Summary:
Harry and Taylor run into each other at Ed's New Year's party. Things between them aren't as over as their break-up suggests.
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Harry's not sure why he's so surprised to see her here. She and Ed are close. It makes sense that he would have invited her. He probably just didn't expect her to celebrate the new year over here in London instead of back home - be that Nashville or LA or New York City. Surely that's where most of her friends and family are.
But then again, Taylor has never had much trouble making friends absolutely everywhere she goes. And he's not about to judge her for being here. He could've stayed up north with his parents or taken Gemma up on the offer of spending New Year's Eve with her and her friends. Instead he's here at Ed's, rubbing elbows with people he's mostly never met before and staring across the room at where Taylor and Athina are giggling over something on either of their phones.
It's not like Harry could have forgotten, what with her face being plastered over enough magazine covers and billboards, but she's still just as gorgeous as she's always been. Her hair is shorter, her lipstick more red and the wingtips of her eyeliner almost lethal, but she has the same open laugh, the same genuine joy in her eyes and the same expressive hands. He regrets it sometimes, how they fell apart so quickly and easily, but on the other hand he's learned a lot about the person he wants to be by being and not being with her so he doesn't think he'd actually change anything, even if he could.
Ed pops up next to Athina then, wraps an arm around her waist and snuggles close. Taylor beams at them with the same fondness Harry's pretty sure is written all over his own face as well. Ed says something to them that has them both laughing and then Taylor puts her phone back into her clutch purse and shoos them away.
For a moment, with her drink in hand and no one to talk to, she looks isolated, as if a spot light's singling her out and setting her apart from everyone else at the party. Then she looks up and catches Harry's eye. He startles, feels a bit like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't, but smiles at her, raises his glass, and inclines his head in a salute. She laughs and ducks her head, then looks back up at him, raising an eyebrow. He shrugs.
When she makes her way through the crowd over to him, he straightens up automatically, but when she comes to stand next to him she's an inch taller anyway. They clink and drain their glasses and when he sets his down, he looks down at her high heeled possibly platform-ed ankle booties and grins to himself.
"Something funny?" she asks, her own lips curled in a smile as well. He shrugs again.
"You've changed," he says. She laughs, knows that he means to compliment rather than insult her.
"So have you," she says.
He smiles at her and then offers to get them drinks from the bar. She seems a little surprised that he wants to prolong their encounter but agrees easily and when he comes back the bloke she seems to have been talking to backs away with an expression on his face like he thinks he's tread on someone's toes. Harry watches him go with a perplexed smile, while Taylor accepts her drink and giggles into the back of her hand. A few people are looking at them. Harry decides to ignore them and turns his attention back to her to clink their glasses together once more. She takes a sip from hers and laughs again as she sets her glass down.
"Well, there go all my chances of a midnight kiss," she says. She's still grinning and a cheeky retort sits on the tip of Harry's tongue, but he's not sure they're there yet, at that place where they can joke about things like that. Anyway, with the way the light is bouncing off her hair he's a little afraid it'd come out as though he meant it.
