Chapter Text
Matt was absolutely furious with Betty. It was not the first time she chose someone else over him. It was not even the first time she chose Daniel over him. He remembered the first time that it happened with a certain amount of pain. A few weeks into their relationship, he and Betty were out on a date when Daniel called her for some emergency. Before Matt knew what was happening she was out the door to help Daniel. Matt doesn't remember the reason why she blew him off. She even started this job a few weeks later than she should have just so she could help Daniel through the grieving process of losing Molly.
From his brief but painful relationship with Betty Suarez, he knew she had a serious problem with letting go. She couldn't let go of his past. She could not let go of Henry. The woman couldn't even get rid of her glasses that were currently held together with scotch tape. So why should he expect her to let go of her codependent relationship with Daniel now that she had her dream job.
As her boss, he should have demanded that she come in and work on her project. Her trying to work from Daniel's apartment was just not working. However, he wouldn't do that, because he was afraid to find out the answer if he made her choose between him and Daniel. The situation with Daniel seemed like a repeat of the situation with Henry. There was no way he was going through that again.
He decided to get his mind off this disastrous situation with a cup of coffee. He would need the caffeine to make it through tonight. Matt was about to walk in when he heard people talking. The only voice he recognized was the person that Betty shares an office with Megan or whatever.
"I don't know how that walking fashion disaster got this job in the first place. Anyone pitching stories involving malaria at a fashion magazine should be kicked out on principle," said a female voice that Matt did not recognize.
"Jacqueline, everybody knows the ugly one got this job on her back," Megan said in a very icy tone. Part of Matt was upset at her accusation, as if he would ever give Betty a job just because they used to sleep together.
"I thought she received the promotion before Matt came on board. Besides they were already broken up at that point," a male voice that Matt didn't recognize from his department said.
"You're still relatively new around here Nikolai, I'll forgive you for not knowing the true nature of the relationship between Daniel Meade and Betty Suarez. She is probably screwing him right now." Part of him thought Megan's accusation was completely false. As the managing editor, he should probably break up this little gossip session. If it were about anybody else, he probably would have.
"She was just his assistant. One who was quite capable at her job at that. That's probably why she received a promotion." Nikolai said to the others.
"Everybody knows that they are screwing. Daniel Meade has had a 'special' relationship with every single assistant he's ever had. Betty was no different. Actually, she is because their relationship is probably more than just sex. She was supposed to go with him to Tibet, but there were Visa issues." Megan said with a slightly evil laugh. Okay, Matt had no idea that Daniel had a reputation for screwing his assistants. He remembered competing with Daniel for space on Page Six in the past, but didn't remember anything like this.
"Marc would have made a better Features Editor," Jacqueline added as an afterthought. “You would assume with her looks that Daniel sleeping with her would be out of the question. Apparently, looks are not everything.”
"He did marry Molly. No one was more ordinary than she was, so anything is possible. Although, she did know how to dress slightly better, for a normal person." Megan told the others.
"That's not proof of anything." Nikolai argued.
"Fine you want proof; right before you got here Daniel was dating Ms. Slater's sister. As office rumor has it, his girlfriend accused him of sleeping with Betty. She was so freaked out about it that she tried to kill Betty. You don't try to kill somebody if the rumors were not true. Apparently, he felt so guilty about it he bought her an all expenses paid trip to Rome." Megan told everyone. Matt wasn't sure what shocked him more, that someone actually tried to kill Betty or that she had no problems whatsoever taking expensive gifts from Daniel.
"I remember that almost trip, it happened right when I got here. She was supposed to go with someone other than Daniel. In the version of the story that I heard, the girlfriend was convinced that Betty had a crush on Daniel and she tried to kill her because Betty was monopolize in his time." Nikolai told the others.
"She didn't even go on that trip. You remember that's when that accountant Harry or whatever showed up and asked her to marry him." Megan said with a sneer. Okay, Matt definitely did not know about the marriage proposal. He did not know that her relationship with Henry involve the possibility of marriage. That was another thing she lied to him about. Although, if she was so in love with Henry why did she turn him down?
"Everyone knows the real reason she turned down the proposal was Daniel. She couldn't handle being away from him." Jacqueline pointed out to everybody.
"I thought she said no because of her career," Nikolai said with a touch of anger.
"I'm sure that could be a possible factor, but not the real one. The relationship between Betty and Daniel has always been inappropriate. I mean a couple weeks ago, before Molly died, I saw her feeding him water in the gym. They are always touching and hugging. She stayed with him the first week after Molly died in that one bedroom apartment. He even stayed at her house for a few days after that and she was originally supposed to go with him on his retreat. There's seriously something going on between those two. They are obviously sleeping together." He knew what Megan was saying about the nature of Betty and Daniel's relationship was true. He always saw the two of them acting in a way that definitely went beyond a platonic relationship but it just couldn’t be that.
"They’re close because they have a brother/sister type relationship," Megan started laughing hysterically at this comment from the other guy.
"If they have a brother/sister relationship, it's an incestuous one." Everyone in the group, except for Nikolai, laughed at that. However, Matt did not find it funny. Before tonight, Matt always thought their relationship was a sibling type of relationship. Thinking about it now, there are aspects of the Daniel/Betty relationship he never quite got. They were always sharing inside jokes and touches that seemed to go beyond friendship. The more he listened to this conversation, the more he thought that maybe Megan's rants were not just coming out of a place of jealousy. There was a certain amount of truth to the accusations that he was not willing to see.
"Find, believe whatever you want Nikolai. However, when Betty comes in wearing the exact same loud outfit as today, we will know that Betty blew off this entire project just so she could fuck Daniel Meade last night."
"You're just bitter because you lost your office and job to Matt." Nikolai said to Megan as he walked out of the room. Matt quickly walked in to get his coffee before he could think about the discussion he just overheard.
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The next morning when Betty walked into the photo shoot wearing the exact same thing as the day before, he couldn't help but remember Megan's words. He try to push everything away by making the whole shoot as painful for Betty as possible. The Mosquito was his own special revenge for her breaking his heart into a million little pieces. He felt the smile was a nice ironic touch.
When Daniel walked into the photo shoot, Matt watched their interactions. They were just too close to each other. He wasn't completely sure why he voiced his suspicions out loud. At least, he had the decency to say sleeping together instead of that other term that Megan had used last night.
He was sure that Betty took Daniel's actions as pseudo big brother protectiveness. However, she didn't see Daniel's eyes when his fist made contact with Matt's face. Matt knew exactly with that look was. He saw it a million times when he was still in love with Betty. Daniel was in love with his former assistant/best friend, he just didn't realize it yet.
When he saw her leave with Daniel, Matt realized something. First, Megan was just jealous. He was positive nothing had happened yet between Betty and Daniel. Unfortunately, the keyword was yet. The second thing he realized was he did not lose her to Henry. She was already lost to Daniel. However, neither Betty nor Daniel were aware of it yet. There was no way he was going to enlighten her. He still had his pride if nothing else.