Blair

She was going to kill Humphry. At least that's what she told herself every day but she was more worried than mad. How darehe think he could just drop off the face of the earth and not tell anyone where he was? Not tell her.

If she were honest with herself, and she usually wasn't, it was bothering her more than she thought possible. That he could just walk out of her life so easily. Sure, she had told him they were no longer friends but she had said that dozens of times and every time he had made sure to annoy her about some silly thing a few days later. It had been nearly a month and she didn't even know where he was anymore. She had scoured Gossip Girl but the website blurb stating 'Dan Humphry is no longer a registered user' bothered her more than she could admit. She went to the loft only to find the place empty and she almost cried. The only thing left was Rufus' records which were being packed into boxes. Everything else was gone. Blair walked to his study and saw his bookcase empty, there was no Cedric, no waffles and no Dan. His cell phone said his service had been disconnected.

For the past couple of weeks she had been living with a gnawing fear that she might not ever see him again and somehow that seemed scarier than anything else she could imagine. Even Louis had begun to notice.

"Why does it matter so much? You said that the book wasn't real and you had a fight. Give him his space," he said casually.

"I know, but it's like he's just cut us all out. I know we've always said how no one could care either way if Dan was 'in' or not but that was because I never thought he'd actually leave," Blair whined.

"Does it matter if he does? You have your other friends. Your 'real' friends," Louis said with an air of finality.

Blair knew where this was going and it was better to avoid the subject entirely. After all, her fiancé didn't particularly like Dan following the release of 'Inside' and while Blair wished she could retain her initial rage at her friend's particular use of artistic license, she no longer could. She had read the whole book and even she couldn't contain the fact that she had fallen in love with it. It was just such an odd feeling to expect to find oneself cast the lead villain in a fairytale about a pauper falling in love with a 'fair maiden' to find that the fairy tale was really all about the maiden's decidedly less shiny best friend. That he had seen her clearer than anyone else and that he had done so all along. She understood what he had meant about not writing the book in retrospect.

'Inside' had taken Dan five years of journal-like fiction writing. He had documented things as they happened and his … 'feelings' for Blair emerged in the narrative just as tentatively and self-consciously as they did in real life. Once you got to the end of the book, you suddenly realised he had been in lo-..., no, he had feelings, for her all along. It was a revelation that the author clearly had at the exact same time as his reader. Blair had begun spending hours in the bathroom reading her favourite passages again and again. It was fast becoming a guilty pleasure that no one but Dorota was aware of.

Dan had written about making love to her. Sure, it was a fantasy but she couldn't help but feel aroused every time she read the words to herself. And, though she would never admit it, she had begun dreaming about his hands on her at night. She had even begun comparing Louis' kisses to that one kiss that had truly been 'life changing'. Still, Blair knew she was in too deep now. She was going to marry a prince and have his baby and rule his kingdom at his side. She couldn't let a small thing like a book and a bad case of unrequited love ruin that.

A month after she had seen him, Blair saw his picture in the Sunday section of the New York Times. He was at some book signing and he had his arm slung around a tall redhead. He had a beard and his hair was just as unruly as ever. He looked like a yeti! A yeti, with the bone structure of a movie star and what the caption read was the 'number 2 bestseller on the times list'. He looked tired but his smile still stole her breath away and Blair found herself frozen at the breakfast table.

"Honey? Is everything alright?" Louis asked, his arm gently patting her hand.

Suddenly Blair couldn't breathe properly and she said she needed to use the toilet so she left her fiancé staring after her with a look of concern.

"Dorota, I need you to call Mark. Tell him I need to speak to him now," she said the instant she reached her room.

"Miss Blair, why we need private eye at this time?" Dorota chirped.

"That is none of your business. NOW" she whined.

After calling Mark and waiting for a good two hours while he worked his magic, Blair found herself armed with an address and a cup of coffee. She sat on a bench outside a mid-sized apartment building near the NYU campus.

Daniel Humphry, apartment 41-N.

But the clerk at the desk had said he wasn't in yet so she waited outside on a bench hoping to spot him and when she did she almost choked on her coffee. There he was, in his faded jeans, his new almost-beard and his typical plaid under the jacket. However, what really bothered her was his arm, and the way it was curled around the red head from the photo. They were talking about his book and Blair suddenly remembered seeing the tall floozy at his book launch party. She recalled something about her being his agent or something. Blair focused on her perfectly set red curls and her Givenchy coat in a toned-dull silver. She was … well put together, she acknowledged and Blair hated her on sight. If anything, her mind was already mapping out different ways to ensure she never set foot within a mile of her…friend… again. The pair were talking animatedly until Dan leaned down to pull his keys out of his pocket and Blair saw the red head pull his head to hers and plant a deep kiss on his lips.

That was what did it.

"Why Humphry, funny running in to you here!" she crooned from behind him, as the two sprang apart.