Thursday evening, Blair returned from work feeling a bit exhausted. All week she had worked long hours at the magazine. She was relieved she just had more day left out of the week. As she dragged herself up the stairs, she saw Dan descending the stairs.

"Hi, Humphrey." She smiled, happy to see him again.

"Hey, how are you?" He paused on the landing to wait for her.

"I'm exhausted. I've been working at least 10 hours every day this week.."

He winced. "I'm sorry, that's rough."

"You?"

"I'm good. Just was headed out to get takeout."

"Oh don't let me keep you then. It was nice to see you again." Blair started back up the stairs.

"Actually, what are you doing for dinner?"

"I hadn't planned anything actually." Blair paused on the landing, curious.

"Would you want to, I don't know, eat with me?"

She smiled, "Sure, why not?"

He asked what she wanted and then said he would be back in 15 with their Thai food. She said they could eat at her place if he wanted which he agreed to. He said his was still a "work in progress" so that would probably be preferable.

She straightened up while she waited for him. She contemplated lighting a candle but decided that would be too romantic. This wasn't a date, right? Either way, she headed into the bathroom to her vanity to touch up her makeup. She also decided to change out of her work clothes. She decided on an ivory fitted cashmere sweater with black skinny jeans.

He arrived back with their orders just as she finished pouring them each a glass of wine. Normally, Blair wouldn't eat takeout. But something about Dan made her feel like she didn't need to fuss so much over the little things like how respectable it was to eat takeout. She had always considered it sort of lazy but with Dan's company, it felt perfectly natural.

"Thank you so much for getting this. It smells amazing." Blair smiled as he set down the bag of food on the table. "I hadn't seen you all week. I was beginning to think you had changed your mind about living here."

"No, actually I've mostly been holed up writing."

"For work or for yourself?"

"For myself. It seems that writer's block has been lifted."

Blair raised her glass. "Well, cheers to that!" She clinked her glass to his and smiled at him, he returned her smile with an even warmer one.

"You know, normally I wouldn't hang out with someone from Brooklyn." Blair dished out her curry into a bowl.

"Really? So I'm an exception?"

Blair nodded and then continued, "In high school, I was totally obsessed with the social pyramid and always being on top. Being from Brooklyn would make you an outcast, at least it would at my school."

"I could totally see you being queen bee. You probably wouldn't have even said hi to me. Let alone let me borrow a phone charger or come to your party."

"Probably not." She said with a sheepish smile.

"I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with you either, though. I totally hated cliques and what they stood for."

"So you wouldn't have said yes even if I had invited you to a party?"

He looks pensive for a moment. "Unlikely. I think I would have secretly wanted to but would have too much pride to say yes."

"Well, then it's a good thing we didn't meet in high school."

Dan nodded in agreement.

As they ate, they discussed high school a bit more. Dan's parents Alison and Rufus had always had a troublesome marriage but stuck it out until his younger sister, Jenny, graduated from high school. They had gone to school in Brooklyn with Dan eventually graduating and going to Brown and Jenny going to FIT. Now, his parents were divorced which Blair could relate to.

Blair filled him in on her dad turned out to be gay and left her mother for a male model. At the time it felt like the end of the world but then her dad and his partner moved to a French chateau which meant she could summer in France. Her mom's new husband wasn't so bad she told him. He was way too family-oriented but she came around to him eventually. Dan's dad apparently got back together with his old band and now toured around the country.

Even though they finished eating, Dan agreed to hanging out for a bit longer. Blair poured them each a second rather full glass of wine. The topic turned to relationships. Dan was single, his longest relationship was with a girl he met in a college but decided he didn't really see a future with her. Then, he asked her about hers. She was reluctant but decided to regale him with the full Nate story.

"Nate Archibald. Our families were friends so we grew up together and it was sort of always assumed we would marry. So we were kind of together our whole lives until high school… He cheated on me with my then-best friend Serena." She paused to take a large sip of her wine. "Serena left after that to go to boarding school and I foolishly took Nate back. We managed to stick it out until our first year of college until he decided he didn't want such a serious commitment. So he broke up with me and I haven't been in a serious relationship since." Blair downed the rest of her wine.

Dan winced. "That's awful, I'm sorry."

"Oh wait, I didn't get to the best part. At the end of this past summer, Nate shows up to my friend Kati's party with Serena as his date. Then, they told everyone at the party how they both ran into each other on vacation in Bali. It was this whole sickening story with them beaming at each other the whole time. Seriously, I wanted to throw up."

"Well, he is missing out on an incredible girl."

She laughed a little, "Thanks but I'm not sure you know me well enough to say that and mean it. Besides, you haven't met Serena. If you did, you would probably fall in love with her too."

He has a thoughtful expression before saying, "I can't imagine anyone being more charming than you are."

"You're too nice." She rolled her eyes a little. "Anyway, that's enough of my sob story."

"It was nice getting to know you better."

"You too."

"So I better be going. You must be exhausted from work."

"Thanks for dinner. It was fun." She showed him to the door and after an awkward moment of hesitation gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Closing the door behind him, she lingered for a moment.