A request on how Travis realized he was in love with Taylor. The second part will have some content of this past weekend. :)
It wasn't one specific moment that walloped Travis over the head, per say. There was no way of knowing when they first met, if it would work out. All he knew at the time was they had fun, she was beautiful and genuinely amazing to be around and surprisingly, they had a lot in common. They were getting to know each other at a leisurely pace since she'd just ended a long term relationship and it'd been awhile for him. There was no real need to rush.
It hadn't taken long though for him to realize that whatever happened to be going on was very real. He could've easily chalked it up to the infatuation stage where you constantly thought about the other person when you weren't in contact with them which also happened to be constant, between the texting, calling, FaceTiming. He'd been in that stage before, where you couldn't see two feet in front of you because you were so blinded by that other person, but you tried to play it cool, not show your cards.
There was no showboating with her, no concealing what he was thinking; couldn't do it if he tried. It was all over his damn face when her name was so much as mentioned and he felt it, too. She'd come in and taken down those old walls he'd put up years ago without even trying, just by being who she was. He'd quickly figured out that he didn't want to hide any of himself from her...for better or for worse, he wanted her to know him.
Which very well should've been at least remotely scary, but wasn't. Not even a little. Tay was the type of person who made it easy. She'd text him pictures of things she'd seen that she knew would make him laugh. She checked in, every single day to find out how practice went, she constantly told him how proud of was...little things that added up to his heart opening up in ways it hasn't been able to in a long while.
They'd been together for a little over month when he knew. When he was a hundred percent certain as she lay in his arms, in his bed, curled into him. His hand sat comfortably along the curve of her lower back, her head on his chest.
It was the kind of quiet that comes at night; sleepy and satiated and having her so close felt good, the way it should be.
He ran his finger down the bend of her elbow, the kind of touch that said everything without real words and she turned slightly, those impossibly blue eyes locking with his.
"Hi." Her mouth stretched into a tired smile. "You look like there's something on your mind."
Travis lay a kiss by her temple. "Just happy you're here."
"Oh," her nose scrunched thoughtfully, "yeah, me too.
There was a quick internal debate whether or not he should say it aloud, wrestling with freaking her out (too much, too soon) and not wanting her to feel the pressure to say it back...but also wanting to be honest, to put it out there into the universe.
"So, Tay---"
Too casual, he thought, cursing himself. It's like you're about to ask her if she picked up milk or some stupid shit like that.
Taking a deep breath, he started again. "Taylor, listen, I've been...it's been an amazing month and I just wanted to let you know, I'm happy. Just seeing your name pop up in my texts gives me the biggest, goofy ass stupid smile...when we can't talk for awhile, I can't wait to get home to tell you about the day and find out about yours. And when I see you again, it's like no time has passed. Sorry, I'm fucking blowing this. Jesus." He shook his head, willing himself to slow down. "Guess I should probably get to the point. Okay, the thing is--- I love you."
Travis paused, his declaration met with complete silence.
Ah, shit, you big asshole. You just ruined everything because you couldn't keep your dumb jabroni mouth shut. She's probably ---
