A/N: Okay, so…as always, I shouldn't be starting another multi-chaptered fic, but it's just another 3-part, so I think it's justified. I'm like 99.99999% sure that 3x07 is going to turn out lovely for our precious CB, but you know…that in between time of "not knowing" just kills me…*has been having GG/CB nightmares all week* *gulp* And you know what's particularly ridiculous about this? The little snippet of angst we got in 3x06 isn't even HALF as bad as two seconds out of an angsty episode was last season. *sighs and shakes head at self* Ah well, it'll help me get through the next couple days before we all heal over. Hehe. And reviews don't hurt either. ;p I did see both the regular promo and the extended promo, and the CBS webclip, but…*sigh* I got the idea from just seeing the original promo so that's basically all I'm taking this fic from, though there may be hints from the other two sources, just 'cause I like to make my fics as realistic as possible. ;p

Synopsis: This story begins post 3x06, CB are supposedly okay, but when Blair inquires about the club opening…Chuck shuts her down. *gasp* ONWARD! ;)

(*btw, I'm quite sure the show will come up with something much more interesting and less dramatic than I come up with: you've been forewarned ;p)

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Ch.1—Dealing with Deception

"We're okay."

"We're okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

He sighs. "I've had three days to think it over, Blair. I'm sure."

She was unconvinced, but so obviously didn't want to make matters worse. "Okay," she nods.

"We're okay," he repeats and she forces a smile. He places each of his hands on one of her shoulders and peers intently into her deep brown eyes. "I mean it."

She smiles wider, making it look more real this time. He mirrors her action then kisses her on the forehead and walks past her.

He has a meeting to attend to.

They were so not okay. It had been a week since he had told her, a week since she had tried to make herself believe it, and a week of acting like the perfect girlfriend—trying to let the subject drop. But he couldn't have missed her act. If he had he would have said something by now, would've stopped her, made her believe how much he had forgiven her and that the past was in the past. That just like when they had said their I love yous and decided to forget all the hurt and pain they had caused each other before, he had decided to forget the issue and forgive her.

But he hadn't.

He so obviously was holding it against her. But only on the deep inner workings of Chuck Bass. On the outside he had forgiven her, and on the outside she had accepted it.

She had called him later that morning following just like she had told him she would, but the conversation was so awkward and she felt so guilty throughout. It wasn't even that long, but it seemed to go on forever (and there was so much silence). She hadn't contacted him after that, didn't know what she would do with herself if she did, what she would say. Then, he had called her, had arranged a short lunch after her first class of the day, three days later, and told her he had forgiven her. She took it for what it was. She didn't want to fight with him anymore, and he didn't want it to look like they were doomed to fail from the beginning. They both still loved each other so much, but for the moment—on the inside at least—it was not enough.

"You're with girls," she gaped at the scene before her. Serena had told him he was either at Victrola or a neighboring club, apparently he had visited both. The burlesque club he now was stationed at had scantily dressed dancers all over the place, and five of them were practically sitting on his lap. Maybe he was indirectly fighting with her, but she didn't think he'd go to this level to mess with her.

Chuck rolled his eyes to the comment and stood to his feet, walking towards her, and apologizing to the 'sluts' now behind him with his eyes and traditional smirk. Blair looked at him expectantly as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"You found out about the opening."

She pursed her lips.

"Through Serena I'm guessing?"

She remained silent.

"Well, I should have known I couldn't trust her to keep one thing from you," he muttered.

"I wanted to help!"

"Well I didn't need your help, and I didn't want it."

She narrowed her eyes but then focused back onto the previous topic. "Don't blame Serena," she sighed, "I was in the room when you called."

He scoffed. "So, she lied to me."

Her eyebrows squiggled into a furious, hurtful expression.

"You must be rubbing off on her," he took a sip of his scotch and kept his eyes set on anything but Blair's pained face. For the first time in ten days they weren't being fake with one another, and it hurt worse than she thought it would—and he was more furious than he thought he was going to be. "But don't worry, I won't blame Serena. This one is all yours."

She fumed, swallowing the tears back up in her eyes and making her gaze burn. "What are you doing with…them?" she tilted her head in the general direction of the dancers.

He scoffed, his eyes darting to hers, not even glancing towards where she was suggesting. "Nothing worse than what you did to me with your little white lie."

What?

She panicked, and it shone all over her face.

"No, I'm not cheating on you, and if you really think I would do that, it just clearly emphasizes all the more your lack of trust and respect for me."

Her eyes narrowed again. "Well, just look at them!" she gestured behind him.

"I'm not doing anything with them," his voice grew dangerously low. "If you must know, I was looking for some entertainment for the club." He straightened his vest, watching as she ever so carefully analyzed his facial expressions and gestures.

If I must know? Shouldn't he want to tell me?

She sighed loudly, searching his eyes for something. "Are you trying to irritate me?"

"No, but it is interesting to see how jealousy looks on you, real jealousy I mean." His face relaxed, seeming to smooth into humor, but she wasn't fooled.

"So much for forgiving me," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

His eyebrows furrowed briefly in confusion. "Okay, I don't know where that came from, but just because I forgave you, doesn't mean I can trust you again."

She sighed. "I don't know what else you want from me, Chuck!" Her eyes widened desperately. "If you can't trust me then what are we doing?"

He shook his head, his anger building. Finally he looked her back in the eyes—forced himself to—and waited for one more irritatingly long second to gather his final thoughts and try toning down his temper.

"I didn't want you at the hotel because if you can manipulate and lie to me, I sure don't want you anywhere near me for the most important night of my life." His gaze never broke from hers, pausing for a few empty seconds to see if she would open her mouth and speak. "I have a club to open, and you're no longer invited."

He waited a brief moment to take in just how severely her face had crumbled, how confused and unsure she seemed to be, and then he walked past her and out of the building. She hadn't even made a defense, a witty remark, or yelled at him. She could have thrown in his face all the awful things he'd done to her in the past, but she didn't. They had moved past all the pre-dating hurt. They hadn't—he hadn't—moved past this though. And for all she had done for him, for how much she believed in him and really felt that she had helped him a little to get to where he was now…she wasn't invited to his first self-managed club opening. His first anything in the business world really.

She wasn't invited.

She wasn't wanted or needed, because he still couldn't trust her.

And to make matters worse…he couldn't even really answer why they were still together.

She closed her eyes, and waited until she could hear the resounding pound of the door closing. Then she walked towards the exit and hurried back to her dorm.

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The room was small…and ugly (except for her few minor developments), and her bed was not nearly as comfortable as Chuck's.

Sigh. Chuck's bed…their bed…she hadn't been there in so long.

"Blair—"

"What, Minion #2?!" she closed her eyes in frustration and draped a hand across her face. For the life of her she did not know why she had decided to bring these doting girls into her room today.

"There's a—"

She interrupted a different minion. "So help me, if this is about more mini-humans at our door asking for candy, I will personally go out there and show them the true definition of witch on a broom."

The girl gulped. "Uh…no, it's—it's a blonde—"

"Serena?" She perked up immediately on seeing her best friend's head peering through the small space in the door.

"B, can you—" she giggled, "Can you get them to let me in?" she motioned to the two other minions trying their best to prevent her from coming in.

Blair sighed and smiled, nodding. With one quick glare the girls scampered out. "Leave!" she commanded and they were gone. Serena squeezed her way past them and headed towards Blair.

"You know, there are kids right down the—"

"No, I do not have any candy for the mini-humans wandering the hallways of this disgusting building," she scoffed, popping a Hershey's kiss into her mouth.

Serena flat out smiled and burst into a little more laughter at the sight of the brunette's deception. She shook her said. "Can I—?" she asked, gesturing to the candy between them. Blair pushed it to her encouragingly.

"I am so glad you came, S. I am a complete mess," she sighed dramatically.

The blonde glanced over to the chess game the brunette seemed to have been playing by herself. "I can see that," she looked away briefly. "Things still that bad with Chuck?"

The brunette grumbled. "Yes," she nodded, her eyes widening as she focused her gaze on the wrinkled silver wrapper of the chocolate. "He uninvited me to his club opening. Can you believe that? After all I've helped him through?! He would just—" she sighed, "well, whatever. If he wants to make this big of a deal over one stupid guy-on-guy kiss…fine by me!"

Serena's facial expression dropped in shock once the facts hit her. "Really? That's kind of….harsh," she sympathized.

"Tell me about it," she nodded. "I mean, we've been so fake since he supposedly 'forgave' me. If I didn't know any better I'd think I was dating Nate instead!"

Her jaw dropped, eyes darting to those burning browns. "Blair—"

"Okay, not exactly," she amended, "but that's how it was a lot of the time with him, S." Her expression turned sincere. "When I really take the time to stop and think about it, I could never really be all of my entire self with him…for fear of what he'd think, and I can do that with Chuck. But lately…I just…I haven't." She sighed. "It's like walking on eggshells."

The blonde reached over and stroked her friend's long brown strands, tucking a few behind her ear. "I'm sorry, B."

She shook her head. "No, it's my fault." She nodded softly. "But today, when I asked him why we were still together if he couldn't trust me…"

Serena gulped, fearing the answer.

"…he couldn't answer," she whispered.

"Oh, B, I'm sure it was just in the heat of the moment," she offered, enveloping her in a tight hug on instant. She felt Blair nod against her and suck in her breath for fear of crying. It completely broke her. "I know this isn't the greatest time to tell you this, or really what you would ever want to hear, but…the deal's falling through."

"What?" Blair asked, pulling away from the hug—her eyebrows furrowing.

Serena sighed. "I don't think I'm gonna be able to pull together those publishers or producers or whoever in time for Chuck's opening tonight."

Her eyes widened. "What's he gonna do?"

She sighed. "I don't know. Apparently though they're not fond of his record…or the fact that he just turned eighteen."

Blair stood to her feet, enraged. "We have to do something!" she insisted.

Serena joined her, gripping her best friend's lower arms. "Think about this, B. He doesn't want you involved, and your relationship has been pretty rocky for the last week or so…"

"Well then what do you suggest?!" her eyes widened further in exasperation. "And besides," her face calmed, "this is bigger than my problems with Chuck. This is about his future."

That may or may not involve me…

Serena looked to her sympathetically, seeing her love for her step-brother shine through magnificently from her deep brown eyes. "I…"

"I'll think of something," she insisted.

Serena looked to her very unsuredly. "I don't know if that's such a—"

"Don't worry, S, I've got this," she smirked, picking up her cell phone and thumbing through the contacts. The blonde knew better than to get involved with her best friend's manipulations and scheming, even if the last one did not end so promisingly. She sighed and headed for the door. It seemed Blair had suddenly become very occupied.

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A/N: Okay…I don't know how well I ended this or if my pronouns fit properly amongst the talking…*shakes head at self's need for perfection* but this is chapter 1! I hope you liked it, please review! =D Hopefully I can update twice tomorrow, if not I'll post chapter 2 and then chapter 3 on Sunday. *is determined* Btw, I'm sure Chuck isn't as mean or whatever as I portray him to be…like I said on my pre-3x06 fic, I'm just trying to make it really bad to make me feel better when it works out in the end. Lol. Btw, how OFF was I with that last fic? Clearly kissing a guy is not an issue for Chuck…*rolls eyes at self* and an apology? Not enough. *grumbles* *clearly doesn't understand him at all* Well whatever, hope you liked this! Review! =D