After All These Years

Chapter six

You quickly shut the blinds on the room and ran out of it as if Taylor could follow you. you knew she noticed someone had moved in. You had cut the grass on the driveway, two cars were parked there and the lights were on in different parts of the house throughout the night. It was only a matter of time before she realized you were the one that lived there and soon enough that day came. On Wednesday afternoon you heard the doorbell ring from your comfortable place on the couch and walked to open the door. It was Taylor.

"Hi." she said. "I brought you a house warming gift." she said, giving you a sweet and innocent smile and extending her arms to give you a bag.

"Hi Taylor, thank you so much." you say taking the bag from her arms. The both of you stand there for a little while not really knowing what to do. "Umm do you wanna come in?" you say moving aside to let her into your house, she steps in and you give her a tour of it.

"Wel y/n it's really beautiful you really outdid yourself on the decorations." Taylor says admiring your kitchen and sitting on a stool at the counter while you pour some water into a glass.

"Well I can't really take all the credit Kevin helped a lot and to be honest he is the one that did most of the work." you say giving her the water and she gives you a small small in return.

"Is Kevin the chef?" she asks, trying to remember who your friend was and you nod yes in response. "I heard Ryan is getting married, is that true?"

"Yeah, to Sadie the tall bunette who." you began but Taylor interrupted you.

"The journalist?" she asked.

"Yeah her. How do you know? They just got engaged a month ago and haven't told anyone." you ask surprised she knows that.

"No one actually." she says laughing. "I saw both of them at an Oscars pre-dinner party and I saw her show the ring to Andrew Garfield."

"Oh okay so you were stalking them?" you ask, teasing her and you could see the blood rush into her cheeks, painting them a light shade of pink.

"I wasn't stalking them, they were on the table in front of me that's all." she says, defending herself making you laugh.

"Taylor I know that. I'm just teasing you" you say taking out a wine bottle from the fridge. "Do you want some?" you say changing the subject for Taylor's sake, still blushing she just nods. You pour some wine into the glasses and give her one.

"How's your mom doing?" you ask her knowing Andrea has had some health issues in the past. You have hung out with Andrea many times in the past and you really wished nothing but health for her, she was a very sweet woman.

"Well right now she is not as healthy as I would like but she is doing fine, her cancer is still in remission." she says, taking a sip from her wine glass.

"I'm happy she's doing alright." you say.

You and Taylor keep talking for a while and before you realize the sun is down and you two are a little bit tipsy. The conversations runs so perfectly it reminds you of the old times in which you and Taylor would talk for hours on end without ever getting bored. You talked about what you had been doing lately, about your friends, families, projects for the future etc. Taylor left at around 10pm and you went to bed but you couldn't sleep. Everytime you close your eyes Taylor's face appeared and you catch yourself smiling a few times, you have no idea how long it took you to actually fall asleep.

You were happy you could have conversations with Taylor without them being awkward since you two will probably be seeing a lot of each other now that you live next to each other. You were at ease knowing that things wouldn't be awkward with the future interactions you'll have.

The next few days you don't see Taylor, you only see her car parked there every now and then. To be honest you haven't been home that much either. You did a few auditions, hung out with friends and bought the last few things you needed for the house. On Saturday you got a facetime call from your mother.

"Hi honey." she said as soon as she saw your face through the phone screen.

You were about to answer when your sister interrupted. "Hi sis hey do you think you can ask Taylor for tickets to a Lover Fest show?" Emma said excitedly.

"Emma! don't ask her that." your mom says a bit angry looking at her daughter.

"Oh come on mom would you rather pay for the ticket yourself or have your daughter ask Taylor Swift herself for the tickets." Emma said.

"Well yeah but Taylor is her ex. I don't think it's that easy." your mom answered and her and Emma got into a discussion if it would be appropriate for you to ask Taylor for tickets completely forgetting you are still on the call.

"Umm hello I'm still here." you say interrupting the two women, "listen Emma I won't ask Taylor directly but I'll talk to Miranda to see if she can get some."

"Thanks. I love you sis" Emma says, smiling happily and leaves the room.

"Isn't she supposed to be in college?" you ask your mother.

"She just came back for the weekend. But I wanted to see your new house now that it is ready. I'm waiting for a virtual tour, at least until I can go visit." she says and you give her a house tour even though it's very vague and there are some parts she can't really see well through the tiny phone screen.

"Oh sweetheart it looks so beautiful I can't wait to see it in person when I go down to visit. I was talking with your father and maybe we can go during spring break you know? Emma and Nick will be both on vacation, I can't take some days from work and so can your father." your mom says hopeful.

Your mom is the general manager of a local supermarket back in Seattle, your father works in advertising, Emma is in college about to graduate with a major in marketing and Nick is about to graduate high school on his way to USC. He is a lacrosse player and got a full scholarship to college. You are excited to have him closer to you, you hope to be able to go see his games since you haven't been able to watch him play much. Growing up you always had everything you needed, when you told your parents you wanted to be an actress your mom took you to get some headshots and took you to LA during the summer where for some reason you got cast in Nobody Knows a mystery t.v. show where you met Emilia and Ryan. That role changed your life. The show became one of the biggest shows in the world and you were also lucky enough to be cast in movies with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

It was hard growing up far from home but you were doing what you loved and that made it all worth it. Since Seattle isn't really that far from California you saw your family constantly it was easy to travel from one city to another. You always had a good relationship with your family. The only time it was bad was a few months after you came out of the closet but once your parents accepted it everything went back to normal. Nick was too young to understand what was happening so he never really understood all those months of tension and fights in between the three of you. Emma on the other hand understood everything and she was always your biggest supporter. You were quite content with your family. You were all close and loved each other.

"Yeah mom, that sounds great, you should definitely come visit." you say excited.

You talk to your mom for a while more, she asks how it is living next to Taylor and you tell her it's not bad or awkward. You ask how work is doing and basically just catch up on what has been going on lately. After about an hour you hang up and go take a shower.

Kevin comes pick you up and drives you to his house, he is trying to come up with some new dishes for his restaurant and needs people to taste it so now you find yourself sitting in his dining room along with Ryan, Sadie, Kevin's boyfriend and his parents.

He gives you about 8 dishes and they are all spectacular, you all give your notes and opinions. By the end of the tasting you can't have anything else. You are too full to think straight just looking at the leftovers makes you feel sick but still you don't regret a single bite you ate tonight. Of course they all tease you about your new living situation but you just try to ignore them all. At around midnight Ryan and Sadie drive you back to your house.