Disclaimer: I do not own the Gossip Girl world. Nor do I own the film My Best Friend's Wedding which this fic is loosely based on.
A/N The story is set in autumn 2017 and is in keeping with everything up to 4x22 EXCEPT Dan's novel and the pregnancy test found in the bin.
Chapter One
"Why can't we ever have what I want to eat in this place?" Blair frowned at the steaming risotto on her plate and poked at it with her fork. She knew that it would taste perfectly adequate – more than adequate seeing as Eric was the one who had cooked it but she'd been trying really hard to convince both Eric and Dan that their dinner that evening should consist of more wintry vegetables now that the nights were starting to get much longer and a firm chill had descended on the city.
"Maybe it's because we don't have any sweet potatoes or butternut squash in the loft," Eric considered. "Or perhaps it's that Dan and I don't particularly care for those vegetables except for at Thanksgiving."
"Or, most likely," Dan entered into the conversation, "it's because, despite the amount of time you spend in 'this place', Blair, you don't actually live here."
She sent Dan a withering glance but took a bite of the piping hot dish anyway. It was exquisite but she was reluctant to let the boys see this.
"And you get your way about ten times a day anyway." Eric sighed, motioning to the vintage bottle of red wine that they were drinking with their dinner. Blair couldn't understand how he could be complaining about drinking a vintage wine instead of the revolting brand beers that he and Dan had been about to consume before she'd showed them her offering.
"I think you'll find that, in fact, it's you both acknowledging my superior taste in all aspects of life," she explained, a teasing smile gracing her lips.
"Okay, I'll concede that this Italian wine is actually a better choice than the beers," Dan said, raising his glass, "if you admit that Eric's risotto is better than anything we could've cooked up with your winter vegetables crap."
"We could've dined out…" Blair began and both boys rolled their eyes in exasperation. "All right, Eric, your risotto's nice."
Dan shook his head, laughing slightly in disbelief. "Gee, thanks for the glowing praise, Blair." Eric muttered. Blair felt a smile pull at her lips again and she saw no reason to stop it. This was all very familiar territory for the three of them and though (even so many years on) she was still loath to admit it; she enjoyed spending time in Brooklyn with both Dan and Eric.
Eric had moved into the loft just over two years ago when he'd graduated from Sarah Lawrence. Blair was perfectly aware that any normal person would prefer to stay in the Upper East Side compared to Brooklyn but she could understand him wanting to get away from under his mother's wing and Eric had never really followed convention anyway. Eric was an interior designer, although you wouldn't know it looking around the loft because the place barely looked any different than it did when Blair first clapped eyes on it ten years ago. She nearly choked on her wine. Had it really been ten years since she'd first stepped into the loft?
Dan noticed the look on her face. "What's wrong?"
Blair sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to be twenty-six in a couple of weeks' time."
"Take it from someone who's already joined the 'twenty-six' club," Dan said in a consoling voice, "it sucks."
Eric laughed and Blair scowled at them both.
"I love that you're both two years older than me," Eric sighed. "Being twenty-four sounds so much better than twenty-six; I've still got the rest of my life ahead of me, but you two? You're past it."
"Why do we put up with him, Humphrey?" Blair asked.
"Because, unlike you, I live here!" Eric interrupted, laughing again.
"And he can cook," Dan pointed out, finishing off his risotto.
"So, how do you plan on celebrating being four years away from thirty?" Eric asked, taking a sip of wine.
Blair held her knife towards him. "I swear to Prada, Van der Woodsen, one more jibe like that and you'll be too dead to receive an invitation."
Eric held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, I'll leave the old jokes…for now."
Blair turned to Dan as though the threat to Eric's life had never happened. "A classic Blair Waldorf birthday party of course!"
"Oh good," Dan deadpanned, "because they always go so well."
"Do you remember a couple of years ago when Nate's girlfriend's dress caught fire?" Eric said laughing.
"Well, she shouldn't have stood so close to the candles with those ridiculous drooping sleeves." Blair muttered. "That was quick thinking pushing her against the ice sculpture, Humphrey, even if she ended up flying head over heels with a soaking wet dress."
"But at least she didn't end up with any burns on her arm." Dan pointed out, before finishing his wine. "What was her name again?"
"Alice?" suggested Eric.
"No, it was Amy," Blair corrected. "And she didn't last long after that, unsurprisingly."
"Where's Nate now?" Dan asked.
"Gossip Girl last picked him up in Melbourne two weeks ago." Blair replied.
"Does that guy ever stay in one place for more than a month?" Dan wondered.
"Well, when your multi-millionaire grandfather dies and your inheritance bypasses your parents and gets released unto you when you turn twenty-five, you can go globe-trotting too, Dan," Eric sarcastically informed him.
"Yes, I'm waiting for that day to come any time soon." Dan nodded. "Is he coming to your birthday, Blair?"
Blair pursed her lips. "I haven't sent out any formal invitations but I suppose I can send a message his way electronically. Serena will have to get an e-vite too, seeing as she and Matthew aren't back from Singapore yet." Her tone sounded bitter and she knew it. Serena's frequent vacations (and often complete desertion of her friends and family) were a sore point with the three of them and her name instantly dampened the mood within the loft.
With the discussion of two of their absent friends, Blair knew that Dan and Eric's thoughts had turned to a third person and it wasn't Jenny Humphrey. Neither of them mentioned his name though as the discussion turned towards their plans for the evening. Blair didn't know whether she should be pleased that his name hadn't been brought up or slightly exasperated. She knew that he wasn't particularly popular with either Eric or Dan but he was still one of Blair's closest friends and she did miss him. A lot.
She hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation happening in front of her and she suddenly realised with a small amount of horror that Dan and Eric were actually considering going to a new bar that had opened a couple of weeks ago.
"Van der Humphreys!" she snapped, "You know the drill on new drinking establishments."
Dan shook his head slightly. "Blair, I'm not waiting until a New York publication writes a review for the place. I honestly don't care whether they like the new bar or not – it's somewhere different and I want, no, we want to try it out." Dan said, motioning to himself and Eric. "If you're worried about being seen in a bar that some critic doesn't like then don't come with us."
"But you work for all these newspapers and magazines; can't you just ask someone to review it first?" Blair asked hopefully. "It'll only take a couple of days and then there won't be any problem."
Eric laughed. "He's not in charge of the papers, Blair! He does freelance work."
"I'm aware of that fact, Eric," she replied calmly. "But I think that you're both forgetting that while Dan's reputation within his workplaces may be fairly minimal, my magazine is about fashion. I can hardly go somewhere that has yet be to determined fashionable or not by those in the know."
"You're 'in the know'," Dan pointed out, with more than a hint of sarcasm. "Why don't you put a review in W about it? Then you can decide its fate."
Blair pondered this. She had a piece due for her blog in the next coming days and she hadn't done a review of a new place in New York for a while now.
"Fine." She relented. "But you two are getting the drinks."
Three hours later saw them exiting the bar, Blair glaring furiously at her cell phone. "How ridiculous to house most of the establishment below street level so that there's barely any reception?"
"Will you stop focusing on that one downside?" Dan implored. "You've done nothing but moan about it all evening. I thought that it was a pretty cool place on the whole."
Blair was about to make an elaborate list of all that was not 'cool' about the establishment but her phone had rediscovered some signal and was buzzing to flag up all the calls and messages she'd received.
She cursed the bar again and dialled straight for her voicemail.
"Blair Waldorf doesn't have cell phone signal for a couple of hours and the world collapses around her," Dan muttered but Blair shushed him violently, trying to concentrate on the electronic voice.
"You have three new messages. Message One."
Blair rolled her eyes as her work colleague (she was reluctant to call her a friend seeing as she really didn't like the girl) informed her of the details of a fashion shoot that was due to take place in TriBeCa tomorrow afternoon. She mentally filed that away as Dan and Eric looked bored standing next to her.
The second message was from her boss' personal secretary, giving Blair the outline of an article that she was expected to write before the end of the week. She was so consumed with committing the details to memory and seeing what instant ideas she could create that she only half listened to the start of the third message until she realised who it was that was speaking.
"Blair, it's me. I can't believe that I don't call you for nearly a year and then when I do it goes to voicemail. Look, I'm coming back to New York tomorrow. Lily and Rufus have asked me round for dinner tomorrow night and of course they extended this invite to you too. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the future recently and there's a really important question I want to ask you. I won't say anymore now. It'll be great to catch up with you. It's been too long."
Blair stood frozen on the spot, a mixture of emotions playing across her face.
Dan looked at her in concern. "What is it?"
With trembling fingers she pressed for the message to repeat and then put the phone on speaker so that Eric and Dan could hear too.
It was obvious that they both recognised the voice too. They moved closer so that they could hear more clearly and by the time it had reached the end they were both looking at Blair searchingly.
She swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous and excited.
"I think…I think Chuck Bass is going to ask me to marry him."
A/N Please let me know what you think! Thank you.
Love,
Lil Drop of Magic
xXx