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“Right,” she said, slowly, “are you sure you can’t skip-“ but her sentence was interrupted because he decided to speak again.
“No, Blair. Listen, I need to go now. Take care, Blair.” And then the line cut off.
Blair removed the phone from her ears in half a state of disbelief. Take care?
In the grand list of things they would make about the things Blair was proud of in her life, this would definitely not make the cut. But yet, here she was dressed up in her nicest evening dress outside the Cavalry around.
“What are we doing here again?” It was James, who was similarly donned in a black suit and tie, but was looking increasingly confudled as he took in the expanse of his surroundings.
Blair suppressed a groan and turned over to look at him, “We’re here for a party,” she said sweetly while batting her eyelashes, hoping that the action would disarm him enough to stop probing.
James sniffed, “But it’s full of old people,” he said with an expression of displeasure.
“Come onnnn, James,” Blair droned in a singsong voice, “You’re my date so act like it, okay?”
Of all the phrases Blair thought she would say in her entire existence, referring to James as her date was not one of them. Yes, it was a purely pathetic last ditch effort and a serious 90’s teen romantic comedy type cliché but Blair did not care; she only wanted to see Daniel again and if this was the way, then so be it.
Blair was dressed extra fancy and she made a point to smear on some of that lipstick Daniel mentioned that he liked. It was going to go well.
“Put your arms around my waist,” she nudged sharply but her elbow and he complied in a second.
If Blair did not know James well enough, she would almost feel bad for employing him as essentially a tool in her contrived scheme to get Daniel’s attention but the fact was that she did. She knew his type exactly and also knew that he went around and used women left and right – so it was only fair that he was having it done to him for once, a twisted form of karmic intervention almost.
They walked into the venue with their arms interlaced. Blair’s eyes scoped out the horizon but she did not she who she was looking for. A few drinks and several complaints by James about how boring this party was he finally showed.
Blair had half a mind to tell him off for being so late but that went flying out the window when she saw him. He was donned in a navy blue tuxedo and had his hair combed back, gelled into place; Blair nearly wanted to drink him up on sight.
Indeed, he was with another woman but Blair noticed it was not the same person from the restaurant yesterday. Then, as if he had noticed her staring at him from the distance, Daniel’s head whirred towards her and then he was walking over right towards them.
Blair fidgeted and quickly turned to put both her arms around James. Leaning in close to his ear she said, “Quickly, hold me and pretend like you’re saying something romantic to me,” she instructed him in hushed urgency.
“Why would I do that-“ but his protest was quickly silenced as Blair jammed the front of her heel on his shoe – he steadily complied.
“Oh god, James, stop ittttt!” she giggled comically loud and playfully slapped him across the chest whilst still in his arms.
James gave back a small nervous laughter, “Huh, well.”
“Blair?” Daniel voice called out to her as he approached her, “What are you doing here?”
Blair briefly broke away from the embrace of James, “Daniel! Hey,” she greeted him cheerfully, “have you met James?” she said, pointing over to her companion.
Daniel raised his eyebrows, “James, is it?” he said, extending out ahead for him to shake.
“Yeah man,” he replied, “So when does this party start anyway? It’s a real snooze fest and frankly, I’m just thinking of taking my baby and ditching it all together,” he said, turning his face to Blair to flash her a gigantic grin.
Blair just giggled playfully and gave him a small push, “Be patient!”
Something changed in Daniel’s expression and then he was chuckling, much to Blair’s confusion.
“What’s funny?” she asked him bluntly, knitting her eyebrows together.
“Nothing,” he said between laughter, “I’ll see you around, Blair. Take care of her James,” he said laughing again and then turned to walk away.
But Blair was not having any of it - she did not work this hard and come all the way over her, and most of all, tolerate James! – so he could just stand her up again. She hastily broke free from James’ grip on her hand and walked on after him.
Grabbing him roughly by the edge of his shoulder, she turned him to face her and he stopped walking.
“What do you want, Blair?” he asked her, folding out his arms in front of him impatiently.
