Runaway Autumn

Chapter 4- Meet the Parents

Taylor sits in the passenger seat of the Volvo Joe's rented. Her knee bobs up and down as she looks out the tinted windows. She must've changed her outfit at least sixty-five times before finally settling on a pair of black Levi's and her favorite gray cardigan. She nervously pulls on the cashmere material, perturbed by the silence in the car.

It's not a comfortable silence, no, but it isn't a bitter one either. It's just weird, to put it plainly. Taylor and Joe are quieter than usual, haven't said much to each other since getting in the car, since Taylor shut down.

Taylor has no idea why she got so cagey after she interrupted their little couch makeout session. She didn't mean to put up those walls, it just happened. And now as she's minutes away from meeting Joe's parents, watching London townhouses and trees with browning leaves go by, she wishes it didn't. Because she likes being open with Joe, likes the lightheartedness and simplicity of their relationship.

She can't help but fear that she ruined things with him in a very real and raw way. Thankfully, a small part of Taylor recognizes that she's spiraling, that she's projecting her nerves over meeting Joe's folks onto her relationship.

Of course, Taylor wants to meet the people that procreated her angel of a boyfriend. She just doesn't want them to meet 'Taylor Swift', doesn't want them to think that she isn't good enough for their son, that her life is too crazy, too messy, too complicated.

Even without her celebrity, she's still a fucking mess. And that terrifies her.

Taylor's about to ask Joe to roll up the windows so she can get some air when she feels him reach for her right hand. He squeezes it gently before gingerly planting kisses up her forearm. And just like that, she can breathe a little easier.

The car pulls up to a brick semi-detached home, painted a pale blue. It's protected by a cast-iron gate and some shrubbery. Taylor swears to herself that the house looks like it's straight out of a Hugh Grant rom-com.

"You ready to go?" Joe asks, giving Brandon who sits in a separate car a wave.

Taylor nods her head and climbs out of her seat. She feels very grown up as she and Joe walk up the driveway hand in hand.

They reach the front stoop, covered in potted plants and posies, and Joe rings the bell. Taylor's busy fixing her hair, trying to steady her breathing when she feels him dip her forward towards the ground. Joe bends down, now in a squat position, and kisses her deeply, his tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth- just how she likes it.

For a millisecond Taylor relaxes into Joe's arms. That is until she remembers that he's just rung the bell and his parents could open the door at any given moment. The last thing she needs is for their first impression of her to be clouded by the image of their son's tongue down her throat. She promptly pulls away, trying her hardest not to smile. She can't give her boyfriend that kind of satisfaction.

"Joseph Matthew!" she hisses, swatting him with her left hand. "You prick! What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Joe simply shrugs and plants another kiss on Taylor's forehead. His antics send her into such a giggle fit that the chocolate cake in her right hand nearly slips out of her grip.

"You're impossible, do you know that?" she scolds, still laughing.

"I love you too," Joe snorts.

Taylor rolls her eyes at this, secretly loves how goofy her boyfriend is, how he can make her anxieties disappear for a moment in time.

Before she gets the chance to reprimand him, a middle-aged woman in a champagne-colored sweater and dark jeans opens the wood door.

"Joe!" she exclaims, enveloping him in a hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you, darling!" She ruffles his hair a bit and then turns to Taylor and mutters, "It's a miracle that his hair is growing back in, innit? He had long hair in high school, you know. Almost as bad as the buzzcut if not worse. I'll have to show you pictures."