New series of sorts that I started jotting down the other night, when I felt I needed something lighter and more CB-y in contrast to my other current story… and I thought I'd better go ahead and post this before people start to think I hate them together ;)
I have no idea how often this one will be updated, or if it will ever get to the finish line, since I just started with it… Basically it's going to be a series of episodic stories set during Chuck and Blair's engagement, presumably ending with their wedding (and by "presumably", I mean if I ever get that far with the story). Since there isn't much of a story-arc, hopefully it will be able to work even if I never get enough ideas to bring the story all the way to the altar.
Anyhow, I hope it will be an enjoyable read!
Oh, and it might be worth mentioning, last episode I've seen is 310. Thus whatever happens after that might not have happened here.
"This is so typically you" Blair griped as she and Chuck made their way from her dorm towards the street where the limo would pick them up. "Just because it's the fifth time we've watched a movie since we've been dating, that doesn't give you a free pass to ruin move night."
"I wouldn't have to if we for once watched something new" Chuck said, unable to hide how entertained he was by her anger.
She scoffed and made an angry face at him. But she was holding his hand as they walked, so she clearly wasn't too angry. She had made a dramatic exit from his penthouse the night before, declaring him hopeless and a complete bore, but when he showed up at her dorm to take her to lunch she had relented far more quickly than she did when really angry.
"Fine if you don't think the movie is fantastic" she said. "But you could at least not start snoring halfway through it."
"It's a really long movie."
"It's a classic!"
"Maybe so… But I never liked it much the first time around."
She gasped and he chuckled, squeezing her hand as they through a silent agreement took a detour over to the grass to avoid having to pass too close to Vanessa who was coming in from her second class.
"Look, the first half is okay" he said as they stepped off campus. "But the second half just drags on and on and on for an eternity. Even the main character gets bored by the end and decides to leave."
"You just have no appreciation for a true classic" she said. "'Gone with the Wind' is a-"
"It's a soap opera in movie format. While it was kind of fun that you got Dorota to dress up as Mammy that year we went as Scarlett and Rhett for Halloween, my interest in that particular movie is rather low, and I only agreed to that theme in the first place because it made you oddly aroused."
"Fine. But don't think I will go with you to see one of your stupid action flicks next time."
"When have you ever gone with me to see one of those?"
"Well you can rest assured I never will."
He couldn't help but smile at the indignity she felt over his lack of enthusiasm with some of her favorite movies. It had always frustrated her that he didn't share Nate's patience with watching the same movie time and time again.
"You know, speaking strictly from a boyfriend's point of view, this passion for classic romantic Hollywood movies is a damn inconvenience" he said.
"What do you mean?"
"They set your standards way too high. How is a guy to live up to your expectations of romantic gestures and romantic ways to move our relationship forward?"
"I don't have unreasonable expectation" she objected.
"When I asked you to move in with me you turned me down because I had the audacity of asking you casually over breakfast."
"Well I just feel that such a moment should-"
"Exactly. You have no idea how nerve-wracking it is to always have to worry about proper presentation, or that some special occasion will be ruined for you because I failed to do something romantic enough."
"I take it this is brought on by the fact that today is our three year anniversary?" Blair said and smiled for the first time since he had knocked on her door.
"Indeed" he agreed.
They reached his limo and he opened the door for her.
"Chuck, don't worry about it" she said. "I may like my romantic gestures, but sometimes I just want plain old you."
"Reassuring" he said with a skeptical frown as she stepped into the car and he followed.
"Besides, I have to disagree with you about me always needing the big gestures. Most of our relationship landmarks happened by this very limo. And that's not what I would call Old Hollywood romantic."
"You're right…" he nodded. "The first time we had sex was in this limo, which was definitely a landmark. In fact, it's probably the reason we are here today."
"So I can blame your limo for not going to Yale?" she joked.
"That night was a first of many. First time you were free of Nate, first time you let yourself loose for real, first time I saw that something in you… And of course the first time we kissed, and your first time. You're right, a lot of important moments for us happened around this limo."
"The first time we said 'I love you'…" Blair added to the list. "Mine of course was a screaming success."
"It meant more than you knew."
"Still, I much prefer the first time you said those words."
"I thought I was doomed for sure" he smiled. "Then I figured some old-school Hollywood romance was the only thing that could save me."
"Thus the gifts from around the world? Well that was awfully romantic… and I was kind of impressed that you knew exactly what my favorites were. But Chuck, all I needed for that moment to be perfect was three words, eight letters."
"I realized that when you were so caught up in kissing me that you dropped the macaroons on the street."
"They were still delicious… if somewhat squished."
"Well it's been three years to the day since we ate those macaroons in a fit of the munchies in the middle of the night. And I'll have you know I've been making myself crazy trying to figure out what to do to make tonight perfect. Not to mention what to give you!"
"Aw, I love presents."
"Don't get too excited. I decided to recycle something."
She made a face that made him laugh.
"Obviously you didn't lose too much sleep worrying what to get your precious girlfriend for our anniversary."
"Oh don't worry, it's nothing shabby. It's something that makes me think of you… But the biggest problem has been figuring out what to do for tonight."
"Well…" she said and smiled. "If you haven't figured anything out yet, or if what you have figured out kind of sucks, then may I offer a suggestion?"
"Be my guest."
"Cancel all reservations or other plans you might have made for tonight, send Nate away for the evening, have them light a few hundred candles around your penthouse, order us up some nice dinner. We have a romantic dinner, and then we have sex until we're so exhausted we have to call Nate and tell him to come back home just so that someone will make sure all the candles are snuffed out."
"So, a regular Thursday?"
"I want to prove to you that the only thing that really matters to me is that I'm with you" she said.
"Wow. I stand corrected" he said and leaned in for a kiss.
"Mm. Feel free to mention that in your blog."
He chuckled and shook his head slightly. Then he looked at her in the way he usually did before making some grand statement of his feelings for her. She had gotten used to his random outbursts of verbal affection, which didn't come often, and when they did come it was usually more or less out of the left field.
"I want you to know…" he began, "how special these past 1095,25 days have been to me."
"Math before lunch? Why did I have to go fall in love with a business man?"
"Oh I'll do math at any time of the day for you, baby."
She laughed and looked at him expectantly. She loved these love monologues of his, and it had been months since she had last gotten one.
"I really mean it, these past three years have been the best of my life."
"Aw. I already know, though. It's the same for me."
"That means I top Nate" he said jokingly. "Score! But in all seriousness… I love you. More and more each day. I had never had a girlfriend before you and all I kept hearing people say was that the honeymoon period is great and then it gets mundane. Less sex, less appreciation of one another, more fighting… I was prepared for that to happen but it hasn't. Well, we don't have sex around the clock more or less every day as we did that first summer, but we've still got a highly active sex life."
"To the great horror of the whiners who have the dorm room next to mine."
"The mornings I wake up next to you I still have to take a moment to believe it's really true that you're there, and that you're mine. I've never wanted anybody else but you, and if I am anything like my father I never will want anyone else than my first love. I know we never really talk about the future, but I hope you know you are the One, and when I think of my future you are a definite part of it."
She smiled lovingly and his smile got a bit wider. She thought that she really should tell him that she could easily live without the big romantic gestures so long as she could have these speeches but he seemed to be on a roll and she didn't want to interrupt him now.
"I think we both know that this thing between us is the real deal. That we are it for each other. At least that's how I feel and I hope you feel that way too."
He moved closer to her and leaned in to kiss her. He worked his way from her mouth down to her neck and then breathed hotly into her ear.
"I used to think Chuck Bass needed no one…" he said. "That I was at my best on my own. Who the hell was I kidding? The only things I have accomplished that I can be proud of have been because of you. Starting with when you supported my idea to buy Victrola… We're a package deal you and I, turns out Chuck Bass is nothing worthwhile without Blair Waldorf."
"All I've done is believe in you…" she mumbled, closing her eyes when he continued placing kisses on the side of her face. "You did the real part on your own."
"I never would have done any of it if it hadn't been for you… I love you so much."
"And I think you're pretty okay."
He chuckled and let his right hand stroke her left cheek while he placed kisses along her right jaw line.
"Blair… I want to give you your present now."
"I don't have mine with me."
"That's okay. Can I give you my present now?"
"Only if you promise you will finish what your lips have started."
"Sure…"
He slowly moved himself downward, letting his right hand trail down her side until it found her left hand. The kisses stopped and she opened her eyes, looking down at him with a combination of annoyance and curiosity.
"If you want to give me something right here and now…" he said. "How about a promise of your hand in marriage?"
Her jaw fell slightly and she noticed that he had actually moved so that he was on one knee before her in the limo. He lifted her left hand to his mouth and kissed her ring finger.
"Blair… I know you don't like recycled gifts, but this ring was my mother's engagement ring" he said and held up a diamond ring in his left hand. "I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to ask you to wear it; the last thing I would want is for your reaction to be similar to when I asked you to move in… Then you said that thing about how most of our milestones have happened around this limo and I realized the limo might feel left out if it wasn't included in this moment."
"Are… are you asking me to marry you?"
"I've been meaning to ask you for some time now. I am sure about this relationship. I have been from the start. I hope you are too. And I hope you will do me the honor of being my wife."
"Chuck Bass…" she said. "Did you really think that there was anything you could have done with a proposal that would make my answer anything other than... 'What took you so long to ask'?"
"Does that mean yes?"
"It means absolutely."
He pressed his lips hard and long against her ring finger, and she laughed happily, feeling a bit silly over the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks. He slid the diamond ring onto her finger and she held up her hand to admire the effect. Then she looked at him and wondered if she had ever been this happy before. His eyes looked at her in that adoring way which always made her heart melt. She slid down her seat until she was sitting on the floor with him.
"I love you" she said and gently caressed his cheek before meeting him in a kiss.
"Love you more" he mumbled and kissed her again.
"No, I love you more."
"I love you the most. Infinity."
She laughed and wrapped her arms around him.
"Just so you know Bass… Whatever you had planned for your proposal, it couldn't have measured up to this."
"Don't you want to know what my plan was?"
"Pray tell."
"I've booked us our old room at the Palace, you know, the one that was our love nest back when we were a new couple. I left instructions for them to fill the room with roses and candles, and leave a bottle of Dom for us, just like it was that first night you were my girlfriend. I thought we could… reenact that night, when we first made love as a real couple, in that very hotel room. And while we drank the champagne between love sessions, I was going to pop the question."
"Okay you should have gone with that" Blair said. "But… Then again, I think it would have hurt the limo's feelings."
He laughed and kissed her again.
"Now do you want to reenact our first night together… or our first night together as a couple? We can either consummate this engagement right here and now, or we can wait and do it at the Palace tonight."
"I think we're almost at the restaurant" Blair said. "Let's go with the Palace. I don't think the limo would mind…"
Five minutes later they stepped out of the car in front of the restaurant where they had lunch reservations. Chuck reached for Blair's left hand, the one he usually held, but she pulled it away and moved over to his other side. He raised an eyebrow as she took his left hand in her right.
"Hold my ring free hand" she said.
"I like holding the one with the ring on it" he objected.
"Be sentimental on your own time. Everyone should be able to see that I have a shiny, new ring on my finger."
"I wouldn't exactly call it new…"
"All I'm saying is what's the point of being engaged if nobody can see it and be jealous?"
He rolled his eyes but obediently held her right hand as they walked into the restaurant to order some champagne and have a celebratory lunch. Now with one more thing to celebrate than before, and with one less worry on his mind.
Hope that was interesting! A second part will be up in a week or so, and after that... we'll see. Please leave a review! Constructive comments are always appreciated.