There's a definite chance your girlfriend and best friend are interested in each other if he is the one she asks to do boyfriend-like things, such as picking her up for the airport.
After calling up his parents' car service, Nate directed the driver to take him to JFK airport. He was going to surprise Blair by picking her up after her two-week vacation with her grandmother in Provence.
The decision to meet her at the airport was part of his resolution to re-commit himself to their relationship. He had wanted to make the most of her time away by using it to determine whether he really wanted to be with her, knowing he couldn't keep stringing her along while he was pining after her best friend.
Blair was a wonderful girl and she deserved a boyfriend who gave her his full attention. Besides, she was here in Manhattan, while Serena had disappeared from view with apparently no intention of re-appearing anytime soon, Nate had finally accepted.
And he had missed Blair while she was away. Maybe not as much as he sometimes missed her best friend...He cut that thought off in its tracks.
Serena might have a warmth that appealed to Nate, offered him something that was missing from his own home life walking on eggshells around his parents' brittle, polite coolness, but Blair was the perfect girlfriend. She was sweet and understanding and affectionate. (With him at least, lesser beings were not always so fortunate.)
Blair worked hard to try to make him happy. Of course, she didn't always seem to understand that the things she and UES society thought should make him happy didn't necessarily make him so.
But she was the perfect girlfriend, made a point of doing all the things a girlfriend was supposed to.
Like accompanying him to and from the airport.
She'd always done this, going with him or coming to meet him so that they could have a big Hollywood moment kiss at the terminal, a memory to take with him when he went away, or something to welcome him back again.
He'd never taken her to the airport. Or picked her up. Selfishly, the thought had never occurred to him.
It wasn't that it was really necessary. Blair's parents would of course arrange their daughter's transportation and Blair was quite capable of getting herself around anyway. Actually, she was a force to be reckoned with when it came to cab drivers who tried to take a longer route than was strictly necessary, her sharp words quickly causing them to change direction and knock down the cost of the fare.
And Blair had never actually asked him to pick her up or drop her off any time she was going away.
But Nate knew she probably would have liked it if he had done it. She shouldn't have to ask him.
He smiled as he entered the airport. Well, he was here now. He checked the arrivals monitor and saw that he had fifteen minutes before Blair's plane landed. It would probably take him that long to walk to the arrival gate.
He set off, still grinning, thinking about Blair's surprised face when she saw him. It would definitely be a romantic moment, just the right thing to get their relationship on track again. Even if he would rather be picking someone else up.
But as Nate arrived at the gate, he recognised a familiar figure. The back of the head was non-descript enough, but Nate knew of only one man in the city with the money and bravado to wear a purple silk suit, the elegant tailoring unmistakeably that of Seville Row. His best friend was here.
It was conceivable of course that Chuck Bass was there to greet another person arriving off the plane, but that possibility never even entered Nate's head. The moment he saw him, Nate knew Chuck had come to pick up his girlfriend.
And though there was nothing ostensibly wrong with this, still he felt a slight swooping sensation in his stomach.
Perhaps Chuck had decided to surprise her as well.
Nate walked over and tapped Chuck on the shoulder, saluting him with an affable smile.
Chuck turned around, his face betraying momentary complete and utter astonishment, as well as something else less easily defined. (Disappointment, maybe?) But his features were quickly re-arranged into his customary carefully blank, assessing expression by the time Nate spoke.
"Hey man," Nate grinned, tone friendly.
"Nathaniel," Chuck responded pleasantly. "I'm surprised to see you here. You never pick Blair up."
Nate cringed. So other people had noticed his failing in this respect too. It made him feel even more guilty and conscious of his neglect of Blair. Why hadn't Chuck ever said anything to him? His best friend wouldn't have been out of line telling him that it would be appropriate if he made the effort to meet his girlfriend at the airport every once in a while.
"Yeah, I know," Nate acknowledged shame-facedly. "I thought I'd surprise her."
Chuck nodded, eyes narrowed. "Well, you'll certainly do that. She arranged for me to give her a ride home before she left."
Nate felt even more mortified. He'd assumed Blair would just get a cab home. That she'd felt so insecure in his affections that she'd organised a lift from Chuck rather than rely on her boyfriend was appalling.
"Oh, I didn't know," Nate said awkwardly.
"Well, you must be eager to see her again, after all this time apart," Chuck tested shrewdly. "Even though you obviously don't spend the time you are together to good use, seeing as Blair's still a virgin," he teased.
Nate didn't notice that Chuck said nothing about Nate's own virginity, which he wasn't supposed to know that Nate had lost to Serena at the Sheppard Wedding before she ran away.
"Course I missed her, that's why I'm here," Nate agreed. "Strange as it may seem to a guy like you, even though we haven't had sex yet I still miss her when she's not around," he said, rolling his eyes.
Chuck's lips quirked in a half-smile. "Actually Archibald I can understand your feelings perfectly. It will be good to have Waldorf back. The city isn't the same without its queen."
Their conversation was interrupted as the passengers began disembarking off the plane. Nate and Chuck both spotted Blair who, as she was riding in first class, was one of the first to descend the gangway.
She began walking towards them, elegantly attired for travel in a red knee length skirt that hugged her thighs and a white and red blouse that betrayed just the slightest hint of cleavage.
The effect was only marred by the slight crease in her forehead as her eyes searched the airport. However, when they finally settled on Chuck, her face broke into a delighted smile.
"Punctual as ever, Bass," she smirked as she approached him. "I'll have to give you a very good tip this time. I had to buy two extra suitcases to carry all the new clothes and books my grandmother bought me."
She had not even noticed Nate, who was standing off to the side.
"Well, the vacation obviously suited you, Waldorf. You look even more ravishing than when you left," Chuck drawled suavely.
"That might be because when you dropped me off it was five o'clock in the morning and I was sleep deprived," Blair answered, rolling her eyes.
Startled by the news Chuck had also dropped Blair at the airport, Nate moved forward to attract her attention.
"Nate!" Blair cried in shock. For a moment she merely looked baffled, but then she threw her arms around him.
After a couple of seconds, he cautiously returned her embrace, although he did not quite match her enthusiasm.
"I can't believe you came to pick me up," Blair said as she eventually let go.
Nate gave a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. "I didn't know that you'd already arranged a lift with Chuck."
For a second Blair looked almost embarrassed.
"Oh, well I always ask Chuck," Blair explained, a little flustered. "Cabs and normal cars can't always hold all my luggage. But of course Chuck has the stretch."
"Plus, I do love to be the first to hear all the scandalous details of Blair's trips away," Chuck contributed with a knowing smirk.
Blair shot him a warning glance. "They're never that scandalous, given that I have a boyfriend," she answered glibly.
"Yes, a boyfriend who's missed you and is very glad to have you home," Nate picked her up and kissed her once more, to Blair's delighted laughter.
When he put her down, he saw that Chuck had edged off to the side, his eyes carefully averted. With his face turned away, Nate couldn't see the slightly jealous expression suffusing Chuck's countenance at the public display.
"Well, as you two love birds obviously have all sorts of catching up to do, I'll leave you to it. Blair's excess luggage can of course ride home with me," Chuck informed them with an agreeability he did not completely feel.
"Thanks man," Nate answered, hugging Blair to his side.
Nate very much enjoyed the ride back into town with Blair. The only moment of disquiet he experienced came after they had arrived back at her apartment, and Chuck's driver had removed her baggage from the limo.
Blair had suddenly left Nate's side to blithely trot over to the car, tapping on Chuck's window. He obligingly rolled it down.
"You want me to check out your holiday snaps or something, Waldorf?" Chuck queried, his sarcasm downplayed by his smile.
"No, I just want to thank you for coming to pick me up," Blair responded coyly.
"I always pick you up. But I'll be collecting on that tip you promised next week," Chuck murmured suggestively.
He cast a quick look in Nate's direction before whispering so only Blair could hear, "Some time when your boyfriend's not around." He winked before rolling up his window.
Blair ran back to her boyfriend, trying to ignore the fluttery feeling in her stomach and the momentary, unexpected wish that Chuck wasn't kidding.