This part is mature. :)
What the idea lacked in practicality, it more than made up for it in sentiment. Taylor found herself far less worried about her boyfriend collapsing from insomnia or getting murdered on the field because he was too exhausted to function. Her anxiety levels went way, way down and she could concentrate on the list of things to accomplish before she left the country.
She liked feeling needed. There had been a long period of time when she'd been under the impression she was needy, always wanting too much, always asking for too much. No one, save her family, allowed her to take care of them. It had either been emasculating or insulting on some cellular level that she thought she could understand; she told herself she could, at any rate. People tended to be terrified of self-made women and if she wanted to rock the boat, all she had to do was to make any sort of suggestion.
When Travis hadn't taken her up on her offer the first time around, the same sort of hurt had been dredged back and it had taken her a few days to understand that the situation wasn't the same. The only reason for his concern was because he always placed her first.
It shouldn't have surprised her. He was one of the most unselfish people she knew and even the idea of her having to go out of her way (or what he percieved as out of her way) to accommodate him wasn't something he was willing to do.
As much as she loved the man, he was also unyieldingly stubborn. She couldn't believe that he was fine with resembling a corpse for nearly a week out of fear of inconveniencing her life. It was nuts.
She'd spoken to Donna about it before, about how he was just about the sweetest person she'd ever encountered, but boy, when he got an idea in that brain of his, was he difficult.
Donna had smiled in recognition. "That's Travis for you. He'll give you the shirt off his back in a blizzard, but if someone gave him their coat, he wouldn't take it. He gets it from his father. You could never tell Ed anything."
But somehow he had let her in and they were both better for it. It was working for them and she was determined they would make it work for the duration of the period they had to be apart.
He was due to touch down within the hour and he'd be at the concert. It was almost impossible to contain the elation over seeing him. Not only seeing him in such a gorgeous setting, but him attending her show in such a vastly different context than before was slightly mind-blowing.
There was a small part of her that was slightly nervous. Having him out there, knowing where he'd be and actually getting to sing directly to him...it was all like a fever dream.
She wasn't worried about being distracted. Like Travis, she had a good handle on focus while she was working. It was Trav that was slightly concerned that his presence would be drawing the attention from where it should be and her having to reassure him that the only thing that mattered to her was having him be there.
She'd left the Thursday after Halloween, flying back to New York to tie up some loose ends on the Wednesday and the dinner Travis had told her he was planning as a holiday celebration turned out to be a sort of goodbye party as the tour relaunched.
It should've tipped her off that a "Halloween dinner party," was never a phrase she'd expected to hear uttered from his lips and clearly, she had good reason to be suspicious.
It was adorable, nonetheless, the care he'd put into having friends there, making a special night out of it and the fact they'd decided to play into the joke of being Barbie and Ken and actually going as Barbie and Ken made the entire thing sweeter somehow.
It'd been difficult to fully sleep that night, even though he was next to her, even though she was tucked into his arms and it was because of the knowledge that she was about to leave. As confident as she was that they'd be fine, the thought was still a hard concept to wrap her brain around.
