C'est La Vie
Authors Note: Blair Waldorf and, the occasionally mentioned, Serena are not my own characters. However everyone else, especially Rumer, are.
Chapter One: Better Off Without You
Blair Waldorf sat with her head in her hands and ignored the persistent ringing of her office phone. "I love you and I never meant to hurt you, baby. I know it's been a very long period since we parted, but I just couldn't live with myself anymore." Cynthia, Blair's' secretary, nervously read off the irritating letter. "Damn it, Mitch! It's been sixteen years since the last time we met up. I can't deal with this right now; the phone won't stop ringing, I'm a very important woman, and this is just ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous! Cynthia, did you hear me? I don't want to listen to this piece of crap any longer!" Blair raged in an absolute fury. "Yes, m'am. What would you like me to do with the….evidence?"
Blair took especial note of how terrified Cynthia was and took pity on the gangly, ugly, young woman. "It's alright, Cynthia, I know none of this is your fault. Uhm….I suppose you should just burn it." The thirty-seven year old socialite blinked back tears of frustration as Cynthia left her to her work. Mitchell Tanner was an extremely unpleasant ghost from the past; at nineteen, Blair had an affair with her French Professor at Yale, which had lasted for two and a half years. The relationship had come to an abrupt end when she was twenty-one and gave birth to a beautiful, but unwanted, baby girl. The man ungraciously left her without so much as a parting word and hadn't offered to pay any kind of child support; that man was, naturally, Mitchell Tanner.
Blair sighed and swept a copper toned strand of glossy, long, silky hair away from her emerald hued eyes. She almost laughed out loud when she thought about some of her old friends. "If only Serena could see me now!" Being a mother had made Blair a much softer, less vengeful person; however, that didn't mean she changed completely. She could still be a complete bitch and got a good laugh out of doing better then somebody else. Still, Blair saved her saucy attitude for the working field; she was completely content and successful with being one of the world's most famous fashion designers out there. Serena could prance around and play model all she wanted to; at the end of the day, Blair was the one who felt good about how she was racking in her income.
The office phone rang for the fifth time in the past ten minutes and, without checking the caller ID, Blair snatched up the receiver and restrained herself from snapping into the phone. "Cynthia, if you are ringing my office to tell me that yet another executive of Barneys is calling to beg me to let them in on my daughters' upcoming fashion line, kindly tell them to call me in the morning. I think I've spent quite enough time at my office for one day." There was an awkward pause on the other end and then a soft laugh filtered through. "Bad day at work, Mom?"
Blair couldn't help but smile as the voice of Rumer, her sixteen-year old daughter, reached her through the phone lines. Ten minutes later, after making plans to meet up back at their Upper East Side flat, she shut down her computer and packed up her Vera Wang briefcase. Sure, every once in awhile, Blair would think back on those carefree days full of lust and passion. Mitch had been her one, true love, and she'd never fallen in love again; there were some days when Blair couldn't help but wish she had been able to stay with Mitch and gotten married to him. However, there was not one minute when she resented the birth of her daughter. Rumer was elegant, sophisticated, and loving; she was everything Blair wasn't as a teenager. Blair's' daughter did resemble Mitch in almost every way, but this didn't bother her all that much.
Rumer would always be a part of her mothers' life and Blair would never desert her daughter in a time of need; this brought back a memory of one particular afternoon concerning soft, feather, pillows, and ivory, silk sheets. Blair shook her head as she slid into the plush, black, leather seats of her lavender, Z4, BMW, convertible. She doubted that she'd ever completely fall out of love with the charming, handsome, Mitchell; however, it was high time to move on and Blair was definitely ready. She just hoped that Rumer would take the news in a mature manner; after all, it was going to be her junior year in high school.
Being the creator of the most wanted fashion line all over the globe was certainly a noteworthy achievement and Blair didn't regret any of her fame. Forbidden Passions had become an A-list, desired by celebrities from all age groups, and the most seen fashion line on the Red Carpet practically over night. That had occurred almost five years ago and now Blair had a perfume, make-up, and journal line to go with it. Currently, she was about to launch a jewelry line and her daughters first ever, spin-off of her mothers' line. Rumer had definite artistic ability and also enjoyed acting; Blair hoped her daughter would see the news as an additional sweet sixteen present and not as the gift from hell.
Still, as close as mother and daughter were with one another, Blair was nervous when she stepped into the elevator which would take her up to her penthouse. She did know, though, that both she and Rumer were better off without Mitch Tanner and his lousy love. Blair was a successful, fashion icon, and had an extremely talented daughter; Mitch had absolutely nothing to do with these statistics.