Blair Waldorf rushed into the Empire Hotel, eager to escape the unseasonably cold winds of the Upper East Side. The blast of warm air that greeted her, as she entered the building, had a subconscious calming effect on her, as her heels clacked rhythmically toward the elevator.
It was there that she saw him. The slight blush on his cheeks indicated that he had just emerged from the cold as well. He was wearing the jacket she purchased for him, back when they were still dating . . . the one with the red lining that made him look like royalty, when he wore it . . . either that, or an exceptionally well-coiffed vampire.
His dark wavy hair was slightly tousled from its exposure to the outside elements. Blair found herself overtaken with an overwhelming desire to run her fingers through it, as she had done so many times in the past. Instead, she took a sharp intake of breath, and approached him with what she hoped was an air of confidence and nonchalance.
"Chuck," she said cordially.
"Blair," he responded with a cadence that matched hers.
A bit of awkwardness ensued, when they both moved to press the button for the elevator at the same time. The back of her thumb brushed against his, and the admittedly minimal body contact sent a wave of heat through her body, that she couldn't quite explain. He smirked a bit, before backing away chivalrously, so that Blair could do the honors.
"So . . . what brings you to the Empire?" Chuck inquired casually.
"A text from Nate," Blair replied, as she removed her phone from her purse, and angled it toward Chuck so that he could see the screen.
Nate Archibald was nothing, if not a concise texter. So, it was no surprise that the message in question was only three letters long: "S.O.S."
"I got the same text," Chuck replied, as Blair returned her phone to its previous hiding place.
"Any idea what it means?" Blair asked, focusing intently on the elevator doors before her, as if willing them to open faster.
"Last time Nate sent me a text like that, he had gotten into a sticky sexual situation with a woman he had met at a bar, the night before. It took three paramedics to separate them," Chuck said dryly.
Blair looked at him, horrified.
"Blair, I was kidding," he reassured her.
"I know," fibbed Blair.
The silence that followed was interrupted by the ding of the elevator, and the mechanical whirring that signified the parting of its double doors. "Ummm . . . I could take the next one," Blair offered, nervously.
Chuck laughed. "Blair, we've known each other our whole lives. Surely, we can manage to spend two minutes alone together in an elevator shaft, without the paramedics having to be called."
The allusion to Chuck's earlier comment regarding their mutual friend's sexual escapades wasn't lost on Blair. And yet, Chuck was right. He and Blair were adults, whose lives were bound to cross paths on occasion. There was no reason they couldn't be civil with one another. "After you," said Chuck gallantly, fighting the urge to press his hand against the small of Blair's back, as she entered the elevator in front of him.
This time, Chuck pressed the button for the penthouse floor. They stood in silence, shoulders barely touching, as they watched the numbers on the wall in front of them, light up, one after another. Blair could hear that Chuck's breathing had automatically fallen in sync with hers.
Instinctively, she licked her lips, in an involuntary sign of arousal. He noticed, but pretended he didn't. They both waited for something to happen. And then, it did . . .
The elevator jerked violently, causing Blair to grab on to the lapels of Chuck's jacket, in order to maintain her balance. As the lights flickered around them, Chuck's hands encircled Blair's small waist, as her head pressed against his warm muscular chest. The all-too-familiar scent of her hair, reached his nostrils, intoxicating him. She turned her head upward then, to look at him, her expression a mixture of fear and excitement.
He tilted his head down toward hers, his heart beating rapidly, as the elevator appeared to be plummeting toward the ground. If this is how I'm going to die, I'm going to make every last second count. Chuck thought to himself, placing his hand on Blair's cheek, as he pulled her closer to him.
And then everything stopped. The lights came back on in the elevator. And the world of Chuck and Blair, which had, just moments ago, been a place of intense apocalyptic chaos, now grinded to a sudden, and unsettling halt. "Are you OK?" Chuck whispered in Blair's ear, his voice unusually husky and breathless.
"I think so," Blair replied, reluctantly, extracting herself from Chuck's grasp, as she straightened out the newly formed wrinkles in her dress, and examined herself for bruises that weren't there.
Chuck pressed the Emergency button on the elevator panel, multiple times. But nothing happened. The whole system seemed to have shorted. Chuck reached into his pocket, and grabbed his cell phone, raising it to the sky, as he moved determinedly around the small space. "No reception. You?"
Blair repeated the process with her phone, but to no avail. "Well, this is just great. How the hell is anybody supposed to be able to find us, when we can't tell anyone where we are?" Blair groaned.
Chuck shook his head. "Someone will find us," he reassured Blair. "You and I have never been the kind of people capable of staying hidden for long . . . despite our best efforts to do so."
Blair glared at Chuck. "You think this is funny, don't you?"
Chuck gave Blair a sideways look. "Not particularly, no," he replied. "But there was a time, not too long ago, when you and I would have found a lot of aerobic ways to pass the time in an abandoned elevator shaft."
Blair's eyes widened, as she clenched her fist. "Wait a minute . . . you planned this whole thing, didn't you? You thought if you could get me alone in an elevator, you'd have me naked in your arms, in two minutes flat. You just can't accept that I'm with Dan, now!"
Chuck narrowed his eyes at Blair. "First of all, get over yourself. Second of all, if I wanted you naked in my arms, I wouldn't need an elaborate Elevator Shaft Plan to do it. And, third of all, no, I can't accept that you are with Humphrey now, because the idea is absolutely ludicrous to me. Louis may have had no personality, but at least he was royalty. Dan is like the shirt on the Clearance rack at the Department Store with the stain on the collar, and the hole in the pocket, that nobody is ever going to buy, but the store keeps it there for posterity."
Blair grumbled, as she angrily took off her jacket and scarf, and placed them neatly in the corner of the elevator. "Sometimes you can be a real snob, you know that?"
Chuck grinned, as he took off his own coat, and scarf, tossing them haphazardly on top of Blair's. "I know I am. Being a snob is fun. You used to know that better than anyone else."
"Well, I've changed, Chuck. People change," Blair answered huffily, pulling her hair from the nape of her neck, to fashion it into a bun.
"Do they?" Chuck asked pointedly, loosening his tie, as he moved toward Blair, and delicately removed a stubborn strand of hair from her forehead.
Chuck's touch made Blair shiver, despite the heat that was rising in her cheeks, and causing small droplets of sweat to form on her brow, and across her chest. She gazed at him for a few moments, surprised that his dark eyes still had the same ability to mesmerize her that they always had. She had to blink multiple times to break the spell. "I'm burning up in here, Chuck. It's Five Star hotel. You would think, you could afford to have elevators air conditioned," she griped, pacing nervously around the room.
Chuck was sweating too, and the heat that radiated from his stomach, every time he got within five inches of Blair Waldorf certainly wasn't helping matters. And yet, he wasn't about to give Blair the satisfaction, of knowing she was right about something. "These elevators ARE air conditioned, Blair. But not when it's thirty degrees outside. And not when there's an obvious power shortage, in the unit."
"Whatever! Your elevator, sucks, Chuck Bass," Blair seethed petulantly.
"So do you, Blair Waldorf. So do you," replied Chuck in exasperation, as he leaned his head back against the wall of the elevator.