It's the very same day that Dan Humphrey's first novel is proclaimed a best seller, that Blair Waldorf comes home to find a robin's egg blue box sitting on her doorstep. She picks it up tentatively, scanning it for a note but she finds none.
Once inside, she pulls the ribbon off and opens the lid. Inside is a velvet box that she gingerly opens. Hesitantly, she reaches for the glimmering platinum diamond-encrusted band which holds a round diamond in the center. It's the exact ring she had always wanted. But there was only ever one person who knew that. Too stunned to react, all she can do is stare at it and flip it over between her fingers. Then, she slides it onto her left ring finger, finding it's a perfect fit.
She turns back to the box and notices now there's a tiny roll of paper. She unravels it and instantly recognizes the handwriting. She can't stop the tears from forming as she reads and rereads the words written by the person she thought she would never hear from again.
I promised you as soon as I could, I would get you the ring you always deserved. I'm sorry it took so long. Do with it what you want, perhaps now it will be a reminder of what we almost had.
His name wasn't even signed to it. Just three sentences that made her breath catch.
With her ring clad hand, she reaches into her purse which is sitting beside her. From it she received the tiny pouch and opens it. She pulls out the delicate platinum band which she carries everywhere and does what she always does when alone. She slides it on and twists it around and around, imagining what could have been.
She wipes the tears from her eyes and stands up. But she finds she doesn't know what to do.
For the next two days, she carries on in a trance. Wearing the ring whenever no one is around and swapping it to her right hand when out. When someone asks about it, she says it's a family heirloom that was passed down to her. Inevitably they remark upon the pristine condition it was kept in and begin inspecting it.
She's home and turning the ring in her hands when she finally notices that it's engraved. She pulls the ring closer to her face to make out the words but the inscription is too small. She begins scouring her apartment for a magnifying glass and luckily finds that the antique one in her bookshelf, intended for decor only indeed works.
My heart remains with you in the place where we met.
She knows instantly what it refers to. Sliding the ring back on her finger, she stands quickly and heads for the door. She rushes out of her apartment and hails a cab. It's just before sunset and she stares off into the sky as they drive. She flashes back to that fateful day when she had gone to the MET by herself. She was supposed to go with her coworker but the girl had cancelled at the last minute. Blair had decided to go anyways since it was the last day for the exhibition she wanted to see. It was as she was flipping through the brochure as she climbed up the stairs that she collided into him. She was prepared to say something snippy until she looked up into dark brown eyes that make her pause. Her stomach flipped as he apologized and collected the fallen brochure from the ground. As he handed it back their hands brushed and she felt a spark and a twinge of something. From that day on she was his. She had thought she would be forever.
It was two years after their meeting that he had brought her back to that very spot and got down on one knee. He proffered the most delicate platinum band and she said yes. But he insisted he upgrade the ring as soon as he could even though Blair told him not to worry about it time and time again.
But then the pressure began to build. First from her family and then pressure he put on himself. He was so determined for his writing career to take off yet it didn't. She ignored her mother's insistence she marry someone with a more reliable income. But Dan didn't and the tension grew. As he pulled away, Blair began to lose faith in their relationship. She felt like he put importance on things that didn't actually matter to her, leaving her to wonder what he really thought of her. How could he not see that she wasn't that shallow? The wedding date kept getting pushed back further and further until it was cancelled altogether.
Pushing the memories aside, she walks up the steps, looking left and right but is crestfallen to see her expectations unmet. Once she reaches the top of the steps she stands there, staring out at the crowd full of unfamiliar faces. She feels foolish for thinking he would be there. Then, she hears her name and turns.
He's there, walking towards her. His eyes drop to her hands which hold the ring.
She approaches cautiously and stops a few feet away to leave a safe distance between them.
"Why?" Is all she can manage to say, not meeting his eyes.
"I promised I would." He says simply.
"I can't accept this."
"It's yours. It was always meant for you."
"You really want me to have a reminder of what could have been. A reminder of a failure." She shakes her head sadly.
He doesn't say anything so she presses on.
"You always did like symbolism." She says, looking up. "I think I get it. We've come full circle haven't we? This signifies the end of it all?"
He doesn't say anything at all which gives her the answer she already knew without hearing it.
"Right." She says. "I'll just go then." She can't manage to say anything else because she can feel tears forming and she needs to get away fast. She begins to descend the stairs when he finally speaks.
"Maybe it doesn't have to be the end."
She pauses before turning back to him, slowly. Her stomach flips at his words. A tentative bubble of hope forms. She stands there, on the top step, waiting for him to say more or to do something.
Finally, he starts walking towards her, carefully. He closes the gap between them and retrieves the ring from her hands.
"It's beautiful but all I ever wanted was you." She says quietly, looking at the ring. "I never needed this or anything more than what we had."
"I know that. I didn't then but I do now. But I had to do this. It felt like the only thing I could do that might tell you how sorry I was for letting you go."
Blair is a silent a moment before saying, "I'm sorry too."
Their eyes meet and Dan asks, "Am I too late?"
Blair contemplates this, even though she doesn't need to, before shaking her head no.
Dan takes her left hand, still clasping the ring, and looks at her, questioningly. She gives him a tiny imperceptible nod and they both look down and watch as he slides the ring on her.
Then, it's as though it's begun again. Meeting for the first time on the steps, her colliding into him, their hands brushing as he handed her back her brochure, the flicker of electricity at his touch. Three years ago when he took her hand for the first time and asked her to marry him, sliding a ring onto the same finger, and him rising up to kiss her.
It's as though each of those moments were the start of something new but this start won't come to end. This time, there's no end ahead.
End :) Hope you all enjoyed that one-shot! I am still writing Eligible but had this story idea that I just wanted to write and publish now.