This is kind of a short chapter. The next one will be longer, I promise!
"Why am I dropping you off two blocks away from your work building?" Chuck enquired as the limo pulled up beside the curb and came to an eventual stop.
Blair straightened her blazer and skirt and replied, "This isn't the Upper East Side Chuck. I'm sure no one else who works here rocks up to work in a stretch limo." It was her first day at her new job and Blair was extremely nervous. She knew the importance of making a good first impression and the last thing she wanted to do was make her colleagues think she was a complete snob who wasn't prepared to work.
"You're not like everybody else," he pointed out as she leant over and gave Alex, who was sitting patiently in his car seat, a quick kiss on the forehead.
She glanced up from their baby son and stated, "When I'm at work I am. I'm just like every other employee at this company, which means that I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way up."
"Blair Waldorf doesn't belong at the bottom," he replied. He lowered his voice and added, "You and I both know how much you love to be on top."
She gave him a look, choosing to ignore the double meaning behind his statement. She responded calmly, "That's why I hope I won't have to stay at the bottom for too long. I'm hoping that my skills of persuasion will assist me in making a swift climb to the top." Blair couldn't help but grin excitedly at the possibility.
Chuck smiled at her enthusiasm. He loved to see her truly passionate about something. "Well I'm sure you'll charm the pants off your bosses," he told her. He paused, then added, "Not literally of course."
Blair shrugged and replied teasingly, "Well, if I'm getting really desperate and the situation presents itself..."
He glared at her as he leant over and kissed her passionately. He broke the kiss off far too soon for his liking, remembering that Alex was in their presence. "Now," he started as she played with the lapels of his suit, "are you going to be a good girl or am I going to have to send out a memo to all the men in the company that you're mine and mine only."
She frowned disapprovingly, while maintaining a playful tone, "First of all, I'm not your property. We belong to each other." Chuck just nodded, smirking at how annoyed she got whenever he acted too possessive over her. "Secondly," she continued, "you have nothing to worry about in relation to other men. I may fool around with a guy in the supply closet every now and then, but I'll never engage in anything serious."
"That's not funny," Chuck retorted, leaning in for another kiss.
"I have to go Bass," Blair groaned, pushing him away. "At this rate, I'm going to be late for my first day of work. Do you see now why I insisted that we arrive twenty minutes early?"
"Alright, go," he gave in reluctantly, as she leant down to give Alex another kiss goodbye.
"Be good for Daddy, okay?" she said, tidying the baby's dark hair. Alexander blinked up at her with big brown eyes and Blair couldn't help but tear up a little. "Chuck," she started, glancing up at him. "Look at how he's looking at me."
Chuck peered at his son for a moment and asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Look at his eyes!" she insisted sadly. "Those are 'why is my Mommy abandoning me?' eyes."
"That's ridiculous," he tried to convince her. "Alex will be fine. I'm sure he understands that his Mommy needs to have a life away from him. He knows that you love him Blair."
"I hope so," Blair responded with a sigh. She was torn. As excited as she was about this new job, a part of her wanted to go home right that second and be the full-time stay-at-home mother that Alex deserved.
Chuck cleared his throat and pointed out, "You're going to be late."
"Okay, okay," she sighed, kissing Alex on the forehead one last time. "I love you Alex. Mommy will be home before you know it."
"No love for Daddy?"
Blair gave him a look, but nevertheless gave him a quick kiss and said, "I love you."
"I love you too," Chuck replied as their driver opened the door of the limo. "I would wish you good luck, but you don't need it. You're going to be great."
"Thank you Bass," she smiled as she slide out of the car. "I'll see you tonight," she said, before Arthur shut the door.
He watched Blair walk away, before turning to Alex with a smile. "It's just you and me now kid," he said. The baby giggled, babbling in senseless babytalk. Chuck's phone suddenly began to ring from his pocket. "Hold that thought," he said to his son, patting him on the head, before answering his phone. "Hello."
"Mr Bass," a woman hissed in response, sounding very agitated.
"Paula?" he replied in confusion. It was his receptionist. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" she repeated. "There's a board meeting starting in fifteen minutes and you're not here, that's what's wrong."
Chuck immediately realized that he had forgotten to reschedule his meeting with the board of Bass Industries when he changed his work schedule. "Great," he muttered in annoyance, thinking for a moment. "Can it be rescheduled?"
"Most of the board members are already here," Paula told him. "I don't think they would be all that pleased if I tell them that they came all the way here for nothing."
He sighed, before responding, "Okay, I'm coming in. I'll be there soon." He hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, Chuck rushed out of the elevator, pushing Alex's stroller down the hallway in a hurry. He was already ten minutes late for the board meeting and didn't want to be any later. Before he could even reach the receptionist's desk, Paula hurried over to him and whispered frantically, "Where were you? Everybody's waiting!"
"I know, I was across town. I got here as soon as I could," he replied in his own defence, pushing the stroller up beside Paula's desk. "Wait a minute," he said suddenly, turning back to the woman. "I'm your boss, I don't have to justify myself to you."
"What are you doing?" she asked, gesturing to where he had left the stroller.
Chuck rolled his eyes and responded, "Well I can't bring a baby into the meeting. You'll have to watch him for an hour or so."
Paula shook her head, "Absolutely not. I'm your receptionist, not your nanny."
"If you want to keep your job, I suggest you do as I ask," he said, bending down to check on Alex. The baby seemed perfectly content, completely oblivious to the fact that his father was completely stressed out.
"My job is to be your receptionist," she retorted with a unwavering glare. "I take care of my own two kids at home, what makes you think that I want to take care of someone else's kid at work?"
Chuck sighed and told her, "I'll double your Christmas bonus."
Paula immediately smiled and replied pleasantly, "I would love to watch him!"
"I thought that might change your mind," he commented, kissing Alex on the head, before standing back up. "There's formula, baby food, clean diapers and anything else you might need in the diaper bag," he told Paula, before hurrying off towards the boardroom, where the meeting was taking place.
"A thank you would be nice," she called out, looking down at the baby with a sigh.
He rolled his eyes and called back without turning around, "My thank you will come in the form of a cheque in the next few weeks." It was times like these that he regretted hiring such a outspoken, bitch of a receptionist. He knew he should of gone with a kind, pleasant, older woman who would be too afraid to question him. Chuck opened the doors of the boardroom and put on his best fake smile. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he started, as everyone turned around to look at him.
When lunchtime came around, Blair entered the staff cafeteria and wrinkled her nose in disapproval. She dismissed the line for the hot food and found herself a seat on one of the empty tables. Everybody else clearly had already formed their lunch groups and she would feel like she was intruding if she invited herself to sit with them. The people she worked with hadn't exactly been welcoming to her since she had arrived that morning. It was like her first year at NYU all over again. Blair took out her yoghurt and her cellphone and dialled Chuck's number. She didn't want to look like a complete loner to the people she worked with. The phone rang three times, before Chuck answered in a hushed tone, "Blair, this is a really bad time. Can I call you back?"
"Where are you?" she asked in confusion. Last she knew, he was at home with their son.
"I'll explain later," he told her quickly. "There's no need to worry, everything's fine. Bye."
"Chuck-" she started, but was cut off by the sound of the dialtone. He had hung up on her! At a time when she needed to vent to her partner-in-crime, he had abandoned her. She sighed, setting her cellphone down on the table in annoyance.
"Are you okay?" a voice asked suddenly.
Blair glanced over to her right to see a man who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties standing beside her. "I'm sorry?" she asked.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sitting himself down across from her at the table.
She peered at him in confusion. "I'm fine," she responded. Who on earth was this guy and why did he think that it was perfectly fine to sit himself down at her table?
He just grinned at her, "Sorry for intruding. But I see a gorgeous woman sitting all alone, looking upset and I can't help but be a little curious." He extended his hand towards her and introduced himself, "I'm Josh Peters."
"I'm engaged," Blair responded bluntly, holding up her left hand to show him her engagement ring.
"Damn," Josh replied with a smirk, letting his hand rest back down on the table. "The ones you want are always taken. Can I at least know your name?"
She hesitated for a moment, before telling him, "It's Blair."
"Blair..."
"Waldorf," she finished. "Well, soon-to-be Bass."
He gave her an amused look and retorted, "Hmm, well Mr Bass is a lucky guy." He paused for a moment, "Wait a minute...Bass? I've heard that name before. Bass...Industries. That company that rich kid inherited."
"That rich kid," Blair started in a mocking tone, "is my fiancee. Chuck Bass."
"That's the one, Chuck Bass," Josh nodded. "Wait, if you're marrying Chuck Bass, why are you here?"
"I got a job here in the marketing division," she explained in a slightly annoyed tone. Why did everybody assume that just because she was marrying Chuck, she didn't have any career plans of her own? "This is the 21st Century...Josh was it?" He nodded. "I don't know if you've noticed but women can have jobs now."
He chuckled, "You know, I was wondering why there were all these women hanging around here. Thanks for clearing that up."
Blair shrugged smugly, "I never walk away from an opportunity to set a sexist pig straight."
"Ouch," Josh commented, grabbing his chest as if he were in pain. "Remind me never to get on your bad side Blair Waldorf-soon-to-be-Bass."
"Now, is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked in a bored tone. "Because if not, can you leave so I can eat my lunch in peace?"
He glanced down to her yoghurt and made a face, "You call that lunch?"
"Leave her alone Josh," a blonde woman interjected as she approached them.
"Juliet," he addressed her, looking her up and down. "You're looking lovely, as always."
Juliet rolled her eyes and retorted, "Beat it Peters. Don't make me hurt you." Blair looked on in amusement as the pair stared each other down.
"Fine," Josh relented, standing up from his seat. He turned back to Blair and asked teasingly, "Same time tomorrow?"
She scoffed, "Yeah, in your dreams. Now run along before you make me lose my appetite." He just chuckled as he walked away, leaving the two women alone.
"I'm impressed," Juliet smiled as she lowered herself down onto the seat across from Blair. "Not everyone can handle Josh."
Blair just shrugged, "I've dealt with my fair share of arrogant assholes. I know how to handle them."
"I can see that," she responded. "I'm Juliet by the way."
"Blair," she replied simply.
"You're new here, aren't you?"
She chuckled, "Is it that obvious?"
"No, I just don't recall seeing you around before," Juliet explained. "Do you mind if I join you for lunch?"
"Not at all," Blair smiled politely. As they began eating their lunches and chatting amongst themselves, Blair found that they had a lot in common. She was relieved that she had managed to make at least one friend at her new job.
"We're finally home little man," Chuck said to his son as he carried him into the living room. Alex made a few noises in response, causing Chuck to listen intently. As far as he knew, Alex hadn't spoken any actual words yet, but he was always worried that he and Blair would miss his first word if he happened to say it in amongst his usual baby talk. "That's interesting, tell me more," he chuckled as he set the baby down on his playmat.
Alex grinned at his father, before taking off in another series of unintelligible noises. "Really?" Chuck responded, as if he could understand him. He looked on quietly as the baby moved himself onto his hands and knees and began crawling towards the coffee table. "What are you doing?" he asked in amusement as Alex slowly reached up and set his little hands on the top of the coffee table. His jaw dropped as the seven-month old baby carefully pulled himself up onto his feet, not taking his hands off the table in front of him.
Chuck looked on in amazement as he approached his son cautiously. He didn't want to move too quickly in case he scared him and made him fall. A proud grin slowly broke out on Chuck's face and he remarked gently, "When did you learn to do that buddy?" Alex smiled as his father ruffled his hair playfully. "How long has this been going on? Does Mommy know about this?" he asked. He didn't know why he kept asking the baby questions. It's not like he would suddenly learn to speak and answer him with a perfectly articulate response.
He smiled at his son and announced, "You've made your father proud kiddo."
A few hours later, Blair stepped out of the Empire elevator completely drenched from head to toe. It had been raining heavily all afternoon and since she had insisted that Arthur pick her up a few blocks away from her work building, she had gotten completely soaked during the trip from the building to the car. She kicked off her heels and discarded them and her soaking wet purse on the floor of the bedroom. As she began peeling off her wet clothes, Chuck appeared in the doorway with Alexander rested on his hip. He immediately burst out laughing at the state Blair was in. "Hi honey, how was your day?" he asked teasingly.
She scowled at him as she struggled to pull off her stockings. "Don't mess with me right now Bass, or I swear to God I'll strangle you with these stockings," she grumbled. In her attempt to pull off the stockings as quickly as possible, Blair tripped over her own feet and landed on the bed clumsily. "Argh, I give up!" she exclaimed into the bedspread, hitting her fists against the bed in frustration.
"Are you okay?" Chuck asked cautiously as he sat down beside her on the bed with their son on his lap.
Blair lifted her head and looked up at him in confusion, not sure whether he meant if she was alright physically, or alright in general. "I'm fine," she murmered, choosing to answer about her physical state. She sat up so her stocking-tangled legs were hanging off the side of the bed.
"Here," he instructed, handing her the baby, "Take him and I'll help you with those." She sighed, hugging Alex to her chest in relief as Chuck pulled off her stockings for her. He managed to do so quite quickly, which Blair put down to all the practice he had had over the years. She did tend to wear stockings a lot, which could be quite frustrating when they were trying to undress quickly in the heat of the moment.
"Thank you," Blair said, leaning in to give him a quick kiss.
"You're welcome," Chuck responded. "I'm assuming that your first day didn't go as well as you had hoped."
"That's an understatement."
"What happened?"
"Hmm, well I got the most awful assignment working on an advertising campaign for dog food, everyone I work with hates me," Blair started. "I got hit on by this extremely sexist idiot who seems to believe that all women still belong in the kitchen. Then to top it all off, I got caught in a storm on the way home so my new pair of Christian Louboutins are all scuffed and muddy." She looked sadly to her ruined pair of shoes that sat on the floor. "Oh, and then you have my oh so graceful stumble onto the bed a moment ago," she added with a frustrated sigh.
Chuck gave her a sympathetic look, "You're just having a bad day. I'm sure things will go better tomorrow."
Blair groaned, "I don't want to go back there Chuck. I'm so not cut out for this." She carefully removed Alex's hand from her hair, which he was tugging at painfully.
"It's only been one day Blair," he pointed out. She hugged Alex to her chest with a pout. "You have to give it a chance." She sighed. "If after a few weeks you're still miserable, then quit and look for another job."
"I can't quit," she protested. "Blair Waldorf is not a quitter."
Chuck thought for a moment and suggested, "You could come work at Bass Industries? I'm sure that I'll be able to find a position for you."
"Absolutely not," Blair objected. "If I do that, I'll just be the boss' wife. Nobody's going to take me seriously."
"So what are you going to do then?"
She sighed, looking at her son, then back up to Chuck. "I'm going to give this job a chance," she decided.
He smiled, "Good."
"I guess it wasn't that bad," Blair admitted after a moment. "I made a friend who I really like, Juliet. I'm actually thinking about setting her up with Nate."
"Playing matchmaker, are we?" Chuck asked.
She nodded, "I'm sick of him parading around a new whore every other day. He's like Chuck Bass 2.0."
"Only not as attractive," he added smugly. She gave him a look. "It's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it. How else are those girls going to work out their Daddy issues?"
"Gee, I don't know. Therapy?" Blair retorted sarcastically.
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Shush you," she instructed with a playful glare. She looked down at Alex with a smile and said to him, "As much as I hate to be away from you for another second, I'm going to have to give you to Daddy while I change out of these wet clothes." Blair handed him back to Chuck, before pulling off her skirt and top. She set them aside to be washed, then made her way into the walk-in closet to find a change of clothes.
Chuck stood up and made his way over to the closet. He cleared his throat, "You know, I have a bone to pick with you Waldorf."
"What is it Bass?" she asked tiredly, selecting a new skirt and top to wear.
"You didn't tell me that Alex had started to pull himself up on the furniture," he responded. She gave him a confused look as she put her top on. "Imagine my surprise when I saw him standing up beside the coffee table earlier today."
"He was standing?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening in surprise.
"It was more like leaning actually-" he started, "Wait, you didn't know?"
"How would I know? He's never done that before!" Blair snapped, looking down at her son sadly. "I can't believe that I missed it!"
Chuck approached her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly, "It's not that big of a deal. It's not like he took his first steps."
"Well he might as well have. I'll no doubt be missing that too because of my stupid job," she grumbled, pulling her skirt on with such force that Chuck thought she might rip it.
"Blair-"
"Maybe taking this job was a mistake Chuck," she interjected as she approached him. He remained silent, waiting for her to continue. "I feel so guilty the whole time that I'm at work and I hate it."
"You have nothing to feel guilty about," he insisted.
"You can say that all you want but it doesn't change the way I feel," Blair said, placing a kiss on her baby son's forehead. "You can't get the moments with your children back, you know? Once you miss them, they're gone forever."
"I miss things too Blair," Chuck started. "Do you think I like having to go to work and leave Alex, knowing that I'm probably going to miss an important moment in his life?"
"Of course not. It must be as hard for you as it is for me," she responded gently. She suddenly perked up and suggested, "I know, why don't we both quit our jobs for the next few years so we can be with Alex everyday until he starts school?"
He chuckled, "That sounds good in theory, but we would get bored. You know we would."
"I know," Blair relented, knowing that he was right. "What am I going to do Chuck?"
"I think you should wait a few weeks," he replied. "Get settled into work, see if you like it, then make the decision of whether or not you want to keep working right now."
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Blair's cellphone ringing from inside her purse. She quickly retrieved her phone and answered it, "Hello?"
"Oh my God B!" Serena squealed excitedly into the phone.
Blair held the phone away from her ear slightly in attempt to protect her hearing. "What is it S? You're hysterical," she asked as Chuck gave her a questioning look. She shrugged in response.
"Blair, I'm getting married!" the blonde exclaimed. "Dan proposed and I said yes!"
"What?" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"We're engaged!"
Blair's eyes widened in surprise and she commented, "Oh my God." As much as she wanted to be happy for her friend, she couldn't ignore how annoyed she was feeling about the fact that Serena had managed to upstage her yet again. This was meant to be her and Chuck's time. They had gotten engaged first and were in the middle of planning their wedding, surely Serena and Dan could have waited until after their wedding to get engaged. They had only been back together for five months, it's not like they were in any hurry to get married.
"I haven't even told you the best part yet," Serena continued excitedly. "We've decided to get married the week before you and Chuck. We can be newlyweds together!"
"Excuse me?" Blair exclaimed in horror. Was her friend insane? How could she possibly believe that she would think that this was good news?
"I know, it's so great," she replied, misinterpretting Blair's tone. "Anyway, I have to go B. I just really wanted you to be the first to know about this."
"Serena-" she tried to object.
"I'll talk to you later!" And with that, Serena hung up, leaving Blair fuming.
"What is it? What did she say?" Chuck asked.
She just shook her head angrily. This was the perfect end to what had been one of the worst days ever. Blair took a deep breath and announced, "We have to move up our wedding date. There's no way in hell that I'm letting Serena and Dan get married before us."
And so ends B's extremely bad day. What do you all think about me introducing Juliet into the story? It's the same Juliet from the show, only she's not trying to destroy Serena. Also, what do you think about Blair and her job? Should she stay at this job, quit and find a new job or stay at home with Alex?