Runaway Autumn

Chapter 5- Take Me to Your Childhood Room

Taylor smiles softly to herself as she takes a closer look at the picture perched on the mantle. It's a photo of Joe, baby Joe actually. He can't be more than three years old, has got tufts of white-blonde hair, big ocean-blue eyes, and chocolate smudged all over his freckled face. As Taylor takes a slow sip of wine, she feels her ovaries tremble a little. She can't stop herself from imagining what a hypothetical baby with Joe would look like.

She quickly pushes these thoughts away though, as nice as they might be, and tells herself that's she's getting carried away. After all, just a year ago she had convinced herself that was never going to have kids.

As her eyes dart to the next picture, she feels strong arms wrap around her shoulders. Taylor's extremely grateful in this moment that Joe can't hear her thoughts. She would die if he knew that she was daydreaming about their future children.

"How are you doing?" Joe breathes into her neck.

Taylor smiles. "Good. The wine's great, your family's nice. No complaints."

"So does this mean you'd be up for a tour of the upstairs?" Joe asks.

"Would I get to see your bedroom?" Taylor smirks, licking her lips.

"Well now I'm intrigued," Joe replies in a low whisper.

Taylor grins, can feel her insides rumbling with passion. She and Joe link arms and start running up the winder staircase, wine glasses in each of their hands. They reach a narrow hallway and then make a left into Joe's room.

It's a fairly large room, painted gray, with lots of natural light, a navy bedspread, and photographs nailed to the wall. Taylor steps closer to the wall to get a better look at the photos. There's one of him and his classmates at drama school, wearing lion costumes. Taylor laughs at Joe in his orange face paint and tights. He looks ridiculous. Upon closer inspection, however, it appears that his arms are wrapped around another girl. A little too close for Taylor's liking. She doesn't love that he has a photo of another girl nailed to his fucking wall.

She doesn't say anything though, doesn't want to spoil their evening. She simply turns to the next photograph and swallows her jealousy. This one is of Joe and his mates. There are six of them all gathered around a pub table, pints of beers in their hands. A sinking feeling returns to Taylor's stomach.

She suddenly feels guilty. Guilty that she and Joe could never do things like that. If she were to join him and his friends at a local pub it would be fucking madness. She can't help but think that Joe might be better off shagging the girl in the drama school photo. He could take her to a pub without having to worry about paparazzi or swarms of fans. He could actually have a life with this girl. A normal life.

Taylor's staring blankly at this wall of photographs, on the verge of tears, when she suddenly feels Joe pull her into his arms. He gives her a tight squeeze and presses a few kisses onto the top of her head. "You know," he says softly, rubbing her back, "it means the world to me that you're here. In London. In my house. In my bloody room."

Taylor's smiling again, feels safe in her boyfriend's arms. "Is this where you used to pine away for me?" she asks sarcastically.

Joe smirks and points to his double bed. "Yeah," he answers in his deep voice, "I used to dream about you on that exact bed."

Wine in her system, Taylor narrows her eyes seductively and whispers, "What kind of things did you dream about?"

Joe grins. "C'mere and I'll show you."

Taylor giggles as he picks her up and tosses her onto the bed. She pulls him on top of her and starts sliding off his maroon sweater as he kisses her neck. Taylor lets a soft moan slip out when he unclapses her bra. Joe's bare-chested, his ripped shoulder muscles on full display. His lips travel from Taylor's neck to her boobs. He sucks on her sweet skin, causing her to dig her nails into his shoulder blades. It feels glorious.