By the time they left the apartment, it was too late for most of the restaurants he knew but Jenny had spent enough seasons in the city to know of a few still open eateries.

"This," he told her, as they gorged on beef beigels in a 24 hour Brick Lane bakery "is heaven."

"Nate Archibald eating corned beef on mustard," she giggled "Oh if Gossip Girl could see you now."

"Oh you mean your brother? Do you want to take an instagram pic to show him?" Nate was glad the laughter had returned to their relationship, was glad they'd aired most of the misunderstandings that had plagued them – although a certain winter ball still seemed off limits. Jenny ordered some strudel.

"Careful Humphrey. You may be a size six now but one day this'll all catch up with you."

"Hush Archibald."

"Where's Eric anyway?"

"Having dinner with Betty Meade's nephew." She glanced at him with a speculative look in her eye. "So tell me manwhore...did Sage break your heart?" He hung his head.

"Wow. Dan really did keep you in the loop."

"Only because dating a minor is, well, not you. Didn't it freak you out when I was a sophomore and you were a senior?"

"Hey at least I could legally get into Sage's pants. I checked." Jenny laughed but he knew she wasn't about to let it drop. "Sage went to Yale."

"Smart girl."

"Oh yeah. And I had to let her go."

"You liked her though."

"Yes, yes I did but not the crazy kind of like that Chuck and Blair have or Dan and Serena have. I mean those guys just kept coming back to each other, you know? So I figured that if it's meant to be, whoever she is, I'll keep coming back to her."

It had gone very quiet in the corner of the bakery.

"What about you?"

"Nothing serious. Designing kind of takes it out of me. In a good way."

"I know what you mean."

"Yeah - Dan did say you were a little workaholic these days."

"This coming from the girl who skipped school to pursue her dream?" She groaned and lifted her palm to her face.

"I hate talking to people who knew me back then."

"You can't hate it that much. You're coming back." Her hand fell away.

"Says who?"

"New York's your home. And I've been nothing but a jerk to you and yet you're still here, presumably because you want to accept Blair's offer."

"You are an excellent messenger but I'm actually going to email her."

"So it's a yes?"

"Well, J for Waldorf has a ring to it, don't you think?"

He walked her to her flat, both knowing that he was jetting out for Milan the next morning.

"So. I'll see you in the city?"He said. She turned and gave him one of her impulsive hugs.

"I'll hold you to that Archibald. Scope out my competition in Italy. Oh and in Paris after." She disappeared and he forced himself to walk away. Again.