Only in Your Dreams (Gossip Girl #9)(62)

Nate would have told him no, go right ahead, but he was distracted by the sight of Blair, holding hands with some tall banker-type, laughing with her head thrown back. She was introducing him to an older, impeccably dressed short man, and there was something familiar in the excited way she was flirting with both of them that filled Nate with longing.

“Excuse me,” Nate stammered. “I have to go.”

As he headed for the door, he heard Chuck say, “By the way, you’ve really got some tan.”

Tawny, indeed.





Gossip Girl 09 - Only in Your Dreams

b is an inspiration

“Darling! Darling!” Bailey Winter screeched at Blair. “You must—I repeat, must—stay with me on the island this summer. You are perfection.”

They were standing in the bedroom doorway, which was as far away as Blair could get from the kitchen without actually losing sight of it. She tucked her dark, almost shoulder-length hair behind her ears self-conciously. She’d always liked getting a compliment, but what did you say when someone called you perfect?

How about “thank you”?

“I’m starting a new collection. It’s called Summer/Winter.” Bailey made a motion with his hands that Blair suspected was supposed to convey the seasons but instead looked seizurelike. “And you, my love, are Winter.”

Jason placed his big, soothing hand on the nape of her neck. “That’s incredible, Blair,” he said sweetly.

It was incredible, but out of the corner of her eye, she couldn’t help but watch Nate, with his glittering green eyes and perfectly worn baby blue Polo, backing away from Serena and Chuck and that townie whore and exiting the party. Where the f*ck was he going?

“And Serena is Summer!” Bailey cried, snapping Blair back to attention. He snapped his mirrored aviator sunglasses off his face and stared excitedly into the overhead light.

Blair made eye contact with Serena across the dance floor. Of course, being one of two muses hadn’t exactly been part of the fantasy, but if she had to share the limelight with anyone, then it should be her best friend.

How generous.

“I’ll need you both to live with me, of course. For inspiration, darling! Don’t worry—there’s plenty of room for visitors in the beach house!” he singsonged, winking at Jason.

Blair watched Nate bump fists with Jeremy Scott Tompkinson from his lacrosse team out in the hallway. She sometimes wondered how much guys really told one another in the locker room. Had he told them all about the first time they’d had sex? What about how he’d done it with Serena? Blair looked down to see that her hands were suddenly clenched in little red fists.

“Well, I’d love to visit.” Jason pulled Blair closer. “If she wants me to.”

Bailey put his aviators back on and pushed them down the bridge of his nose. “I’ll take you if she won’t!” He laughed and then clapped his hands together. “Oh, that must terrify you! Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Unless you ask me to!” Bailey squealed in delight.

Blair set a prim smile on her lips. She was having a hard time concentrating on Bailey’s staccato voice. He’d called her perfect—she’d heard that.

Of course she had.

But what was this about living with him? Well, that could work. Although she’d just told Jason she’d be staying here, Bailey’s palatial town house on Sixty-second and Park would suit her just fine before jetting off to Yale in a couple months. Surely Audrey Hepburn had had some similar set up as a muse? “I have a feeling my mom will be dropping by for ‘tea’ every afternoon,” she offered.

“Will she be on Georgica, too?” Bailey asked, arching his unnaturally high, dark eyebrows even higher. “How wonderful!”

“Georgia?” Blair creased her forehead. Did Bailey always have to be so strange?

“No darling, Georgica. At the beach house? In East Hampton? Where we’ll all be?” he explained. “Are you feeling all right, dear?”

Wait, the Hamptons? As in, the Hamptons where Nate and that little townie slut were going to be all summer long? Why hadn’t he mentioned that before?

Well, he had.

“Yes,” Blair confirmed, although she was shaking her head no. “I’m fine.”

“I’m afraid the guest house is set back on the property and it’s a bit close to the neighbors, although they’re hardly ever there. Perhaps you know them, dear? The Archibalds? Their son seems to be around this summer. About your age. Devilishly handsome?”

Oh, she knew him, all right.

You know what they say: love thy neighbor!





Gossip Girl 09 - Only in Your Dreams

threesome on the roof

Dan clambered up the ladder and pushed open the trapdoor to the roof, climbing outside and into the night. The building wasn’t high enough to see the East River, but he could smell it, dank and fishy. Still, there was something magical about dusk in New York in the summertime.

He lit a Camel and puffed on it greedily. Through the uneven tar roof he could feel the beat of the bass and hear the dull roar of the crowd. He needed to sit and think things through in solitude. Strolling to the edge of the roof, he peered into the back garden and in the pitch darkness he almost stepped on Bree, seated near the roof’s edge in a lotus position, eyes closed, her turquoise gypsy skirt fanned around her.