They go shopping the next morning. They are both armed with to-go cups full of hot coffee and Dan made her some sort of scramble for breakfast, with toast on the side and jam, and Blair notices he still likes his jam the same way he always has. Blair told him the breakfast was great and commented on how it appears his fancy kitchen isn't just for show, which just resulted in him throwing a dish towel at her and telling her she had earned kitchen duty.
She drives and he directs her, and they end up at an outdoor mall, with long, clean walkways and palm trees in the middle of wide courtyards, and everything is sparkling and unnaturally clean. Blair comments that malls are such an American thing and Dan quips back at her.
"Toto, we're not in Paris anymore."
She makes a face at him.
He makes her buy something called boardshorts, and Blair thinks it's been a long time since she wore shorts for anything but working out, and she grabs some plain tank tops, because Dan says it can get warm, and he suggests she buy a scarf too.
"Why?" she asks.
"You'll see." Dan grins, but he won't tell her why it might come in handy later, and unless he has some sort of kink on the brain, Blair can't guess.
Dan laughs at her when she buys five kinds of sunscreen and Blair tells him that she's as delicate as a lily, and Dan responds that he knows that's not entirely true. Then she finds a pair of fashionable, oversized sunglasses and when she tries them on he says she looks just like Jackie O. Blair doesn't mind the comparison.
They go back to Dan's house.
"So what today?" Blair asks, sliding her hands around Dan's waist, resting her head on his back. They are standing in his driveway, Blair not caring if she's making a scene or causing the neighbors to gossip. Touching him grounds her.
"L.A." Dan answers, "I have a meeting."
It's their date doing touristy things. Blair smiles because Blair Waldorf fifteen years ago wouldn't have been caught dead doing anything remotely tacky, and here she was looking forward to a day filled with ridiculousness, as long as she was by Dan's side.
"And the best part," Dan turns around but somehow Blair manages to keep her arms around his waist. She looks up at him, waiting for him to reveal the best part. He clicks something on his keychain and the garage door slide up and open and Blair sees inside is sitting a Jeep, the soft sides missing, the top open.
"Oh no, Humphrey." she says. "There's no way I'm getting in that thing."
"It's the California lifestyle," Dan laughs. "You want the real experience, right? Sunshine, wind in your hair. We're going to make a California girl out of you yet."
Blair mutters something about the death of California chic and how she won't be caught dead in that car.
"Dirt will be flying into my eyes."
"You bought sunglasses."
"My hair will be a mess."
"The scarf..."
The scarf. Blair makes a face at Dan and decides she won't win this one. They can take his godawful Jeep and she will try to be a good sport.
"Fine." Blair sighs. "Although we could actually take my rental and it has air conditioning."
"Oh, you'll get plenty of air in the Jeep."
She ignores him.
Half an hour later, after Blair has put on her shorts and a tank top, they are bouncing down the highway and Blair is gripping the seat belt, the scarf wrapped in her hair, glancing over at Dan now and then as they make their way to the City of Angels.
Blair sits in the studio lobby and sneers at Dan when he suggests she take up soduku to pass the time while she waits for him to be done. She tells him not to worry about her, that she'll be plotting her revenge for making her ride in the Jeep. Dan smiles and tells her that he has a surprise for her when he gets done.
It's not a surprise Blair likes much.
"Really Humphrey?" she asks. "I mean, I did want to do typical tourist things, but REALLY?"
They are standing outside a building that bears a sign reading Starline Tours. It's one of those horrid things where they drive you around to see where movie stars live.
"It just seems like the penultimate touristy thing to do, and I've always been curious." Dan says, looking pointedly over at a middle aged couple gazing intently at the board listing the different types of tours, the woman with big hair and loud makeup, the man wearing socks pulled up to his knees, and Blair thinks they couldn't scream tourist more loudly if they'd been paid to play tourists in a movie.
"This is going to be two hours of my life I'm going to want back." Blair hurumphs.
She's wrong. She and Dan end up in the back of the tour bus, giggling like two teenagers and Dan entertains her with his real life stories about movies stars he's encountered, even a few whose houses they end up sitting outside of while an overly perky tour guide yammers on into his headset. Dan holds her hand the entire time, and she discovers that doing practically anything with Dan isn't a waste of time.
Next is Venice Beach. It's getting late and Blair's stomach is starting to growl. They wander down the boardwalk, stopping here and there to watch various street performances, to browse through street vendor carts, or to gaze at the Venice Art Walls. Then Dan stops in front of what appears to be a burger joint and tells Blair they'll be eating dinner there.
"Really?" Blair asks. "Burgers?"
"Not just burgers, Blair." Dan says. "In-n-Out Burger."
Blair blinks. What Dan is saying with such conviction makes no sense to her. If he was to mention some high-brow restaurant where the chef was featured in some national magazine and the specialty was pan-asian, maybe Blair could understand, but burgers?
"Okay, Humphrey. Burgers."
"It's a Southern California institution."
Dan buys her a double meat and they order french fries and milkshakes, and Blair thinks that maybe Dan needs to re-evaluate his diet because yesterday they were eating tacos and today it's burgers. But the food is good and Blair finds Dan again laughing at her because she's licking her fingers again.
"You're dragging me down, Humphrey." Blair says, glaring at him. "This would never fly in Paris, or New York for that matter."
He makes her buy a t-shirt. A keepsake, he tells her. In-n-Out Burger is universal. You never know when you'll have to win over a client by making some colloquial reference. She has business in L.A., right? She can wear it to meetings.
Blair throws a french fry at Dan.
They are back on the road again, heading back to Dan's house. Back home, and Blair leans into her seat, feeling satisfied and tired. The wind is blowing the strands of hair that have managed to escape from her scarf and the vibrations of the Jeep slowly lure her to sleep.
Dan shakes Blair awake when they reach his house and she smiles sleepily at him.
"Time for bed, Blair," Dan whispers. She nods.
Blair only slept in the guest room that first night when she was exhausted from jet lag. The next night when Dan kissed her goodnight and started walking toward his bedroom, Blair told him to wait for her, that she didn't come all this way to sleep alone. Dan had given her one of his lopsided smiles and took her hand in his, but made sure to remind her that she wasn't to try any monkey business. Blair promised to behave herself.
Dan is already in bed when Blair comes out of the bathroom, his chest bare, and Blair lets her eyes roam for just one moment. He breaks into a grin when he sees what she's decided to wear to bed. It's the In-n-Out Burger t-shirt.
"I thought it might as well be put to good use." Blair says, sliding into bed next to him. She rests her head on his chest and feels it rising up and down, listens to his heartbeat.
"Was it an okay day," Dan asks, his hand playing with her hair.
"Passable," Blair says.
"Three more dates to go." he murmurs, his fingers moving to her shoulder, sliding along her skin, but Blair doesn't respond. She's asleep.
They go to San Diego the next day, but this time Blair drives. Air conditioning, she says. Blair leafs through the tourist books as Dan drives and tells him there's a contemporary art museum in La Jolla, and she wants to go to the Gaslamp District, and they should go to the beach too.
They spend the day just walking around, looking in little shops, eating good food, holding hands as they wander along the waterfront, looking at giant yachts that speak to the wealth in San Diego alongside the fishing trawlers that serve as reminders of the city's maritime history.
The sun is going down as they leave to go back to Laguna Beach and Blair stares out the window as they drive up the coast, looking out at the ocean that seems to go on forever, the beaches lined with the white caps of waves crashing to the shore.
"Beautiful." Blair sighs, not meaning to have said what she was thinking. Dan glances over at her.
"Yes." he agrees, and Blair blushes because she knows he's not talking about the view of the Pacific.
It's dusk when the return to his bungalow and Dan takes Blair's hand as they walk toward the front door, and he's not saying anything, which is somewhat unusual, and when they finally get inside, he turns and pulls her into his arms and kisses her.
"Dan," Blair gasps, then kisses him back.
This isn't sweet like most of his kisses have been. It's rough and insistent and barely controlled and Blair realizes that Dan has been hanging by a thread, and so has she, because something snaps and she can't get enough of him.
Dan growls, a deep, rumbly sound in his chest, then pulls back, ending the kiss, and he is staring into her eyes, breathing hard, and Blair licks her lips and wants him to kiss her again, not caring that they both know where that will lead.
"Sorry," Dan pants, still staring at her.
"It's really okay," Blair pants back, breathing just as hard as him. "I don't mind...we can cheat..."
She doesn't say what she really wants to, which is to bed Dan to drop all of this and fuck her now because she wants him badly and it's only getting worse the longer they wait, and she might explode. She doesn't say any of that.
"No. I said seven dates, and I meant it." His voice is gravelly and she can tell that he's grasping for control. Blair smiles.
"Two more." she whispers.
"Two more." Dan repeats, kissing her forehead.
The next day is beach day. This time they don't drive anywhere because Dan lives within walking distance from a beautiful, sandy beach. He packs a lunch and drinks in a hard-sided rolling cooler and tosses a sunshade over his shoulder then throws a beach blanket at Blair. She is wearing the apparently required beach day state dress code: boardshorts over the bikini she'd picked up during their trip to the mall. Dan glances at her outfit appreciatively.
"You're blending in, Waldorf."
Blair makes fun of his sun shade, remembering a time when all Blair wanted to do was flirt with boys and soak up the sun in St. Barts, and worry about tan lines. Way back when she was young, and Dan reminds her that they are older now and there are other worries, like skin cancer. Then he points out the large straw hat she's wearing, and Blair smiles back and tells him that he's made his point.
She slides into a pair of flip flops, another one of her purchases, and complains about how they feel on her toes and Dan says he may have misjudged her, she has a long way to go before she's mistaken for a local. Blair throws her five kinds of sunscreen into a bag she found in the back of Dan's closet and they head out for the day.
It's a lazy kind of day. Dan pulls out several books, telling Blair that he picked out his favorites, and they lie on the blanket, reading and sipping cold lemonade that Dan made fresh that morning. They eat lunch then nap under the sunshade, Blair feeling languid and content, and she thinks she likes spending the day at the beach. Later they pack up and walk to a nearby ice cream place where Dan makes fun of the fact that Blair picks out plain old vanilla and Blair responds by telling him that she's not very vanilla in plenty of other areas of her life, and the blush that climbs his cheeks shows Blair that he gets her point.
Then they go home. Blair is tired from the sun and there is sand on her skin and in her hair, and her skin is a little salty from the breeze coming off the ocean, and she thinks that this might have been the most perfect day so far. Dan makes dinner, grilling salmon and a variety of vegetabes on the gas grill that dominates his deck, and they eat in silence until Blair clears her throat.
"So, we've been to your favorite restaurant and done touristy things. We've been to San Diego and the beach. What next?"
Dan takes a bit of his salmon and grins at her. Tomorrow will be their seventh date and he made her promise to let him plan it.
"It's a surprise."
"Dan!"
"I'm not going to tell you."
Blair harrumphs and almost decides to make it impossible for him to keep his plans a secret using her feminine wiles, but changes her mind. She's waited this long, she can wait a little longer.
"So, have you liked this?" Dan asks, spearing a slightly charred mushroom.
"This?" Blair doesn't know what he's getting at.
"This, you know, dating."
They are sitting at Dan's kitchen counter and Blair has forgotten all her responsibilities. Waldorf Designs is the furthest thing from her mind, and every morning she wakes up to Dan and breakfast and adventure instead of meetings and emails. Has she liked it? She has loved it, loved every single moment of it, and she's glad that Dan decided to do this right, because it's been wonderful.
She tells him this, using the same word she used so long ago. He was wonderful back then, and he's wonderful now. Dan Humphrey has only gotten better with time and Blair has discovered what she wants in life is more than to be a woman of power. She wants to have love in her life too. Fifteen years have brought them to this moment, sitting together, eating a great dinner overlooking the Pacific Ocean, spending time together. So yes, she has liked all of it. Every single moment.
One more date.
Blair is tingling with anticipation when nestles into Dan that night, and it's hard for her to fall asleep, but she does and the last thing she remembers is him whispering her name.
When Blair wakes up the next morning she's alone. She stretches a little and smiles, thinking that no one deserves to be this happy. Sliding out of bed, she pulls at the hem of her In-n-Out Burger t-shirt that she's worn to bed every night since Dan made her buy it. She hears noises from the kitchen and she pads down the hallway, wondering what Dan has made for breakfast, amused at their domesticity.
He is at the stove, sauteing something in a pan and Blair slides her arms around his waist in what has become their customary morning greeting, taking in how he smells fresh and she realizes that he's already showered that morning. He must have gotten up earlier than usual.
"Good morning." she murmurs.
Dan turns off the stove and turns around and kisses her. It's not his usual 'good morning, how did you sleep' kiss. There's an edge of desperation. Blair breaks away and gazes up at him, searching his face, wondering what's different.
"So?" she asks.
"So, what?"
"Well, what are we doing to do today? You know, our last date."
Dan's eyes search her own and she sees them darken. His arms are sliding around her waist and he is pulling her closer, and they are pressing against each other, not space between their bodies, and Blair feels like she can't breathe because suddenly she wants him with a surprising ferocity, and she feels liquid warmth sliding up her spine with his touch.
ohgodohgodohgod
She bites her bottom lip, trying to hold in a gasp, and her stomach feels like it's full of butterflies.
"We're staying in." Dan says, his voice cracking a little, and Blair knows that he's finally decided that the time is right, and they're about to pass the point of no return, and she's never wanted anything so badly, and she briefly thanks the universe for Daniel Humphrey's stubbornness and insistence on doing this right, because what might have been acceptable and totally enjoyable sex is now shattering her into a million wonderful pieces.
This is so right.
The tone of his voice makes Blair's knees feel weak and she's not sure how she's still standing. He leans forward, and finally, finally, he kisses her in the way she's been dreaming of.
Finally.
The seventh date might be the best one yet.
TBC