Chapter 3: A Night Out

July 25, 1992

Lily cursed silently in her head as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. There were five different outfits already lying on the bed behind her and she still wasn't sure if this dress was the best choice for Rufus' big gallery opening. Couldn't he have included some hint about the dress code in the formal invitation he had sent her?

"Lily?" she heard William call out her name. "Are you ready to go? You know this is not my preferred way of spending the evening but the sooner we get there the sooner we can leave."

She threw a last glance in the direction of her mirror. Her hair was done beautifully, and the dark green dress and the emerald necklace brought out her eyes and made her skin shine. She gave her reflection a brief smile as she picked up the clutch and shut off the light. Coming down the stairs in the penthouse her mother had bought for her and William as a wedding present, she saw him sitting on the couch sipping on a glass of scotch as Serena played with a doll at his feet.

"Christina?" she called waiting for her maid-slash-nanny as she appeared from one of the spare rooms.

"Yes, miss?" The woman was a little older than her, maybe in her mid-thirties, with long brown hair and beautiful skin the color of honey.

Lily picked up her daughter and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "If you could get her to bed within the next half an hour, that would be great. If anything happens, please call me, I have my cellphone with me."

The other woman nodded and took Serena from her as William got up from the couch and directed her over to the elevator. "Tell me again why we're going to this thing?" he grumbled.

"Because my good friend Rufus is opening up his new gallery, he sent me an invitation that I accepted on behalf of the both of us, and because I actually do enjoy art which you might know if you bothered to spend a little more time with me," she answered, her voice carrying an annoyed tone.

"So, you took a few photos back in the day. Please don't tell me that your dear friend Rufus is trying to sell those," he gave back in the same voice.

Lily crossed her arms in front of her. "He does not." She paused for a second before she abruptly turned around to face him. "I was very good at taking those photos. You might not be aware of it, but a good amount of them were actually published in newspapers and music journals, which is not an easy feat to achieve when you're a barely twenty-year-old woman with no connections to that kind of business to speak of. Besides, there were photos made of me, too," she added, thinking of her encounter with Robert Mapplethorpe.

"Whatever," William grumbled. "An art gallery in Brooklyn opened by an unknown and unimportant guy doesn't really draw the kind of people you normally associate with."

Lily had to laugh at that as she climbed into their town car before he followed her. "You should know that there were a whole two years of my life when I predominately associated with people that aren't seen in my usual circle. In fact, didn't your brother ever tell you that that's actually how Carol and I met him? If I remember correctly, Keith was at a party where my then-kind-of-boyfriend started a brawl."

"Doesn't sound like the best company to keep to me," William answered, a slightly arrogant smile playing on his lips.

She laughed again. "I should think not. We all got arrested, and Carol had to sell her car to bail me out of jail. We had to take the bus home, in L.A." She still shuddered a little thinking about that experience. But then she had started following around countless bands just a few months later, and she had gotten her fair share of experiences with all kinds of (tour)busses.

The rest of their ride passed in silence as they watched the impressive skyscrapers of Manhattan go past and crossed the bridge into Brooklyn. As their driver opened the door for her, Lily almost did not recognize the place. Sure, she had seen it a couple of days before when most of the work had been down, but now there was an impressive outside light installation that lit up the building and gave it a look that had nothing to do with the rickety old building that she remembered from the Lincoln Hawk band practices she had sat in on. She looped her arm through William's, feeling a little overdressed as she looked at the other women, most of them in casual jeans or a slightly risqué skirt.

"So this is a gallery opening?" William whispered in her ear, his voice slightly mocking.

Lily shrugged. "Just because the guests aren't wearing tuxedos and gowns doesn't mean that Rufus hasn't created something great."

"Sure," her companion mumbled but she chose to ignore his barb, instead dragging him into the building with her. They had barely made three steps into the gallery when Rufus spotted them.

"Lil," he greeted her, reaching out to hug her. "I'm so glad you could make it."

"Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have missed this for anything," she answered, a sincere smile on her face.

"And you, William," Rufus acknowledge with a nod, his posture a little less open as he reached out to shake the other man's hand. Grudgingly William took it before he looked around.

"Any way you had some money to spare to organize some drinks for this little shindig?" he asked coldly.

"Will," Lily started but was interrupted by Rufus.

"Sure, two rooms over there's a little bar, mostly beer but some cocktails, too," he replied, trying not to let this situation get the better of him. He watched as William pressed a kiss to Lily's cheek and squeezed her waist before he moved away from them, irrationally jealous.

Lily smiled at him again as she let her eyes glide over the paintings on the walls until her gaze seemed to focus on something and she blushed. "Oh my God, Rufus, I am so sorry," she mumbled.

"What for? You haven't done anything wrong yet, at least as far as I can tell," he answered easily.

"Look there," she said, pointing grey scribbles on the wall. "That's right where Serena and Dan were sitting, I really am so sorry, I know you just had the walls freshly painted and everything."

Rufus laughed, taking her arm and pulling her with him. "No worries. That was all Dan. In fact, he started his little sketch right after you and Serena left. I didn't have the hard to erase it; who knows, he might become a famous painter one day and then I can sell this place for twice what I paid for it."

"Well, I'm glad Serena had nothing to do with it, especially after you send her such a nice birthday present with my invitation to the gallery opening. She loved the little flower crown, in fact, she wouldn't take it off for the whole day. My mother almost had a stroke at the end of it because she wanted to go to sleep with it," Lily said, a wistful look in her eyes.

"Well, I'm glad she liked it then, it really was a last-minute idea," he mumbled, almost a little embarrassed. "So how were CeCe and Carol?"

"Well, it turned out that Carol didn't want to be there but what a shocker, my mother threatened her with her inheritance, so she came up. That didn't make it any better for me, though, if it were up to me, she could have stayed in Detroit or Miami or wherever she is living at the moment," Lily replied a little bitterly. "To top it all off, William didn't make it home until after-dinner drinks, giving her and CeCe ample opportunity to question me about my marriage and my family."

She leaned back against a wall, careful not to touch any paintings. "I just don't understand why he doesn't come home. I mean, even if he is having an affair, he should still want to spend time with his daughter, shouldn't he?"

"He's having an affair?" Rufus questioned angrily.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. But you can't tell me that he has three gallbladder surgeries scheduled every Sunday, right? Anyways, let's move on from that. How's Dan?"

"Steadily getting faster on his feet it seems," he answered easily switching the topic.

Lily smiled. "Serena has been pulling herself up on all kinds of furniture lately. I think it's only a matter of time until she'll start walking all over the place."

Rufus nodded. "You want something to drink?" he asked.

"Sure."

"You still drink Heineken?" he questioned.

She laughed, brushing some strays of blonde hair out of her face. "I might live in a different part of town, but my tastes haven't changed so much. I'm still the same California girl with a taste for good Dutch beer."

"Weren't you born right up on the Upper East Side?" Rufus teased.

She shrugged her shoulder. "So what, I spend enough time running around the West Coast to pick up their surfer vibe."

He put his arm around her and steered her towards the next room as they suddenly heard a voice behind them. "Rufus?"

He turned around, taking his arm back. "Alison, what's up?"

"I was just looking for you, Matt is asking – Lily? What are you doing here?" Alison asked, looking at the other blonde.

"Alison, so nice to see you, too," Lily said, trying hard not to let her smile seem too fake. "How are you doing?"

"Well, I can't complain. Happily married, exploring different art forms, I have a darling little son," she answered, her eyes going back and forth between Rufus and Lily.

"Oh, yes, Daniel. He is very handsome. He looks a lot like Rufus, doesn't he?" Lily asked.

"How do you know about my son?" Alison hissed, her voice getting lower.

Rufus cleared his throat. "Didn't I tell you how I ran into Lily and her daughter when Dan and I had our male bonding time a couple of weeks ago?"

"As a matter of fact, no, you didn't," Alison answered, clearly unhappy with the situation. "Anyways, as I wanted to say, Matt is asking if we have any beer left or if all we had was behind the bar."

"Uh, let me take care of that quickly," he said to Alison and Lily, leaving the two women alone.

"So –" Alison started, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation after Rufus had left them.

"You know what, I should go looking for my husband," Lily said, turning around and walking briskly into the next room with the bar, spotting William's dark brown hair almost instantly. He was talking to another man and two women, casually pointing at different pieces of art around the room.

"William," she greeted him as she came to stand next to him.

"Everybody, this is my wife, Lily," he said, introducing her to the others as she gave them a polite smile. "Apparently I underestimated your friend," he whispered in her ear. "The man next to you is actually a more experienced art dealer who's been helping out Rufus."

Lily nodded, glad he could at least concede so much. She listened to William talk with the others for a couple of minutes until Rufus and Alison joined them again.

"Nigel, I see you've met Lily and William van der Woodsen. I've been friends with Lily for quite some time now," Rufus said as Alison twitched a little at the word 'friend.' "She's got quite the collection herself and she's actually a decent photographer."

"Is that true?" Nigel asked looking closer at her.

"Well, I just got myself an Andy Warhol for our apartment," she said, blushing slightly. "And Robert Mapplethorpe told me that there is a new guy to watch out for, Richard Phillips. We'll see what'll come of that."

Nigel nodded, ready to continue the conversation as the shrill ring of her cellphone interrupted them.

"Excuse me, please, I have to take that," Lily said as she took a step away from them, fishing the mobile out her handbag, Alison's eyes following her.

"I'm so sorry, Rufus, but William and I have to get on our way. The nanny just called, apparently Serena is inconsolable and she doesn't know what to do," she announced as she glanced over at William who nodded.

She lightly hugged Rufus and said her goodbyes to the rest of the group as she let William lead her out of the gallery.

"So, who was that really?" William asked as they were seated in the town car.

"Christina, who else would it have been?" Lily asked back, honestly surprised by his question.

He snorted. "Well, for what we pay her she should better be able to comfort our daughter until we make it home on our time."

"If you hadn't wanted to go, you could've stayed," she gave back, not in the mood to have this argument.

"Well, if I'd known that wasn't your clue to move our evening in more pleasant directions, I might have. Maybe I even will," he said as he leaned forward and lowered the partition. "Oscar, make a stop at Madison and 76th, then you can take Mrs. van der Woodsen back to our apartment."

She looked at him indignantly, speechless for a couple of seconds, before she turned to look out of her window. "If that is how you want to play this," she hissed under her breath but he didn't seem to notice the sudden shift in her mood.

"See you in the morning, honey," he said as he got out of the car, blowing her a kiss.

As the car drove on she wondered when her life had gone so awry.

"The nerve of that woman," Alison complained as he opened the door to their loft.

"Hm?" he asked, making a noncommittal sound.

Alison narrowed her eyes at him. "Lily, of course! We all know she's got money, hell, everybody could see just how much money she has by the fact that the rocks she was carrying around on her neck were probably worth more than all the paintings in your gallery put together. But then she just had to mention the Warhol painting and if that isn't enough, she had to find a reason to parade her stupid cellphone in front of us. So what if she's the second person in New York City after the mayor who actually has one of those? No one cares, and she should really start to catch onto that!"

Rufus laughed a little as he looked at his wife. "Why are you so worked up over Lily? You heard her, her nanny called about her daughter, and I asked her about her paintings because I knew Nigel would be interested in them."

"Of course, you would defend her. What would she have to do for you to see her for the scheming, manipulating little vixen she really is? Isn't it enough that she left you for that doctor guy you seem to hate so much?" Alison stared at him.

"Just leave it, Alison. Lily's life isn't as perfect as you think it is. She has money, yes, but that doesn't mean she's living the ultimate dream," he defended her.

Angrily Alison stormed off into Dan's room, making sure her son was still sleeping before she went into their own bedroom, taking one set of the covers. "Sleep on the couch tonight, Rufus, then you can dream about your precious Lily."

"What? Alison, you can't be serious!" he said, getting a little angry himself.

"And whilst you're at it, think twice about the fact that you shouldn't hang out with our son, your ex, and her daughter!"

She turned around and slammed the door behind her, leaving a dumbfounded Rufus in the living room.

I posted this already at the beginning of chapter 2, but here is my little message again: I started writing this story back in summer when Gossip Girl was still on Netflix and I was feeling a little 90s. I got some people asking for the rest of the story, and unfortunately, I have to say that my motivation for this story has been lacking over the past couple of months. I wrote another two chapters of this back in August, which I have decided to post, but this story will most likely remain incomplete after chapter 3. If someone wants to adopt/have the idea and the three chapters written so far, please feel free to reach out!

Also, feel free to leave a review anyways ;)