Chapter Four: When Everyone Knows Something You Don't.

Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter. In addition, thank you to everyone who added this story to his or her favorites or to their alerts.

I want to explain why I am using Matt’s POV to tell this story. A lot of people don’t like Matt, because they see him as an obstacle to the Betty/Daniel happy ending. In this story, I intend to turn him into a means to our Betty Daniel happy ending. The other reason why I’m using Matt is he is essentially Daniel 2.00. Both come from dysfunctional families and in the past always coasted by on their name and money. There is also the fact that they’re both reformed players. If anybody is going to be able to get inside the head of Daniel Meade, it’s going to be Matt.

Disclaimer: I don’t own ugly Betty.

Warning: Unbeta story written by dyslexic/dysgraphic person via voice recognition software. Be prepared for crazy grammar mistakes.

Is it wrong to despise your boss? Daniel did punch him out a month ago, so maybe the animosity is justified. Matt realizes now that he probably deserved the punch for openly suggesting that Betty and Daniel were sleeping together. He should do what everyone else does and say it behind their back. Apparently, it’s not just at Mode either. Every magazine at Meade talks about Betty and Daniel being together. There is some choice graffiti in the men room at Player involving a dirty limerick about Mr. Mead and his assistant.

However, that is not why Matt despises Daniel today. Okay Matt does despise Daniel for being in love with his ex girlfriend, but that is a completely different set of issues. Matt despises Daniel today because he’s an absolute hypocrite and his stupidity is hurting Betty.

A couple weeks ago after his business dinner withAmanda, Matt realized that she was definitely more than just a pretty face. She actually knew a lot about the fashion industry. He also realize that she was absolutely bored answering phones all day. He heard about the incident a few years ago where she dressed her dog in paper clips. If that doesn’t scream boredom with job, he didn’t know what did. Due to budget cuts, he couldn’t have his own personal assistant. He thought it would be okay if he could give some additional work to Amanda that would be a bit more challenging.

According to HR, he had to go through Daniel or Wilhelmina. Unfortunately Wilhelmina I wasn’t there. Matt realizes he was probably the only editor at Meade publications that rather deal with Wilhelmina Slater than Daniel Meade. He had a good reason to prefer Wilhelmina, because Daniel instantly shot down his idea and accused him of making Amanda his pseudo assistant just to sleep with her. The man is an ass. Just because he wants to screw all his assistants including Betty, doesn’t mean Matt will do the same thing.

“Contrary to what everybody thinks Daniel, I’m not you. Maybe I did get this job because my daddy has invested a lot in this company, but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve to be here. Unlike you I don’t automatically want to screw any woman who is my assistant. Amanda is a lot smarter than we give her credit for. She deserves to do something besides sit at the desk and looked pretty all day.”

“I know that. That is why I don’t want you to use her. She’s been used enough in the past.” Matt notice that Daniel purposely ignored part of his earlier statement.

“Yes by you.” Matt muttered under his breath. He came up with 145 entries when he googled the names Amanda Tanen-Sommers and Daniel Meade together. Not one bit of it was good. He came up with 3,400 entries when he googled the names Betty Suarez and Daniel Meade together.

“That was a long time ago. I’m not that person anymore. Fine you can use Amanda to work on special projects, but if I see you act anything less than professional around her I will be signing you up for the three day sexual harassment seminar. You know the one with the videos that comes straight from the eighties and involve role-playing. That also goes for your interaction with Betty. Your current behavior involving your ex girlfriend also qualifies as sexual harassment. One more incident like the bean bag chair and you will be at that seminar. Am I clear?” Daniel being tough is scary and disturbing.

“Crystal,”

A week later, it seems that Daniel Meade needed to sign up for that three day seminar himself. Matt was making good on his promise to Daniel by staying professional with both Betty and Amanda. This meant canceling his lunch thing with Amanda.

The big rumor going around Mode involves Betty being jealous of Lexi that rhymes with sexy. Going back to classic Daniel Meade form, he hired the hottest applicant instead of the most qualified one. There was one particular nasty rumor going around that Betty was crying in the ladies room about the whole situation. He hoped that rumor was untrue.

According to what he overheard in the cafeteria yesterday, the late Bradford Meade actually hired Betty because Daniel wouldn’t want to sleep with her. Matt wondered what Mr. Mead would think about his son actually falling in love with Betty instead. As someone who has actually slept with Betty Suarez, he will buy into the adage that you can definitely not judge a book by its cover.

For this juicy story Matt didn’t have to rely on indirect gossip, because he overheard the ultimate conversation between Betty and her friend Christina in the elevator. It is a miracle; cell phones actually work in the elevators at Meade. For some unknown reason the elevator seemed to stop at every floor between Mode and the first floor giving him time to hear the entire conversation. The fact that Betty was calling Christina just proved how dire the situation was.

“I’m not jealous of Lexi Christina.” Betty said to Christina on the phone.

“Yes you are,” Matt thought to himself.

“Yes I’m positive that he only hired her for that.”

“But he already has you for that, why would he want anybody else.” Matt thought bitterly.

“There’s no way Daniel Meade ever wanted to sleep with me.” His former girlfriend did not have a good opinion of her body. She had no idea how sexy and beautiful she really was. Any man would worship at her feet. Daniel was definitely one of these men.

“No he’s just in love with you.” Matt whispered this under his breath so low that Betty couldn’t hear him.

“Daniel is just a friend,” It took all of Matt’s will power not to start laughing hysterically at that comment. People who were just friends don’t make excuses to spend time together. Matt already knows that if he can’t find Betty in her office, she will be in Daniel’s office.

People who are just friends don’t have their hands all over each other. In the last two weeks, he has caught Daniel touching Betty’s shoulder 24 times. He caught Daniel hugging Betty 21 times. He has seen Daniel touching her hips nine times. Daniel hands have made it to Betty’s backside a grand total of six times. The kicker is, Daniel’s hands have graced Betty’s breasts three different times. These numbers reflect only stuff they do in public.

“I am not going to talk to you about Matt right now.” Matt wondered what Christina was saying about him.

“Because he’s standing right next to me probably listening to this entire conversation,” Matt looks away sheepishly at that comment.

“I’m not going to pass the phone to him.” Betty said to Christina in annoyance.

“Okay fine Christina I will give the phone to Matt.” Betty said with a sigh.

When he found the cell phone in his hand, he was absolutely petrified of what Christina would say to him. He was expecting the ‘you broke my best friend’s heart’ speech from her. What he got was anything but.

“Because you’re there you can tell me the truth. Is she jealous of Lexi?” Now he really wanted to laugh.

“Yes, she looks at the girl like I did at Henry when he came back a couple of months ago.”

“You had nothing to worry about with Henry.” Betty said from beside him. “There’s no way I can have that look in relation to Lexi. Because I’m not jealous.

“You kissed Henry in the park.” It was the first time Matt has been able to mention that incident without an extreme amount of bitterness.

“You still can’t get over that? It didn’t mean anything.” Matt now knew it didn’t mean anything because she was actually in love with her best friend. However, Matt was definitely not going to do his ex girlfriend any favors.

“I’m very over that. I know now that Henry wasn’t the ultimate threat to our relationship.” Matt said very cryptically. However, Christina picked up the true meaning of his sentence.

“You finally figured out who the real competition was?” Christina asked him over the phone. Matt almost dropped the phone in shock.

“Yes unfortunately.” Matt said in a tone of acquiescence.

“Is Betty still completely oblivious that Daniels in love with her?” If her other best friend saw this, it must be real.

“Completely, ”

“Is she still in complete denial that she is in love with him?” This is a harder question. In his mind he knows that Betty is in love with Daniel. However, saying it out loud to anyone else would make it real. It would mean giving up the possibility of ever being with Betty again. Was he really ready to give that up? Then he remembered what he promised Amanda a few weeks ago.

“Yes”

“I’m sorry; you actually seem like a nice guy. Maybe you’ll find someone else eventually.” Betty’s friend is actually trying to comfort him. The world is ending.

“Maybe,” Matt said as he passed the cell back to Betty and promptly left the elevator.

On Monday morning when Matt came into work after being forced to spend the entire weekend cutting from the magazine with Wilhelmina. After hearing the latest gossip, he now knew why Wilhelmina was so psychotic all weekend. The number five rumor today, was Wilhelmina was on the verge of being fired. He personally hope not because he can actually tolerate Wilhelmina more than Daniel. She reminds him a lot of his mother.

The number four rumor was Betty got her new position because of a coin toss. He personally finds the rumor about Betty getting the job on her back more credible. What type of idiot makes a major life decision by tossing a coin?

The number three rumor was Marc and Betty got in a major fight when he accused her of sleeping with Daniel in front of everyone.

The number two rumor was Betty freaked out when Daniel cancel lunch with Betty so he could hang out with his friend Natalie. Betty doesn’t like Natalie. Betty treats Natalie the same way she treated some girl at a club that was trying to hit on Matt when they were still dating. Matt is positive that Betty wants to torture Natalie in the most painful way possible.

The number one rumor was that Lexi was now in Betty and Marc’s photo shoot because Daniel accidentally graced her breast. Apparently Daniel was so used to his touchy Feely relationship with Betty that he forgot that most people don’t touch their assistants in that way. What was most telling about this rumor was everybody knew it was an accident. Everybody knows that the old Daniel is gone for good, completely changed by Molly and Betty. Matt personally thinks Daniel needs to attend that sexual harassment seminar.

After Matt picked up his coffee, he headed over Amanda’s desk to pick up the article he gave her to work on Friday. Unfortunately, Amanda wasn’t there. He really didn’t mean to do it. Honestly, he was just looking for the article. Instead, he accidentally found her diary. Maybe he accidentally read the last few entries. Maybe he found out that she came to the same crazy conclusion he did. Maybe he found out that Amanda also had a crush on him. It was an accident honestly.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what he read in the diary. He felt sorry for Amanda. To feel like you were never loved is a very sad thing. Then he thought about all his passed Amandas. The girls that he used just for sex during the height of his addiction. He wondered how many women he treated like Daniel treated Amanda over the years.

Maybe his guilt over accidentally reading Amanda’s diary was why he decided to eat lunch with her today. Marc and Betty were out shooting for their article and he knew Amanda hated eating alone. The first thing Amanda says to him at lunch is “I thought you were going to stop chasing after her.”

“I’m not chasing after her.” Matt said defensively. He remembered what Amanda wrote about his behavior around Betty. Amanda was obviously seeing things that weren’t there. There’s no way he’s going to chase after a woman who is in love with Daniel Meade.

“Yes you are.” He decided not to answer her this time. He didn’t feel like getting in a fight with Amanda.

“I thought you were going to start seeing yourself as more than just a pretty face. What was going on with the flirting last week?” He wanted to ask her about her fantasies involving kissing him. But then he would have to confess to reading her diary.

“Your hot and it was a reflex action. It takes years to break out of some behavior patterns. I just want to thank you for giving me something to do other than looking pretty. I’m actually having fun working on those articles. I’ll give you the other stuff back after lunch.” They spend the rest a lunch goofing off in talking about all sorts of things going on in the office. He definitely enjoyed having lunch with her. But before they left he needed to ask her the one question that had been on his mind for the last few days.

“Amanda why didn’t you apply to be Daniel’s new assistant? You’re obviously qualified for that position.”

“I had that position a couple years ago when Betty went to another magazine for a grand total of two weeks. The entire time I was compared to Betty. I can never be as good as her. I just don’t wanna be in Betty shadow. Anybody who has that job will be compared to the fabulous Betty Suarez.” Amanda said as she got up from the table.

By Friday he still felt guilty about reading Amanda’s diary. There was also the fact that he may or may not have had his own fantasy about kissing her. Yesterday he found himself walking into the nearest Godiva store and getting a selection of the fall truffles. Because Halloween was the next day it wouldn’t be that unusual for someone to give their employee a box of chocolate. The fact that it was a $40.00 box of chocolates may be pushing it a little. He doubted anybody would notice.