The announcement of their engagement graced the society pages of The New York Times and other several newspapers and magazines available in the newsstands all throughout the city. Serena Van Der Woodsen was flipping through the pages of US Weekly inside a French bistro in Forty-Seventh Street. She smiled at a picture of her best friend and her fiancé holding hands casually walking towards their limo ignoring the chaos surrounding them. Despite all the drama that had happened between the two love birds, Serena had always known they'd end up together. Although, it didn't come as a surprise to her anymore when Blair called her two months earlier about her upcoming wedding, Serena received the news with much enthusiasm and excitement.
"You would not believe how our dear Nathaniel proposed to me!" Blair Waldorf exclaimed to her best friend of 20 years on the phone.
"Oh my god! Blair! Congratulations! I'm so happy for you." She squealed in response and they were jumping up and down and giggling like crazy teenagers for the past 5 minutes until Blair asked her to meet up with her at The Palace bar.
Twenty minutes later, Blair had shown up at the bar wearing a high waist black pencil skirt with a matching equestrienne-style white blouse and black Manolo Blahnik pumps. She greeted Serena with a kiss on each of her cheek as they both ordered Chocolate Martinis.
"Looking sharp as ever, B." Serena complemented her friend as she took a sip of the martini that had just been handed on to her.
"Had to go to an interview with my agent and a new client for another spread for Elle Magazine." After the disastrous photo shoot in their junior year, Blair Waldorf promised herself that someday she will be making her mother regret choosing her best friend over her so instead of giving up, she had undergone a lot of trainings under Madame Claudia of the famous House of Elle. She had been taught how to walk, how to pose, how to smile and as it turned out, she had had an inner model hidden underneath her uptight nature. After working her ass off, taking critiques and everything, Ford Modeling agency took notice of her regal looks and feisty personality and eventually hired her.
"You're getting busier by the minute, B. It's getting harder to take a hold of you these days."
"You cannot imagine! Fortunately, all those years in Constance had taught me how to manage my time well. With the Fashion week coming up, Nate has been complaining that we barely have time to see each other, him being busy with Law school and me with work."
Serena remembered her best friend being the head of all the committees back in high school, editor-in-chief of the school paper, co-captain of the swimming team (with her, being the captain of course) and basically, doing almost all the extra-curricular activities in school while maintaining her As and social life.
"By the way, don't forget to shower me with front seat tickets to all those glamorous fashion shows you'd be cat-walking on."
"Sure. Anything for you. You need not ask, actually." She paused and stared at her best friend for a minute or two. "So, how's everything with you and Cabbage Patch?"
"Everything's great. He's in LA right now for a writing assignment. Kept myself busy with redecorating the apartment."
"Like mother, like daughter."
Serena laughs, "I know, right? I used to bitch about staying at the Palace whenever mom decided to make renovations of our home and now, I'm basically sharing the same 'interior designing' thing with her. She even lends me her color schemes and whatnots."
"Wow. Never thought I'd see that day coming."
"Me too. You know, Andy [Andrea and Paulo miss you so much. They had been constantly bugging me to take you home with me." Serena had been pregnant with twins a year after her and Dan got married. The twins are now three years old.
"They still think I'm the best nanny in the whole of NY, don't they?"
"But of course. You feed them with ice cream for breakfast each time you went babysitting. You take them to Coney Island. You let them do whatever it is that they wish!"
"You make everything sound so… wrong." Blair bit her lip and the two women exploded with laughter. "Seriously, I miss them as much and I promise to visit as soon as my schedule allows me to do so. Nate and I will."
"And seriously, you should now be spilling the beans about the details of Nate's proposal. Show me the ring!"
"Honestly, S? You've seen the ring before."
"It's not just any other ring, B! It's 'THE VANDERBILT RING' and besides, I've never seen it on its rightful owner before."
Blair waved her left hand to her best friend, the latter gawking in astonishment. It's not hard for everyone else in the room to notice as they were also staring in amazement.
"This thing was dipped on melting ice cream before he slipped it on my ring finger." Blair smiled as she recounted the entire story. "He was rambling on and on about me ruining his 'ideal proposal' but of course, he didn't exactly say that. You know how he is." The two girls giggled yet again. "So I cut him off and he got down on his knee, asked me to marry him in front of other diners. It was nothing like what I had imagined him to do. I swear if we didn't have appointments we would've flown to Paris for a take 2." She held her breath for a minute or two then looked up to see her friend's tears welling up on the corner of her eyes. "Please tell me you are not crying, S."
"I'm sorry. Can't help it. It's just so sweet and everything. I mean, who would've thought you'd be engaged in McDonald's of all places!"
"Trust me, there is going to be a take 2! With that being said, Serena, I want you to be my maid of honor!" She had been Serena's maid of honor four years ago and now, she was asking Serena to be hers.
"But of course, B! I'd love to!" The two girls hugged and Blair contemplated on how many times she had been to weddings. She'd been the flower girl too many times in her childhood then she became one of the bridesmaids in too many weddings as well, as in in the Bass-Van Der Woodsen nuptials to name a few. And now, she'll finally be the one wearing a veil, holding a bouquet of flowers walking down the aisle. She'll finally be able to play the role of the bride. "So, as my maid of honor, you have no right to complain about accompanying me to pick out dresses, choosing the menu and everything."
Her thoughts were interrupted when Blair Waldorf stood in front of her snatching the magazine from her hands. "Keeping track of your best friend through the paparazzo?" She paused for a dramatic effect then continued to say, "When the right time comes, I promise to grace your presence every now and then until you no longer find the need to glance through the covers of every magazine and newspaper just to catch a glimpse of dear old me."
"Blair!" Serena gave her best friend a hug and a kiss on each cheek. "Arrogant, much?"
"Nope. I do think you're as vain and as self-absorbed as me." Blair emphasized the words vain and self-absorbed as she pointed her right index finger to a picture of Serena holding a Starbucks cup in one hand and a Coach bag on the other. She read the caption on the page out loud, "Serena Van Der Woodsen getting her caffeine fix after coming out from her office in the Bass Diamond Building in Twenty-Seventh Street."
"We should definitely get together more. Let the paps take photos of us so that we could finally prove to the world that we're more fun than Paris and Nicole." Serena joked.
"So anyways, the reason why I asked you to meet me up today was…"
"To talk about my maid of honor duties? Your wedding plans?"
"Nope. Nate and I decided to plan the wedding after grad school."
"But that's three years from now."
"Yes but with everything going on in our lives right now… We couldn't just handle making preparations for the wedding at the same time."
"You can always hire people for that, Blair."
"True but I've always wanted to plan my own wedding. A long engagement in our case would not be so hard after all. He just asked me to move in with him."
"At their family's townhouse?"
"He bought us an apartment. It was an impulsive decision for him but since an opportunity like that happens only once every three years so he immediately met up with the real estate agent and everything. I'll be moving in next week as soon as I finished packing what's left of my things."
"Wow, Blair! That's awesome."
"We'll need your interior designing skills of course."
"I couldn't be happier to help. Is that all?"
"It's not what I originally wanted to tell you… It has something to do with that step brother of yours."
Serena's face was filled with concern, "What did he do now?"