I am your summer

Part I - TAYLOR - Chapter 3

Taylor texts Todrick about her lunch with Karlie. After a few minutes, the train arrives and she makes way for the people exiting. She remembers to get in line to enter the train, a custom that she still has not gotten used to but finds admirable nonetheless. She grabs a seat and keeps her eyes on the map on the wall. She had missed her stop a few days ago and does not want to repeat trying to find her way back to the correct platform through an unfamiliar station.

She lets out a soft yawn and looks around the train. Most people are reading books or on their phones. Taylor wants to take it all in, even the simplest of impressions. She knows she won't get a chance to visit Japan again so soon. She can't help but think back to everything that led her here. To Tokyo. To meet Karlie again. In hindsight, it really was all because of Cara.

___________

"What?" Taylor ran a hand through her hair and started pacing through her boss' spacious office.

"I'm afraid I cannot take this assignment. Why me? There must be other journalists you can spare for a month? I know nothing about any of this and-" she started protesting, well on her way of working herself up into a panic attack.

"Miss Swift." Her boss, in contrast, was as calm and collected as ever. "I'm afraid you will take this assignment. It's not like you will be completely alone. Miss Delevingne will join you in Tokyo as soon as she gets a clean bill of health from her doctor. I know the timing is bad, but there is nothing we can do about it now. She is the one who is most disappointed to not make it. You would do your friend a favor by acting as her substitute."

Taylor stood still at the opposite end of the room, but she groaned internally. Cara. Her clumsy friend and colleague had badly twisted her ankle the day before playing a pick-up game of basketball at the park. She had texted Taylor a picture from the hospital, of her foot in a medical cast. It had freaked Taylor out enough as it was, and she had spent all day compiling a grocery list for her friend for when she would visit her after work. And now this? It would have been comical if it wasn't so anxiety-inducing.

She slowly made her way back towards his desk. "I appreciate your trust in me. But I know nothing about sports. Please consider sending someone else."

Her voice was calmer now, but her heart was still beating rapidly. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her anxiety.

Her boss reached for his phone. "You're a journalist, I trust you to be able to do research. And you don't have to ask all the in-depth questions in those interviews, anyways" he argued.

Taylor breathed out audibly. She knew nothing about sport. She wrote about lifestyle, and pop culture, and literature. Sometimes politics. But sport? That was 100% Cara's job. Cara knew the ins and outs of every sports team in New York City, no matter if it was basketball, or soccer, or baseball, men or women.

Taylor had no interest in any of it. No matter how many times Cara offered her free tickets to games or asked to watch a game on TV or talked her ear off about statistics and transfers and scandals. It just wasn't Taylor's world.

And now she would go to Tokyo to interview the US women's teams that were competing in the Olympics.

"What about my article on first-time voters in the next presidential election? We have interviews scheduled for the end of the month" she tried to make a point one last time.

"Mr. Hall can conduct the in-person interviews alone, the rest is all via Skype and e-mail anyways. He can send you drafts to edit, as will your other colleagues. Just like you do here at the office. They have internet in Japan." He made a dismissive gesture and started scrolling on his phone.