wilhelmina was the one with her hooks in him. At that point, it didn't matter if Wilhelmina was putting her Botox on the company card, because Bradford would paid for it regardless. The man never gave you his time or his affection, but he had no trouble giving expensive gifts. The fact that he left her Meade Publications was testament to that.
"The only time I have ever billed Meade Publications for plastic surgery was for rhinoplasty after a certain model who will remain nameless broke my nose during a photo shoot." Faye defended herself.
"In her defense, she did find out that you were sleeping with her husband." Claire jested.
"That's no excuse. You never broke my nose." She joked back.
"I prefer hair pulling."
"Can we please get on with this? I have a dinner meeting with DLS Lingerie." Wilhelmina said looking at her watch impatiently.
"I hope you'll be able to do that on a $400 budget unless you want to use your own money. The magazine world is changing and we can't afford these special purchases and $2000 champagne lunches." Faye explained.
"That $2000 champagne lunch resulted in years' worth of advertising from A+juicy Apparel." Wilhelmina said defensively as she got up from her seat.
"Yes, and yesterday, Daniel convinced Bryan's boutique to buy twice as many pages with a trip to Coney Island with the kids." Claire pointed out with a smile.
"You can do a lot with $400." The boring accounting remarked.
"You cannot even buy decent wine for $400." Wilhelmina shot back.
"You have your own money for that. We do pay you enough," Faye said dismissively. "Any other big purchases will need to be approved by either Daniel or myself."
"We are supposed to be equals," Wilhelmina practically screamed.
"Well, until you can prove that I can trust you with the money, Daniel is in charge of the budget." As she said those words, Faye was very happy that her stepdaughter taught Daniel the value of money. If it weren't for her, he would be as bad as Wilhelmina. At that point, she dismissed both Wilhelmina and Harold, but only he left.
"We both know what this is really about. There are better ways to trim the budget. For example, we can get rid of some of our support staff. Marc and Daniel don't actually need their own assistant. They are practically joined at the hip anyway."
"I believe we had this conversation last week, Betty stays." She said angrily.
"I didn't mean Betty. You know what they said 'last one hired, first one fired.'" Wilhelmina smirked.
Faye was not surprised. She was expecting this actually, although not this soon. Faye was purposely having Nico feed Wilhelmina false information. The biggest thing was to convince her that Ruth was a fashion genius and the reason Daniel was succeeding at MODE.
"Besides, Nico misses working for Daniel. I'm sure she can fill in when Betty is in class or nursing." Wilhelmina's voice is dripping with false innocence. "In her mind she was smiling at the words. Phase two was already a month ahead of schedule. She was sure it would take weeks before Wilhelmina would put Nico back with Daniel as her personal spy.
"No, both Marc and Daniel need their own assistant." Claire told Wilhelmina without prompting from her.
"However, I think Nico working with Marc and Betty is a good ideal. It will be a learning experience for her."
"Actually, I think it would be better if she works with Betty and Daniel." Wilhelmina suggested. "They did single-handedly convinced, Margarita to shoot our Baby Love Issue."
"We are not calling the January cover that." Faye said annoyed. "Also, I don't think it would be good for Betty to work with Daniel right now. Things are delicate."
"Then she will just have to get over it. This is my magazine." Wilhelmina said finally leaving her office.
"Find, do whatever you want," She said with fake acquiescence. However, as soon as the door was shut, Faye was smiling.
"You set her up?"
"Of course I did. You know my stance on making Wilhelmina miserable. On the plus side, Daniel and Betty do good work together, even when they're having interpersonal problems."
"They also make beautiful grandbabies." Claire remarked wistfully.
"Yes and I would like a few more 5 to 10 years from now." Faye quipped.
"The fact that they're not speaking to each other except through text messages, that doesn't seem highly probable." Claire said sadly.
"That's why I maneuvered things this way." Faye smirked. "Now they have no choice, but to talk to each other."
"You truly are evil. I'm glad we are now on the same side." Claire smiled at her.
"Me too," Faye said, realizing that it was good to have a friend in the woman who used to be her rival.
To Be Continued.