When Emma Falls in Love (Taylor Swift x OC)

Monsoons and Dark Rooms

September 6, 2016.

One - Emma

The fall air sent a chill down Emma's spine, her thin coat doing almost nothing to fight the dropping September temperatures. What had once been a pleasant breeze had now turned into violent winds whipping around her honey brown hair. The only thing she wanted to do was sit in her art room with a warm cup of tea. Emma had been sitting on the park bench for almost two hours, people watching and looking at the changing leaves to try and find some inspiration to draw.

She was a painter, if you count the recent commissioned paintings she had done of a set of twins dressed as a pirate and an alligator and a cartoon of someone's pug with comically large eyes. So far one of the only worthwhile thing she had learned during her short attempt at an art career was that rich people were willing to pay decent money for dumb paintings of their children and pets.

Being an artist had been her dream for as long as she could remember. Some children wanted to be princesses, she wanted to be an artist. Most children grew out of their childhood dreams, she didn't. Emma had thought about her younger self many times sitting on this park bench. Would she be proud of the silly paintings Emma had been doing recently? Probably, but it didn't take much to make a five year old proud. She tried to think of the last time she had done a painting that her twenty three year old self was truly proud of and she couldn't remember.

Emma's thoughts were cut short by a loud clap of thunder. It wasn't supposed to rain for another hour at the very least, but the thought of being outside in a storm terrified her. She had problems trusting anyone, let alone the weatherman. She gathered her empty notebook and started walking towards her flat a couple blocks away. The flat had three bedrooms: one hers, one her roommates, and the other had been converted into an art studio. On her short walk home it had started drizzling, which quickly turned into a downpour.

Upon arriving at her flat, her roommate met her at the door.

Amanda looked from her dripping hair to her squishing shoes. She moved out of the doorway and ushered Emma in, laughing slightly. "Get caught in the rain?'

"I think it was more like a monsoon." Emma mumbled, taking her soaked shoes and socks off and heading straight for the laundry hamper.

"It couldn't have been that bad Em, it only rained for like five minutes."

Emma turned around and looked at her roommate with a dead stare. "Amanda," she said, using her given name which was something she rarely did, "I look like I've just gone through a car wash and skipped the dryer."

Amanda shrugged her shoulders and retorted, "Maybe you did, I don't know. Or you could have fallen in the pond by that bench you like. Sounds like something you'd do. Did you get any ideas for the painting you wanted to start?"

"Not a single shred of one." Emma answered, putting her hand in the air and putting her thumb and pointer finger as close together as she could without touching. "That's how big the creative part of my brain is right now. I think the last cell died when I put the finishing touches on the last astronaut dog I did. I want to paint something I can feel proud of, Mandy." The jobs she had been finding recently paid fairly well for a freelance painter, but Emma could still feel every bit of creativity inside her being stripped away.

"I'm sure you'll find something soon babes, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Hell, maybe you can fall in love with a prince and paint the concept of a true love's kiss." Amanda giggled and Emma threw the nearest pillow at her.

"I'm going to go shower so I can stop feeling like a sewer rat." Emma took her time in the shower, making sure to wash out every touch of outside on her skin and shampooing her hair twice.

After Emma had showered and changed into the comfiest pair of pajamas she could find, she walked into the kitchen to find Amanda with a bag of food from their favorite Chinese place. It had started pouring again. The pair had gone through with their rainy day tradition of eating chinese food while watching episodes of New Girl and The Office. Emma eventually fell asleep on the couch during the sixth or seventh episode, long after Amanda had already excused herself to her room for bed.

When Emma woke up, she looked around the still dark room in search of some kind of light. When that search fell fruitless, she started feeling around on the mattress to find her phone. The phone had fallen in between two of the cushions and was dead when Emma was finally able to dig it out. She got up and started feeling her way towards her room, tripping on various objects that had ended up on the floor. After successfully navigating her way around the pitch black living room Emma's foot met the leg of a chair. She grabbed for anything around her but only found air as she fell to the floor and whacked her nose against the hardwood floor.

"Shit!" she exclaimed as she pinched her nose to try and stop the bleeding. After almost ten minutes, Emma had finally managed to get over to the bathroom and turn a light on where she could finally see her now swollen nose. She grabbed a cloth out of a drawer and held it around her nose until the bleeding stopped and she was able to get some ice.

Emma didn't really know what to do with a broken nose, the only time she had ever broken anything was when she fell off a horse when she was seven and broke her wrist. She remembered her dead phone and plugged it up and pulled out her laptop to google what she was supposed to do. According to the wise Dr. Google, she just needed to take some ibuprofen and ice it. She popped a couple ibuprofen and went back over to her bed.

Her phone had turned on and she had two notifications: a text from her mother and an email from someone named tree. Emma clicked on the email and started to read it.

Dear Ms Emma Renners,

I hope this email finds you well. I have heard exceptional things about your artwork, especially the pieces regarding animals. I have a client who is asking to have a portrait done of their cat. If you are interested, my contact information is below as well as a picture of the aforementioned cat.

Thank you,

Tree Paine

Emma's first thought was that the idea of painting another cat dressed as Santa or some other dumb thing made her want to curl up in a ball and cry. This is not what she wanted to be doing with her life at the ripe age of twenty three. She had graduated from high school early at the age of sixteen and graduated college three years later with a fine arts degree. Her parents had pushed her to pursue something more stable, a teacher or something of the sort. Emma had, of course, refused. She was going to be an artist if her life depended on it. For the first time, Emma had started to think that her parents may have been right.

Her second thought was that whoever the hell this 'client' was would probably pay very well considering they have someone to send their emails for them. Emma considered it for a moment and, upon the realization that she had nothing better to do, opened the image attached to the email.

The image opened up to a light gray and white Scottish Folds cat. In the image the cat is laying in a white bowl with blue flowers on it, big eyes staring straight into the camera. Emma couldn't help but laugh slightly at the nature of the photograph.

Emma replied quickly, sending back a message saying that she was interested, and asked about a couple other details. Tree suggested they get coffee that afternoon to discuss it further, to which Emma agreed.

They met at a small coffee shop at noon that day. When she entered the coffee shop, she ordered a small caramel coffee and then walked over to the redhead who had smiled at her when she first walked in.

"Tree Paine?" Emma asked. When Tree nodded her head Emma sat down at the seat across from her. "I'm Emma Renners." The two talked for a little over an hour, first discussing Emma's broken nose, then going over details of the job. The portrait needed to be completed in time for a party that would be held on Halloween. They were looking for a painting of the cat wearing a gown and a crown. They discussed the size of the painting, which really should have been called a small mural. The two of them talked about the price.

After that, Emma had no choice but to say yes. The amount they were willing to pay was enough to cover at least six months of rent and groceries.

Emma thanked Tree for the offer and accepted.