best thing that's ever been mine - a Kaylor story

Chapter 12

"And you just decided that if she wanted to hold your hand in public, she could?" Tree asks suspiciously.

It is three days after Karlie and Taylor's public breakfast date and Tree is sitting with them in Taylor's kitchen, papers laid out in front of her, holding a steaming cup of coffee.

"It was what she needed to hear!" Taylor says defensively and looks over at Karlie affectionately.

"Well, I'm glad Karlie said no because she spared me a whole lot of cleanup. I mean, we haven't even released the statement about the breakup yet. Imagine what a headache that would have been. 'Taylor Swift cheating on Calvin Harris with her female BFF.'"

Karlie chuckles at Tree's comment. "That would have been a new one, Taylor cheating on Adam."

"Not one I would have liked all that much, I admit," Taylor says thoughtfully.

Karlie takes Taylor's hand and kisses it softly. "It doesn't matter now, though," she says with a smile.

"You're right," Taylor replies and looks over at Tree, "we have more pressing issues to discuss today."

"Right," Tree says, and fiddles with her papers, looking for a particular one, "there are two things we need to deal with today. The first one is this." She places a piece of paper in front of Taylor and Karlie.

Karlie quickly skims the short statement, nodding to herself as she reads.

"As you can see, this is what I will send to Gossip Cop to confirm that you and Adam are actually broken up. There have been quite a few rumors floating around lately. Add up what Adam told that girl on New Year's Eve, and you not attending his birthday party, and you have a lot of people, fans and otherwise, drawing the conclusion that you're no longer together. I didn't think a more elaborate confirmation would be necessary, but if you want to crush the rumors about him cheating on you, I can quickly alter it before I send it out."

Karlie looks at Taylor, who is clearly weighing her options before answering.

"I think you should just send it out as it is," Taylor finally says, "those rumors started because he fucked up, and even though he entered into this willingly and has done his part, I am not going to clean up for him. If he wants to deny that he 'cheated on me', he can get his own publicist to clarify. I won't stop him."

"Okay," Tree says, "then we're keeping this statement as it is."

"When are you sending it to them?" Karlie asks.

"As soon as we finish here," Tree replies, "which brings me to the second thing. The Grammys are coming up. We should stick to the same strategy that we used for the VMAs last year, meaning you," she looks at Taylor, "can't just bring Karlie, you should make it a group outing. Have you thought about who you want to bring?"

Taylor squeezes Karlie's hand under the table as she replies. "Karlie will be one of them, for obvious reasons," and Tree nods, "Austin also wanted to go, he told me that during Christmas, and then I'm thinking of asking Lily and Selena. Do you think that's enough? I mean, bringing my brother and three friends shouldn't be suspicious, right?"

"No, I think that should be fine," Tree says with a smile. "I'll let them know that you're bringing four guests then."

"Shouldn't we also talk about that Make-A-Wish Foundation request?" Karlie asks and looks at Taylor.

"Oh, right," Taylor replies, "yeah, we do need to talk about that." She looks over at Tree who is writing down some notes for herself. "Have you spoken with Lauren yet?"