How amazing does she look? I can’t wait to add this to my growing collection.

Luckily, the actress—who admits that she spent much of her lonely first year in Los Angeles “crying myself to sleep”—has adjusted to Manhattan quite well. Her costars have helped: “We’re all young,” she explains, “and everyone was new to New York, so we’ve had so much fun. I’ve heard horror stories from other actors about egos, people who don’t get along, but we’re all friends. There are people from this job who will be in my life for a very, very long time.” Including, perhaps, her boyfriend and castmate, Ed Westwick? The two hooked up more than a year ago, after first getting to know each other, Jessica says, “as friends.” Once both were single, they decided to give romance a shot. “It can be a little awkward,” she admits, “when all of a sudden [you have feelings for] someone you’d call to talk about a different boyfriend. But there wasn’t a lot of thinking and talking. It kind of just happened. We had fun together, and we were like, ‘All right, let’s see where this goes.’”

So far, it’s going somewhere good. “He’s a really rad guy,” Jessica says when asked what she likes about Ed. “He’s awesome and smart and talented and adorable, and we make each other laugh.” They don’t have any Valentine’s Day plans yet—last year they went to Jamaica with Leighton Meester and her boyfriend, Sebastian Stan—but Jessica insists that they don’t need to do anything major. “We go to dinners, have nights by ourselves and fun romantic times in general. And I like just cuddling up on the couch.” And as soon as Gossip Girl wraps for the season, the couple will probably jet off for another getaway.

Her life has changed dramatically in the last few years, but it hasn’t changed who she is; even her newfound knowledge of high fashion strikes the rummage-sale shopper as being highly ironic. “Now,” she says, “I can be like, ‘Oh, is that this season’s Marc Jacobs?’ Which is weird because I’m not that kind of girl.”

Maybe not. But she is the kind who spots an old friend outside—in this case, sometime costar Michelle Trachtenberg—and rushes out of the restaurant to greet her; after the interview is over, she calls Ed and tells him to meet her at the bar where Michelle and her boyfriend are having a drink. When they hang out together, the Gossip crew is completely recognizable. As Jessica says, “Ed has a very unique look, so people don’t even question—it’s just: “You’re Chuck Bass”—but nobody’s staring or asking for autographs. Jessica’s just a carefree girl on her day off, hanging with her friends. [Teen Vogue]