"She worked her way through a cheap pack of cigarettes," Taylor Swift's phone blared at 12:01 am, waking her up.
She groaned and answered the call. "What?"
"Happy birthday, love," an unmistakable voice said from the other line.
"Harry?" she asked as she became more alert.
"Who else would call you in the first minute of your birthday?"
She was silent for a minute, letting the moment wash over her. "We haven't seen each other in over a year. Why are you calling now?"
"I'm not going to miss your birthday. No matter happened between us, I still care about you and want you to have a good birthday," he said.
"It'd be a better birthday if you were here," Taylor mumbled in her sleep-deprived state, not thinking about the implication of her words.
Harry fell quiet, his steady breathing the only thing she could hear. "Do you really mean that?" he whispered.
"Yeah," she answered with a breathless laugh, "After all these years, it's always been you. Not Calvin, not Tom, not Joe, just you."
"Taylor," Harry said in a pained voice.
Unable to muster up the courage that the conversation required, Taylor hung up and fell back into a restless sleep.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°
A loud, insistent knocking at the door startled Taylor out of her slumber. She climbed out of her bed and pulled on a robe.
"I'm coming," she said, yawning.
She opened the door to see the boy that haunted her dreams.
"Harry? What are you doing here?"
"You hung up on me," he said, simply.
She ran a hand through her hair. "What time is it?"
"8 am. I let you sleep because I figured you needed it but you hung up on me. Why did you hang up on me?"
She sighed. "Come on in."
Without checking to see if he was following, Taylor headed towards the Keurig to make herself a cup of coffee.
She heard the door close quietly and Harry sit at the counter. Once her coffee was done, she made another and placed it in front of him.
He sipped from it, cautiously, but quickly realized that she had remembered exactly how he liked it.
"Happy birthday," he said, quietly.
Taylor looked up from the counter and at him, a smile playing across her features. "You already said that."
"Yeah, but not to your face."
"Thank you."
"Why'd you hang up?" he risked asking again.
The blonde looked up at her ceiling before replying. "It's not that I didn't want to have this conversation, it's more to do with the fact that it's a little too soon for me. I mean, Joe and I called things off less than a week ago."
"You did?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Yes, don't interrupt. You and I, we're a screwed up relationship that neither of us can let go."
"Like a crooked love in a street line down?"
She scoffed. "Precisely."
They sat in silence until Harry said in a small voice, "I don't want to let us go."
Taylor snapped her eyes up to meet his. "What?" she asked, breathlessly.
"You and I. I don't want to let this go. I want to be with you. I wanna be yours."
Without warning, Taylor leaned over the counter and pressed their lips together. Harry responded immediately, but they were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.
"What's that?" she asked, dazed.
"That? At the door? Oh, that's your present," he responded with a smile.
"My present?" She followed him to the door, which he opened to reveal a man holding a cat.
She gasped. "Harry Edward Styles, you did not get me another cat."
"I thought you liked cats," he said, looking adorably confused.
"I do! It's just that now, I'm officially a cat lady. Three cats makes a cat lady."
"So you don't want it?"
Taylor's jaw dropped. "What are you talking about? Of course I want it! Gimme the kitty," she said, holding out her hands.
The man delivering the cat laughed but deposited it into her arms.
Taylor felt her heart melting, similar to the first time she held Meredith and Olivia. "Does she have a name?" she asked in a whisper, so as not to disturb the curious cat.
"It's a he," the man responded.
Taylor's eyes widened. "He's been neutered, right? Because I don't plan on becoming a grandmother anytime soon," she said, glancing a suspicious look at Meredith and Olivia who had come to see what the commotion was about.
The man chuckled but confirmed that the cat would not be fathering kittens. Harry thanked the man and shut the door.
"What do you want to name him?" Harry asked her.
She pretended to think for a moment and replied, "I think Niall's a good name, what about you?"
He looked mock-offended before she continued on.
"Or what about Zayn? I've always liked that name. What do you think, Haz?"
"Oh, I see how it is," he said in a teasing tone, "Well, if that's how you're gonna be, I'll just leave."
Taylor giggled. "Don't leave," she said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "Actually, I was thinking of naming him Lindsey Buckingham."
"Really?" Harry asked, staring at her in surprise.
"Yeah. After hearing your album, I started listening to Fleetwood Mac a lot. Like, a lot a lot."
"Be the Stevie to my Lindsey?" he asked, hopefully.
"Didn't they break up?" Taylor asked.
"Pfft. Details, details."
Her shoulders shook with silent laughter and she kissed him.
After getting Lindsey situated, Taylor got ready and she and Harry headed out, Harry determined to make her 28th birthday the best.
Couple of things:
A) My birthday is on Wednesday! Yes, I have the same birthday as Taylor. *wink wink https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ls/ref=aw_wl_sr_res_6_1?ie=UTF8&lid=3H3Y0BPCLC0UN nudge nudge* (lol jk)
B) Happy Haylor month! Raise your hand if you've been looking at old photos of them and bawling your eyes out like me.
C) I got tickets to see Taylor and Harry! If you're seeing Harry at Hersheypark in June 2018 or Taylor in DC in July 2018, hit me up!
