Love Story (Taylor Swift x fem!OC)

Chapter 46

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Gabi's head jerked up from the sound of something banging against her apartment's door. She knew she wasn't expecting anyone, so why did she hear knocking on her door? She decided to wait. It was probably some of the neighbors' kids ding dong ditching.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Gabi groaned, heading for the front door. Whoever this was, they were being awfully persistent. She opened the door. "I swear to God, if your name is Max or Lila or Julianna, and you've just run away, I will actually-"

"Unfortunately, I'm not a Max or a Lila or a Julianna, but I am a Taylor," a familiar blonde interrupted. Gabi gasped.

"Taylor?!" Taylor opened her arms.

"The one and only!"

"Oh. My. God. I just threatened Taylor Swift."

"Don't worry, babe," Taylor said, and Gabi immediately came in for a hug, holding on for a moment too long. "Anyway," Taylor continued, when the brunette pulled away, "didn't you notice the knocks?" Gabi's eyebrows were knit together, eyes looking a little lost. "No?"

"What? Did you- but you didn't-" Taylor just nodded smugly. "Dammit! I should've counted. Of course you did the knocks in thirteen knock increments. Damn. What kind of a Swiftie am I?"

"Clearly not the biggest one," Taylor teased.

"Hey! Well, actually, your mom definitely beats me, but I still get the title of Second-biggest Swiftie," Gabi said adamantly. Taylor just laughed that way. The way that made Gabi melt inside every. Single. Time.

"You're actually catching up. Who knows. Maybe in a year, you'll be my biggest fan." All Gabi could think inside was, God, I hope it doesn't take that long.

What actually came out though, was, "Yeah, maybe."

Gabi shook her head, clearing her thoughts away. "Anyway, not that the surprise is unwelcome, but, um... what are you doing here?"

"Am I not allowed to surprise my friend?"

"No, I mean, you are. But, like, you just kinda came here. In the middle of tour."

"Well, I was pretty close by for the New Jersey shows, so I figured I'd pay a visit to my favorite person." Gabi smiled, looking down as her cheeks heated up.

"Well, I was looking online earlier for some cookie recipes, and was reading through one that looked cool when you knocked. Wanna try it out?" Taylor immediately started to grin.

"Of course! I LOVE baking!" Gabi just smiled before the two headed into the kitchen.

About three hours, thirty minutes, one batch of cookies in the oven, miraculous amounts of excess ingredients spilled all over the counters, and an even more miraculously avoided flour-throwing fight later, the familiar sound of the oven beeping started up.

"YAY! THE COOKIES ARE DONE!!" Taylor squealed. "LET'S TAKE THEM OUT!!" Gabi just smiled at the musician. She was definitely the type that was happy when they see people they care about happy. She quickly slipped oven mitts on, opening the oven and pulling the cookie tray out, setting it down on the stove. Taylor made quick work of removing the cookies from the tray onto a rack to cool off. "OH MY GOD THEY'RE ADORABLE!!!" Taylor shouted.

The cookies were simple shortbread but cut out in the shape of different music symbols, mostly treble clefs and different note values. The two had spent hours painstakingly cutting out each shape given that neither had the cookie cutters they would have needed to get the shapes they wanted.

"I almost don't want to eat them," Gabi joked.

Taylor looked mortified. "You have to eat them! Otherwise, what was the point of all this?" she asked, gesturing wildly at the mess the two had made in the kitchen. Gabi just shrugged.

Figuring she'd go all for the annoying, patronizing, school-teacher route, she replied with "Don't you know, Tay? It's all about the process, not the final destination! It was a lot of fun, and that's what this is all about."

Taylor just huffed before turning away from Gabi, saying, "You're weird. I give up." Gabi just laughed, pulling the blonde into a hug from behind, nestling her face in the crook of her neck.

"I'm only joking." Taylor smiled, relaxing into the hug. She let out a tiny, barely audible sigh.

"I know."

The two stood there like that for a little while, Gabi rocking them side to side gently for a few minutes before pulling away. "Okay. Now we have to clean up." Taylor nodded.

"We kinda... wrecked the place."

"I can't even see what the original counter top looked like!" Gabi joked. At that, the two groaned from the thought of having to clean up the mess before beginning the difficult task of cleaning up the mess that came from baking for three and a half hours.

An additional hour and a half later, the kitchen was in better condition that it had started out. The counters glistened from the window light hitting them, and every single dish had been washed, dried, and put away so nothing was out of place.

And finally, finally, finally, Gabi and Taylor could enjoy their cookies in peace. The two took their first bites at the same time, sighing in unison. "That was-" Taylor started.

"So worth it," Gabi cut in. Taylor just nodded.

"And it didn't even take that long! Only..." Taylor glanced at her phone. "Holy shit! It's been FIVE HOURS!" Gabi just shrugged.

"Honestly, I thought it'd take longer."

"Yeah, if we hadn't stopped that flour fight, that would have made it a lot longer," Taylor agreed. "Anyway, I should probably head home soon..."

"When's your first show?" Gabi asked.

"Friday." Two days away.

Silence hung in the air for what felt like forever before Gabi finally rushed out, "It's kinda late anyway, so do you want to just spend the night here? And you don't have a show tomorrow, so it'll be fine, and it'll be safer anyway." She ended her spiel with a small "please" at the end. Taylor hesitated.

"Okay... hang on. Let me just message my security."

And one short text conversation later, during which both girls somehow had enough time to completely overthink the entire situation, it was decided. Taylor would stay over at Gabi's before heading back to New Jersey the next day. It was safe to say the two had some serious butterflies in their stomachs.