"Hey, are you up?" Dan's voice came over the other end of the phone as Blair rolled over in her hotel bed. She was on the road to promote both the books she had coming out and it just happened to be falling on her birthday.

"I am now," she said, pushing herself up in the bed and rubbing her eyes. "I don't really have anything to do today so I didn't set my alarm. What time is it?"

"Around 10," he replied. "Happy birthday, Blair."

Blair smiled sadly. She wished that she was spending her birthday in the city with Dan instead of being in the middle of a flyover state for a Q&A and a book signing. "Thanks. I wish you were here though."

"Me too," he said letting out a sigh. "I wish this thing at the bookstore could have been pushed back-"

"Dan, I know," she interrupted him. "I'll be home in a couple of days, we can celebrate then."

"But your birthday is your favorite day of the year, I just feel bad I'm not there."

"I'm turning 28, it's not a big deal. At least it's not a major birthday." Blair flung the blankets off her legs and looked outside to see a steady downpour. Even the weather wasn't going to cooperate on her birthday. "What are you doing today?"

"Working mostly and then getting ready for that signing tonight. I wish you were the author doing the event tonight. I have a bigger soft spot for teenagers than middle aged women fawning over a basic romance novel."

Blair laughed, sitting back down on the bed and putting her head back on her pillow, "Why do you offer up your space for this then?"

"Money, Blair. I do have a business to run."

"Right," she said, pausing as she moved her phone from one side of her face to the other. "I should probably get ready soon. My agent wants to get lunch with me for my birthday."

"Well, that's nice of her. Maybe you can imagine it's me instead."

"I think the grey hair and feminine voice might ruin the illusion."

"True. Hey, what are you wearing?"

"Humphrey," she laughed slightly before looking down at herself. "I should be getting ready and showering…"

"Even better, you'll already be undressed," he said, his voice low. "If I can't be there at least let me tell you what I would give you for your first present."

Blair's hand was painfully aching as she looked up and smiled at the last girl in line. The last girl, who had a well placed headband with a bow, resembled Blair as she had been in high school. She even had matched her outfit to resemble the Constance Billard uniforms Blair had described in her books. Blair wasn't sure if she should be flattered or slightly creeped out. She chose to be flattered.

"Hello," she said, smiling. Her agent and publisher both had requested Blair to remain slightly aloof through most of her book signings when she was just writing her (mostly) fiction books however as they were looking to sell her non-fiction book too, they had encouraged her to have more personal interaction with her fans on this book tour. Blair had taken this to mean personalizing signings instead of just signing her name, she blamed her aching hand on this in retrospect. "What's your name?"

"Brittany," the girl said, excitedly. "But all my friends call me B. Like in your book, how all the two best friends go by their initials. I took it from there and it stuck."

Blair nodded, quickly personalizing the signature, "Well, thank you so much for coming out tonight."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," the teenager said, fumbling for her phone. "Do you think we can take a quick picture? I know they said no pictures before but it's my birthday and it would mean so much."

Blair nodded, trying to figure out if this teenager was single white female-ing her with the tale of her initial and now the shared birthday. "Of course, anything for a birthday girl." Blair motioned for her to come closer and had her agent take the phone to take the picture. She could see the eyes of the other girls who had come before Brittany looking disappointingly on and probably thinking that they wished they had told Blair it was their birthday so they could get a picture. After the picture, Brittany leaned in to embrace Blair and Blair patted lightly on her back, looking at her agent with horror. She was not one to enjoy the random embraces of strangers, even those buying her books.

Once Brittany left the area, Blair got up and followed her agent behind a stack of books so that the organizer of the event could get the slightly raised stage ready for the Q&A. "I think I liked it better when I was told to be aloof," she said to Sharon, her agent. "My hand is killing me from signing their names in addition to my own." Blair grabbed a water bottle and started to take a few sips, "Also, I thought the signing was after the Q&A… isn't that usually how it goes? Shuffle everyone out happy with a signature."

Sharon nodded, "Most of the time. We just figured we would get the signing out of the way so you weren't exhausted for it." Blair noticed the Sharon was looking more nervous than usual and she kept glancing at her phone. Sharon furiously typed on her phone and Blair stood there, leaning against a bookshelf. When Sharon looked up, she almost seemed surprise to see Blair still standing there. "I'm sure they are ready by now. Did you go over the question list after lunch?"

Blair nodded slightly, "I glanced at them."

"Good," Sharon said, leaning to the side to look at the audience. "There are a couple of members of the audience who were chosen to ask you a few questions so don't be surprised by that. They should all be on the approved list already, but you never know. Some people like to improv when they get the chance." Sharon seemed to get a signal from someone on the other side of the shelf as she pushed her hand on Blair's back and started to push her to the stage. "If you don't want to answer a question, just say a couple of words. Better that then a full on refusal."

Blair started to turn her head to say something before she heard the applause of the audience and realized that it was just her and the stage for the next forty five minutes or so. She gave a little wave to the audience before taking her seat behind the table that she had done the signing at. Blair grabbed the microphone that was on the table and held it close to her, looking at the older woman who was going to serve as the moderator for the night. Switching the microphone on, she nodded to the older lady.

Through the next thirty minutes, Blair answered the standard questions she was often asked and therefore the most prepared for. She talked about the best ways she worked (at night and in bed), how long it took her to finish a book (it fluctuated based on her mood and her muse) and what was the most distracting thing for her (she answered Netflix but the honest answer would have been life in general). When it came time for the questions from the audience, Blair figured that they had heard enough about her writing process and took the microphone and told them to ask her anything.

"Anything?" It was Brittany, of course, up first and with the microphone of the moderator in hand. She took out the question that she was preselected to ask and started to crumple it up. "Are Charlotte and Benjamin going to end up together? "

Blair took a deep breath. Charlotte was the character that she had mirrored closely to herself where Benjamin had played the role of Chuck. She had though she had been very clever when she first started writing that she switched the first initials of them to make her characters name. The fact that she had started to write the books when she was still dating Chuck said a lot to how she wrote them in the beginning and fans had latched on to that ideal of a relationship instead of seeing the more recent developments in the books such as the relationship starting to become strained and unhappy.

"I don't think so," Blair said, trying to be diplomatic. "I think the characters are too alike to ever end up together and be happy. In all of their scheming and plans, I don't know if they ever plan too far ahead." She looked around, seeing disappointed girls in the audience from the news. "I mean, I haven't written the next book… but I think that's the headspace I'm currently in. I don't think it's realistic to have all the characters end up with the person who they were with in high school and I think that maybe, for both Charlotte and Benjamin, there are better people out there that will bring out their better sides. I wouldn't want them to be stuck in their high school mindsets forever."

Brittany herself looked disappointed as she sat down and Blair gave a little shrug. She had been trying to dissolve the relationship of the characters as her own had but her publishers said it was a main draw to the books so she was having to do it slowly and painfully.

The next girl took the microphone and started to shake slightly. "Um," she started. "Uh, I just- uh-"

"It's okay," Blair assured her, trying to lock eye contact with the girl. "Ask whatever you want. I won't bite."

"Don't you think that Charlotte and Benjamin are soul mates?"

Great, another question about a relationship she didn't want to focus on. She started to realize quickly that letting people ask their own questions was not going to result in anything besides this for the rest of the night.

"I don't think so," she said. When she looked towards the girl, who was still shaking, she felt bad for being so short with her answer. "I just think that they are going to grow up and realize that playing all these games with each other is not healthy. I think in my latest book, you see the cracks in their relationship really start to show. I think their foundation was never stable and trust was never completely there." Blair looked at the next girl who was in line to ask her a question, "Anything to ask that doesn't revolve around Charlotte and Benjamin?"

"I have a question," she heard a familiar male voice ask and from the back of the audience, Dan stood up.

Blair raised her eyebrows, "I think you are a little out of place for my normal audience."

She could hear whispers in the audience and quite a few girls were making the assumption that that, in real life, was the Benjamin coming to life from the pages.

"I got this advance copy of your memoir in December but I've noticed a lot of changes," he said, holding up the book that Blair had gifted him last Christmas. "It seems like you have taken out a lot of references to, what I will assume, is the real version of Benjamin. How long did it take you to edit this masterpiece and why remove all of those references?"

Blair smirked at him, "What a great question, stranger in the audience who I've never seen before. I think my life is moving on and I need to start focusing on the present and not the past. I live my past relationships a lot when writing my fictional tales and I wanted to write a different side of me in that book. When you got that book last Christmas, I believe the author… well, me… was in a different headspace. When I was looking over to edit it again before it was published, I realized that half of the stories I was telling didn't apply and didn't give a good message. I wanted to focus on the parts of my life that I'm proud of. Like getting over split second judgments and if they were born in Brooklyn and letting myself be happy."

Dan was smiling at her, starting to walk towards the stage. "I think I like the new copy much better."

"Well, I'm glad you approve," she said, putting down her microphone and stepping down from the stage. Blair walked towards him and hugged him. "What are you doing here?" she whispered into his ear. "I thought you had something tonight."

"I have people," he said, rubbing her back.

"People?"

"A person. My father. I wouldn't miss your birthday, Blair."

She pulled back, smiling, before he turned her around to see a cake being wheeled out on the stage and the audience starting to sing Happy Birthday to her. Blair covered her face and felt Dan's arms circle her torso.

"You guys are such jerks," Blair said, sitting on the bed of her hotel room, eating a third piece of cake from what was left over that they had carried back to her room. "I was thinking how weird Sharon was acting and how it was so strange to have a Q&A after the signing when we've always done it the other way."

Sharon laughed, "We weren't sure if he was going to make it in time! We had to push it back. We wanted you to have the best birthday even if you had to work it."

Blair smiled, looking from her agent to her boyfriend, "Well, it was pretty great. Although I think all the girls were very thoroughly disappointed that you were not the human equivalent of Benjamin." She nudged Dan in the side who had a fork full of cake in his mouth.

"They'll get used to disappointment," he said, swallowing.

Sharon stood up, "Well, I need to get to bed. Only a few more stops, Blair, and then you're done for the year. I'll see you in the morning for our flight. Dan, it was great to see you."

Blair and Dan both stood up to give Sharon a warm hug and watched her as she left. Blair took another bite of her cake before Dan walked over and took the plate from her. "Hey, it's my birthday and I'll eat cake if I want to." She reached her fork around his back and tried to get the piece.

"Later," he told her, grabbing her for. "You know what we talked about earlier?"

"Oh when you lied and said you were so busy?" she said, raising her eyebrows but feeling her cheeks flush.

Dan nodded, "Well, it is your birthday and I did promise."

Blair giggled, lying down on the bed as Dan set the plates on the desk across from the bed. "Sharon's in the other room."

"Well hopefully it's soundproof," he said, leaning down to kiss her before pulling at her skirt. "Or I hope she has really, really great headphones."