Chapter 15

Sighing in frustration Elizabeth, threw the magazine that she was attempting to read onto her bed. This was ridiculous. Chuck was really beginning to worry her. It was now three days after the near disastrous dinner with her grandparents. Sure her grandfather now begrudgingly liked Chuck, but she knew that Chuck had still been put through some form of hell that night.

In all honesty, she hadn't expected a phone call the day after the dinner. She knew that if Chuck had called Nate and they had done their guy thing, then both of them were either too sleep deprived from playing video games or were probably nursing a decent hang over.

But now it's been three days and she was really beginning to worry.

She wasn't expecting this hour long phone call or that they would have this in deep, heartfelt, soul bearing conversation or anything like that. She just wanted, at the most, a small text message letting her know that he was fine… that they were fine.

Elizabeth looked over at her cell phone for a moment before picking it up. She flipped it open and scrolled through the millions of unopened text messages that Max had sent her. Ignoring her ex's attempts at conversation she once more searched for a missed message from Chuck.

She found none.

Closing her phone in aggravation, Elizabeth let her head fall back against her pillows, "That's it. I will not be the girl that sits home waiting for her maybe boyfriend to call. I'll go get a coffee and maybe stop by his place at the Palace…maybe I should just call him instead of stopping by…" she chewed on her lip nervously.

Getting frustrated with herself once more, Elizabeth got up, slipped on a pair of comfortable flip flops, grabbed her purse, cell phone and sun glasses before practically stomping out of her penthouse apartment. She didn't care if she wasn't acting accordingly for her family's social status…Chuck had her confused and if there was one thing that she hated more than anything, it was to be confused.

Elizabeth sent tight smiles to those that said 'hello' to her as she made her way out of the building. She put on her sunglasses and made her way to the nearest Starbucks. She needed a good dose of caffeine…not to mention something cold, it was hotter than she would like.

Sometimes, she wondered how the heat back in Roswell had never bothered her as much as the heat here in Manhattan did, but the heat was, right now, the least of her problems. At the moment, she was leaning towards just giving him a call on his cell phone and saying 'hi' or something. That didn't scream clingy girlfriend as much as going over to his hotel room did…and seeing how she wasn't even sure if she was his girlfriend or not it was probably the better of the two options.

When she was right outside Starbucks she noticed the long line. She might as well call while she's waiting in line. It would give her something else to focus on. She hated waiting in long lines and she didn't want to make it seem like she was checking up on him or anything.

Elizabeth relaxed a bit as she stepped into the cool building of Starbucks and got in line. Resigning herself to a decent wait she pulled out her cell phone and flipped through her contact information and took a deep breath before hitting send.

She was about to hang up after it had rang about six times. She wasn't really sure whether or not she wanted to leave him a message on his voicemail or not. However, the choice was taken out of her hands when a strange voice answered the phone.

"Yeah?" demanded a slurred voice at the other end of the line.

She was silent for a moment as she scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. It certainly sounded like Chuck Bass…but he didn't sound like himself.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" the same voice demanded again.

Elizabeth took the phone off of her ear and looked at it oddly for a moment before putting it back to her ear, "Chuck?" she asked cautiously.

"Eizbet…libeth…Liz? Is that you?" Chuck asked as he stumbled over her name from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, it's me. Chuck, are you okay?" she asked him. She was really concerned now. He had never called her Liz before. And if she was truthful with herself, she liked the fact that he didn't call her Liz, but that was something to think about on another day.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Nate was here yesterday and the yesterday before that yesterday," he said casually and she heard the sound of ice hitting glass very closely to the phone.

"Chuck, are you drunk?" she asked in a half surprise and half concerned voice. It wasn't that she was surprised that he drank; it was that he was obviously still drunk. But more concerning was the fact that he was still drunk after three days.

"Nope," he popped his lips at the end exaggeratedly.

Elizabeth couldn't stop the small smile that formed on her lips. He may be drunk, but she found him to be a slightly amusing drunk, "Well, it certainly sounds that way."

She heard a muffled laugh coming from him and then frowned again as she moved closer to the counter, "Chuck, are you okay? I'm worried."

"I'm sorriiiee, Liz. I know how much you wanted grandfather to like your me…no wait…your me to like grandfather," he continued to stumble over his sentence.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was going to get her grandfather for this. Here he was, so worried that her grandfather didn't like him and that she would be upset about it, that he had probably been drinking for the past three days.

"Chuck, don't worry about it, okay? I'm at Starbucks right now. Do you want me to pick you up some coffee and then bring it over to you?" she asked, hoping against hope that he would agree.

"Ooohh, an Irish Cream sounds good," he said, slightly distracted.

Elizabeth shook her head, "Uh huh, I'll see what I can do about that. I'll see you in a couple of minutes okay?" she asked as she made her way to the counter.

"Okay," Chuck answered before hanging up.

She gave the girl behind the counter a tight smile as she ordered her cold, caffeinated, chocolaty goodness, "Can I also have an extra large plain, strong, black coffee, please? In fact, make it two."

XOXO XOXO XOXO XOXO XOXO

With the three coffees in hand Elizabeth found herself outside of Chuck's hotel room. She knocked on the door and waited. She winced when she heard him crash into something. The expletives that followed obviously meant that whatever he had crashed into had hurt.

Elizabeth felt her mouth go dry when she looked up at him when he opened the door. Sure, Chuck may be drunk, but he had also opened the door without a shirt on.

"Liz," he smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

She pulled herself out of her dazed state and shook her head before putting her free hand on his chest and giving him a chaste kiss on the lips before pushing him back a little, "Alright, Bass, time to sober you up a bit. And then you can tell me why you've probably been drinking for the last three days."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, "I'm not drunk, Liz."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and handed him one of the two coffees she had gotten him, "Yeah, and that's why you keep calling me Liz. Move your butt inside, Bass."

Chuck sighed and turned around and made his way into his common room and plopped down on his couch. Elizabeth followed him and closed the door behind her. She took the other coffee she had bought for him and set it down next to her as she sat down on the coffee table in front of him.

"You're sitting on the coffee table, you know that, right?" Chuck said as he raised one of his eyebrows and took a big drink of his coffee.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "And you plopped down on the couch. I didn't think Basses plopped down anywhere. –So are you sober enough to tell me why you let dinner with my family lead you to three days of drinking?"

Chuck groaned and let his head fall back onto the back of the couch, "I don't want to talk about it."

Elizabeth set her own coffee down and took one of his knees between her hands, "I don't really care if you don't want to talk about it. Obviously my grandfather did something to upset you and I want you to tell me so that I can go over to his house and yell at him for it."

Chuck sighed and lolled his head to the side to look at her, "There is nothing you can do. Besides you going to yell at him isn't exactly going to make him like me any better."

Elizabeth sighed in frustration, "Chuck! Will you please just tell me what is wrong? I didn't expect a call from you the day after dinner because, honestly, I expected you to be like this that day. I did not expect you to be like this today! I don't understand why you are letting my grandfather bring you to this!"

Chuck quickly sat up as steadily as he could and looked her in the eyes. He didn't want to be yelled at for this, but he didn't want her to keep worrying either, "I couldn't care less if Jacob Van Leih likes me, Liz. I think by now you know me well enough that I don't usually care whether or not anyone likes me unless they mean something to me. I don't want him to like me because I want him to like me; I want him to like me because you want him to like me. I know how much your family's opinion matters to you. You are the first girl where I want her family to like me. I wasn't expecting for how I feel to happen, but it did and here we are. Your grandfather hates me and I am falling in love with you. I've never fallen in love with anyone before, Liz. Not even close."

Elizabeth sat there in shock. She couldn't believe that she had just heard what she thought she heard.

Chuck sighed as he watched her just sit there in shock and got up and walked over to the bar and poured himself another scotch. That's what he gets for telling the truth.

THE Chuck Bass in love? Who would have thought that day would come? New Girl must have some pretty impressive powers of persuasion if she got UES's favorite playboy to fall for her. Stay tuned to see what unfolds next.

Who am I? Now that's a secret I'll Never tell. The Only One.

You Know You Love Me.

XOXO

Gossip Girl