Life Makes Love Look Hard (Kaylor)

Chapter 3 (And they come unstuck)

She loves looking out the window just as they’re about to land. She can see the Eiffel tower and the river and the beautiful architecture. She always forgets just how much she loves Paris until she comes back, it’s not quite as grand as her love for New York, but it’s very close.

“Karlie, wake up!” She’s bouncing with excitement, walking over to the other side of the jet and shaking the model’s shoulders. “We’re here! We’re here!”

Karlie grumbles awake, probably quite enjoying her nap, but she’s so excited!  She sits back on her own couch to watch the buildings and people rush by as they make the landing.

“Somebody’s happy to be here.”

When Karlie comes over to sit by her she starts pointing out the buildings and gorgeous architecture and-

“Oh look! There’s my favorite restaurant!”

They stay like that, looking out over the city and country so much that they’re not paying attention to when the plane actually lands.

The impact throws Taylor down onto the couch with Karlie following shortly after, collapsing on top of her, hands braced on either side of her shoulder.

She feels her heartbeat speed up.

“Sorry,” Karlie breathes out above her.

“That’s okay,” her voice cracks.

And for a few short moments Karlie just looks at her, like she’s an exquisite painting, taking her time admiring every detail.

“Um… Karlie… you can get up now.”

“Oh! Right!” the model sits up, her cheeks flushing red. “Sorry.”

They try to pack their own bags into the black SUV waiting for them, but their driver insists on doing it himself. He’s a short old man, well, short by comparison at least.

“And where will we be going, mademoiselle?”

“The Ritz, please,” Taylor answers, and receives a look of disbelief from Karlie.

“Taylor!”

“What? It’s a special vacation!”

“Special indeed,” the driver mutters beneath his breath, not that the two notice.

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to be spending too much money on this trip.”

“No, you said you didn’t want me spending a lot of money on this trip and I chose to ignore it.”

“You’re going to ignore a lot of things I say when it comes to money, aren’t you?”

“Probably.”

Karlie rolls her eyes, but she sees the little smile on her lips. It feels good for things to be almost normal, but she can still see the way the model’s shoulders are tensed. They’re not nearly as tense as they’ve been the last two weeks, but it’s still there. Maybe it’ll never go away, she doesn’t know, but she does want to make Karlie happy. And this vacation is the best start. She knows that, which is exactly why she ignored Karlie’s fuss over money. If it makes her happy it could cost her entire career and she’d gladly pay.

She leans her cheek against the window, staring out at the pink sky as dawn slowly rises over the horizon.

And when they finally get to their hotel room she feels like they should be doing something. She thinks they should be exploring something they’ve never known before or discovering some new feeling. Maybe she should even be writing a song for the new album.

But she barely has the energy to walk through the door.

Maybe it’s the worry she’s been trying to hide for the past two weeks, maybe it’s the anger she’s been suppressing ever since Karlie told her, or maybe it’s just everything. It’s the stress, the worry, the anger, the anxiety, and everything.

“Hey, you okay?” that beautiful voice pulls her out of her thoughts. She’d gone so far into her head that she didn’t feel the chill of hands on her warm cheeks. “Tay, are you hearing me?”

“Mhmm.”

Her eyes slip shut, and her body slumps forward so her head rests comfortably on Karlie’s shoulder, her nose tickling the model’s neck.

An arm wraps around her back, and then she feels her legs lifted from the ground. It’s so comfy in her arms. She snuggles closer to warmth, and an angelic laugh fills her ears.

“Come on, sleepyhead.”

The last thing she remembers before drifting into sleep are fluffy blankets and a kiss to the top of her head.

It’s dark in the room when she wakes, but as she rubs her eyes she sees the billowing curtains leading to the balcony. The eiffel tower sparkles, but what really catches her eye is Karlie asleep in the opposite bed.

Yes, she chose to get one room with two queen sized beds rather than two rooms with one king sized bed each. She didn’t completely ignore Karlie when she said something about saving money.

Rather than wasting the time she’s spending awake like she usually does, Taylor walks to the guitar case among the suitcases.

She plays for hours. She plays and doesn’t sing a single word. She has the entire music planned out for a song by the time she’s done, but there are no words. She doesn’t need them yet.

“Hey,” comes from behind her accompanied with hands on her shoulders. “The song sounds beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“How did you sleep?”

“Really good.”

It’s true. She feels rejuvenated. She feels alive.

“What about you?” she finally turns around, smiling at the messy, yet still gorgeous, bedhead before her.

“Pretty good. What time is it?”

“Uhhhh,” she looks at the clock. “One am. What time did you go to sleep?”

“Around eight.”

“I can’t believe I slept that long.”

“You were tired.”

“Yeah, but I slept on the plane.”

“For an hour and then you got knocked off the couch. How’s the shoulder, by the way?”

“Oh it’s fine. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

“Really?” the model’s fingers dig into her shoulders and she winces.

“Well when you press that hard it does!”

“Sorry,” fingers cease their painful pressing. Instead they move in gentle massage, which feels as amazing as it sounds.

“We still have hours until we can actually do anything,” Taylor grumbles.

“Well that’s not true.”

“How so?”

“You can keep writing songs and I’ll keep doing this.”

“I don’t think I can focus on anything else while you’re doing that.”

“Then you, little miss tense, can close your eyes and relax for a little while. And when you think you’ve had enough you can go back to songwriting.”

“What if I never get enough?”

“My fingers are going to get tired eventually.”

She prays Karlie can’t see her blushing.

“I know a neat little cafe we can go out to breakfast for tomorrow, well, later this morning.”

“Sounds perfect.”