Chapter 9.


"Don't stop," Daniel let out, his eyes closed as Betty gently massaged his temples.

With a playful smirk on her lips, the young woman couldn't help but say, "That's exactly what you said last night."

Daniel almost choked on his own breath as he hadn't expected her to make that kind of comeback even though he knew, oh so well, that she had quite a witty repartee.

He still had his own comeback to smugly give, "Well, who's to blame?"

When he felt Betty's thumbs stop moving against his temples, he cracked one eye open to look up at her. He was met with a semi-glare that made him open both his eyes and sigh.

"What? So, you can make hints and jokes about last night, but I can't?"

"New rule: no allusion of any kind to last night, from neither of us," the young woman stated.

Daniel was going to say something when the room's phone rang.

Betty slowly took her hand off his head to make her way to the room's phone when Daniel's cellphone started to ring as well.

"Funny," he commented as he stood up and went to pick up his cellphone from where it was on the floor, right next to his pair of shorts. The call stopped right when he got his cellphone in his hands.

Betty was going to answer the room's phone when a frenetic and continuous knocking on the door echoed. She frowned, glancing at Daniel who had a frown of his own as he looked at the number that called him.

"Suarez!" Marc's voice called from the other side of the door. "It's a question of life or death, Suarez! Open up your door!"

Betty's eyes turned big and round at once, and she stammered, "I-I… Give me a minute! I'm putting on a robe!" She put the no-longer-ringing room's phone down and she rushed to Daniel and mouthed to him, "He can't see you here."

She grabbed his hand and quickly led him to the balcony, which the glass door had been left open since the first time she stepped into her room the day before.

As they stood on the balcony, Betty turned her head in every direction, trying to find some way out.

"I could jump from here," Daniel said with a light chuckle.

"Could you?" She looked up at him, as serious as one could be.

"What? No. Betty, I was joking."

"Well, we're only on the first floor..."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Daniel, if Marc sees you here, he'll know what happened, and if he knows, then in no time all of MODE will know and then the whole world will know!"

"Right. And, um, that's not a good thing?" Daniel asked rather than stated, causing Betty to blink in disbelief.

"Of course, it's not a good thing!" She told him as though stating the obvious.

The frenetic knocking on the room's door resumed even louder on the door.

"Betty quesadilla Suarez! I swear if you don't open up right now…" Marc called from the other side of the door, causing both Daniel and Betty to look over at the door before looking at each other again.

"I'm not jumping, Betty," Daniel repeated firmly when seeing the way she looked up at him. "Besides, I gotta use the bathroom."

Betty's face lit up.

"The bathroom!" She exclaimed before pulling his hand as she led him to the bathroom. The door was already open so she pushed him inside, "Don't make any noise. I'll let you know when he's gone," she whispered to him as he turned around to look at her with raised eyebrows.

She closed the bathroom door and turned around, ready to open the door for Marc when she realized that her and Daniel's clothes were still scattered over the floor.

"One second, Marc!" She said as she quickly picked up all the clothes and carried the small pile to the bathroom.

She opened the bathroom door and threw the clothes on Daniel before slamming the door closed on him again.

She immediately went to the room's door.

"Marc!" She exclaimed as she opened the room's door.

The blue-eyed man had annoyance painted all over his face.

"With how long it took you to open the door, I assumed you were eating your robe instead of putting it on!" He commented and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Why are you here, Marc?" She asked in a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest.

"The models are gone," he announced.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"I mean no one can find them. And no one can find Willie either. And everyone's coming to me because they assume that I'm her assistant! Ugh!"

"I'm sorry, I know that's driving you crazy," Betty softly said while Marc rubbed his eyelids, nodding. "I assure you that yesterday afternoon, I reminded everyone that you and Daniel aren't here for the shoot. They know they're not supposed to bother you."

"Well, obviously, most of them didn't get the memo!" Marc said before letting out a grunt full of frustration.

"One model was found!" Cliff's voice suddenly shouted from the end of the hallway, startling Betty.

She watched him as he quickly walked up to them. She then glanced at Marc and was slightly surprised to see that he wasn't even reacting at the fact that his ex-boyfriend was approaching them.

"Cliff," Betty said as the brown-eyed man was now standing next to the blue-eyed one.

"Morning, Betty. I suppose Marc told you."

"Um, concisely, but yeah," she nodded, blinking in surprise and bewilderment as she looked back and forth at the two men, wondering how many episodes of Marc's life she had missed in less than 24 hours.

"You said one model was found?" Marc asked, turning to look at Cliff.

"Yeah. But she finished partying 10 minutes ago, and she passed out from drinking 5 minutes ago," he informed them, earning himself an eye-roll from Marc and a little grimace from Betty. "And that's not even the craziest part; apparently all the other models got on a boat with some guys. And now they are all in Cuba."

"What?!" Marc and Betty let out at the same time, completely taken aback by the news.

"I know," Cliff sighed.

"What about Gula? She's the cover model," Marc inquired, a little hopeful that the shoot could still be saved.

"No idea," Cliff shrugged.

"And I don't suppose you took enough great pictures yesterday?" Marc asked, looking back and forth at Cliff and Betty.

"I was actually counting on today's shoot to make up for yesterday's chaos," Cliff admitted.

"Gula's pictures were scheduled for today… But she's probably in Cuba too," Betty added in a little voice as she realized how really big the mess actually was.

"Willie is gonna kill us all when she comes back!" Marc exclaimed as he pushed the room's door and walked in before Betty could even stop him.

She spun to look at him and then threw a glance at the bathroom door, hoping that Daniel was going to do as told and wait quietly in the bathroom.

"She is going to kill us all, one after the other," Marc continued in the same dramatic tone.

"She won't kill you, Marc. You're not working on the shoot, you're on vacation," Betty reassured him before gesturing to Cliff that he could come in.

"Ah! Because you think she'll accept that as an excuse!" Marc exclaimed as he bent down in front of the mini-fridge and took out the mini gin bottle.

"Or we could try and find a way to fix this mess before Wilhelmina returns?" Cliff suggested, taking the alcohol bottle from Marc's hands, causing the blue-eyed man to slightly pout.

"And this is what we will do!" Betty nodded, completely agreeing with Cliff's words. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand and announced, "We've got an hour before the photoshoot starts."

"That's not enough time to get the models back," Marc stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You said no one can find Wilhelmina, right? Well, maybe she's taking the day off for herself like yesterday!" Betty said before pointing her finger at Marc as she continued, "Actually, that has to be it. And you know what? Yesterday, she told me that I was in complete charge of it. So if we have to change a couple of things, she'll probably be okay with that. Oh, and she also said that she won't return until… Well, until she returns."

"Typical Willie!" Marc dramatically said, throwing his arms in the air.

"What do you mean?" Betty inquired from where she was standing, nearby the room's door that she had left ajar.

"Oh, my little chimichanga, you should know by now how Wilhelmina Slater operates," Marc declared. He looked right into Betty's eyes and walked towards her as he continued in a dramatic voice, trying to frighten the short brunette, "She will wait until the shoot is at its worst and the crew is holding onto the small and last hope of a miracle; and trust me she knows when that happens. And that's when she will appear, ready as ever to rip off that last hope of ours and to make all of our heads roll. And quite obviously, yours will be the first to go."

Betty slightly gulped down, too afraid to even break eye-contact with her co-worker.

"Maybe she'll be nicer this time around," Cliff remarked from where he stood, at the end of the unmade bed. "After all, that's her last shoot for MODE."

At those words, Marc arched one eyebrow up as he stared pointedly at Betty. They both knew that the fact that it was Wilhelmina's last shoot for MODE was not going to soften her at all.

"We need to find a solution!" Betty exclaimed urgently as she rushed to her bag and emptied it on the small table, in search of her notebook with phone numbers, hoping that she could call the models' agency.

"Great, two optimists, or rather two fools," Marc commented sarcastically.

"Not helping, Marc," Cliff shook his head and Marc sighed, throwing his head back.

"Okay! Alright! We have nowhere to go so I guess Cliff and I will stay here and help you solve this!" Marc declared before going to the balcony while Cliff approached Betty.

Alarmed at Marc's suggestion of staying in her room, Betty turned around and watched him. She was failing at finding the right words to get them out of her room before they found out that Daniel was hiding in the bathroom. Betty's gaze went to the bathroom's door and she felt her heartbeats increase at the possibility that Marc or Cliff might need to go to her bathroom at some point.

"What happened to the book? I thought it was the most important thing at MODE and that it must never be damaged or lost?" Cliff asked, turning the pages of the photoshoot book that had gone underwater with Betty the day before.

"What?" Betty said, turning to look at him, although still throwing a few glances towards the bathroom's door. "Oh, uh, no, that's not the Book. This is just the book of this photoshoot."

Betty returned her gaze to the balcony, where Marc stood, apparently checking out the view.

"All the ideas and comments are barely readable," Cliff remarked under his breath as he kept on turning the pages of the photoshoot book.

"It's pretty unfair that you got a better view and a more spacious balcony than what I got," Marc sighed as he turned around and got back inside the room. "But, anyway, we should settle our solution-seeking team on the balcony and order a nice brunch because the sight of your messy, unmade bed is really—Oh my God!"

Marc was frozen on the spot as his blue eyes had just caught something that was laying on the floor, nearby the bed. His mouth was agape in shock for a couple of seconds.

"Betty Suarez," Marc said, pronouncing with clarity every syllable of her name. "You naughty guacamole! You had some company last night!"

Betty's cheeks reddened almost instantly at his accusation, "W-what?!"

"Come on, don't try and deny it," Marc smugly said. "The evidence is right here! I just hope you threw in a trashcan the contents after using it and that it's not somewhere on the floor too," he grimaced, pointing at the foil package of a condom.

Cliff and Betty looked at what he was pointing at and Betty mentally cursed herself. It was the foil package that she had seen earlier when trying to silently leave the bed. She couldn't believe that she had left it on the floor! How stupid could you be?!

"So…" Marc said, sounding extremely interested as he walked up to her. "Did you meet someone in the Bahamas or was it someone from MODE?"

"As if, I'm gonna tell you anything," Betty replied.

"Oooh, so it's someone from MODE!"

"I didn't say that!"

"But it is, isn't it? I mean, we both know you don't do casual flings. So, who is it? It's not Matt, is it?" Marc said, slightly wincing as he mentioned her ex-boyfriend. "You left him to rot in jail about a month ago, and have been spending most of your time ignoring him so you clearly don't care about him anymore! Besides, it would be a real low blow to Mandy and you would never do this, or maybe—"

"It's not Matt," Betty cut him off.

"Oh thank God! I didn't want to have to comfort Mandy because you decided to travel back in time with your ex-lover," Marc let out, resting a hand over his chest in relief.

"Guys, I don't want to interrupt, but shouldn't we focus on the shoot?" Cliff suggested, lifting up the damaged book. "Because we've got a lot of work."

"This conversation isn't over," Marc half-murmured to Betty before going over Cliff to look at the book. "What the hell happened to the book?"

"An accident," Betty sighed, before glancing at the bathroom's door. "Look, guys, I think that—"

"We should call Daniel," Marc declared.

"What? Why?" Betty immediately said.

"Because as far as we know, he's the only Editor in Chief who's not gone MIA," Marc simply explained.

"I don't think we should bother him… I mean he's on vacation, too," Betty said and Marc scoffed.

"Please, he's only been back to work like 2 weeks ago. He doesn't really need this vacation, he's only here because he's trying to get laid with as many strangers as possible."

"Funny, that was your first motive too," Cliff remarked and Marc lifted his head and squinted his blue eyes at him.

"Shut up," Marc whispered, pulling his cellphone out of his shorts' pocket.

"Marc, what are you doing?" Betty asked, staring at him with wide eyes that refused to blink.

"Calling the big boss," Marc replied before lifting his cellphone up to hold it against his ear.


I hope you've enjoyed this new chapter!

I'll try to get the next one out sooner than this one.

Thank you for all the kind reviews! They have been very encouraging and have been making me want to write more despite the fact that English is not my first language so it's quite hard and challenging for me. Hopefully, there aren't that many mistakes so that you can still enjoy this story :)

Take care of yourself,

X.