Everything Has Changed

Love Actually

December 25th 2023
Kansas City, Missouri

It hadn't been the Christmas Day that any of them had expected, or wished for. Travis had a game that day and they had planned for Taylor's family to stay with Travis' dad at his old house in Kansas City before celebrating Christmas Day fully on Boxing Day. But would any of that even happen.

It had been a close game, followed by a devastating loss: 14-20, with the Las Vegas Raiders just securing a win. The team hadn't been playing as well as they could have been and she could see that the losses were finally getting to Travis' head. He had been doing well to put them out of his mind recently but today he seemed to not be the same. Icier than their front porch. A few of Travis' friends from Cleveland had stayed for a small gathering at the old house afterwards and Taylor could see Travis putting on a brave face. It was not the expression or disposition she loved; everything about his facade was fake. The plan all along had been for his dad Ed and her parents to stay longer for some drinks that evening at their house and maybe a few family games before Ed left for Philadelphia the next day but the mood was sour. Like the grapes of wrath and Taylor felt it good not to antagonise Travis any further as so made the executive decision to shut up shop for the night. She bid goodbye to her parents, who promised to see her in the morning, and Ed, wishing him a safe flight to Philly before shutting the door behind them. 

That was it. They were left alone. 

Travis was nowhere to be found, or seen. And maybe that was for the best. Taylor found it best to leave Travis after a loss, leaving him to lick his wounds and then come crawling back to her. It was probably not the most healthy of approaches to a relationship but Brittany had warned her that it was often times for the best. It's what worked for her and Patrick and them seemed to be a pretty solid couple. And she had nothing to loose at this point, but it didn't stop her frustrations. Christmas was Taylor's favourite time of year, especially from growing up on a Christmas tree farm as a kid. But now her first Christmas with Travis, her first of hopefully many, was tainted by Travis' foul mood. 

The room was dark, all but black apart from the twinkling Christmas lights on the two Christmas Trees in sight downstairs. The house was instagram worthy and contained a total of 5 Christmas trees: three real ones and two artificial ones. It was one of the first times in years that she had a real Christmas tree picked from the farm again. Not her farm, but a cute one near their house west of Kansas City. There were mountains of Christmas presents sat un opened under the Christmas tree and as Taylor sat there on the couch she wondered how in a mere few hours the place that was like a piece of her soul had become like an unwanted visitor. She felt like a stranger, an uninvited guest in her own house. She didn't even want to call it home anymore, for that would make her heart ache worse. But she had to be strong, and if Travis wasn't going to do the things that needed to be done, she would have to. 

Taylor had been in the process of putting away the hoover into one of closets that she reserved for cleaning products when she stumbled past Travis' office, the door ajar. Not wanting to interrupt the sleeping dragon, she simply edged her ear closer to the opening to catch a glimpse of the sounds coming from the room. When she heard nothing but a few short sniffles Taylor changed tactics and swapped her ear for her ears, peering in to see Travis curled with one knee hugged into his chest, his eyes focussed on his screen. Taylor could see clear as day that Travis was doing the thing everyone told them not to do: read people's opinions in the media. She saw as his eyes scanning the computer screen in front of him on the desk and decided to leave him to it. He would come to her when he was ready, at least she hoped he would. But before she could make her way back downstairs, a load bang confirmed that something had hit the wall. Its vibrations shook the shelves on the wall and Taylor all but prayed that it had been his possessions and not his punch that had caused the damage.