'tis the damn season - a tayvis short story.

// one.

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Tay! You made it!" Blake yelled as Taylor approached her with her bag in her hand. This was a last minute trip for Taylor. Blake and her husband, Ryan, had been trying to get her out to their "cabin getaway" since they purchased it last year. Taylor's original answer for this Christmas was 'no,' seeing as she was supposed to be spending her Christmas holiday in Orlando, Florida with her boyfriend and his family. However, after a more than necessary argument, the several day long screaming match ended with the slamming of doors and Joe packing his things and leaving. They had only been dating a year, but Taylor felt maybe their relationship would go somewhere further. After their break up was official in her eyes, Taylor called Blake to ask if her offer was still on the table. After getting a quick yes, she packed a bag and got the first flight out of Los Angeles to Colorado to spend the holiday season with her co-worker turned best friend, her husband, and a couple of other friends that they shared from the office.

"Of course I did; once I got rid of the dead weight, the road is open to explore again," Taylor said with a smile, hugging Blake. While Joe wasn't controlling, he did not see exploration as fun last time, whether it was in their city or outside of it. Over the year of being with him, she noticed more and more how incompatible they were. He loves being in the house doing nothing, sitting in silence. While she liked to go out and hang with friends. She was boisterous. She was colorful. She wasn't the type to just sit around and do nothing. She was active. The only person who ever understood that about her was someone she left behind in New York a little over five years ago.

"I told you he wasn't right for you. I'm happy you finally started that argument and ended things," Blake replied. Taylor rolled her eyes. It was almost laughable that Blake knew her well enough to know that she started the fight with Joe that led to her being single again. It was true. She asked Joe one question, and it started a ripple effect, which led to screaming, doors slamming, and eventually him leaving. She was relieved when he walked out of the door of her apartment. It was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders the second he vanished from the door. 

"Anyways. Let's go," Taylor said with a laugh. She didn't want to get into this conversation again. It was one that Blake regularly brought up. How Taylor was too good to be with someone like Joe. How she had no idea how Taylor even lasted the amount of time she did with someone like him. Taylor usually just shrugged off any opinions about Joe, and she judged him for herself. The problem with judging him for herself is that she let the judging phase last extremely too long. 

"We're just waiting on Ry's friend. I think you guys were on the same flight." Blake told her, seeing that her friend was ready to change the subject and get out of the airport as quickly as possible.

"Oh, cool. Is he cute? Maybe I can use him as a distraction to get over Joe," Taylor said jokingly as she laughed.

"He might be your type, Tay, honestly," Ryan told her. "Do we have to do that "oh no there's only one bed" trope that you girls like reading about in those sex books you two gossip about all the time,"

"Shut up," Taylor said, pushing Ryan backward. "I plan on being single for a very long time. Thank you very much."

"You can be single and still get your brains fucked out of you, just saying." Blake told her, wiggling her eyebrows slightly.

"No," Taylor said, regretting even mentioning hooking up with Ryan's friend that she had never met before. 

"Use a condom. Live a little." Taylor rolled her eyes at Ryan's words. "He's a good guy, and he's single,"  Ryan told her. 

"I think I'll pass," Taylor told him. Maybe something could happen once she met the man and saw what he was like. But she wasn't about to let Blake and Ryan let her blindly sleep with someone just because she was newly single. "Anyway, did Abi, Selena, and her girlfriend make it yet?" Taylor asked Blake.

"Abigail got in yesterday. Selena and Cara said they wanted to bond and make it a road trip. I think they left yesterday," Blake informed her friend. Taylor just shook her head. 

"It probably took them 10 hours just to get out of LA," Taylor said, referring to the horrible traffic that was LA traffic. It was the holidays and traffic was about five times worse than it usually was, which was frustrating as a local. She was kind of happy to be out of the hussle and bussle of LA and in a place that was more claim, and a bit more serene.

"I think they've made it to Colorado already actually. They should be in in a couple of hours," Blake confirmed. 

"Cara must be driving," Taylor said with a laugh, knowing that Selena drove like a grandma that was scared of being on the road.

"I can confirm that Cara is indeed driving," Blake laughed. "Last time I talked to Sel she was being a passenger princess an complaining about Cara speeding down an open road with no one on it."

"She'll never change," Taylor laughed.

"What's up, man! Glad you could make it!" Ryan said, walking over to his friend as Taylor and Blake had their conversation. 

"Thanks for the invite man. Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas this year for some reason," the man said. The voice caused Taylor to freeze. It was a familiar voice. It was one she knew too well. 

"Tay, you okay?" Blake asked, seeing her demenor change suddenly. 

"Let me introduce you to the wife and her friend," Ryan said as his voice got closer.

"I...." Taylor started to say, but before she could get anymore out, Ryan approached with his friend.

"Taylor?" the man said, the moment he got close enough to both Taylor and Blake.

"Travis..." Taylor said back, knots starting to tie up in her stomach as she looked at the man. She hadn't seen or talked to him since the moment he walked out of their apartment the night she learned that he was cheating on  her. Every feeling she had then was rushing back now. He had been her everything. He was all she ever once wanted. And now, he was a stranger. He looked the same, but she didn't know him the way she once was.

"You guys know each other?" Blake asked, a little confused as her eyes darted back and forth between the two of them.

"That's my ex," Taylor and Travis said in unison as they stared at each other. Neither of them could believe they were in the other's presence again.