Room 13 (Kaylor)

Chapter Three.

A/N: Hi guys thanks for sticking around! slight trigger warning for implied eating disorder which I hope I covered respectfully enough since I too struggle myself. I can promise you things for Karlie and Taylor are getting somewhere, CompHet is just sucky for Taylor atm.

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Bright blue eyes land on the sign that says 'welcome to Nashville' before it goes swinging past in a blur, and for reasons Taylor cannot begin to explain, her heart begins to pound even harder and her palms begin to sweat profusely.

She lets out a shaky breath, and it doesn't go unnoticed by her fiancé. Joe immediately turns his head to look at her with a frown, one hand on the wheel of the rental car and the other reaching out to grip Taylor's that's resting on her thigh. He clasps her hand in his own, bringing it to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of it before he offers her a small smile.

"Everything okay, honey? you've kinda been silent since we left New York." Joe says firmly, sparing another glance at her before his eyes return to the road, their interlaced fingers coming to rest over the gearshift.

"Yeah...yeah, everything's fine." Taylor says quickly, offering him a quick smile to reassure him.

"Are you sure? was it your therapy session yesterday?" Joe asks, a small frown playing on his face as Taylor gazes out of the window and avoids any and all eye contact with him.

"No...no, my therapist, she's...she's great. I guess i'm just feeling a little ill." Taylor lies easily even though she hasn't stopped having a panic attack since they first got on the plane a few hours ago.

She's not worried about Karlie telling Joe anything, not only because it's technically illegal for her to do so, but because Karlie had promised her she wouldn't, and for whatever reason...Taylor trusts her word. But regardless, she hadn't told Joe anything about Karlie being her therapist, and she feels like she should tell him, but at least this way, there's no way Joe can try to get something out of Karlie, and there's no chance of Karlie telling Joe because he won't know what the hell she's talking about. Besides, she has bigger things to worry about this weekend...

She has to have lunch with her parents on sunday.

God, this was a bad idea, I should've just told Joe i'd rather stay in New York...

She can't pin point a specific reason why she's anxious, because there's a million reasons why her heart is racing and pounding against her ribcage, why it hasn't calmed down in over three hours and her stomach is starting to ache because of it.

It's the idea of meeting with her parents to talk about the wedding that's the lead reason, she knows it is...but it's also the fact that she'll be seeing Karlie for the first time outside of her office and outside of any therapy sessions...that she'll be seeing Karlie as a normal goddamn person for the first time, and maybe it's something that shouldn't make her feel this nervous or excited, but she can't deny that she's eager and curious to see what Karlie is like when she isn't doing her job.

She doesn't know what it is about Karlie that's so goddamn appealing, but the charisma on that woman is something Taylor's never witnessed before. The closest she can think of is Austin: the boy could easily swing a crowd or a conversation his way with a few simple words and a charming smile, but Karlie was somehow able to make Taylor feel calm just by being around, and she can't explain it at all.

"Alright, here we are...Casa Alwyn." Joe says with a grin despite it being a B&B, pulling Taylor out of her thoughts as he looks up at the Bed & Breakfast with a look of pure enjoyment in his eyes that Taylor can't help but smile at the sight of. She knows why Joe's so excited, because his dad is inside and he hasn't seen him in over a year now. But also because hotel rooms and B&B's were all they both knew at the start of their relationship.