Spotted: Formerly Broadway Bound B heading to the Hamptons to catch the last rays of the season. Heard the producers are still searching for their star. Could our jilted actress be trying to cover up the embarrassment of a bad audition with a golden glow?
Blair slipped her phone back in her purse. It seemed her anonymous tip to GG that she had spotted herself in the Hamptons caught rapid fire. Notification after notification flashed across her screen that so and so had caught B getting her nails done at this salon or grabbing a cup of coffee at that café. It seemed some small shop owners were taking advantage of her supposed appearance to increase their business. Blair hadn't even told her best friend, Serena Van der Woodsen who shared her apartment, where she was going, only saying that she needed a vacation and she had arranged with her professors to complete the first few weeks of coursework online.
"Humphrey," Even though they were friends now, it was an old habit that she still greeted him using his last name.
As usual, he had a head full of bed hair and looked like he hadn't shaved in a week. "Blair!" He reacted with surprise and then ran his hand through his curls in an attempt at nonchalance, "I thought, um, Gossip Girl said you were in the Hamptons. Not that I keep track or anything."
"Daniel Humphrey, still as obsessed at getting in our circle as ever." She invoked some of the old Waldorf haughtiness, but as a joke for his benefit. The two of them knew the amount of times he had been chewed up and spit out by Serena was enough Upper East Side drama to last him a lifetime. "May I?"
"Of course," he held the door and welcomed her into his father's old loft, now, since his father had moved in with Lily and Jenny was off at boarding school, was his own private bachelor pad. Blair gave the building a speculative once over. The reconstituted firehouse turned apartment could be quite charming minus the sink overflowing with dirty dishes and the hamper of dirty clothes spilling out onto the hardwood.
"You have suitcases." Dan motioned Blair's matching Louis Vuitton set.
"Yes. I sent the tip to Gossip Girl that I was in the Hamptons." Blair explained, "Might I stay here for awhile?"
"Hold on a second." Dan had plenty of room, but the last time Blair had asked for a place to stay she was about to run away from an engagement to a prince. When he agreed, thinking he might get his chance to win over her heart, she had turned around again and run right back into her Prince Charming's arms. The engagement was broken months ago; the newspapers broadcasted that Blair had caught Prince Louis in an uncompromising position with one of the wedding planners, but Dan had his suspicions that it had something to do with Blair's on again, off again relationship with notorious business mogul, Chuck Bass.
"Blair, what's going on this time?"
"Nothing, Humphrey. I just want to know what it feels like to support myself for once." She wasn't lying outright. She was telling a half-truth. No need to tell Dan she was doing a case study on what it was like to be poor. That her acting teacher had told her that the only way she was going to authentically get in the mind of Eliza Doolittle was to walk in her shoes. Blair wasn't about to stand on the street corner selling flower bouquets.
Dan thought it must have something to do with that audition Blair had been so worked up about, but if she wanted to keep her reasons to herself, he wasn't going to push.
Blair continued, explaining her disguise of sunglasses and a headscarf. She was about as inconspicuous as one of those Hollywood celebrities trying to garner attention for themselves incognito. Dan smiled to himself. It was obvious she was invoking the memory of her favorite film star in one of her more famous roles.
"No one can know about this, not even Serena, OK?" Blair waited for his nod to show that he understood. "If Gossip Girl got wind of this little escapade, my reputation would be trashed."
"Can I offer a suggestion?" Dan asked her, "You'll attract a lot less notice if you dress the part. A student on this side of town would have to forgo two months rent for a Gucci scarf."
"It's Hermes, Humphrey," Blair corrected him. It was clear that even after all those months with Serena he still knew nothing about the fashion world. Those flannels.
"It's expensive and it's obvious." He fired right back, giving it a playful tug. Even back in high school, Blair had never intimidated him. He had always seen right through that show of superiority. Underneath the bravado, there was an insecure girl who was terrified of losing the power she struggled to create. Serena was a natural trendsetter and upon first glance a more attractive prospect, but there was something deeper with Blair that grew under his skin without him even knowing. There were times he wanted to pull her into his arms and whisper fervently in her ear that she didn't have to struggle to be somebody, that she was special enough.
He realized he had been twirling the fringe of her scarf in between his fingers. "Jenny left some things you can borrow." He let go abruptly.
Jenny Humphrey's gothic wardrobe wasn't her first choice, but it would certainly make her unrecognizable. Blair had a sudden image of her hair in a dark, shaggy bob and layer upon layer of dark eyeliner. She'd be involved in a bisexual love triangle and call herself some clever Greek mythological name.
"If only I had a killer leather jacket." She spoke without knowing out loud.
"Wishful thinking," Dan interrupted her reverie, "My sister never goes anywhere without it. If you want one, you'll have to buy it yourself…"
"I know the perfect one!" Blair had seen it last week at Barney's, but had dismissed it for being too metropolitan.
"…With the money you earn at your job." He finished.
Blair pictured herself as the barista at some quaint, independent, downtown café. "No problem." She responded, having not the faintest clue what she was getting into.
