Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. Look, a very quick update.

This chapter is almost entirely different than the original version. There are almost 2000 words from the original chapter that I took out entirely. Yet it's the first chapter I did not change the title of. Actually I think the situation is even more awkward this time around. However, you tell me.

Chapter3: Semi-awkward Situations

Matt is unsure if he should be annoyed that he needs to leave his lunch with Amanda and her father early or grateful. Matt is going to go with grateful, even if the reason is a 2 PM meeting at the Hartley Center located in the Harlem neighborhood. He likes Amanda's father, but things were awkward and he kept glaring at Matt whole the time.

Hartley Industry had invested a lot of money into the neighborhoods re-gentrification and the Hartley Center was a part of this. In a former life, the Hartley Center was an apartment complex. Inside was now a mixture of classrooms and office space with an emergency shelter.

Matt wasn't sure why he was at the center except he received an email from his aunt's assistant telling him he had the 2 pm with the director of the center Alana Ramos. The director was waiting for him when he arrived. She appeared to be only a little bit older than him, 35, at most. She was sitting in her office wearing jeans and a T shirt with her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

She seemed a little shocked to see him walk into the offices wearing jeans from Target. Just because he was wealthy, had a designer aunt, and a girlfriend who was trying to be a celebrity stylist did not mean his wardrobe came from the pages of Hudson. Actually, that was the reason why most of his wardrobe came from Target.

"Thank god you actually know what you're doing." She said before offering him a cup coffee which he politely declined. "If you showed up here wearing $2000 shoes and with a camera crew following behind you I was going to send you home immediately."

"I think my mother did that once." Matt half mumbled.

"At the Midtown offices, maybe. She would never come here unless it was for a groundbreaking ceremony even with the re-gentrification." That was unfortunately true.

"I am not my mother or my father for that matter. I'm sure Carmen Rodriguez told you I worked with her team in Gaborone for almost four months."

"Yes, she gave you a glowing recommendation, but you also cut her a personal check when her funding got cut." Matt sighed.

"I enjoyed my work there and that's why I volunteered to work here until I start school again in January." Thanks to the Hartley name, he managed to get a spot at the University of Manhattan law program next year. "I did write a series of articles for Player magazine about my experience but the money I got from that was what I gave to Carmen. Does that mean I'm a celebrity cashing in on a good deed? "

"Not really but that is because Carmen has had an uptake in volunteers. Not to mention all the people that have written checks which means she is less dependent on the whims of your mother and the kindness of your aunt." Alayna frowned when she mentioned Aunt Briana. There had to be a story there. "If you enjoyed your time so much in Gaborone, why are you here?"

"Family emergency." That was true enough. Tyler certainly counted as a family emergency, Even if he was responding to treatment. Somehow Aunt Briana convinced Tyler to stay with her for a few months when he gets out soon. The Tyler thing is to remain a closely guarded Hartley family secret.

"That's what Carmen said. I don't buy that excuse because if you really had a true family emergency, it would be all over the tabloids." Unless it was a secret so dark that it was successfully buried for decades in North Dakota because his father was a dick. "Why are you back?"

"If you're discrete not everything makes the tabloids. My girlfriend is pregnant. I didn't know about it until I came back for a real family emergency that we're trying to keep out of the press because it involves rehab."

"I assume in circles where they refer to rehab as 'the spa' that probably would be an emergency. Also, kudos for keeping the fact you even have a girlfriend, let alone a pregnant one, out of the press. It would make sense for you to want to come back before the baby was born."

"She's almost 5 months. And I didn't even know she was pregnant before I left because she wasn't pregnant when I left." Alayna glared at him. "Or maybe she was just barely pregnant. She wasn't planning on telling me until after I got back so I would finish my time there without worrying about her. Apparently, we celebrated a little too hard before I hopped on the plane to work with Carmen."

That was true enough. He left out the part about him breaking up with her because he thought she was still sleeping with her ex who happened to be his ex-girlfriend's true love and his half-brother's other brother.

"And by celebrating too hard, you mean without a condom." Her tone was slightly snide.

"Were you aware that birth control pills become less effective if you forget to take them for three days because you're too caught up with each other to remember?" He had no idea why he was telling her this, but there was something about her that put him at ease.

"50 years later and people are still getting caught by that. The fact that you're not running away from that responsibility tells me you'll fit in here. I'm really tired of having volunteers that leave because things are not as easy as they thought they would be. Jody barely stayed and that's probably because she needed as much help with learning to be a mom as the girls," she sighed. "At least I now know why I received a very interesting call from the head of the charity this morning."

"Does this involve my mother or my father?" He said with a sigh. Throwing money at the problem was what his parents did.

"I assume your Father because cameras will eventually be involved. For an extra $200,000 for our 2010 operating budget, all I have to do is assign you to the new mom and dad program. At least I now know your family is not trying to cover up something really bad with money, like pedophilia. At least I don't think that's the case. How old is this girlfriend?"

"28,"

"There is no scandal in that." Alayna paused for a moment. "Unless she was your student. You didn't sleep with a student and accidentally got her pregnant?"

"No. We did work together. But I was never her immediate supervisor." Alayna exhaled in relief.

"That's good. I can only handle the really sordid situations once a decade." Alayna said before grabbing her phone and firing off a text message that he couldn't read.

"I wish my mom saw things the way you do. She's angry. I didn't accidentally impregnate one of the country club girls."

"Does she realize the country club girls are more likely to be golddiggers?"

"Not at all."

"How much do you know about what we do here at the Hartley Center?" Carmen asked as she gestured for him to follow her out of the office to the main part of the center.

"I know the center has several after school programs that provide everything from academic tutoring to a hot meal." And he knows that because he actually paid attention at one of his mom's ridiculous fundraising parties last year.

"That's right. Our main goal is to provide students from age 4 to 19 with what they need to excel academically. Some people need academic help, which is why we have everything from tutoring to computer labs." Alayna told him as they passed by the labs. The computers weren't new, but rather castoffs from the Hartley offices. Although they couldn't be more than two years old.

"Some people need a safe and quiet place to study which is why we have several study rooms and a library. That's on the floor above us" She said pointing to the elevator.

"With the economy as bad as it is some people just need not to go to bed hungry, which is why we serve dinner to a lot of the students who are here. We even provide backpack lunches for kids to take home for the weekend." That explains what a group of volunteers were doing in the room outside of Alayna's office.

"Sometimes, we even provide a place to stay." He's led to a room with lots of bunkbeds and tiny plastic dressers. Sparse but clean. There is even a toy chest in the corner filled with stuff animals.

"We can house about 20 children as an emergency shelter. I'm hoping to get more beds, but that's not all that we do here."

"What else do you do?" Matt asked.

"From the article in Player and our earlier conversation, you mentioned that you worked with the AIDS education program. Did you actually do that or was that just an exaggeration for your article?" It was obvious that Alayna did her homework on him.

"Yes, I worked with the AIDS education and prevention program in Gaborone. I did explain to teenagers how to properly use condoms to prevent disease and pregnancy. You're not going to make a snide comment about me not listening to my own advice are you?"

"Do you regret the fact that you did not take your own advice?

"Not really, I just wish that we planned things out. Although, in my defense we did use condoms almost every time."

"Almost doesn't count." Alayna countered.

"It does when your girlfriend is also on the pill and you both passed your last STD tests with flying colors."

"That apparently she wasn't taking according to directions."

"This is why I do not feel comfortable talking to teenagers about the importance of contraceptives after such a massive failure on my own part. Unlike everyone else in my family I don't like being a hypocrite." That made Matt the white sheep of his family, but he didn't care.

"I don't say that because I don't want to help, because I do, but I think I would make a much better tutor to the little kids anyway. Since I am a writer, I think I would be a really good English tutor." Matt offered instead.

"I already have Jody running our humanities tutoring program. She's a big fancy editor of a big fancy magazine and she enjoys taking her red pen to my various reports a little too much." Matt frowned at her words.

"It's not hypocrisy, it's learning from your own mistakes and I say that as a recovering alcoholic. It's much better to come into that room from a place of experience." Alayna said thoughtfully.

"You may have a point." Matt decided not to mention that he is a recovering sex addict.

"Even if the mistress of the red pen was still on maternity leave, I could not let you loose on my kids as an English tutor. I told you the money was contingent on you working with the new mommies and daddies program. We need every penny we can get here." Alayna told him as they walked into a room where several very young girls were trying to diaper dolls.

Okay, not all of them were trying to diaper actual dolls. There was one real baby with curly hair that sort of reminded Matt of his girlfriend's roommate and best friend. He could tell every girl in that room was pregnant. Some of these girls looked younger than the sister of Monique's fiancée. That made him wonder who the almost newborn belonged to.

"There is a very big difference between accidentally getting your girlfriend pregnant at 28 while using precautions, then it happening at half that age. Some of the girls in this room are not even 14 yet." Alayna said to him in a near whisper as they stood observing the room full of students.

Of course at that moment he wasn't really paying attention because the ghost of YETI programs past walked into the room, without even looking at him. Although that may be because she went straight for the newborn. While not quite newborn, the baby must be at least two or three months old.

"This program is designed to help young girls and sometimes their partners prepare for having a child. We cover everything from the importance of prenatal care to what will happen in delivery. We also provide a crash course in parenting." Alayna explained.

"Which I found invaluable. Having a surprise child at 48 can be just as daunting. I originally thought Jade was menopause." Jody said walking over to the two. It wasn't until she reached their side did it dawn on his former mentor exactly who he was. He could tell by her lips parting slightly.

"I knew this was referred to as the Hartley Center but I didn't think any of the Hartley's would actually be here." Jody said to the two.

"You know I've never been like the rest of my family." Matt shrugged.

"You are a lot like your aunt." Jody remarked as she rocked the young baby in her arms.

By the way she was behaving this was obviously her child. Jody was not pregnant when classes concluded last April, unless she got pregnant right at the end which would match with the age of the child she was clutching. Although she just found out she was pregnant by the end of the course that would explain why she took Betty's job. It's amazing what one would do for their children.

"You two know each other?" Alayna asked.

"I'm friends with his aunt Breanna and he was one of the last I mentored as part of the YETI program." Jody explained, causing Alayna's eyes to shift back, between him and Jody's child.

"He's not?" Alena gestured to the baby.

"No."

"You did say it was somebody from your…"

"So why are you here Matt?" Jody asked cutting Alayna off.

"Because of baby Jade I think you should just focus on the tutoring program. Therefore Matt will be taking over teaching this class. Although I would be really happy if Jade could come visit." Alayna said, reaching her arms out for baby Jade. Jody instantly handed her over.

"You want me to teach a class on parenting? I know nothing whatsoever about being a parent. I just started reading Oh Fuck; I Am a Parent Now two days ago. I didn't even have good examples. I was raised by the nanny."

"Considering your aunt taught me how to change a diaper, I think you will be fine." Jody remarked and Matt could see that as being true. That just seemed like something his aunt would do.

"She was the one who threw a copy of that book at me two days ago." Matt remarked.

"Jody was in the same boat as you last year, but as you can see, baby Jade is doing just fine. Aren't you sweetheart?" Alayna cuddled the baby.

"Besides, from what I heard your girlfriend is due in late September and you're going to need all the help you can get. But that's why we're here." That's when Alayna placed Jade in his hands, who promptly started to scream. Fortunately, he held his baby cousin enough to be able to deal with this.

"This isn't some evil scheme for my parents to get me to leave Amanda and our child? It wouldn't surprise me." Matt said as he started gently rocking baby Jade. "Their bad example is why I shouldn't be around children." Thankfully, the small child stop screaming.

"If you were that type of person I wouldn't let you near these girls or baby Jade. I did my research. Do you really think I'm the type of person to read Player magazine?" Jody could be heard snickering from the background. "I must admit I was kind of shocked by the type of articles in there. I thought it was Hustler without the porn."

"I think Monique was going for Playboy without the porn from the era when they used to publish interviews with Malcolm X." Jody answered before Matt could.

"Honestly, this place needs all the volunteers it can get. With my maternity leave ending this week, they're going to need someone else. You were one of the best in my class so I know that you'll be good with this." She praised.

"Okay, I'll help." Matt reluctantly agreed, wondering what he just got himself into.

"So you're telling me that our YETI instructor took my dream job because she accidentally got pregnant by one of our classmates?" Betty asked for clarification because she couldn't believe what Matt was telling her. You don't have an accident kid at almost 50.

When Matt text messaged in the middle of the night her time telling him to call when she had a chance she was hoping that he would tell her what happened to the rest of her clothing or maybe an update on how things are going between Amanda and his mom. (Apparently it went awful and Amanda keeps throwing up on everyone.) Finding out her former mentor screwed her over to take care of her unborn child was not something she was expecting.

Although at least now she can understand why it happened. She's not even that angry because if she took that job, she would never be here in London, even if she was slightly annoyed that her 12 o'clock was running ridiculously late. She was supposed to be meeting with her new boss right now but he's running so late that they will have to reschedule.

Of course, the guy being late gave her time to call Matt. It also provided Betty with an opportunity to find out why only one box of things arrived from New York. Because she left for London two weeks earlier than originally planned, Justin and Hilda promised to pack up the rest of the things in her apartment and send them to London and everything arrived yesterday. Except everything did not arrive because she is sure she had more than one box of things.

She knew she should have done all the packing herself. At least she was smart enough to pack Daniel's things at her apartment herself. She did not want to explain to her nephew, sister, or ex why her best friend not only had his own dresser drawer in her apartment, but he also kept condoms in it. (Really, they should stop lying to their selves much earlier.)

"Yes. Her name is Jade and she's almost 3 months old."

"Which lines up with her getting pregnant right around our final project and she probably knew about the time of the job placements."

"Or found out right about then, and panicked." Matt suggested.

"And therefore took my job." Betty sighed.

"Probably. Especially if she actually did get pregnant by one of our classmates. They probably would have kicked her out for something like that." Betty knew Matt was right about that.

"I wish she would've told me that. I would've been a lot less angry. I saw what Hilda went through firsthand. So I understand. By the way, if you are going to teach you should probably talk to my sister. She can fill you in on the female perspective. They're not even moving until the end of the school year as not to disrupt Justin schedule." Betty suggested.

"I'm sure we will run into each other during the wedding planning process because your whole family has been drafted into it. So children really do change everything?" Matt asked.

"Apparently so. So you really think Jody slept with one of our YETI classmates?" That he still couldn't believe it.

"Possibly although I didn't ask. I wonder who though?"

"It could be almost anybody in our class except for you and Marc." She can't believe she's speculating about this with her ex-boyfriend.

"There are a few others because the baby is very light. Actually, baby Jade has hair like Marc. If he was bisexual, I would be 100% positive the baby was his." Betty swore she heard coughing in the background or maybe choking, followed by the rustling of sheets. God, she hoped she didn't interrupt those two doing things she doesn't want to think about ever. Even though she knows that they did do those things since Amanda is pregnant.

"Amanda… Amanda… Hey I have to go. Amanda just woke up and morning sickness is evil." No, it doesn't bother her that Matt and Amanda are together. She has accepted it quite fully and this is not awkward at all.

"That's okay. Take care of your girlfriend." Betty said into the phone just as she noticed the flash of the camera. She turned around to see Daniel with phone in hand along with a bag of carryout.

"Aren't you supposed to be at a business meeting?" Betty asked as Daniel placed everything on her desk and went over to give her a very gentle kiss on the lips. He tasted like his favorite caramel mocha cappuccino.

"The representative from DLS's daughter is highly allergic to strawberries. One of her "friends" gave her a strawberry roll up and told her it was cherry. Mrs. Windfall left just after I gave my presentation. Although to apologize for cutting our meeting short, she did buy a year's worth of advertising. I thought I would spend the rest of my lunch with you, if that's okay?" Considering that he was already opening containers, he already knew this was going to be okay.

"That's perfect. I was kind of board and was about to start going over my notes for the EIC meeting tomorrow morning." And maybe she was trying to figure out who else in last year's yeti class had curly hair.

"I seriously doubt you had nothing to do." Daniel pointed to the stack of papers on her desk.

"Mr. Dunne was unavailable for our meeting to approve the final layout and we can't finalize the content for the first issue until that happens. I did just get off the phone with Matt. I still don't know why only one box of my things arrived at the apartment yesterday. Although I did find out that my YETI instructor stole my job because she managed to find herself scared and accidentally pregnant at nearly 50." Daniel then proceeded to listen to the whole sordid story.

"Should I be worried about the fact you now more upset about your missing clothing than finding out the real reason why you lost your dream job last year?" Daniel asked, bemused.

"It worked out for the best. I'm glad that I'm here in London with you." She leaned over to kiss Daniel on the mouth. Part of her is now sure that if she did not take this job in London, they would still be dancing around each other. They needed something big to change their dynamic and her leaving was the thing that finally forced them to acknowledge their feelings for one another. "I just wish I had my favorite purple fuzzy sweater. This office is freezing."

"We can pick something up after work. We still need a coffee maker anyway. You know it was probably Justin and his sense of style." He said with a laugh.

"Probably, although I'm sure he had help from his mom." Betty said with a pout. In addition to her wonderfully, warm, purple, fuzzy sweater being MIA, her favorite pair of polka dot sweatpants were among the things that had not arrived. She loved those pants.

"There's no way I'm going to be able to get back at him all the way from London."

"Did I mention a certain nephew of yours is coming in August for a one month internship at Mode UK?"

"My overprotective sister is letting Justin come here for a month? She barely lets him go into the city alone. This is just an excuse to get my family here. I love it." She said smiling as she hugged him.

"I knew you would. Your sister will be flying here with him, but he's going to stay with us for the rest of the summer." Daniel said as he started feeding her.

She thought it was kind of cute. She wasn't sure she ever had a boyfriend that she was like this with before. It was pretty normal for her and Daniel to share food. It was also normal for Daniel to feed her. What was different was kisses were now involved. She is just starting to see how much they acted like they were together before that was a reality. It made her even more certain that London was the best thing possible for their relationship in a weird way.

Betty loved the way he tasted as she felt his mouth consume her. She loved that thing that he did with his tongue. It was as if he was exploring every crevice of her mouth with that organ. At some point they stopped eating but she wasn't sure because Daniels hand started massaging her upper thigh underneath her skirt.

"We really shouldn't be doing this." Betty told him as she felt Daniel put her on top of her desk as his mouth never broke contact. Of course, the words came out as a disjointed moan as his overheated mouth made its way to her neck.

"You don't have any appointments for a while and I did remember to close the blinds. I promise we won't go too far." She didn't respond as he marked her with his teeth. She was mentally contemplating how to cover these particular bite marks for the rest of the day. Now she really wished her scarf collection arrived yesterday. She had a magenta one that would go perfect with this suit.

She heard the remnants of her lunch fall down to the floor as Daniel started kissing and sucking on her collarbone. She almost thought she heard a noise when he began to unbuttoned her suit jacket.

"Am I interrupting something?" When she heard the noise Betty completely froze and pushed Daniel off of her. He fell right on his backside.

Unfortunately, the person who barged in on this very private moment was her brand new boss, who was standing in the doorway. Instead of feeling like the confident businesswoman she was, she felt like that 19 year old girl who got caught making out with her boyfriend on the porch. Yet her boyfriend was laughing.

Instead of being mortified like her, he brushed himself off and introduced himself as confidently as possible. Daniel was sleeping alone tonight for not locking the door and for forcing her to listen to a lecture on proper office behavior from her new boss. They were definitely getting the purple cappuccino machine, even if it didn't match the rest of the kitchen. And Daniel was so paying for her new fluffy purple sweater.

Amanda splashed cold water on her face, trying to calm down. For the first time in weeks, it wasn't baby sickness that sent her into the bathroom.

She and Marc shared a lot of secrets. He was the first one she called when she found out that Faye Somers may be her biological mother. He was the one that went with her to get tested when one of her former hookups notified her of his HIV status.

She is the only one who knows how miserable Marc was after the Cliff fiasco. She's the only one who knows that he was the only person that Marc ever loved. She was probably the only one who knew Marc still loved him. It was pretty obvious by all his ranting yesterday. It was also very obvious by the way he keeps avoiding his actual boyfriend. She knew Marc well enough to know that this was going to be messy.

Although obviously not as messy as the Jody situation will turn out to be. That's because Amanda is 99% sure that Matt's first instincts were right. But that's because Amanda is probably the only one who knows for sure that Marc had sex with Jody in exchange for her recommending him to various magazines.

Marc would panic. He couldn't deal with this at all. Actually, Marc was still trying to pretend the Jody thing didn't happen at all. He also gets weird every time he sees her reading parenting books with Matt and Marc abandoned her at the store as she was comparing breast pumps. Which is understandable considering she didn't exactly handle finding out she was pregnant very well. She's not sure that Marc would do any better, and he was the smart one of the couple.

Maybe there was no reason for Amanda to panic. Maybe Matt was wrong. She couldn't tell Marc what was going on until she was sure and she had to be sure about this. Thankfully, she still had an extra DNA kit in the house from her search for her own father.

"Amanda, are you okay?" Matt called from outside the door. Amanda wonders how long she was in here panicking about this. Probably long enough to make Matt worried.

"I'm fine." Amanda said opening the door. "I didn't even throw up this time. I just felt like I needed to." She lied.

"I'm just so happy to know that the ice cream you made me get at two in the morning agreed with the baby." Matt joked.

"You don't get to joke about this. You're the one who got me this way." And you left me to deal with it.

"Which is why I came with ginger ale and saltines." Matt hands her a mini care package.

Maybe the ginger ale will help her calm down. Maybe this could be a good thing. Yes, the breast pumps freak Marc out, but he loves going baby clothes shopping with her (if Matt's not there). Maybe her dream of their children playing together could still happen. However, she would put her daydreams about cohosting the perfect slumber party with Marc on the back burner until she had confirmation, which meant making contact with Jody.

"I feel better already. When is the next time you have to be at the center?" And Matt was her only connection right now.

"I don't take over classes until after the wedding. I figured you needed me to do things for you."

Dammit. There goes her idea of just tagging along with Matt to a class.

"Will you be meeting with Jody before then?"

"Probably not. She's really busy with going back to work next week. She was the one who suggested my start date." Matt said as he started rubbing circles on her back.

Shit.

"I was just thinking maybe we could invite her out to dinner. I need to spend more time with people with kids. With Jody being a new mom, she can provide me with tips about the best playgroups for muffin." Especially if Jody's muffin turns out to be Marc's muffin.

"That's a good idea. I'll ask her after the wedding. With things being as busy as they are with the wedding planning I'm sure your schedule wouldn't allow something like that until after the wedding, anyway." Matt kissed her cheek.

Fuck.

"Sure, it can wait until after the wedding."

No, it can't.

Amanda knew she couldn't wait that long, but she wasn't going to tell Matt that. She would think of something.

To be continued