Chapter 1

It had been a few days since the incident in which Gossip Girl had dropped her bombs on everyone, right at the moment she had almost seduced Chuck into saying "I love you." Having it happen then made Blair so angry at Gossip Girl, and herself, that she knew she could spit nails. Oh she should've just been more bold, more forceful, and just answered Chuck's phone for him...or even better turned it off or thrown it across the room...then forcibily have her way with him by tearing off the rest of his clothes and taking him on the couch. She knew she'd been making progress in her attempt at seduction by the desirous look Chuck had in his deep brown eyes, and the fact that she'd felt he'd already grown hard for her during the moment she'd briefly straddled his hips...until the anonymous Gossip Girl ruined the mood. Talk about bad timing!

The ensuing argument that occurred afterward, where both she and Chuck had found out about each other's liaisons with Jack Bass and Vanessa Abrams, hadn't gone well either, but Blair figured that in all honesty it was probably best that they both knew the truth, whatever their future might be. Being with Jack Bass was probably one of the stupidest mistakes she'd ever made, other than hooking up with Carter Baizen a few weeks later, but to Blair her only excuse for either mistake was that she was so hungry for sex with Chuck, she was willing to try substitutes for the real thing...and poor substitutes they turned out to be. Carter had almost had it, and with his dark good looks he was somewhat easy to imagine it was Chuck instead...but Jack Bass was another matter entirely, a matter she'd prefer to forget if she could.

Now it'd been a few days since the fight. A few days since their latest bust up, where she'd poured her heart out to Chuck, telling him how much she loved him, and attempting to draw a declaration of love out of him too...but unfortunately he didn't admit any of it verbally himself although she could just feel he loved her, by the tears she'd seen in his eyes as well. Blair realized now that it had been too soon after Chuck had learned of her liaison with Jack to admit how he'd felt because she hadn't let him process the information first. Perhaps if she'd given him a bit more time he'd feel differently, or perhaps if she would've cried an apology and kissed him, things would've went differently...but who knows because Chuck ran off soon afterwards to who knows where.

As she was walking along, it suddenly struck her how much her little scene with Chuck reminded her of the 19th Century British Literature novel she'd had to read for English Literature class, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. In the novel, young Tess was taken advantage of by a spoiled, rich, young fellow named Alec, who was posing as her cousin. Tess' hook up with Alec resulted in a baby, and embarrassment for Tess, who'd left the D'Urberville mansion to go back and live with her family, where she'd had her baby that eventually died. Then later Tess met and married another young man, named Angel, but their relationship was marred from the beginning when Tess admitted to him on her wedding night that she'd been with another man and had even had his baby, a fact that Angel couldn't forgive and caused him to run off to Brazil for several years, until it was too late because Tess had been forced back into a relationship with Alec mainly for financial reasons.

When Blair had first read the novel...and supplemented it by watching the BBC miniseries, Blair had imagined "Angel" was like Nate and "Alec" was like Chuck...an idea highly supplemented after seeing the miniseries with actors Eddie Redmayne as "Angel" and Hans Matheson as "Alec"...especially after she remembered the incident that'd happened over a year and a half ago when she'd thought she was pregnant and Nate and Chuck had acted remotely like the characters from that novel. Still though the way Chuck reacted after their recent fight after they learned about Jack and Vanessa...who knew Chuck would pull an "Angel" and not only reject her but also run away? (Although she should've known, given his reaction after the pregnancy scare/fight with Nate debacle, and the time she'd admitted her love to him after his father had passed and he'd run off then.) Blair just hoped the rest of her life didn't have to follow the rest of Tess' story, because she didn't want to have to stab Jack with a bread knife just to get to Chuck...because then she'd end up in prison for murder (or like Tess, hung by the neck until dead) and would never have Chuck either.

Blair was contemplating these unfortunate thoughts, when suddenly her cell phone chimed for a text message and she checked it. Fearing it was another stupid Gossip Girl bomb, Blair reluctantly checked her phone, only to discover the message was from Chuck.

Blair, If you still feel the same way you did the other day, meet me in the front of the Plaza Hotel at 4pm on Monday. Dress casually and bring an overnight bag. -- Chuck.

"Dress casually and bring an overnight bag? What was he up to now?" Blair thought as she closed her phone. Well who knew Chuck was up to, but at least he was communicating with her again. It was a start at least...and unlike Angel, Chuck had only been a few days, not a few years. That itself spoke volumes, although even a few days had been too long for Blair, who liked things to happen right away. Well if Chuck wanted her to dress casually she would, just to prove a point. Of course it'd be designer label casual, and that alone just gave her another excuse to go shopping, Blair considered as she whipped out her AMEX card, hailed a cab, and went to her favorite stores to go shopping.