She loved entertaining, having people over and Trav's friends were just like him; ridiculously funny, up for a good time, didn't take themselves seriously and best of all, they'd welcomed her into their fold with open arms. He'd told her, at first, it was hard to wrap their head around the whole thing, but within ten minutes after she met everyone, she was immediately included and they delighted telling Travis stories that she hadn't heard before (much to his chagrin), checking in to make sure she was having fun and just generally treating her like she belonged.
It wasn't something she always had, that sense of fitting in. Consistently, she was too much (too tall, too intense, too successful, too outspoken) or not enough (not talented enough, not pretty enough, not thin enough) and how his friends treated her made her feel less like an oddity and more like a person. To them, she was just Taylor.
Everybody had gone and she and Travis were cleaning up, picking the remnants of their impromptu get together; empty bottles and plates, wine glasses and loading the dishwasher.
They were both fairly buzzed, par for the course when friends were over...just on the edge of drunk enough where everything seemed hysterically funny.
With September's beginning in sight, she found herself mourning the inevitable end of summer evenings in Travis's backyard, sitting around the fire with drinks in hand, sometimes inviting a bunch of friends, other times, just the two of them.
And with that ending, a slow foray into public territory. A mutual decision, to be sure, but she'd kind of miss the happy bubble the two of them had placed themselves in. By choice. It was never an option to keep quiet forever.
Travis's way of loading up dishes equated to stacking them in high piles like he was playing fucking Jenga and she frowned, making an attempt to fix the mess, but she didn't want to spend the time they had together nitpicking. And truthfully, she was too tipsy to figure out a better method.
He closed the door to the dishwasher triumphantly, turning to her with a goofy grin. "We did it!"
She giggled. He made it sound like they'd just scaled Mt. Everest. On second thought, the room was sort of spinning so she could understand his enthusiasm that they'd managed to hold themselves upright.
Inspired by his joy, Taylor took the initiative, encircling his neck with her arms as if they were at a school dance, swaying to non-existent music.
"Are we dancing?" His eyes lit up at the idea. There was absolutely nothing strange to him about them slow dancing in his kitchen at midnight in total silence and God, she loved him for it.
"Yup. That's what we're doing."
His hands came to rest on her hips and he kissed her cheek, high up under her ear. "Oh. Okay."
She laughed into the silk of his shirt. "Don't you wanna know why?"
He grinned, spinning her. "I'll bite. Why?"
"Because I'm so good right now. I'm just feeling so damn good, Trav."
He kissed her temple, chuckling softly against her skin. "The wine?"
"Not just the wine. How it feels. How you all make me feel...like I'm normal."
Her eyes teared up at the corners and she swiped the heel of her hand across her nose. "Do you know what I mean?"
She could tell he wasn't as inebriated as she was and he regarded her solemnly, something crossing over his features.
Tipping her chin, he kissed her, a solitary gentle pressing of his lips to hers and then he held her close, his hand drawing small circles across her lower back.
