Everything Has Changed

Life As We Know It

August 21st 2024
London, England

She was meant to be packing. Packing up their beautiful detached house in London to return home to Travis in Kansas City. But instead Taylor found herself hunched over the porcelain toilet bowl of their ensuite bathroom for the third time that day. She didn't have the time, or the energy to be ill. She had to make sure everything in the house was packed up so that the moving people could ship it back to the US. Plus she had a meeting with Tree that afternoon before she flew back to Kansas City in the morning. 

She felt miserable. Her whole last concerts in London had been pure misery. She had felt sick almost every show, almost collapsing one night as she bowed goodbye after performing her finale: Karma. It had at least been on schedule. Every morning she christened the new day with a trip to the bathroom to say hello to whatever it was that she had eaten the night before, that was if she wasn't sick during the night as well. She also felt incredibly fatigued but with an enjoyable two month break to look forward to, it could have been anything. All she could do was curl up in a ball on the tiled bathroom floor, patiently and anxiously awaiting the next bout of vomiting, which she could sense was not far off.

A familiar buzz issued from her phone and she could see that Travis was FaceTiming her as he normally did. It was just after lunchtime where she was in London which meant that it was almost eight in the morning for Travis. He would be getting up to go to practice; with the pre-season now fully underway, Travis had to reluctantly leave Taylor behind in Europe to allow her to complete the final dates of her Europe Eras Tour Leg. Part of her wished for Travis to have been there: to comfort her through this past week of illness and to at least distract her with his goofy smile and bundles of happiness and energy. But another part of her was glad. She already lost one man who didn't want to marry her and Taylor was all but convinced that if Travis saw what she saw right at that very moment: hair askew, clumps of vomit clinging to her curls and a bright sheen of sweat across her forehead, he would run a mile. Or a thousand.

Taylor pulled herself up off of the bathroom floor and dragged herself over to her bed where her iPad rested on the nightstand on what had been her side of the bed. She slipped on her dressing gown over her shoulders and finally answered the call.

"Hey Trav" She droned, her voice sounding nasally and tainted with illness.

"Oh Tay. Are you sure you are ok to travel. You really aren't looking so good."

"Well thank you very much!" Taylor joked, laughing a little but stopping when she felt herself having to cough. Whenever she coughed, which that week had been all of the time, she always felt more sick coming up, if that was even possible.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. No matter what, you are still beautiful to me. I just wish I could be there with you." Travis sighed, rubbing his hand over his face as she could see him shovelling cereal into his mouth.

"I can see you are cooking some real gourmet meals in my absence Trav!" She chuckled, observing Travis almost choke on a mouthful of cinnamon toast crunch cereal which happened to be one of his favourites. She watched as he wiped the stray milk from his beard with the sleeve of his hoodie. 

"It's a good thing you are cute. What time is your flight tomorrow?"

"Umm 11:30am I think. Tree has a car thats going to take me to Stanstead to catch the jet so I should be back into New York around dinnertime. I only have a few things to do in New York but won't be back home until night."

"I'll come and pick you up after practice. Maybe we could order some takeout and watch a movie or something?" Travis offered and Taylor nodded, hoping that this illness would subside enough for her to enjoy some time with Travis over the coming days. She knew that their quality time together would soon dwindle with the 2024 NFL season fast approaching. "What about that place on- wait hang on.... Benji thats not your food. Hang on a second Tay." She watched him disappear and fight what seemed to be an apple from Benjamin's mouth. Taylor's mom had dropped the cats back off at their house after Travis returned to Kansas City for training camp and the beginnings of the pre-season. She knew that Travis felt lonely without his dogs Rambo and Chauncey anymore but she was glad that he seemed to have formed a close bond with her cats. He had been officially  upgraded to cat dad status when Taylor bought him his own Itty Bitty Kitty Committee T-shirt for Father's Day.