Snow On the Beach (Taylor Swift x Reader)

Silent Plague

"What the fuck?" A wave of cold struck my body as the duvet on top of me was pulled to the ground, my vision distorted for a moment as my eyes flew open. It took a few seconds to comprehend that the body pressed against mine was Taylor's and I remembered where I was. Then I realised whose voice I had just heard.

"Oh shit," I said, practically leaping out of bed, "this looks really bad, doesn't it?" Taylor began to stir but as soon as her eyes fell onto the figure standing by the foot of the bed, she was wide awake. She glanced between us, processing the situation before she understood how we had just looked. Lizzie was stood with her fists clenched and her eyes were burning into me, demanding an explanation.

"I was having a bad night," Taylor insisted, "I don't know what you're thinking right now but I promise nothing happened." Lizzie didn't even give her a second look.

"Can you give us a moment please?" She asked. Taylor glanced at me with worry overflowing in her eyes before making her way out of the room, the sound of the door closing bringing several moments of deafening silence between us. It was then that it fully sunk in: Lizzie was in London. She was here.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned.

"Well, I was going to surprise my girlfriend on our anniversary but turns out she already has a much bigger surprise prepared for me." My heart sank. The situation with Taylor yesterday had made me completely forget about what I was supposed to be dealing with: our anniversary. And now she thought I was cheating on her.

"Lizzie, nothing happened," I said, "she was having a bad night. That's all. This is the first time she's been in my bed." She raised an eyebrow.

"And you felt the need to cuddle up together?" I frowned. Wasn't that an obvious way to comfort someone when they were sad, regardless of your relationship to them?

"It was platonic," I said, "and we weren't that close when we fell asleep. We must've moved closer together while we were sleeping." I completely understood why this would look bad from an outsider's perspective but I was telling the truth. There was nothing going on between me and Taylor, we were long past those days. "We're both in long term relationships, we would never hurt either of you like that. And she's straight." She snorted.

"She's straight?" I could feel my heartbeat hammering against my chest. At the most inconvenient of times, I would be reminded that she knew. She knew about that night.

"Taylor and I have talked about it." My first lie of the day. "We're past it, nothing would ever happen. You know that." There was desperation in my voice now. I couldn't let a misunderstanding ruin our anniversary or worse, our relationship. She sighed.

"You promise you're telling the truth?" Lizzie said. I felt a twinge of guilt. Except that one tiny lie, completely.

"I promise."

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath, "I believe you. Just be careful in future, please?" I nodded. I completely saw where she was coming from and all her feelings were valid. At least we were able to communicate it and resolve it quickly. "Let's start again," she said, a smile replacing her tense expression as she pulled me into a hug. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too," I said, wrapping my arms around her waist. Everything had happened so quickly and only now was I able to soak in the feeling of my girlfriend being in my arms instead of the other side of the world. Then I remembered that I hadn't got her an anniversary gift.

"Lizzie..." I hesitated, stepping back, "I had no idea you'd be here and I didn't know what to get you because we were so far apart so..."

"Hey, it's okay," she interrupted, squeezing my hand, "I didn't expect you to get me anything for obvious reasons. Just seeing you is the best gift I could ask for." She leaned forward and our lips connected, her movements drawing out the kiss to savor the sensations we hadn't shared for months. I cupped her face, staring into her eyes for a few moments just to make sure she was real.