“Oh you don’t remember?” a look of something flashed through his features but Blair could not recognize what it was, “Well, let me fill you in then. You had a lot to drink the night before and called me to come get you – but you passed out before you could tell me your address,” he explained.
Blair nodded, “Of course yes, um sorry about that,” she said quietly. With the boost of confidence by the alcohol gone, so was most of her courage.
Daniel chuckled light-heartedly, “That’s okay. Don’t worry your little head about it. But I’m off to the clinic now – just wanted to see if you were awake. Should I drop you off on the way?” he asked.
Blair quickly stumbled to her feet, “No, I got it. You go on,” she said.
“Alright, but inform me once you do get home safely though, okay?” he said, “We don’t want you to go off and get more tattoos, now do we?” he joked and then there was the click of the door and he was gone.
But another flood of realization came back to Blair. Groaning loudly, she hastened her way to the mirror and lifted up the side of her shirt. And there it was.
It was all bandaged up and covered for now but underneath, she remembered all too well what it looked like. In fact, memories of the other night were just coming back to her. How she had completely opened herself up to Daniel and, well, had there been a kiss?
She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to remember but then there was no uncertainty left in her - yes, there most definitely had been a kiss between them. Mentally groaning, she picked up her phone from the side of the bed.
She had to get out of there pronto.
Janet’s car pulled in Daniel’s driveway a little while later. Blair had texted her to come pick her up – of course, her best friend was the person she would turn to in moments of turmoil.
“Why helllllo,” Janet said grinning as Blair entered the car.
“Not now, Jan,” Blair groaned, “I have a raging hangover and I’m in no mood.”
Janet just started up her car, with the same grin spread over her face, “I did not even know you went out last night, let alone spend the night at some total stranger’s house. You need to spill!” she inquired, her head bobbing up and down in excitement. Clearly, Janet condoned this sort of behavior.
“Can we at least get some coffee first?” Blair muttered, throwing her head in her hands.
A few moments and two cups of coffee later, Blair was now feeling much better. The coffee had kicked out some of her nerves and having had something in her stomach made the hangover better. Not to mention the bottle of water and aspirin she had also taken – provided oh so graciously by Janet.
If there was one thing Janet was expert at, it was how to cure a hangover. Suddenly, her annoying prodding questions seemed to be okay just because of that.
“It was my doctor,” Blair said abruptly once she had finished the last cup of her coffee.
Now, Janet is not really the type of person you can take by surprise so easily but as Blair said those words, Janet just stared back at her speechless with her mouth agape.
“Well? You can say something, you know,” Blair added hastily, suddenly feeling judged.
Janet shook her head violently, “No, no, I’m not – I mean, that is totally okay but-,” she stumbled through a series of phrases until landing on a final one, “how?
“I don’t know okay? I just – sort of went on a whim,” Blair said, a smile creeping up to her features as she remembered the timeline of last nights’ events and how much fun she had spending time with him.
Janet raised her eyebrows at her, “Who replaced my Valedictorian rule following best friend with this total badass who sleeps with her doctor?” Janet chuckled causing a blush to creep up Blair’s features’.
“Stop it, we did not sleep together,” but somehow in the far corner of her mind, she wanted to add yet to the end of that sentence. She shook the thought away as quickly as it came though.
“Oh? Well, then what happened?”
“We just – we kissed a little and, oh, I got a tattoo,” Blair said quietly and Janet’s mouth hung open yet again.
“Oh, no way,” she exclaimed, “Okay I need to see this. Tell me everything! Start from the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
Half hour and much talking on Blair’s part later, Janet had been filled up with the details of her night and the brunette found herself seeking advice.
“He probably totally digs you,” Janet chuckled. They were outside Blair’s house now.
Blair found herself blushing, even though she was usually not the type. But it seemed in the span of the time she had met Daniel, she had been turning a shade scarlet far more often than what she considered normal or even possible for her.
“You don’t know that,” Blair replied, shooting her a look. “I’ll see on Monday okay?” she told her and then turned her back to her to head back inside.
Once inside the house, Melissa Carter came running at the sound of the door shutting.
“Blair!” she exclaimed, “Where have you been all night? You got me worried all sick.”
“Sorry, mom,” replied Blair sheepishly, “I had a sleepover with Janet and I sort of forgot to tell you. My bad,” she lied expertly, though she realized she didn’t think she had ever had to lie to her mom about her whereabouts ever before.
Melissa let out a sigh of relief, “You could have at least texted me. But I am glad you are home safe.”
Blair was thankful her mother was in a good mood and did not create a particularly huge fuss regarding her absence. She wondered what was the reason her mother was so relaxed and happy today and decided to inquire her upon it.
“What’s gotten you all chipper?” she asked, leaning up against the counter her mother was standing behind. The woman was practically humming!
“Oh you know,” Melissa started off coyly, “the postman came with a delivery in the mail today,” she said, her gaze fixed intently onto her daughter’s face.
“Oh? What delivery,” Blair asked nonchalantly.
Her mother’s smile got even wider, “I think you ought to see for yourself.”
Blair shrugged and walked over to the pile of mail on the side of the counter. Immediately, she saw the bulky purple envelope sitting below all the bills and the spam mail.
“No way,” she breathed out, quickly tearing open the envelope, “I GOT IT!” she nearly shrieked in excitement.
Her mother quickly came and wrapped her in a huge, “I’m so proud of you, my love.”
Blair grinned as she broke away from the embrace, running a hand through her hair in half disbelief.
In the contents of the envelope was an acceptance letter to one of the most prestigious colleges in the entire country. Blair had applied there on a whim but was certain she would not get admission as it was a very selective school who received tens of thousands of applicants each year but only a rare few got admitted.
She scanned her eyes over the page yet again, reading it over and over. She could not believe and could hardly keep in her excitement.
“This is amazing,” she breathed out, slightly enchanted. “I can’t believe this.”
Her mother patted her back, “You deserve it, my dear.”
Grinning, she took hold of the envelope to go and examine its contents in detail in her room. But once she reached her room, she suddenly found herself reaching for her mobile phone instead.
She remembered how Daniel had told her to inform him once she had gotten back home safe. She stared at the lit mobile screen for a moment whilst biting her lip and then the fingers began typing.
Blair: “Hey just wanted you to know I managed to get home safe – no new tattoos! Thanks for last night. :)”
She contemplated over her words for a moment before finally pressing send. This was going to be an interesting summer.
Chapter 6
Blair was 198 pages in her new book as she sat crossed on her window sill, a cushion sandwiched between her legs. Eve
ry now and then, her eyes would flash over to the phone but then return back to the book, just as disappointedly.
Because where she expected a flash to show up on the screen, a tiny light indicating the arrival of a new text message, there was nothing. And the idea of it was bothering her more than it should it.
She knitted her eyebrows together, trying to remember what his exact words were to her. Indeed, he had said to inform him once she got home safely. That obviously meant a text message on her part. But it had been 14 hours since the sending of that message and he was yet to reply.
Could it be that he was extremely busy and did not bother to read it? No, Blair knew for a fact that this wasn’t true as underneath the chat bubble of her message was that dreaded four lettered word.
Read.
He had opened the text almost immediately after it was sent, as indicated by the tiny notification changing from Delivered to Read. But after all this time, he had not so much as bothered to reply even with a single word.
Blair put her book away, deciding to stop reading for the night. Her mind was too much of a tangled mess from contemplating all the possible reasons why he had not replied her back. It was quite late now in the night time and she decided it would probably be best if she were to sleep it off. Maybe in the morning she would not obsess over it so much.
But even when she shut off all her lights and slid between the covers, she could not help but mull over it. She knew she was overthinking it to massive proportions but could it be that the kiss had freaked him out? And that is the reason why he was ignoring her?
The possibilities were endless, as she tried to come up with a reasonable conclusion. She tried to remember exactly who had initiated the kiss – but even she figured out that it was she who made the first move, she could not remember there having been any resistance on his part whatsoever.
So he had definably wanted to kiss her too but what did that mean for the two of them? Usually, when two people shared that, it meant the dissolution of the boundary of ‘just friends’. But what did it mean when it was shared between two people that were not exactly friends?
He was her doctor. Blair stopped herself from fantasizing about how nice it would be if they were to pursue something. Strange, yes but she got along with him so well. Better than she had with any other man in her life. And there was no hiding the fact that she was so attracted to him – even though they had quite an age difference, it only served to make him even more desirable to her. And now that she had a taste, she was not sure if she could go on without wanting more of it.
Blair groaned loudly and buried her head back in her pillow – indeed, this was going to be a long night.
Chapter 7
“Mom, you really didn’t have to do this,” Blair said sheepishly as the doorman opened the door for them.
“Oh stop it,” Melissa dismissed her daughter with a casual wave of the hand, “it’s my treat – your deserve it.”
Melissa Carter had treated her daughter out to dinner at one of the city’s best restaurant’s and while Blair had resisted it at first – not feeling in the mood to go out – eventually, her mother had won, as she often does. Blair had caved to her wishes and now the both of them were all gussied up and outside the doors of this place.
Melissa Carter puckered up her lips and walked up over the man at the entrance, “Reservations for the Carters,” she told him.
The man told them to wait for a few minutes and that their table would be ready in a moment. Blair groaned – it wasn’t as though she did not appreciate her mother’s sweet gesture towards her – she was touched that Melissa was so enthused about her acceptance, it was just that Blair was in no mood to go out and have any sort of social interactions at the moment.
Truth was, even though she should have been too overjoyed to even care about anything else, she was still hung up on something that happened a whole 48 hours ago.
That’s right. It had been forty eight hours since she had sent him that text. Yes, Blair had been pathetically keeping track of the time.
Blair had already exhausted the lists of possibilities in her head by going over them incessantly but the conclusion she came up with now was perhaps even far worse than what she could have conjured up before. Could it be possible that Blair was making the whole kiss thing into a bigger deal than it was?
Who was Blair to know? Perhaps he went around kissing patients on the daily! He certainly had the face for it and Blair barely knew the guy – who knew what he got into in his free time?
But even as she thought these things, she knew in her heart that she was being just plain ludicrous. He was a busy adult and did not need to go around texting her every second to validate his – feelings for her – did he even have any? Abruptly, Blair stopped her own train of thoughts before she could dig up herself an even bigger hole.
But then she was catapulted back to right back where she started, as she realized with look of horror strewn upon her face, the identity of the person who had just emptied up their table and was walking over.
Blair gulped loudly. Daniel was present at the same restaurant as them and apparently he was not alone. Because right by his side was a woman - traditionally pretty, probably in her early thirties but most importantly, she had her arms draped around Daniel.
Shit! Was he married?
Blair was had not even realized she was straight up gawking the two of them until her mother’s voice pulled her out of her reverie, “Blair, it’s rude to stare, my dear. Who are you even looking at?”
Blair snapped her head back to her mother and cleared her throat embarrassed, “I, um – no one. Can we – go inside? Quickly.” Blair’s word were coming out in a series of awkward phrases, she mentally cursed him for having that sort of effect on her.
Blair wanted to disappear off the surface of the planet, decimate into a puddle of nothing or simply just cease to exist. Because the last thing she wanted right now was to see him in this situation.
But her luck was rotten, as always, as realization struck her mother. “Oh, isn’t that your doctor? I recognize him from when I went to book your appointment. Oh, what a wonderful coincidence! Shall we go say?” Melissa asked her daughter in her usual tone brimming with glee.
“No – mom, I really don’t think that’s a good-“ but Melissa was off towards their direction before Blair could even get in another word edgewise.
After a moment of Blair just standing away from her, keeping her head down so she could avoid any eye contact with them and so basically pretend like she did not even know they were there, Blair eventually had to go join in as her mother called her over.
“We’re actually here to celebrate. Blair just got another acceptance – one of the top schools in the country!” her mother gushed, only just needing an excuse to boast about her daughters accomplishments.
“Oh! Is that right?” Daniel said, turning to Blair, who merely just shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, congratulations,” he added, when Blair showed no signs of articulating a reply.
“That really is an accomplishment,” the woman beside him spoke, addressing Blair for the first time.
Her mother nudged her discreetly in the ribs and Blair belted out a dry ‘thank you’ complete with a farcical flash of her teeth to the both of them. But then before they bid their goodbyes, Blair suddenly turned around and called out.
“Dr. Williams,” she said, emphasizing the word doctor, “may I speak to you for a moment? About the – reports.”
“Is everything okay?” Melissa asked her daughter, her eyes darting between the two of them.
“Yes, mother. Please – you go on and sit. I’ll be just a minute,” she said, keeping her voice composed.
Daniel shot her a searching look but none the less agreed to accompany her. Blair took him a corner and when she was sure she was out of earshot, she turned to him.
“You never told me you had a wife! What kind of person are you?” she whisper-yelled at him, her nostrils flaring and her
eyes narrowed at him accusingly.
To her utter shock and then aggravation, Daniel just laughed at her fiery projectile of accusatory remarks, “Relax, Blair. She is not my wife.”
Blair backed up a little, feeling both relieved and stupid. “Oh, right..,” she mumbled, “who is she then?” she inquired, looking up to meet his eyes.
Daniel chuckled yet again and Blair was beginning to find it very annoying how he found amusement in her miseries, “She’s only my date,” he said, briefly and to the point.
“Oh – your date, huh?’ Blair was struggling to keep her voice composed at this point.
“Yes,” he chuckled yet again but then his expression turned serious, “why do you seem so upset with me?” he inquired, giving her a swift once-over with his eyes.
She shook her head, “I’m not upset – I,” she bit down her lip and contemplated whether she should spill out the inner workings of her brain to him or not. In the end, she caved. “You never really replied to my text, I was just wonderin’.”
“Oh Blair,” Daniel said, suddenly sounding like as though he had been disappointed by those words, “You cannot possibly – I thought you knew better?” he said slowly and Blair felt his words like the weight of a rock; slowly crushing her.
When Blair did not reply, he spoke again, “How’s the tattoo?” flashing her another one of his signature grins.
Blair just gulped but it did not help to swallow down the burning sensation she felt at the base of her throat, “It’s fine. Hey, you know what? It’s fine, this. I need to go,” she said hurriedly and turned to her heel to scurry back to the table her mother was seated.
“Blair wait,” he called out after her and when she turned back, “That lipstick looks nice on you,” and then he winked, before walking away ahead of her.
And just like that, for the second time that night, Blair was left staring back at him with her mouth agape.
Chapter 8
Romance: My Stepbrother's Plaything Page 83