"You've been avoiding me," he responded, stepping towards her. "I figured it had to be something I did."

Blair shook her head, her eyes falling to the ground. "I was embarrassed, Dan. And I'm embarrassed to even be admitting that. I drank a little too much when Serena and Nate were here and I said things to you…" she trailed off.

Dan sat next to her on the bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling him to her. "Hey,' he said, his voice quiet. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Dan had spent the last few weeks wondering what he had done that made Blair upset. He should have realized with her avoidance tactic that it was the opposite. After all, she had not hesitated to say how much he embarrassed her when the video from the party went up. Or when he avoided breaking up with her, she showed up at the loft.

"There is a lot to be embarrassed about," she responded, standing up and walking to her desk. She lifted up the bottle of red, "You brought me a present, Humphrey?"

Dan nodded, standing and stretching. "A peace offering, really."

Blair shuffled things around her desk before finding her corkscrew. She made quick work of the quirk and took a sip out of the bottle. Her face scrunched up. "God, what is this?"

"Cheap, red wine. A college staple."

"If we're going to do college staples, get me some cheap vodka next time. At least I can pour something in it and mask it." She handed him the bottle. "Are you having fun here?"

He took the bottle and lifted it to his lips, dropping it down slightly before taking a sip to look at her. "Sure," he said, giving her a noncommittal shrug. "Are you?"

Blair pushed out her bottom lip, thinking, "I think I should have chosen Paris. The wine and the cheese and the sights."

"Why," he asked, taking another sip of the wine (she was right, it was awful) and handing it back to her, "did you choose it here?" She took a long sip of it, and he watched her body shiver in response to the cheap alcohol. "Come on, Blair, it's not that bad."

"It's bad, Humphrey," she said, tightly closing her eyes as she took another sip. "I don't know why I chose it here. Paris seemed too close to my dad. I could picture him visiting and I didn't want that. I think I underestimated how much New York is a part of me."

"It's not as great as I thought it would be," he said, reaching out for the bottle but Blair moved out of reach playfully. "Not a lot of things are."

Blair swung the bottle at her side, "Do you think we'll ever be alright, Humphrey?"

Dan reached out again for the bottle, letting out a frustrated laugh as she twirled away from him and leaned against her wall. "Depends on your definition of alright, Blair. I thought we had been alright."

She lifted the bottle took a long drink from it and let her arm dangle out in front of her, the bottle precariously being held between her thumb and index finger. "I wasn't alright."

Dan reached out for the bottle and took a gulp. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and saw Amelie had texted him. She and her friends were meeting at the bus stop shortly and she was looking to confirm his attendance. Dan shoved the phone back in his pocket without responding. He looked back at Blair, who's eyes were on the phone.

"One of the terrible Elon girls?"

"No, she's German."

"Ah, a German," Blair said, pushing herself off of the wall and sitting back on her bed. "Do you have to go?"

"We're in the middle of a conversation, they can have dinner without me."

"Dinner plans? Since when did you become social? Back when I knew you it was Vanessa and all your nerd friends from class. They were all so boring. You can go, Humphrey."

Dan felt dismissed, saw Blair going back into her shell that she didn't let him penetrate without tremendous effort on his part. He knew if he walked out of the room, she wouldn't give this chance again. "Do you want to come?"

Blair looked up at him, "I'm not going to interrupt your dinner plans."

"It's a group of people. I only know Amelie, she'll be distracted."

"So I'd basically be doing charity work by tagging along?" Blair smiled, standing up and nodding. "Fine. I will accompany you to dinner."

"Alright, Blair," Amelie said, looking mischievous. "Tell me, what was it like dating Daniel? I was telling him earlier that you two must have made a great looking couple."

Dan groaned, sliding down into his seat. The three of them were seated at the end of the table and Amelie's other friends were talking to each other in German, making Dan very glad that he had Blair there. Amelie, though, was focusing most of her attention on the two of them and apologizing for her friends.

Blair laughed, taking a sip of her wine. Dan wasn't sure if Blair felt it, but having chugged the entire bottle of cheap wine before coming, he was feeling a little bit more tipsy than he had intended. "Really? You think both sides of the couple would have been attractive? I think I raise his stock by quite a bit. He has that dirty, Brooklyn thing going on. "

"Dirty?" Dan interrupted, taking a piece of bread from the table and starting to tear it up. "I'm not dirty."

"No, but you can look it," Blair countered. "Do you know what I'm saying, Amelie?"

"Like a hipster?"

"Exactly," Blair said, using her fork to point at the blonde. "And who is the last person you've dated? You're so pretty, he must have been a model."

"She was a model," Amelie smiled and took her phone out, turning it around to show her background. "We're still together but she's in the States currently. I'm going for Christmas. Unfortunately, it will be to Los Angeles otherwise I would make Daniel show me around New York."

Blair squealed, "You two are stunning. Do you model as well? My mom is a fashion designer, you should send me some of her head shots. She's always looking for a new face of her line."

Amelie smiled, "I'll text Daniel all the information."

"I didn't realize you were seeing someone," Dan said, trying to stay involved in the conversation.

Amelie shrugged, "You didn't ask. And you've been preoccupied with why Blair is so mad at you. I take it you two have worked it out?"

"Did you not ask because you didn't want to know, Humphrey? Hoping for an abroad romance" Blair teased.

Dan felt Blair's hand tap him on the leg and he turned his neck to see her wickedly grinning. He rolled his eyes at her before turning back to Amelie. "I talked to my dad, by the way, and he said that Jenny might be able to come for Thanksgiving weekend, if your sister wants to come. My friend Vanessa said she would fly in if Jenny was here."

He could see Blair make a face at the mention of Vanessa. Some things never changed.

"I'm being summoned to my father's house for the holiday," Blair offered. "If you guys want to travel to France, I'm sure he could make room for most people."

"I'm assuming most people is not including Vanessa?"

"You have to limit the guest list somewhere," she said, sipping her wine. She put her glass back and sat down, "Am I turning into a light weight or is this wine strong?"

Amelie looked confused, "It seems like normal wine to me?"

"I think it might have been the bottle we drank back in the room, Blair," he said, laughing as he reached around her and rested his arm on the back of the chair. He watched her as she animatedly told Amelie about their trip to France. She was leaning forward, her face glowing in the light of the candle of the table. He sat back, his eyes resting on her face as she broke out into laughter at the memory of Nate dragging Dan back from the bar.

Amelie's face turned to look at Dan and then she smirked and gave him the quickest of winks.

He was going to blame this on the wine if it backfired. The boldness that he was feeling of wanting to be closer to Blair. He had almost forgotten how magnetizing she was, how she could command attention- especially his attention.

Dan's fingers lightly brushed the top of Blair's shoulder and Blair's shoulder moved up in reaction to the touch. Blair turned to him, her head leaning sideways as she said, "You okay, Humphrey?"

"I might have also been hit by the wine," he said.

He could see Amelie's eyebrows raise in the corner of his eye and she turned to talk to her other friends. Blair cocked her head to the other side now, reaching over and taking his chin in her hand as though she was examining him. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm alright," he assured her and she dropped her hand. "Blair, it's not fair how gorgeous you are.

"Now I know you are drunk," Blair said shrugging his hand off her chair. "Did you fill me up with cheap red wine and then bring me to dinner to try and seduce me, Humphrey? It's not going to work."

"What did you say about this not working?" Dan teased, running his lips down her neck as he tugged her shirt out of her jeans. "At dinner," he continued, lifting away from her to remove her shirt.

Blair pursed her lips, "It's not nice to gloat, Humphrey."