Thank you to everybody who read or review the last chapter. This is another chapter, where there are big changes made from the original version. The first section is almost entirely different. As we keep going things will diverge more. Sorry, I would have posted this earlier but it's been a busy couple of days.

Chapter 5: Nothing Hypothetical Is Ever Actually Hypothetical

Amanda sat in her office surrounded by wedding stuff on the verge of throwing up again and she was only half certain that it was because of a certain muffin making her sick, her muffin anyway. Marc's possible muffin was making her stress nauseous. That's probably the real reason why she threw up on Monique and company yesterday.

It's been a day and she still hasn't figured out how to confirm that Marc managed to impregnate his yeti instructor when he slept with her out of career desperation. Amanda almost went to Monique for help but threw up on her instead.

Because she has so much to do, Amanda has no choice but to stop worrying about the muffin problem and focus on wedding stuff. With two weeks to go most of it was done except for the details and she was in charge of getting the details right. Today she had to remind the bridal party about their final fittings. That meant calling Gio's cousin that kept hitting on her and Monique's college friend Melinda who is really mad at Monique right now because Suzuki is a dick.

The fashion journalist finally broke the story about Daniel leaving for London for his frumpy assistant 'Betsy Sanchez' last night. Melinda was very unhappy, especially when Amanda accidentally told her that Monique helped set up Daniel with his new girlfriend. Amanda didn't realize that Monique wasn't telling Melinda those details because she was the one who took over Molly's classes after her death (and apparently Melinda was never informed of Molly's last request). A warning about her being sensitive to the Daniel moving on issue would have been nice.

Now she only had to call Daniel about the fitting. Although she was happy for the excuse to call him because he's one of her closest friends and maybe he can help her figure out what to do with Marc. Considering how much he has slept around, DJ could not have been his only paternity scare. Maybe he knew the best way to approach potential baby's mama for a paternity test.

"So hypothetically, you have a friend who made a really bad hook up decision the year before that they totally regret and don't want to talk about. Then you start hearing rumors about that regretted hook up having a three-month-old daughter that looks exactly like your friend. How do you go about confirming that he killed the rabbit?" Amanda asked Daniel. As soon as he answered the phone. She didn't even bother to say hello.

"I didn't even think you were aware of that reference. Actually, I didn't even know you knew the word hypothetical. Did one of my former hook ups show up at the Mode offices claiming that I am the father of her newborn?" Daniel asked, sounding very skeptical.

"If the baby is only three months old, it's definitely not mine. I was too busy with Molly to even think about sex, especially after I lost her."

"According to Betty's diary, you had an erection every morning of your post funeral Betty sleepovers phase." Amanda pointed out.

"Sometimes I really wished you would respect personal boundaries better," Daniel sighed. "Or at all. Let the lawyers handle this. It's very apparent this is obviously fraud since you are the only living person I've had sex with since September 2008."

"I told you it was hypothetical." She said a little too loudly.

"Whenever someone tells you a situation is hypothetical it's not hypothetical at all." Daniel shot back.

"OK it's not hypothetical, but it's not about you." Amanda gave up. But she wasn't going to tell him it was Marc just yet mostly because he probably wouldn't believe her. "One of my friends really did sleep with somebody they shouldn't have and now they may have a kid and I'm not sure what to do about it. If I tell them without proof they're going to freak out worse than you did when you found out about DJ."

"I did not freak out about DJ." Daniel argued.

"This is why I miss you being here because you can't see me glaring at you right now." Amanda quipped.

"Are you sure this is not about me? You don't have a lot of male friends. Well male friends that have sex with women. We both know Marc is never going to accidentally knock someone up." Amanda laughed nervously at his joke before deciding it was time to change the subject as fast as possible.

"So you haven't slept with Betty yet?" Hey, he did tell her that she was the only person he has had sex with that is still alive since the State Department liaison sex tape fiasco. That meant nothing has yet happened with Betty, which she finds a little hard to believe.

"Amanda, I'm not used to this time conversion thing yet but shouldn't you be working and therefore keep this conversation focused on me having to deal with a possible fake paternity suit?" Daniel asked specifically to avoid her question.

"It's not you. I am working. I'm calling everybody to remind then about the final wardrobe fitting for the wedding. Because you are all the way in London, Miss West-Hartley is sending her partner from the Paris offices to do your fitting at the Mode offices Friday at 3 PM your time. Monique also set up a meeting at the same time for you to talk with the head of advertising for the European division of the company. Monique already emailed Candy, but got her out of office message saying she would be at the photo shoot all day."

"She was but now she sitting in my office hiding from the photographer. Don't stick your tongue out at your boss. I can send you back out to Becks." Amanda assumes that he is talking to Candy. "I'm a little surprised that Monique is setting up advertising meetings for us. I am not used to having a partner that actually helps me succeed instead of stabbing me in the back, mostly figuratively."

"She tries her best not to be Wilhelmina." Amanda explained. "She also wants you to call her at 5 PM your time to talk magazine and wedding party stuff."

"How did she talk me into being in the wedding party? I'm still your escort right?" Daniel asked.

"No you're going to be Gio's little sister's escort. The one who is really mean and snotty. I think you met at Monique's not a Christmas party, when you were pretending not to make out with Betty under the mistletoe."

"She's friends with Justin, so we've met a few times." Daniel told her.

"Anyway, Gio's aunt threw a fit about keeping everything even. Maybe she did that because I threw up on her yesterday during the planning meeting, after I threw up on Monique. You are also going to be standing on Monique's side now. I think she asked you just to make sure that you would be back to give her the ultimate wedding present of you and Betty making out at the ceremony." Amanda had her phone ready to capture that moment.

"That may not be happening." Daniel sighed. "It depends on if Betty is speaking to me again by the time the wedding happens."

"Did you screw up again? Did your relationship make the news in the UK as well?"

"I did not screw up. Which outlets are gossiping about my personal life today?" Okay Daniel was apparently no longer following fashion TV America, which was good.

"Just Suzuki." And now everybody else is running with it but she is not going to be the one to tell Daniel that. "Why isn't Betty talking to you?" She asked deliberately ignoring the paper question.

"We may have gotten caught by her boss making out on her desk. I forgot to lock the door."

"How did that happen? You always remember to lock the door. You were always really good at stopping when you heard people coming. You're great at sneaking around." Amanda knew that from personal experience. Although it wasn't a good experience at the time.

"I kind of forget basic things when I'm around her."

"You're in love. I like you in love." Amanda smiled.

"I've been in love before." Daniel sounded almost offensive.

"Not like this." Definitely never with me. "You know that if Molly wasn't dying you would've never married her." Amanda told him bluntly. "Even Monique refers to it as a "make a wish wedding" and she was Molly's best friend." He did not respond to what she said.

"What you did wasn't that bad. At lease you didn't break up with her when she was pregnant with your child because you thought she was sleeping with someone else even though she wasn't without even bothering to talk to her about it." So she was still a little upset about what Matt did, even though they were back together.

"What have you been making Matt do to make up for that?"

"Do you really think I absolutely need crunchy dill pickle potato chips at 3:00 AM with a specific brand of dip? I'm planning on making him as miserable as possible for the remainder of this pregnancy." Not that he knew why she was sending him out for extra crunchy dill pickle potato chips at 3 AM.

"You made me do the same thing." That was true.

"You are the reason why he broke up with me." Sort of. "Also, we were still not 100% positive about the baby's paternity at the time. Speaking of making you and Matt miserable, your mom wanted me to tell you that before the wedding that Saturday you, Matt, and Tyler are joining her for brunch at the hotel where the wedding is taking place." That was met with several curse words before Daniel finally calmed down.

"How is my little brother doing?" Daniel asked with a sigh. She should be happy he said "my brother".

"Good. He is getting out of rehab permanently right before the wedding. You would know this stuff if you called him." But you won't, Amanda thought to herself. "You're as bad as Matt. Sometimes I think you two are the ones related by blood. You act too much alike."

"Can I bring Betty?" Daniel asked, ignoring her earlier comments.

"If she's talking to you. I suggest starting with getting her a really good "I'm sorry I'm an idiot" present. Since it's Betty, it doesn't have to be expensive but it should show that you actually care. But whatever you do, do not get her business cards again. That's already a dumb gift, especially when you couldn't even remember that you got her cards last time you fucked up." Amanda berated him.

"It was a practical present." Daniel said defensively.

"It's not a romantic gesture at all. Betty was just too nice of a person to say how much she hated them so she just buried them in the same door where she kept her snacks. I found two boxes buried in this desk once I started cleaning. Marc says that I am nesting." That's when she threw a baby book at him. Maybe she should force him to read the book. (Besides, if Matt does what he normally does, Marc is going to be the one helping her with this baby anyway. He should start studying, even if he doesn't have his own muffin.)

"What about flowers?" Daniel suggested.

"Again don't get her the same thing you got last time. One can only have so many orchids. Also whatever you don't get Betty anything you got for the girls you slept with but couldn't remember their names long enough to personalize the card. That is just going to make things worse. Although they were really nice flowers, but they really didn't make up for being in love with someone who couldn't even remember your name." Amanda was not on the verge of tears when she said that last part. Okay she was, but it was the stupid baby hormones.

"I am really sorry about that. I was a little screwed up after Alex died or rather when I thought Alex died and…"

"I forgive you. At least you didn't break up with me the day I found out I was pregnant because you thought I was sleeping with someone else and you didn't even bother to give me the benefit of the doubt to ask me what was going on. And hey, at least you are actually sincere when you apologize, I'm not sure about…" Thankfully, the baby sickness kicked in, before she said anything else. Also on the positive side, she managed to completely miss her phone when she threw up into the trashcan.

Betty was going over the resumes for the various people she just interviewed for her assistant position. She was a little upset that Lindsey had his personal assistant sit in on the interviews, but she didn't have a choice. It didn't help that the woman let her know that her relationship with Daniel did in fact make the local tabloids.

Of the five people she interviewed, the only person she liked was Betsy Williams. She just happened to be the former assistant to Daniel's predecessor at Mode UK. Betty was just about to check with Sumreen about Betsy's qualifications when her phone rang.

"Hello,"

"So I talk to your boyfriend and he's really sorry about not locking the door." She heard a very familiar voice say quickly without introduction. "Although I would like to hear your side of the story."

"Amanda is that you?"

"Who else would be calling you? It's not like you had any other friends besides Daniel and me. Now you just have me because you're dating Daniel." Did Amanda have to remind her of that right now? Before she could complain to Daniel when her boyfriends were acting like complete idiots. Now she did not have that.

"Christina." Betty shot back, annoyed. Because she did have Christina too, which was definitely more friends than what she had in high school. However, Christina was not as good as Daniel was, especially because things with her husband were not necessarily bad, but complicated. And it wasn't as if Christina was really ready to share what was going on with her.

"She doesn't count. She's all the way in Scotland." Betty just rolled her eyes.

"She lives closer to me now than you do. She's coming over to visit soon." Which Betty was really looking forward to.

"That's good. Maybe she can talk you into wearing the dress that I chose for you for the wedding. If you're talking to Daniel again by that point. He is really worried and asking everybody for ideas for apology presents. I suggested he get you anything but business cards or the flowers he used to get his fuck friends." She knew that Daniel was worried. True to form, she already had 15 voice mails from him on her cell phone alone. She should probably call him but she was still upset but mostly at her colleagues and she didn't want to take out her anger on him again.

"I'm not surprised. I'm fine with any apology present as long as Daniel actually gets it himself." Betty sighed.

"You're using your "everything's OK when it's not" voice. What's going on? What Daniel did wasn't that big of a deal." Not wanting to explain herself to Amanda she chose to redirect the conversation.

"Why did you pick out a dress for me? I'm not in the wedding party." She wanted to know about that anyway.

"Matt's aunt wanted to design a dress for the woman who can completely unnerve her former sister in law. They absolutely hate each other. She adores you for driving Victoria crazy, even without meeting you. Because Cliff is doing all the wedding pictures, he wants you in all the shots with Daniel. Besides you two look really hot together. No wonder everybody thought you two were fucking even before you two got together." Great even Amanda thought she was a slut.

"I'm not hot. I'm not sexy. I'm not the type of girl who has sex with their boyfriend on top of their desk in their office. I'm definitely not the type of girl who gets their job by performing oral sex on their boss." Betty said, annoyed.

"You never heard about you going down on Daniel in the men's room at Mode during the entire race of the phoenix thing?" She was sure Betty knew about that stuff

"It was Community of the Phoenix. Daniel told me about that. It was just a rumor." She said with a sigh.

"Those of us who know you know that it was just a rumor. We love you exactly the way you are. Your round and complicated." Betty was certain that's the Amanda version of trying to be reassuring but it wasn't working right now.

"See you just made another crack about me not being beautiful." She was used to that sort of thing from Amanda and Marc, but it was still annoying.

"I said you were round, not unpretty. I'm just as round now. I have to send you the pictures of the baby belly." That's when her cell phone dinged with a picture of very pregnant Amanda. "My belly button just popped. Matt said it's adorable. I feel like an elephant in designer clothing. Thankfully they make designer clothing in maternity sizes. Evil Megan called me the good year blimp when I came into work yesterday."

"That's because Megan is a…" Betty couldn't think of a word to say that wasn't an expletive.

"Complete bitch who wants to fuck Matt."

"I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say mean person." She lied.

"That's because you're still Betty underneath the brand new wardrobe. You're too nice, but I know you want to. Megan was the one who started the bathroom BJ rumor and the rumors about you only getting your job because you and Daniel were sleeping together. Jackie may have helped, but it was all Megan. She was just jealous. She was trying to break you and Matt up permanently. Now I am her new target."

"The rumors are starting here too, all because Daniel couldn't remember to lock the door." Betty explained.

"Vicious backbiting and nasty rumors have nothing to do with what happened yesterday. People will be talking behind your back no matter what, especially when you really are better than they are. It happened to me all the time in high school."

"I thought that was just Mode?"

"The rumor mill is everywhere. They're talking about you because they hate you. They hate you because you're smart, successful, beautiful, and you have a really hot boyfriend who is so in love with you that he moved to another country just to be with you. It's just jealousy, ignore the bitches. You're too good." Amanda said almost wisely.

"He came to fix Mode UK. I just happened to be here." Amanda just laughed at her words.

"Is that really what you believe? Daniel was planning on giving Wilhelmina complete control of Mode U.S. and come to London without a plan. Just for you. When Wilhelmina took Monique's offer, Monique was the one who talked him into taking over Mode UK since she couldn't do it anymore." Amanda explained. Betty never heard any of this before.

"He came here for me?" She asked, still not quite believing Amanda.

"He's never loved anyone like he loves you. Not even Molly. Let me let you in on a little secret; the beautiful people hate you because you can just as easily be one of us. Under those layers of god-awful clothing that you used to use to cover yourself up there has always been this beautiful person screaming to get out. I don't think you dressed like that because you didn't know better. It was obvious by your third month at Mode you knew what looked good and what didn't. You were just afraid."

"I was not afraid." She argued. She knew it was a lie. Amanda was getting a little too close to the truth of the matter.

"Yes you were. You looked scared to death to get your braces off. Daniel had to hold your hand the entire time. Although maybe that is what you wanted?" Amanda said thoughtfully for a moment.

"You have always been beautiful and good deep down inside. That's a really rare combination. Other people want to get rid of your goodness. Don't let them. But don't tell anyone I said that."

"When do you get this smart? I actually understood what you were saying. That's a rare thing for me." Betty told her.

"I think it's the baby and being forced to spend time around geniuses. Matt AND Monique have like a combined IQ of over 300. Call Daniel. He is so desperate that he just text messaged Matt for ideas on a good apology present. My boyfriend is not amused, especially because he called him out on the Megan break up again." That was not good.

Daniel just walked out of his 4:00 PM meeting with features. Half of the writers were actually doing well, the other half were clueless. He already knew he would have to fire more people and the thought alone was making his headache worst. (Especially because he was trying to figure out who Amanda's friend was that got somebody pregnant last year, and had no idea. Maybe it was Kenny from accounting. They were kind of friends).

He checked his personal phone one more time before calling Monique but still nothing from Betty. Daniel did have a text message from Candy letting him know that the shoot was going better now that Becks stop hitting on all the models. Becks sent a message about being sorry for what he said to Betty Monday and asked if Daniel and Betty wanted to go out to dinner next week. Daniel really didn't want to answer that text message and only partially because he wasn't sure if he still had a girlfriend to go to dinner with. He still had nothing from Betty. He put up his cell phone and called Monique on the landline.

"So I see my assistant did something today besides throwing up." Monique joked in greeting.

"Amanda is really good at her job." Sometimes.

"I know she is. She is just having a really rough pregnancy." Especially because her boyfriend is a jerk who doesn't even realize how much he hurt her. Now he has yet to respond to Daniel's text message from during the meeting about the entire Megan fiasco.

"It's getting worse. I'm probably going to have to find another assistant by the time the wedding happens. If things keep getting worse, I'm positive her doctor is going to put her on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. If I'm lucky I may have my team of interns broken in by then." He really didn't want to know what she had in store for Justin.

"If you're really lucky you might have your new creative director broken in by then." Daniel joked. The search had to be going better for her than it was for him.

"Not happening. The only person I have so far that is remotely qualified for that job is Marc. He doesn't have the formal experience, but he knows how to do the job. He has been watching Wilhelmina do it for the last six years. Unfortunately, if I promote him any higher than I already have I'm going to have a mutiny on my hands and there's going to be rumors going around about Marc getting this job for his excellent oral skills, and I'm not talking about public speaking." Monique said in all seriousness, which made Daniel giggle.

"That's not going to happen with you in charge. If I was still there maybe, especially if they knew about some of the things I did in college to make Bradford angry. However, everyone knows you're not Marc's type." He said with a laugh.

"Marc slept with his very female YETI instructor." Daniel dropped his phone. There is no way he heard what he just thought he heard.

"What?" Daniel spluttered out once he retrieved his phone from the floor.

"The rumor has been floating around for a while and Marc confirmed it after a few shots. He was so desperate to get an editor's job that he was willing to do anything, even have sex with a woman." That means that Marc was the hypothetical person Amanda was talking about earlier, which makes perfect sense, considering what Betty told him yesterday.

"I'm not going to hold it against him, because I can understand being extremely desperate to get away from Wilhelmina. If I know about it, everyone is going to know about it." Especially if anybody has friends at the magazine that Jody works for. Actually, he's surprised, but rumors aren't even the worst, considering there is actual tangible evidence of the affair.

Oh fuck!

"I just can't deal with that stuff right now. People are vicious. Nikolai is already saying things he shouldn't to the press. He's the one who told Suzuki about you moving to London for Betty. I got Suzuki to keep quiet about you being the new EIC of Mode UK until the formal announcement in exchange for confirming the story and an invitation to my wedding." At least, that means that his coworkers were not responsible for the current media blitz. That was good to know.

"It's fine. I'm sure after yesterday's incident it was going to become public knowledge anyway that Betty and I are dating." He then preceded to tell Monique everything that happened the day before. Although he purposely left out Betty forgiving her yeti instructor for stealing her dream job, because apparently Marc St. James, of all people managed to get her pregnant at nearly 50. That was too absurd for Daniel to wrap his head around right now.

"I don't think it's as bad as what Candy told you. I told you this industry is vicious. They will make stuff up anyway. You just have to prove that you're her boyfriend, not the boss who used to fuck her in the copy room. I'm suggesting more romantic lunches and maybe an office dinner party. It's the perfect solution." Monique suggested.

"I'll talk to her tonight to see how bad things really are. As for your situation, just hire someone on a one year contract and then move Marc into the position next year." Especially because Daniel thinks he could use the money. Kids are expensive.

"I don't think there's anybody I can hire on a one year contract. Maybe I should just not have a creative director position. I could just split up the duties. Is your search going any better?" Daniel groaned at the question.

"That bad?" Monique asked.

"At least you have Marc." Even if he's going to come with some interesting baggage. "The interviews are so bad today I started text messaging Betty this morning."

"What about someone in house?"

"Unlike you, I need all the help I can get. Diana is a possibility. Unfortunately, things are too unstable to move her. Maybe in a year or two, but not right now. We lost another advertiser."

"Fuck." Monique exclaimed.

"That's what I said in the car. They did not just leave Mode. They pulled out of all of our publications in Europe and Asia." It was giving him a headache just thinking about it.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but I know someone who may be willing to take the job."

"I'm desperate."

"I can tell. Otherwise, I would not be telling you this. I have a friend who I worked with at Isabella who went to London Style because of some family crisis. Your dad was trying to get her for Mode UK, but was unsuccessful due to David truly being a Pratt." Which doesn't surprise Daniel at all because the man was a jerk. He would scare anybody off.

"She's coming to the wedding in a couple weeks and when she called to RSVP she mentioned how much she wished she could come back to New York to work for me. The woman in charge at London Style is a bitch. There's just no other word for this woman. She is just that horrible. She makes Wilhelmina seem pleasant. Then there is the fact that Lindsey does not let his top people do any writing. She does not like that policy." He had a feeling that if Betty was under that policy, she wouldn't like it either.

"What does this mean for me?" Daniel asked, intrigued.

"Natalia absolutely hates her job, but she has to stay in London because of a really messy family situation that I can't get into. It's just too personal." Daniel understands that too well.

"My mom is a recovering alcoholic who killed my ex-girlfriend's mom. My sister used to be my brother and faked her death because she was afraid to tell us that she wanted to transition. I thought my nephew was my son. Finally, I share a half-brother with a guy who I may have accidentally stole my current girlfriend from. Oh, I forgot, earlier this year me and that same guy were caught up in the middle of a "whose baby is it" drama involving the daughter of the woman my mother murdered. No one's family situation can be more complicated than mine."

They made tele-novellas about stuff like this.

Although a gay guy getting his almost fifty something advisor pregnant, the one time he has sex with a woman for the sake of advancing his career, rates pretty high on this scale of absurdity. Actually, the fact that Amanda figured this out rates pretty high on the absurd scale. She's a lot smarter than anyone gives her credit.

"You have a point. Although, hers comes pretty close. What I'm saying is that we might be able to get her to come to Mode UK with a good offer and a flexible schedule. There is just one complication." He knew there would be a 'but'. There always was.

"Briana is willing to give Mode U.S. and Mode UK exclusive rights to her new wedding collection."

"How is this related?"

"She wants Betty in the shoot."

"Why? She's never met Betty."

"Anybody who Victoria Hartley despises is a friend of Briana's. One of her dresses was specifically made for Betty. If we want the collection, we need your girlfriend to be in the photo shoot. To get Betty in the issue we have to get a release signed by Lindsey Publishing. If you poach the creative director from London Style for your magazine, we're going to lose the exclusive. We need this exclusive." He realized they needed the exclusive without Monique saying anything. At that point he was looking for his emergency bottle of Tylenol.

"Too bad we didn't know before I signed Betty's release form. We could have used it as leverage." Dammit.

"I did not know how unhappy she was until a few days ago."

"Talk to the lawyers to see how badly we need the release form." And then he will personally call Shawn his special lawyer for personal indiscretions to see if he can help Mandy with the Marc problem before it becomes a public relations headache. It's best that Monique not know about this since she has other things to worry about.

"Maybe there is a loophole for the U.S. magazine. Apparently, there was no conflict of interest with Betty functioning as the New York correspondent for London Style when she was working at Mode U.S. When does your friend's contract end anyway? Maybe we can wait it out if she's interested."

"Four months if they don't opt to renew. Considering how weak the creative director market is right now, I'm sure they're going to renew." Monique may be right about that.

"I really miss Wilhelmina. Evil schemes and contract loopholes were her specialty. I hate having ethics." Daniel lamented.

"Did you just say you missed Wilhelmina?" Daniel heard a voice say from the door.

"Hey I have to go. Betty is here. I'll call you tonight to go over everything else." As soon as I talk to Amanda and Sean from legal about the Marc problem.

"You didn't have to end your conference call."

"Yes I did. I been calling you all day." He wanted to hug her, but Daniel wasn't sure she wouldn't slap him. It's been that type a day.

"I'm sorry, I didn't return your calls. I had a bad day at work yesterday and today and I was taking it out on you. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the perfect assistant?" Betty plopped down on his couch in a way that told him she was exhausted.

"Not until I had the perfect assistant. Although in all honesty, all the good ones just fell in my lap." Even though she wasn't quite Betty, Candy was really good. Even Amanda was really good. "I'm sorry my horrible reputation is probably getting you a nice nasty reputation. How bad were the rumors?"

"Bad. Apparently everybody thinks I slept with my current boss to get my job because I was sleeping with my last boss." He winced when she said that.

"I'm sorry." Hey, at least it's better than the Marc situation, mostly because none of it's true.

"It's not your fault. At least that rumor has not made the tabloids." The UK tabloids anyway. Fashion TV on the other hand was a nightmare because Nikolai was a prick.

"Fortunately, for you I had a nice talk with Amanda and one of the few nice people at work." Daniel was happy that Betty found the few nice people at work. Everyone seemed so cold last time he was there.

Daniel also hoped that Amanda did not have the hypothetical friend conversation with Betty because either Daniel will end up spending more time on the couch because she thinks that he's the dad of the hypothetical baby or Betty will figure out who her yeti instructor got pregnant by and therefore be mad at Daniel because he knew before her. (And Daniel wasn't going to tell her because it was not his secret to tell even if it's going to lead to couch time because Marc was a friend as well, sort of. They've bonded a lot over keeping a pregnant Amanda functional.)

"Apparently people only make up nasty rumors about people they are jealous of and feel threatened by." She said walking to the couch with him behind her. Daniel was already making a mental note to send Amanda a thank you muffin basket. Or maybe he should send shoes because the baby is making her throw up all the time. He'll ask when he calls her about the Marc thing. And he had to talk to her about it because he knows she can't deal with this on her own.

"Usually," he said taking a seat next to her.

"I've never had people jealous of me before." He finds it hard to believe considering how Kimmy behaved before. But it was obvious to him that Betty didn't see it that way.

"Everybody was jealous of you." He said wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the forehead. "I was jealous of you. Do you have any idea how great you are? There is this goodness in you that I will never achieve. You're also the most beautiful woman in the world. Your sexiness comes from there."

"Apparently in the corporate world you can't be sexy, beautiful and intelligent at the same time." Betty sighed again.

"Alexis once told me that she had an advertiser take her less serious specifically because she now had breasts."

"Your sister is probably one of the few that knows about this from both sides."

"Definitely." He kissed her forehead. "Just because I would love to show you the fun of copy room sex at some point in the future doesn't mean I don't value you as a person and a writer because I really do and I think that's what matters."

"I know that. I've never cared what other people think before. Why should I start now?"

"That's the Betty spirit I love." He smiled at her.

"Although don't expect the copy room thing to ever happen because I'm not really that adventurous. The most daring thing I ever did was try to eat ice cream off of Henry's stomach. I told you how bad that went." He couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I remember you telling me that story to cheer me up this summer. And honestly it went so badly because you need to be the one covered in chocolate syrup." That got Betty to blush. He loved it when she blushed. "We're fixing that. We can do it tonight. Think of it as my apology present for screwing up. We can go pick up your favorite flavor and everything." So he may have had Candy look up where he could find all of Betty's foods as an apology present. He was planning on bringing her a bag full of her favorite junk food as a peace offering. However, this would work too.

"Doesn't that involve actual sex, which you don't want to do yet?" Which was true. They both decided it was best to wait for a while. They needed to get used to the transition before they throw another element into the relationship.

"Not necessarily. It depends on your definition of sex." She started blushing again at his words.

"This would kind of be a first for me as well because most of my previous girlfriends, if you can call them that, did not do food."

"You never tried this with Amanda? I was her roommate for a year. I saw things that no one should ever see and the ice cream thing would be something she would do." Daniel doesn't want to know what she saw Amanda doing.

"The first time around, Amanda and I were not in a place where we trusted each other enough to do this." And he probably needs to send her a muffin basket to apologize for that screw-up alone, actually. That's why he's going to help her figure out what to do with the Marc situation because he owes her a lot. "The second time around she was too busy listening to me be mad about Matt. Actually I was listening to her be mad about Matt." They have really weird relationship.

"I will admit that entire thing was a mistake." Thank God. "What about Molly though?" Betty asked.

"Molly was too sick to do anything like that. Technically our marriage was not even legal because we were never able to…" That's when Betty kissed him in a way that made him forget where he was until the snide comments of his coworkers broke through.

"I told you if you were going to have sex with your girlfriend in the office lock the door. All I ask is for you to lock the door." Sumreen was giggling so she wasn't actually that offended by it.

"Okay now I know why you're with her." Becks said from the hallway. Why was Candy still with Backs? He thought that his assistant was trying to avoid him like the plague. "The sex must be nuclear. It's always the quiet ones."

"Okay now we are even." Betty smirked at him.

"You did that on purpose?"

"Yes. I asked Sumreen to stop by when she was done with her phone call so I could talk to her about Betsy who used to work here. I'm thinking about hiring her as my assistant." Betty told him as she started to get up from the couch. "Not only will I be back in your bedroom tonight, but I feel like ice cream."

Of course, this was whispered in his ear. No one but Betty probably realized why he was grinning like an idiot.

"That's good. She's such a sweetheart. Although you probably need a better recommendation than that. So you should probably step into my office." With that he was left behind with Becks which is why he quickly made an excuse to call the lawyers. No, Daniel wasn't ready to address why he would rather speak with his legal team than his old college friend. He just wasn't emotionally ready to talk about it yet. He wasn't sure when he would be.

To be continued

The next chapter is going to be a beast at nearly 9000 words and climbing (unless I successfully trim it back), but it's also the last chapter of unbetaed material. So hopefully things will get easier once we get into the stuff with less typos. I kind of cried when I came across some of the stuff that was left behind in the original version of this chapter. I love all my betas so much.