Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter, even if it was the original version. All of you are wonderful and keep me working on this project.
Chapter 26: There Are No Bleach Wipes for Life
"The only good thing that happened this week was meeting Jade Monday. It's been going downhill ever since." Marc said as he rested his head on Cliff's shoulder as there "so late that it might as well be considered early" train left union station.
"At least nothing's broken," Cliff remarked.
"Only my pride."
"I thought you lost that a long time ago when working for Wilhelmina."
"I recently got it back becoming the youngest creative director in the history of Mold. Monique considers my time with Willy an apprenticeship." Marc told him.
"You do know where all the bodies are buried."
"Not enough to get us back into the State Department." Marc sighed. "You know after my now ex-boyfriend made me all black and blue. I look horrible and bruised."
"You can always see the makeup team in the morning," Cliff suggested.
"That just makes me feel like a lifetime movie battered boyfriend."
"But you're still going to go."
"The awards banquet is tomorrow as well as the rehearsal lunch that I have to go to since I no longer have an excuse not to. It's best that I don't look like an abuse victim."
"I was going to have the munchkin over Sunday so Jody could have a personal day. She said you could join me."
"Did she say that? I have the feeling that she's going to be using the abusive boyfriend thing against me in court."
"He hit you because you ended things. You knew something was wrong, and you took care of it. I don't think they'll use it against you."
"Because I got a clue before it got worse. I should've ended things earlier. I just wanted to get through the shoot without anything else going wrong, and here we are." Marc told him.
"Unfortunately, you can't go back in time."
"If I could, I totally wouldn't have fucked him in the Bahamas. The sex wasn't even that good. It was like I had to show him everything."
"Well, that's what happens when you screw an intern." Cliff remarked.
"Recent college grad not an intern. The interns are Justin's age. That's just creepy. I have some standards."
"Very few."
"Yes, I managed to do worse than my 'I'm afraid of commitment and therefore decide to let the neighbor give me a blow job' hook up. I didn't think it was possible for me to do something that I would regret more than that but here we are."
"If you didn't do the stupid thing with the neighbor, then Jade probably wouldn't be here." Cliff pointed out.
"Point, but it doesn't make me feel better right now."
"Maybe everything happens for a reason, and maybe you had to be with Troy to know that you deserve better."
"Or that if I want to try a serious relationship, I should at least try to be with someone I actually like, Instead of clinging to the first person available. Possibly because I'm terrified of being alone for the rest of my being when everybody else was moving on to marriage and kids."
"Including you. How much baby swag did you pick up at the Smithsonian yesterday or rather Wednesday at this point?" Cliff asked.
"Too much, but it was all adorable. I was going to get Jade a future Secretary of State onesie at DOS, but well, my boyfriend abused me before I could take a break and pick it up. However, my new assistant managed to get me one before she put in her two-week notice."
"I'm so glad you have an assistant. Even if Justin was great."
"Yes. So great that Justin packed up all my stuff at the hotel while I was filing a police report."
"You are pressing charges, right?" Cliff asked.
"Yes. Monique would be furious, otherwise. I have to meet with HR and one of the lawyers in the morning or rather later today. I've been up too long."
"Nearly 23 hours. You should sleep. We have at least three hours until New York."
"Even if I use your shoulder as a pillow the entire way home?" Marc asked.
"Perfectly okay, considering."
"I need to make better boyfriend decisions in the future."
"You do. Preferably ones that won't lose my SD card." Cliff joked, maybe.
"Number one on my list. Okay, number two. I think number one has to be about Jade."
"You're learning."
"I'm sorry, I completely fucked things up with us." Marc apologized, sincerely.
"We our not fucked up, at least not now. We're just going somewhere new, better. Go to sleep, Marc. Everything will make more sense in the morning." Marc thinks that Cliff may have kissed him on the four head, but it was dark and he was already half-asleep. He really did hope things would be better in the morning.
xxx
Daniel woke up the moment sunlight started to stream through the nearby window. His mind instantly goes back to the first time he woke up, tangled up in her Little Mermaid sheets. Daniel remembered feeling a mixture of confusion, sadness, and oddly enough disappointment when Daniel realized that Betty slept on the couch after she rescued him from his own stupidity. He should have known even then that he wanted more than friendship and an excellent work relationship with her.
This time he felt satisfaction, happiness, and complete joy that the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with was lying in bed next to him, body tangled with his. It was just a bonus that she was wearing nothing but her engagement ring because of course, they were way too busy last night for her to remember to take it off. He was also too busy and later exhausted to get dressed last night, afterward. He's just glad that DJ had the excellent sense to text him instead of walking into the room last night. Okay, he asked if he needed earplugs for the night, but still, it was less traumatic for everyone involved that way.
Daniel could not help but run one hand over the curve of her breasts as she slept next to him. She moaned his name as he continued to caress her. Eventually, he sees her beautiful brown eyes blinking open at him.
"What are you doing?" Betty asked him still half asleep.
"If you have no idea what I'm doing, we seriously have a lot of ground to cover," Daniel says, kissing her shoulder blade. "I think I'm recovered enough for round four."
"You do remember that my father is most likely in the room next door?" That was actually what made him go flaccid despite the naked Betty in front of him. "Also, unlike DJ, I don't think he's wearing earplugs."
"See this is why I wanted to stay in a hotel," Daniel said as he pulled away.
"Other than the room service. Just remember that my father likes you and I want to keep it that way." She said, smiling as she pulled the Disney sheet to her chest, trying to be modest. It was no use; every inch of flesh was forever burned in his mind.
"You're so lucky that you only have to deal with my mom. I'm only doing this because I see your father as a second dad." He said, placing a tiny kiss on her forehead.
"Thank you." Betty smiled back.
"Your mom loves me, so that's not going to be a problem. Although I do wonder how Bradford would have taken our engagement if he was still alive." Betty said frowning as she put her glasses back on. As much as he wanted to stay in bed, they had to be in Manhattan in less than 2 hours. Daniel had a brunch meeting with his mother and Monique to discuss the company. There was also a chance that Wilhelmina would be coming by to finalize the selling of her half of the company. At least that is what Wilhelmina told Betty yesterday afternoon during what his lover considered the most uncomfortable lunch of her entire career.
"Why do you say that?" Daniel asked, frowning.
"You told me yourself that when he died, he asked you to take care of me. I think you're doing a wonderful job of that last night. Ten out of five would spend every night together for the rest of eternity."
"I don't think this is the type of 'taking care of' he had in mind. I usually don't listen to the Mode rumor mill, but according to office gossip your father only hired me because you would never sleep with me." He wanted to chuckle at that. That was relatively mild to what the rumor mill usually said about him and Betty. Most of it involves doing inappropriate things in various bathrooms.
He was half-tempted to suggest that she join him for his morning shower, but he knew better. Daniel also wanted to make a joke about how everyone at Mode believed Bradford failed miserably at his goal even before his death, but he was not sure Betty would get the joke.
"You have always been good with helping me prove my father wrong. He wasn't expecting me to fall in love with my assistant before I slept with her." He replied with a smirk as he found his toiletry bag.
"Technically, I was not your assistant by the time we actually fell in love with each other."
"No, I figured out I was completely in love with you during your 'see America' tour, so I think technically you were working for me at the time that," Daniel confessed.
"Go take a shower."
"Fine. Love you."
"Love you too," Betty said as she gave him a quick kiss goodbye.
XXXX
Wilhelmina sat on the narrow bed completely satisfied after her first conjugal visit as Connor's wife. The fact that she was able to see Connor this morning was her wedding present from the Senator. He did not bother to come to her wedding, but he had no trouble using his good name to get her extra time with her husband. She didn't know if she could survive the next six to nine months without these visits.
Her new life was slowly coming apart at the seams because of her past mistakes. The biggest mistake of all was not hitting her first stepmother's evil brother with a baseball bat the first time he laid a hand on her. If she could change anything in her life that would be it. (Although choosing a different gestational carrier was also on the list of things she would change if she could.) If he never touched her, Renee would not exist, and therefore, she would not be back for the sole purpose of ruining her life via blackmail.
"Are you okay?" Her husband asked as he ran his hand down her cheek.
"I'm fine, Connor. I'm just thinking about a lot of things." He gave Wilhelmina a look that told her that he did not believe her.
"If you're still able to think, I'm not doing my job right." He said, kissing her collarbone.
"You're good, but you're not good enough to push away these thoughts. The Isabella Press deal fell apart." She said with a frown. "Not only that but they want me to save Isabella itself from complete ruin."
"Is that a good or bad thing?" he asked as he pulled away from her slightly.
"It is horrendous considering they are only willing to pay me half of what I made at Mode. Marc is probably getting paid more now as a Junior Creative Director or whatever the hell Monique is calling the Creative Director position to keep certain idiots from being jealous of Marc for obtaining it so quickly. Lindsey thinks that by making me untouchable, I'll do whatever the hell they want." She spat out with venom. She was the puppet master, not the puppet.
"He obviously doesn't know you very well," Connor said with the smile that she loved so much.
"It happened before, but it will never happen again," Wilhelmina said, thinking about being 15 and not able to fight back.
"Willie," Connor said softly touching her face.
"I don't want to talk about it." She growled, pulling away from him.
"Unfortunately, "it" is currently sleeping on your couch." That was enough to make Wilhelmina get up from the narrow cot entirely and search for her underwear and blouse. Her skirt was still around her waist because Connor did not bother to take it off. She found her now unusable panties near the cot. Thankfully, she had another pair in her purse that was currently locked in the trunk of her car.
"I would never make a guest, even an uninvited one, sleep on the couch, she is in the guest bedroom," Wilhelmina said as she found her bra. At least that was still wearable.
"Do you know why Renee is here?" Connor asked her.
"The same reason why the child I no longer speak of came to visit last time, extortion of the non-emotional kind. Renee finally figured out that her birth certificate was not legitimate." No use telling Connor that Nico actually tried to warn her through Marc ahead of time that Renee was coming.
"What does she want from you?" He asked in a whisper.
"Everything," Wilhelmina said, putting on her shirt before explaining what she could under the circumstances.
xxxxx
30 hours until Monique became Mrs. Gio Rossi and the world around her was slowly coming undone. Typical Friday. She really does not know where to start. The DJ canceled because he was 'supposedly' overbooked and apparently, a certain superstar performer suddenly has laryngitis and can't perform. They didn't even have the balls to call her, instead there people sent her people a text message. Considering she saw said pop star partying with various underage pop tarts on Twitter this morning, she doesn't believe his excuse for canceling. Rehab would have been more believable and more useful. Too bad Alex was on tour. Note to self: call Alex to see if he knew of any up and comers in the New York area that would be willing to do a gig on 24 hours notice.
This morning as they were getting off the train, she overheard Amanda getting in a vicious fight with the judge who was supposed to do the wedding. (Monique really does not want to think about why they were getting off the train from DC at 6:24 AM) Supposedly, he has the flu. Amanda referred to it as the most likely taking the day off to get laid flu. Monique thinks all the cancellations are the universe's way of making her as miserable as possible.
The most upsetting of all was that her father was now coming to the festivities with wife number six (?) who is probably more pregnant then Amanda at this point. Apparently, Suzuki's little piece earlier in the week made him look bad and well, daddy dearest couldn't deal with that.
It pissed Monique off that her father, who never gave a fuck about any of his children keeps popping out babies in his mid-seventies and she can't have children. No, she is not jealous at all. Chances are her father will die of a heart attack before said half-sibling is five years old and the gold digger will be happy to let someone else take care of her child as long as she still gets child support payments. It would be Breanna's childhood, but at least the kids would be moving in with somebody more emotionally stable.
Because her sister despises their father even more than her, Mercedes definitely will not be coming to the wedding now, which hurt Monique. Her sister defied their mother to accompany Monique to Atlantic City the first time for her wedding to Jordan, yet she couldn't deal with their father for the length of the ceremony. Monique would rather have her sister there again than her absentee father. However, her mother, even though she absolutely hated her former husband, would not allow Monique to order security to keep her sperm donor out of her wedding. In exchange for an advanced on her trust fund to buy Wilhelmina's shares of Meade publishing, this wedding would have to go by the Viviane Windom-West rules.
It wasn't until an hour ago when she received a phone call from Mr. Suarez to make sure that the rehearsal lunch was still on for 2:00 that Monique realized the chaos, at least the part that was only related to the wedding, was definitely caused by sourdough girl and not the universe out for her blood.
Sourdough girl was truly fucking with her life just because in her mind Monique stole her boyfriend. It was as if she saw Gio as a possession, not a person. Amanda finally told her after the call with Mr. Suarez that the girl has been using every scheme imaginable to screw up her wedding from telling sob stories to the caterers to turning Monique's so-called friends against her. The fact that she had real friends who were willing to use their connections to keep her wedding from going entirely to hell made her feel better. She didn't need the others.
She was a little angry that if it weren't for Mr. Suarez telling her the truth, she would have no idea what was going on. Apparently, Gio, Amanda, Candy, and Daniel thought it would be best to just keep her ignorant of what was going on. She is not that type of person. She needs to deal with a crisis head-on, and not have people hide the dirty truth from her. That just makes it worse in the end.
The fact that she had real friends that would do anything for her, including fixing the wedding from hell helped her get through the world's worst HR meeting. Monique thought she would be happy when she got a chance to dismiss Troy, but she was not, mostly because it was a giant mess. Troy' accidentally' losing Cliff's shots from Tuesday was grounds enough to fire him, but Marc convinced her to give Troy another chance because Mark is that good of a person and then the State Department incident happened. She does not tolerate domestic violence and will not employ anybody who did what Troy did to his boyfriend yesterday on the job. Monique doesn't care that it was triggered by Marc finally getting a clue and ending things. She will not tolerate domestic violence at all.
The problem is that because this unfortunate situation involves her Junior Creative Director and a subordinate, even if the relationship started before Marc was paneled into his new job. It could become ugly, and by ugly Monique means wrongful termination lawsuit. The lawyers told her that a wrongful termination suit was going to be inevitable. However, the fact that Troy not only left his boyfriend black and blue, he was also single-handedly responsible for Mode getting kicked out of the Department of State and getting Monique's interview was Secretary Clinton re canceled after she spent days trying to get it back on the woman schedule would keep it from being truly painful. These actions cost the magazine a lot of money and therefore, would be sufficient grounds for his dismissal. A good judge would see that or at least that's what the legal team told her.
The only good thing to come out of the fiasco referred to as the DOS incident is her cousin decided to resign and will become Marc's assistant. Okay, good for Marc anyway and the guy needs something good this week between the boyfriend and baby drama. However, that means she is stuck with Lamanda from the temp agency who is not in front of Monique's Office. Considering that the blinds were shut she would not be surprised to find a sleeping assistant inside. Unfortunately, what Monique found in her office was going to require more bleach.
She already had a massive headache that was either triggered by sleep deprivation or spending too much quality time with the lawyers. Possibly a combination of the two. She did not need to see a very happy Betty Suarez perched on her desk 20 seconds from orgasm. When she notices a little bit of red sole shoe underneath her desk, she knows that the orgasm is not hypothetical. (She refuses to confess how she now knows that a person can fit under her new desk or how easy it is to partake in that activity in that particular chair. Let us just say there is a reason why she went with a more traditional style desk that was covered in front.)
"I'm going to go to Marc's office and find something chocolate," Monique said in a daze. She knew even though it was barely 10:00 AM that Marc would have something considering what happened yesterday. "Come get me when you are done fornicating on my desk. Also, there are Clorox wipes in my desk. If you could wipe down my desk, that would be lovely." Monique said just before slamming the door behind her. The universe really hated her.
Xxxxx
In Marc's personal opinion, the only good thing about the last 72 hours was falling asleep on Cliff's shoulders this morning on the all too short train ride back from DC and Cliff inviting him to spend all day Sunday with him and Jade. That was the only sleep he has had since waking up at 4:00 AM Thursday after a minuscule 3 ½ hours. It has been a very long four days.
Instead of getting to go home for a little bit of sleep, Marc had an emergency HR meeting. New rule, don't fuck your subordinates. You know, unless you're Daniel Meade. Apparently, it doesn't help if your initial hook up happened in the Bahamas when you were just a lowly assistant, and you thought the guy was a tourist and not a new employee. Whoops! Also, you really don't sleep with a subordinate if you happened to fathered a child with the head of the mentoring program you were in, especially if everyone knows that only had sex with her to get a job placement. HR pretty much hates him right now.
Monique asked the lawyers if it was acceptable for him to date Cliff since he was a contractor and not a direct higher did not make Marc feel any better. It just made the oncoming headache so much worse. Legal is perfectly okay with him dating Cliff for some reason.
The saddest part of all of this was after visiting the makeup person to get rid of the evidence that he's a battered boyfriend he was breaking into the emergency chocolate supply that he kept for Amanda. At least he was trying to. Unfortunately, Amanda took the chocolate out of his hands before he could say anything. She was meeting him to go to her appointment with her biological mother's lawyer. He completely forgot about that until she arrived in his office.
"Does the term gestational diabetes mean nothing to you?" He asked, giving her a napkin to spit out the chocolate.
"You're so mean." She said, doing what he wanted her to do.
"I'm just looking out for my future godchildren. I didn't get to do this with Jody, so you need to indulge me." Marc replied.
"I'm doing this for the twins, not you. Even though you're so mean, I brought you a present though, but I need a favor first." Amanda said, not telling him what the present was.
"I'm not going out to get you ice cream. I would tell you to have Monique's assistant do it, but everybody's on strict orders to not enable you to go off your 'healthy for the babies' diet. We have to be at the lawyers in 45 minutes anyway." After fun with HR regarding the Troy fiasco, he received another lecture this morning about not giving in to Amanda from Monique.
"Again, that's so mean. You can still marry people, right?" Her question confused him.
"I hope so. Otherwise, Wilhelmina is going to be furious." Marc said, rolling his eyes. "As long as it is a man and a woman." He added afterward, bitterly.
"The judge who was supposed to marry Mo and Gio canceled. I need to find a replacement." Amanda explained.
"You want me to unite my boss and her sandwich-loving husband in holy straight matrimony?" Marc questioned.
"You owe Monique for what happened yesterday and for her being really understanding about Jade. I'm surprised she didn't fire you for the Troy thing. His breakup spectacle did get us kicked out of the State Department." Amanda told him with an angry expression that obviously came from Monique.
"So am I," Marc mumbled to himself. "Fine, I will do it." He said in acquiescence. "Now give me the good news."
"I don't know. You won't get me ice cream anymore besides we need to get to the lawyer." She said, trying to avoid this conversation.
"If you tell me what it is I will get you a scoop of the no sugar added stuff after the lawyers." He offered.
"That can't happen because we're going to the rehearsal luncheon," Amanda said with a pout. "Or at least I am. Are you still going to go see your baby without me?"
"According to this morning's very uncomfortable call with the lawyers, Jody still won't let me see Jade today. However, someone has to stay here, and I feel like I should volunteer because of the Troy fiasco." And because he would really like to avoid the drama that will inevitably be a Windom West rehearsal lunch.
"Nothing is going on here in New York that can't be handled by blackberry. We are only back because of the awards banquet tonight. You are coming with me. I need all the help I can get dealing with my mom and my ass of a father. You are an expert at getting along with the wealthy and pretentious. You owe me. Especially because I'm letting Jody bring your three-month-old daughter to the wedding tomorrow." Monique said as she went straight for his chocolate stash.
"Why did I not go to Vegas?" Monique asked, and Marc couldn't help but wonder the same thing.
"Because your mom would not give you the money to buy Meade publications if you got married without her again," Amanda said, trying to get another truffle but was prevented by both he and Monique.
"I deserve a truffle. I got Marc to be your wedding, officiant. Also, when you forced me to pack up Troy's things yesterday after the people with guns took him away, I've found where he stashed the memory card." Amanda said, holding up the SD card. Marc was so happy he probably could kiss her at that moment. Cliff spent half of Wednesday night lamenting over his lost images.
"I got 99 problems, but Marc's dick of a now former boyfriend is no longer one. That is two fewer things to worry about as my wedding slowly comes apart, and the magazine goes to hell. Now if you could only wipe out the memory of Daniel going down on Betty in my office everything would be wonderful." Sarcasm was dripping from every word. She was too disgusted for that to be a joke. After Marc picked his mouth off the floor, he quickly got up from his seat and went to his emergency liquor stash to pour her a glass.
"I think you'll need this." He said, passing the glass to her.
"Probably, but I can't be drunk if I'm going to deal with my mom. There lies another trip to rehab." She said, turning him down. Marc drank the glass instead to get the image of Daniel doing that with Betty out of his mind. He knew they were together, but he just didn't want to think about it like that, especially when he wouldn't be getting any anytime soon. Doubly so now that he has a kid. He's had more than one conversation with Hilda about how hard it is to date with a kid. Of course, she's married now, so maybe there's hope.
"I don't want to talk about it. Amanda, please call the temp agency to get me a new assistant. After that, call housekeeping and have them disinfect my office." Monique ordered, still shivering.
"I thought you were going to have the interns do that?" Amanda questioned her friend.
"I've decided Justin is better suited for being our new microblogger. He did great in DC. I'm also going to have him do the Mode blog during Amanda's maternity leave. He will still work on other projects for me. However, I need someone to do my schedule, and I just realized how important it is to have an assistant that will keep people from having oral sex in my office." Marc agreed with her on that point.
"Will do."
"Speaking of people doing inappropriate things in my office, it's nice of you to join us," Monique said to a red face Betty and smug looking Daniel that walked in. "Would you like to tell me why you had sex in my office?"
"We were not having sex in your office," Daniel said defensively. Marc knew better because Betty's cheeks were scarlet.
"I don't want to hear it. I know what I saw. Maybe you forgot that was no longer your office and you can't do that there with Betty anymore. Just give me one good reason why I should forgive you." Monique said with arms crossed, giving both a hard look.
"I wiped down the chair with the bleach wipes." The not so chubby one anymore said still blushing.
"That helps," Monique said just as Amanda's start screaming. Within seconds, she was on Betty lifting one chubby hand into the air displaying a vintage engagement ring. 'Another straight marriage,' Marc thought with a frown.
"You proposed?" Amanda asked shrieking. Daniel just nodded and then was attacked by a hugging Amanda who was crying at this point. Marc blamed the pregnancy hormones.
"Okay, that explains what I saw," Monique said out loud. "Just remember what I said on Wednesday, it's better to be happy and alone than to be miserable with the wrong person," Monique whispered to Marc before walking over to the happy couple. She obviously picked up on him being upset.
"Congratulations," Monique said hugging Daniel after Amanda finally switched focus again to Betty. "I'm not even that upset that you may steal my thunder at my wedding if it actually happens the way things are going. May I suggest Vegas for your ceremony?"
"I think I made enough bad choices in my player days that that's probably the safer choice." Daniel joked.
"Yes, nobody wants to deal with the wrath of crazy ex-girlfriend's or boyfriends for that matter," Marc mumbled from the back.
"You would know," Amanda mumbled from beside him.
"As much as I want to know all the dirty details, I have to be at the puppy lawyers in 37 minutes. We will sit together at the rehearsal lunch, I have my sonogram and baby pictures of Jade to share." However, Amanda was already pulling them out of the office before anyone could respond.
xxxx
"I can't believe you didn't tell me that you were going to propose," Monique said as they waited in Claire's office for the food and lawyers to show up. They were supposed to sign the final papers that morning. Since she controlled the trust buying Wilhelmina's shares, Matt did not need to be there. That was good because he was still hospitalized (most likely on Aunt Brianna's orders for his own protection from evil mommy dearest). Even though she was still mad at him for Monday's stupidity, Monique knew she had to see him eventually just not today. She already had too much to handle from an imploding wedding to Troy related personnel matters to add one more thing.
"It was a spur of the moment thing," Daniel responded with a shrug.
"The ring on her finger does not screen 'spur of the moment.' It must have taken forever to find something like that." She said, impressed. It really was a beautiful ring.
"More like 5 minutes and extreme luck. I was with your fiancé yesterday when he went to pick up the rings. That was in the case, and I just had to buy it." Why wasn't she surprised? His last ring fell into his lap too.
"You bought your engagement ring as an impulse purchase?" Monique asked incredulously.
"I was planning on asking her eventually, and as you said, the ring was perfect," Daniel said, shrugging.
"Because you found the perfect ring yesterday you decided that last night was the perfect time to propose?" Monique questioned.
"Not exactly," Daniel said before explaining what happened the night before.
"She proposed to you?" Monique asked in open mouth shock. Her mind was on overload from everything to the proposal to Daniel, finding out that his marriage to Molly was never legal. She would have to talk to him about that later. Right now, she would focus on the utterly unexpected proposal. She did not see that coming. She also did not see Wilhelmina Slater come into the room.
"You proposed again? You do realize there is some middle ground between meaningless one night stands and forever? Even you're not that stupid." Wilhelmina said icily.
"Actually she proposed to me." Wilhelmina still gave him a dubious look. "Besides, Betty is the type of person that you want to spend forever with," Daniel said, sternly.
"I'm sure that's the case now that she knows how to dress better." Daniel just shrugged most likely because it was true.
"You're not going to make any other snide comments," Monique asked.
"It's not a snide comment when it's the truth. Betty's sense of style was the only thing I didn't like about her, other than her morals. In four years, I have succeeded in teaching Betty that the world is gray, and patterns should be worn sparingly. Contrary to what you may think, I like Betty. More importantly, I respect her." Daniel scoffed at that.
"Then why did you allow your sister to ambush her yesterday," Daniel said, disbelieving everything Wilhelmina said.
"My sister has never done anything I have asked her to do since the moment the doctors took her away from me. Why should now be any different." Monique found her wording highly peculiar but said nothing. She was definitely going to have to pay a visit to her Australian 'brother' soon.
"She's the one who showed up at my house completely unannounced before the wedding and will not leave. She was the one who decided to follow me. She was also the one who decided to attack your girlfriend, I'm sorry, fiancé in the middle of the restaurant. If the new owner of Isabella thought so little of me as to offer me half the money I made at Mode for the same job before that incident, I shudder at what Lindsey believes now." Wilhelmina said with thinly concealed irritation. She was so going to need to talk to Marc as soon as possible.
"I'm sure Lindsey thought very little of you before your sister arrived. I know I do." Claire spoke loudly as she entered the room.
"Claire, please don't antagonize her. She hasn't signed the papers yet." Monique said, trying to avoid unnecessary bickering.
"I thought you hated her as much as I do," Claire whispered pseudo voice.
"Hate is personal. This is business. I respect Wilhelmina's ability to do her job." Monique said honestly.
"I have to respect anyone who can turn Player into something that I would willingly put on my coffee table. She took a poor man's Maximum and turned it into Playboy meets the Wall Street Journal. Most can't see a diamond in the rough." Wilhelmina said in a way that almost made it sound like a compliment.
"Or take a punishment and turn it into a reward," Claire mumbled just before an excitable Hilda ran into the room.
"How could you not tell me that you asked my sister to marry you?" Her question was punctuated with a slap across the face.
"You know I could use some good news as I try to figure out how the hell to tell Monique that her teenage sister in law needs an emergency OB/GYN appointment because she may be pregnant." There are certain things that nobody wants to find out by accident, this was one of them. That was Monique's last thought as everything went black.
To be continued