This Love is Ours

Welcome to My Life

Today is the day I get to pick up my best friend from the airport. Stephanie is my maid of honour, My sister and Joelle filled the role of bridesmaids. I wait at the terminal gate, and some of Hunter's fans recognized me and asked for pictures. I want to be as kind as Hunter is, so I remove my sunglasses and take five or so pictures when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see – and it's Stephanie. We jump into each other's arms and dash out to the car, dodging a few cameras.

'So this is your new life, huh?' she laughs, buckling up her seatbelt.

'Yep, all day every day.' I laugh along. 'Well actually it's not that bad. It's been a few months of crazy, I'm used to it. But this is nothing, California is crazy for paparazzi.'

We catch up and grab Starbucks, making our way back to my house. We pull into the drive way and Stephanie's jaw is hanging.

'You live here!' she exclaimed.

I nod, trying not to be smug. 'Hunter picked it. It was a surprise.'

'Good man,' she says nodding.

I give Stephanie a quick tour, showing her where she would be staying for the next few weeks. After she got settled, we sat in the living room to go over the to-do list and go over our calendar of dates.

' Tuesday, is my final dress fitting.' I was lucky, I managed to wrangle all of my bridesmaids for a weekend of shopping at Kleinfeld in New York. I found my dress and all of my girls found their dresses in the same weekend. Everything has been in Joelle's closet for safe keeping. 'All of the girls are fitted, so it's just you and me going for our dresses.'

Stephanie nodded. 'Wedding rehearsal?'

'Thursday the twentieth is the rehearsal at the church, dinner at the hall. The wedding is on the twenty second'

'Perfect, I'm excited'. She says, beaming.

I hear the garage door opening, 'Hunter's home.' I look at the clock, five. 'Perfect timing. I'm thinking we should take you out for dinner.'

'Someone say dinner?' Hunter asks, making an entrance into the living room. 'Hi Stephanie! How was your flight?'

'Good thanks, how are you?' she asks, obviously still a bit star struck. I can't blame her though; she's only met Hunter a handful of times.

'Good thanks. Do we have dinner plans?' he asked, turning to me.

'Yeah, I was thinking we should take Steph to Casa Blanca?'

'Good choice. Let me wash up, and I'll let you ladies get ready!'

Hunter makes his way to go shower and Stephanie turns to me, blushing slightly. 'I'm sorry I'm awkward around your fiancée'.

'No worries. Now you know how I feel all the time' I said, feeling my cheeks redden slightly.

The three of us head out to Casa Blanca, Hunter and I walked hand in hand, Stephanie followed closely behind me. There was no paparazzi waiting around outside, but I heard a familiar voice shout Hunter's name. We turn to see Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye sitting with  some friends in a booth by the entrance.

Stephanie clutches my arm as Tae walks up to hug Hunter and me. I introduce Stephanie, they shake hands before going back to her table. We are seated and Stephanie still looked like she may faint at any point.

'You didn't tell me that you, Maddie and Tae were BFF's' she chuckled, looking over the menu.

I smile and retort, 'I wouldn't say BFF's but it's a close knit music town.'

Hunter adds, 'A lot of the artists and musicians around here are invited to the wedding. Or they're just all coincidentally not touring', he laughs scanning his menu.

'You will see Taylor at the wedding. A few people won't be able to make it but we have a pretty hefty guest list...like two hundred and eighty I think'.

Stephanie nodded, 'Your life is incredibly busy. I don't know how you do it'.

We ordered and I pondered a bit. I have become accustomed to living this rapid lifestyle with the media, cameras, award shows and bumping into famous people. 'I'm jealous that you can walk outside to check your mail in your pjs and not be scrutinized for it'

'I do enjoy wandering around in my pjs', Steph laughed. We ordered dinner and I also treated myself to a glass of wine for no good reason. Well, my good reason was Hunter was driving. When we got back to the house, Stephanie noted how she was exhausted from her travels and went to bed early. Hunter and I went to the kitchen and I poured myself a glass of left over white from dinner a few evenings ago. I look over at him while closing the fridge. His expression read, You don't need more. I averted my eyes to my cell phone, and casually conversed, "How was the studio?"

"Just the usual. But we got a track down today. Steve said something, and I turned it into a verse".

"You're just too talented, mind sharing with some of us average folk?" I smile.

"You're pretty talented yourself babe," he says coyly.

"How so?" I ask, placing my hands one his shoulders, gently massaging.

"First off, you have the hands of a goddess. Second, no one else can call themselves my inspiration for my love songs". Nice, Hayes. I smile and kiss his cheek. I wrap my fingers around the wine glass, and I can feel Hunter's eyes on me, 'I'm done, don't worry,' I say, dumping the remainder of the glass down the drain.

'Let's go to bed' he affirmed, and I followed him up.