AN- I'm so sorry for the huge delay, but I just didn't know what to write…Hopefully my longest chapter so far would make up somewhat for it.
Thanks to bsloths for her never faltering patience with my chapters.
I have also made a slight change in Chapter 3; earlier there was this paragraph about Clampton paying Dan a bit more than unnecessary attention (I was going the Clueless way). I have deleted that and hope to treat Clampton's character in the similar way as Austen treated Frank Churchill's- it just saves me a lot of plot holes.
Two years ago if anyone had told him that one day he would be shopping with Blair Waldorf; at 15 Park Avenue no less, he would have told them to go take a hike.
Today, however he was eating his words and foot alike.
"How much longer Waldorf?"
"Will you have patience? This is hard work."
Which it probably was because Blair had been inside that dressing room with Charlotte and several store staff for a good forty five minutes or so; leaving Dan outside to share sympathetic smiles with impatiently waiting boyfriends, husbands and the likes.
Unlike him though, none of them were accomplices in crime.
Yeah. About that. The past week had been a busy one with Blair personally making arrangements for a local bookstore to hold an exclusive comic convention. One, Tom Sheppard, with his graphic art obsession, would not even think about missing. The convention of course was on the very day as the Bass brunch for which Charlotte Wilkins had been appropriately brainwashed to outgrow her Superman crush and look at greener pastures.
Convenient.
But just to make sure that Tom still did not get a chance to have any interactions with Charlotte while Blair took her around on a crash course from everything from holding your wine glass right to picking up several shades of nude to go with that hair and those eyes, Dan hung around excessively with Sheppard, introducing his work to Rufus down at the gallery, taking him for a Yankee game with box seats tickets paid by Blair and Co.
He might as well do the guy some good while at it.
And for last minute pointers both Blair and Dan had gone through copies of "Lacrosse for idiots" so that their little 'Eliza Dolittle –redone' would have something in common with Nate Archibald after all.
So far so good.
"Well?" A very triumphant looking Blair emerges followed closely by Charlotte.
He always knew Waldorf was pretty, beautiful even. But the effect of not trying (which was very rare) did something almost magical to her face. Wisps of brown carelessly framed it as she smiled brilliantly at Charlotte behind her. The soft peach she had chosen to try on adding colour to her already blushing skin.
"Umm…You look…Uh nice Waldorf." He swallows, settling for the mildest adjective he could think of, while the poet in him almost has a verse at hand.
Blair throws him a surprised look, "I was asking about Charlotte, Humphrey," she says with an unmistakable twinkle to her eye.
Damn.
Without losing a beat he turns around to check the taller girl. Oh! What wonders a dress that fitted right and a colour that did not clash with your hair could do to a person.
"I approve." He finishes, however his eyes refuse to leave the way Blair turns around to check herself in the mirror.
"It's really not my colour," she says to no one in particular.
He is about to protest that everything was her colour when Charlotte butts in, "Do you think Nate would like what I'm wearing?"
"There is just one thing though. The hair," he offers after a close inspection bought mostly in an attempt to ignore the amused way Blair is still eyeing him.
"Hair? Why? What's wrong with my hair?"
It's orange! He wants to remind her but Blair throws him a look and instead he turns around kindly towards Charlotte, "Nothing at all. But perhaps a change is in need."
"Yeah." Blair agrees, "Perhaps a nice shade of brown would…"
"Blonde." Dan cuts in.
"Blonde?"
"Blonde? Nate likes blondes?" The question comes from Charlotte but Dan turns around to Blair to answer, "You know Nate likes Blonde. He always has." He reminds her pointedly.
Blair narrows her eyes at him, all the earlier lightheartedness disappearing from them in an instant and he assumes that if it hadn't been for Charlotte and a couple of ladies in waiting in vicinity he would have been slapped. "True. But then he is not the only one who is in love with blondes. Is he?"
She grabs Charlotte by the hand and leads her out; he can however hear her urgently whisper. "C'mon. It's blonde then."
An hour later, she knows that he has suffered enough. But really, she doesn't care. A girl needs her time to look good.
"Does it always take you so long to decide?"
"Yes." Blair answers in one of the monosyllables she keeps especially reserved for him.
Seriously, what was his problem anyway? It's not like he could be doing anything better at the moment…She could count his to do list on her fingertips….Finish the last two pages from the Earnest Hemingway he has been carrying around…Brood about the unfairness of being born on the other side of the bridge…Lecture Jenny… Catch up with Rufus… Brood about the unfairness of being born on the other side of the bridge…Take Tom Sheppard to another Yankee game…. Brood about the unfairness of being born on the other side of the bridge… Try and get in touch with Vanessa Abrams.
"What happened to your Bohemian girlfriend by the way?"
"She's in Haiti." And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that he is feeling pretty rotten about it.
"Want to talk about it?" It surprises even her.
"With you?" He looks mildly disgusted and she is mildly offended.
She shrugs at him, "Yeah. Unless of course you want to confess that you got cooties because you slept with her." And this was not the mental image she ever wanted to repeat. Ever.
"You really like it?" she suddenly interrupts what she guesses are another round of his broody, dark and absolutely not so sexy thoughts.
He looks up to find her posing in front of him, holding the earlier peach dress displayed against her body. The situation is a bit hilarious if nothing else.
"I do." He answers without hesitation.
"Then…" She grins sneakily at him, "I'm not buying it."
Fifteen minutes into the Bass show and he has his plate piled with pickled oysters, he has now developed a taste for and has found his way over to Blair Waldorf.
He has to bite his cheek from laughing out loud as he recognizes the peach dress from the store. After all he too had chosen to dress nice.
Her eyes are however glued to a couple across the room and he finds himself following her gaze to Nate and a now blonde Charlotte.
"It won't work." He offers.
"Of course it will."
He sometimes wonders if she was really that naive or did she simple get a kick out of interfering in other people's lives and seeing them alter to her specifications.
"Nate is a great guy Blair, but even he doesn't have the patience for Charlotte."
"He dated Abrams." She states the obvious.
"And it didn't last." He reminds her. "Besides Vanessa was still refreshing, while Charlotte…" He trails off as a highly pitched laugh breaks off across the room. Dan looks up to find Nate cringing as Charlottes laughs at what he assumes is a very politically incorrect situation.
He watches as Blair slightly shakes her head at Charlotte and she finally shuts up.
"What have you told her about Nate?" he asks.
"That he had been asking about her since he ran into her."
"What?" He had not known that. Until now he was assuming that he was simply helping Blair find a friend. Albeit a friend Blair wanted to notch up to her status.
But this was absolute deceit.
"That's manipulation Waldorf."
"No Cabbage Patch," she smiles sweetly at him, "That's match making."
He should have known better.
"And how did you convince Nate to get her here?" He asks, dreading the answer.
He just does not trust Waldorf.
She turns around to face him, smiles in a way which just spells trouble and snatches an oyster from his plate before replying, "I told him that you would finish his English essays if he did the favour of getting your cousin along as a date."
Blair wraps her arms around herself in a comforting gesture as she proudly observes Charlotte coyly flirting with Nate…She taught well.
Humphrey was a fool to think that there was anything wrong with trying to fix up two single, young, very much in need of love people…And then there were the incentives. It wasn't going to be long till Gossip Girl sent a blast about Blair's new best friend was not just anybody; she was Nate Archibald's new arm candy… And Nate too needed a nice girl once in a while.
It was beyond perfect…
She looks around the room, her gaze casually landing on Chuck Bass casually dropping a cherry between some model's cleavage, only to retrieve it out quite unashamedly with his tongue, "Oh! Why can't some people just get a room?" She asks disgustingly.
"I was just about to ask the same thing."
She follows Dan's gaze to yet another corner of the room, where a heavy make out session between Carter and Serena was in progress…
And this was supposed to be a classy event? Apparently Bart Bass's death had affected much more than just the future of Empire.
She sighs tiredly, "You know Cabbage Patch, I could do with some fresh air."
"What about your charity project?" he asks.
She resents the title but is too tired to protest. Nate and Charlotte though seem to be in an okay conversation. "They'll manage," she assures Humphrey.
He looks at her briefly before standing up and offering his hand, "C'mon then, I know of a very cool comic convention being held downtown."
She gives his hand a full thirty seconds inspection before finally smiling and taking it, "I always did like Batman."
AN- So? What do you think? Do review?