"What are you doing?" Ryan spit, stopping beside the table.

"I'm on a date, obviously," Blair sighed, "what are you doing, other than making a scene?"

"Amy, how could you?" Ryan's mother asked, looking appalled.

"Easy, Helen," she said, ignoring Ryan's warning glare, "I don't date cheaters."

"Amelia!" Ryan hissed, grabbing her wrist, "stop this!"

Ezra stood suddenly, grabbing Ryan's shoulder and squeezing - earning a gasp of pain that forced him to release Blair's wrist.

"Don't touch her," Ezra growled, shoving him away and standing in front of Blair protectively, "You lost that right when you fucked another woman."

"Ryan, what is going on?!" Helen squeaked, shocked by the entire scene.

"I caught him in the act, Helen," Blair said calmly, meeting the woman's eyes, "the same day you and I talked. I went to see him at his apartment. Found him in bed with another woman. I broke it off months ago."

Helen turned to stare at Ryan, his face pale even as he grit his teeth in anger.

"I made a mistake," he breathed, "and I've tried to explain. Tried to-"

"This isn't the place for this," Helen snapped, glaring at her son before turning to Blair, "Amy, you said you were considering marriage... All couples face trials. You should have come to me! This isn't how you handle these kinds of things!"

"What?" Ryan choked, freezing in place and snapping his wide eyes to Blair, "You... What?"

"If you do not leave," Ezra said lowly, "I will have you removed. She dumped you. It's over. Accept it like a man and move on."

"This doesn't concern you, young man," Helen snapped, narrowing her eyes at Ezra.

"Wrong," Blair said, standing and looping her arm with Ezra's, "I left Ryan. It's over. Period. I'm dating Ezra now. You need to walk away."

"Amy," Helen cooed, "don't do this. You and Ryan are a good match. We should talk this out-"

"No," Blair said, snatching up her purse and cane, "I have a restraining order against your son for harassment, Helen. This confrontation is in direct violation of it. If you don't walk away, I'm calling the police."

"What is happening?" Helen breathed, staring at the cane, "Why do you have a cane? What do you mean a restraining order?!"

"Let your son explain," Blair bit out, turning to Ezra, "Time to leave."

Ezra nodded, flagging down a nearby waiter.

"No!" Ryan yelled, lunging toward Blair as if to grab her - but stopping when Ezra stood between them, "You're making a mistake, Amy! You belong with me!"

"Please have these two removed before we call the police," Ezra said to the actively paling waiter, handing him a card, "and we're finished."

The waiter nodded quickly, rushing away and flagging down two security guards on his way.

"What did you do?!" Helen screeched, her face reddening as she stared at Ryan in disbelief.

"This," Blair said, pulling out her phone and turning the screen to face Helen.

Both Helen and Ryan blanched at the photo on the screen of Ryan balls deep in Melissa, bent over his bed with embarrassing faces making it very clear they were enjoying themselves.

"Amelia!" Helen yelled, stumbling back and clutching her chest even as Ryan grabbed for the phone.

"I warned you," Blair spit at Ryan, dodging his move and slipping her phone into her pocket, "I told you if you didn't leave me alone I'd tell your mother exactly what you did. If you don't want the next thing she sees to be the video I took, you better walk away right now."

"Video," Helen breathed, swaying on the spot, "Amelia, what..."

Ezra, done with the entire charade, scooped a gasping Blair into his arms - ensuring she didn't drop her cane in the process - and shoved past the two people in front of him that had captured the attention of the now silent restaurant. He stomped toward the waiter, who handed a still-shocked Blair the card, and then turned on his heel and rushed out with her still in his arms.

Helen and Ryan tried to follow them, but by then the security had moved to block them - insisting they cooperate with being escorted out of the restaurant to ensure they didn't cause a bigger scene than they already had.

Ezra was sliding Blair into the backseat of his car with a wide-eyed Tim in the front seat starting the engine just as the two of them exited the restaurant behind them.

"Stop!" Ryan screamed, rushing toward the car - but Ezra slid in and slammed the door before Ryan could reach them.

"Amy, stop!" Ryan continued yelling, pounding on the window, "Listen to me, just let me explain!"

"Drive," Ezra growled.

Tim, shocked by the entire scene, nodded immediately and quickly pulled away from the curb leaving a staggering Ryan breathing heavily on the sidewalk behind them.

"New plan," Blair breathed, leaning her head back and closing her eyes in irritation, "Come to my place. I'll order shitty Chinese food made by an American that doesn't understand how spice works, and we can enjoy bad gin while we talk about how much better it is to not go out in public, like... ever."

"Takeout and bad gin?" Ezra scoffed, eyeing the woman wearing a dress that cost thousands of dollars, "Sounds like a great date to me."

Blair smiled, still not opening her eyes and simply bobbed her head in a half-hearted nod.

"My place is only half unpacked, but that'll just really drive home the vibe," she laughed, opening one eye and challenging Ezra to say a word about the state of her place.

"Half unpacked?" Ezra asked, blinking in surprise, "New place?"

"Yeah," Blair grimaced, turning away, "Ryan wouldn't stop coming by my old one, so I moved to a new apartment last week."

Ezra's smile faded and his gaze darkened, not having realized that she was having so many issues with her ex.

"I'll help you unpack," he said finally, his voice low.

Blair snorted, shaking her head.

"You'll be too tipsy to do any such thing," she joked, adding with a sigh, "It's fine. Don't let him bother you."

"It's not me I'm worried about him bothering," Ezra said darkly, pulling his phone out, "but I'll handle it."

Blair opened her mouth to argue, then furrowed her brow. Eventually she snapped her mouth shut and shrugged. If they really were going to get married, it wasn't really unreasonable for him to step in this way. She didn't love the idea of someone playing Prince Charming, but she also didn't hate the idea of Ryan leaving her alone.

In the end she decided to let him do whatever he was going to do, and deal with the details later.

Restraining orders were just pieces of paper, and the truth was she was starting to get worried about Ryan's behavior. What was the difference between asking the police to step in or Ezra doing it? As long as Ryan left her alone, that was all that really mattered.

"You didn't mention you were having issues with Ryan," Ezra said after putting his phone down and turning to look at her seriously.

"We didn't exactly have the chance to talk about it," she said honestly, "It's not a secret. I had to tell security at the office to keep him away when we broke up. He tried coming by while I was working, then he kept coming by my apartment. After the restraining order was filed, he had things delivered and even some of his friends came by. I ended up staying with a friend for a while then moving to a new place, and it'd been quiet for about a week."

Ezra nodded, sending a couple more messages with these new details.

He knew that by tomorrow morning Ryan would be in jail for violation of his restraining order.

Blair, on the other hand, was focused on figuring out which Chinese restaurant to order from.

"Do you like chess?" Blair asked, not looking up from her phone.

"I do, actually," Ezra said, raising an eyebrow, "I won't pretend to be incredible at it, but I'm not terrible."

"So we're probably evenly matched then," Blair laughed, "Good. Chinese, gin, messy apartment, chess, and good conversation. Now that's a date!"

--

"You liar," Ezra growled, glaring at the king that was officially in check mate, "You said we'd be evenly matched."

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of Blair's apartment with a chessboard set up on a stack of boxes may not have been part of Ezra's original vision for their date, but he had to admit that he was enjoying himself despite the change in plans.

The takeout containers filled Blair's tiny trashcan in the too-small kitchen behind them, but the smell of Chinese was still in the air as they finished their fifth game of chess that evening.

Blair cackled, flopping slightly to the side without spilling a drop of the gin and orange juice mixed drink in her glass.

"I said probably!" she reminded him, a glint in her eye that made him sure she'd set him up to fail.

She had changed into pajamas the second they'd walked into the house, and while her makeup was still done, her once-styled hair had been pulled into a messy bun.

He had to admit she looked far more at ease like this than she had when they'd walked into the restaurant looking like the power couple of the year.

"Here," Blair chuckled, setting the board up, "This time, training. I'll teach you my ways, young padawan!"

"Star Wars? Really?" Ezra laughed, shaking his head and sipping his own drink despite how vile it truly was.

"Oh definitely," Blair nodded seriously, focused on the chess board, "Star Wars all the way."

"This is going to create tension, I can already tell," Ezra sighed, shaking his head with a smirk, "I'm afraid I'm more of a Star Trek fan myself."

Blair blinked and glanced up at him in surprise.

"You like Star Trek?" she asked, "Are you secretly a geek, Ezra?"

"I wouldn't go that far," he laughed, shaking his head, "but I did watch it with my dad when I was younger. I won't pretend to have seen all of it or to know all the trivia... but I count myself among the fans."

"I like Star Wars because of my dad too," Blair admitted with a soft smile, returning her attention to the board, "I've seen all the movies 100 times. My brother and I used to have light saber fights all the time. We were constantly in trouble for breaking things while we goofed off."

"He was a couple years older than you, right?" Ezra said, tilting his head, "So did he let you win because you were the little sister? Or trample you because... you know, brothers?"

"He usually let me win," Blair laughed, "but he didn't tell me. He made me believe I was holding my own. Made me work for it before finally 'losing' so I thought I'd earned it. I was far older than I care to admit by the time I figured it out."

Ezra smiled at that, having been more of the 'beat 'em up' kind of brother - not that he and his sister ever really tussled.

"How did you figure it out?" he asked, studying the pieces and wondering if he stood any chance this time.

"We started martial arts and self-defense training when we were young teenagers," Blair explained, leaning back on her hands and staring at the ceiling, "He tried to let me win when we sparred and the trainer scolded him for it. Said it may seem like he was doing me a favor, but I needed to be able to fight people bigger than me and understand how to win properly. When he stopped going easy on me... yeah, it was pretty obvious then."

"So you two were obviously close," Ezra said quietly, studying Blair as she drifted away in her memories.

"Yeah," she admitted, her voice cracking slightly, "He was my best friend. We were tutored and pretty sheltered when we were young. Everyone we knew, everyone we met... they were all so fake. He had more friends than I did, but we could always tell they just... they weren't real.

It felt like we were acting in a play any time we went out and socialized with the people Dad introduced us to. They were always wealthy and from some elite family, and every word felt like a trap. Sure, we learned to play the game and how to perform so we fit in... but when we'd go home, we'd talk with Dad and he'd help us understand the dynamics, the lies, the manipulations.

Learning how to survive in a room full of sharks was just another kind of training. The only real connections we had were each other."

"You never mention your Mom when you talk about growing up," Ezra said cautiously, eyeing her to see if he should drop it.

"Because she wasn't really around," Blair said, unbothered, "Mom and Dad got married because Mom got pregnant with Jake after a one-night stand. They didn't love each other, but she wanted his money and Dad wanted his son. They kind of had a 'we're married but don't interfere with my life' kind of arrangement.

She didn't want to be a mom, and he didn't really want to be a husband. So, it was me, Dad, and Jake - that was the family I grew up with. Mom was around for big events, holidays, and that sort of thing... but she didn't even live with us full time.

I was an accident after a holiday party, and Mom wanted to abort me the second she found out. Said Jake had already ruined her figure, and she didn't want to destroy her body any more. Dad paid her a small fortune to have me. She hated me even more than Jake because there were complications at the end so she had to have a c-section."

Ezra frowned, furrowing his eyebrows at that.

"Alright big boy," Blair scoffed, sitting up and rolling her shoulders, "It's time for you to learn how to play in the big leagues. Let's talk chess strategy!"

And just like that the tension melted away. They played late into the night, laughing and drinking as Blair tried to teach him even as she slurred her words, forgot the names of the pieces on the board, and eventually couldn't sit up straight.

Even laying on the floor and giggling furiously, she pointed at the pieces and pretended like she was fine - though, her lessons stopped making sense long ago.

When Ezra carried her to the bed and tucked her, in he found himself smiling broadly to himself - genuinely surprised at the amount of fun he'd managed to have that evening.

He went back to the living room, laying on the couch with a pillow he'd stolen from her bed and a throw blanket that was way too small for him, and he fell asleep with that same smile spread across his face.

--

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