Chapter Text
Despite the storm that was about to come tonight with the release of Taylor’s reputation rerecording, Karlie and her kept things casual and had a quiet evening in. They were laying in bed, in their pajamas as early as seven pm, under the covers. Karlie’s back was leaning against the headboard, while Taylor’s head was on her chest. Karlie’s hands were around Taylor, making sure their bodies stayed as close to one another as possible. They were watching Project Runway, a show that Karlie has been obsessed with for years and only recently introduced Taylor to. Karlie tried her best to be fully present in the moment, but it was hard since she was also obsessively checking her phone every couple of minutes. Kimby and Werner were supposed to be at a doctor’s appointment right now, and should find out the sex of their baby at any moment. Karlie couldn’t help but feel impatient even though she knew that Kimby promised her that she’d be the first person to know.
Karlie was putting her phone down again, after seeing that there were no new notifications, when Taylor’s phone rang for the second time since they started the episode. Taylor reached out to it briefly and immediately silenced it, then went back to her previous position lying comfortably on Karlie’s chest. Karlie looked down at Taylor, who was watching the screen, with a curious look on her face.
“Who was it?” She asked.
“No one,” Taylor replied right away, as if she already had the answer ready to go. Karlie debated on whether to keep insisting or let the question go. Though it was never mentioned to her out loud, she assumed that Taylor’s decision to not attend her own album release party had raised a few eyebrows. It was only inevitable that the people she herself invited - mostly close friends - would call in to try to convince her to change her mind. But before Karlie decided if she should say something about it or not, her own phone rang. She grabbed it as fast as she could, snatching it from the blanket, only to see that this wasn’t the call she was expecting.
“Look who’s calling me,” she said a moment later with a smirk on her face. Taylor turned to look at her, and Karlie showed her the screen, which said Jack Antonoff. “He never called me before, I wonder what he wants,” she teased Taylor. She slowly put her finger on the screen, making a show out of answering the call, when Taylor grabbed her hand and pushed it away. Karlie laughed as she used the light height advantage she had over Taylor and stretched her hand out to the side, so that she was holding the ringing phone out of Taylor’s reach. The sound of both girls’ laughter filled the room as Taylor tried her best to snatch the phone from Karlie, and Karlie made sure to keep it as far from her as possible. As the seconds passed, Taylor took a moment to rest, and Karlie looked her dead in the eye and answered the call while Taylor mouthed don’t. Karlie did it anyway, but kept the phone far, so Jack wouldn’t be able to hear it as she quietly spoke to Taylor.
“Just talk to him! It’s not a big deal!” She whispered, then brought the phone to her ear. “Hi Jack,” she said. There was a teasing smile on her face, and it only grew wider as Taylor hit her forearm with a pillow. “Oh you’re looking for Taylor? Yeah, she’s right here, you want to talk to her?” Karlie continued as she ignored Taylor’s protests. Eventually, she handed Taylor the phone. Taylor accepted her defeat and grabbed it, gave Karlie a half mad and half amused smile, and mumbled something to Jack about her battery dying.
Soon enough, Taylor went downstairs to get some privacy she felt like she needed for the call, taking Karlie’s phone with her. Karlie was left upstairs, anxious about the possibility of missing a text from Kimby, but happy that she got Taylor talking to Jack. She couldn’t judge Taylor’s decision to stay home tonight, and she understood why she wanted to do so, but she still felt like Taylor’s hard work had to be celebrated in a greater way than a Project Runway marathon. She hoped Jack would help Taylor see that, too. In the meantime, she kept watching TV and waited for Taylor to get back.
About fifteen minutes later, she did. She walked into the room, a new shine in her eyes, and sat on the bed. She handed Karlie her phone, and Karlie saw that there were no new notifications. She put her phone back down, then looked at Taylor.
“Kar,” Taylor started with a playful look on her face.
“Yeah?”
“I changed my mind. Let’s go to the party,” she said, almost as a confession. Karlie’s response was as simple as leaning in and cupping Taylor’s face in her hands.
“We might as well start getting ready, then,” she said, then kissed Taylor’s lips.
It was a private event, so Taylor felt like it would be okay if her and Karlie got ready on their own, without any professional help. It’s not like they had much choice, too, because they only had about an hour and a half before they needed to head out. There was not much time, and it was decided that Karlie would be the first one to take a shower while Taylor picked out an outfit. Before she went into the bathroom, Karlie left her phone in Taylor’s hands, with a clear instruction to tell her if there’s any news. Taylor was standing inside the walk-in closet, looking for something that would fit the occasion, when Karlie’s phone buzzed in her hand. She immediately made her way to the bathroom, while hurriedly putting in Karlie’s password, and ran through the open door. Karlie’s face turned to her, and her eyes met with Taylor’s through the glass.
“What is it?” Karlie asked eagerly. Taylor looked down at the phone, and a disappointed look appeared on her face.
“Sorry, I thought it was Kimby. But apparently you just got a message saying that your order from Milk Bar is ready to be picked up?” She looked up at Karlie. “What’s that about?”
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” Karlie replied after a moment. She put a hand over her face, the water still running from the ceiling shower head and washing her body. She looked adorably pathetic, and Taylor couldn’t help but laugh.
“How’d you even know Milk Bar is my favorite? I never told you that,” she said in a suspecting tone, her eyebrows frowned.
“I may or may not have googled it,” Karlie answered, and earned a chuckle from Taylor. The phone buzzed in Taylor’s hand again, and she looked down at it once more.
“Oh my God!” She yelled, then looked at Karlie, her eyes wide and shining. “Kimby’s having a girl!”
⌕
On the way to the party, Karlie and Taylor made a stop at the bakery to pick up the cake Karlie had ordered. Karlie said she ordered it so they could have their own little celebration at home, and she was happy with Taylor’s decision to go out after all, but maybe they should leave the cake at home. Taylor thanked Karlie about a million times, and insisted that she wanted to bring it with them. Once they got to Electric Lady, it was proven that this was, indeed, a private event. They were able to get in without being photographed, and everyone who was already there was a familiar face. Most of them were significant people in Taylor’s life, and knew who Karlie is to Taylor. However, Karlie still felt like she should keep her physical distance from Taylor, avoid touching her too often and too intimately, since they were still in public. It wasn’t discussed openly between the two of them, but it seemed like Taylor was acting the same way.
More than anything else, the party felt like a get-together. As it was nearing ten pm, there were about twenty people there, and Karlie watched Taylor get progressively drunk. They had a private moment as Karlie brought over a glass of water and tried to get Taylor to drink it. She put the cup to Taylor’s lips, then slowly lifted it until Taylor took a few large sips. Someone just arrived, and Karlie looked over to see who it was. Everyone was greeting this woman, who looked a bit older than the other guests, and Karlie realized she had never seen her before.
“Who is she?” Karlie asked and put the cup down on a nearby highboy table.
“She’s from the label,” Taylor explained as Karlie and her looked back at each other. “I don’t know her that well personally, but she’s in a senior position and did a lot of behind the scenes work on the album so we wanted to invite her.” Naturally, without giving it any thought, Karlie put her hand on the small of Taylor’s back as she listened to her. They have both been so focused on each other in these last few moments that they haven’t noticed the woman approaching them until she was standing right in front of them. Karlie took her hand off of Taylor, and Taylor leaned in to hug the woman, who then offered her hand for Karlie to shake.
“Congratulations,” the woman said and placed her palms on her chest. She was truly inspired and touched by the occasion, and the look in her eyes was soft.
“Oh, thank you so much. None of this would have been possible without your endless support and belief in me, though,” Taylor answered elegantly, the way she always did so well.
“Maybe you are right professionally, but I couldn’t help you with this, dear. You two make a beautiful couple! I wish you all the best.” Taylor and Karlie both blushed, and since they were taken aback, there was a moment of silence. Taylor picked that drink she had earlier back up from the table, and finished it in one quick sip. She put the empty glass down, and only then was she able to speak again.
“Thank you,” she said kindly, and her hand found Karlie’s. She wrapped her pinky around Karlie’s, and they stayed intertwined for long after the woman was gone.
“That was wild,” Karlie said quietly when it was just the two of them again.
“I know,” Taylor confirmed. She surprised Karlie by kissing her lips. Maybe it was just in her head, but Karlie was sure that absolutely everyone in the room, no matter what they were busy with before, was looking at them. “There’s no point in trying to hide it anyway,” Taylor explained after they separated, and Karlie looked around; she learned that no one was staring at them, at least not too obviously by this point.
The hours passed, and since that kiss, both Karlie and Taylor had had a lot more fun at the event than they did before. It was so freeing to be able to act as they wish, touch whenever they wanted to, wherever they wanted to. After all, they were a couple in the honeymoon phase, and it was a fact that couldn’t be ignored, nor denied. Not one of the guests was weird about it, only a few teased Taylor about how in love she was, and it was done with much kindness and love. The worst did not come. These were Taylor’s friends after all, people she willingly chose to share her life with, and it wasn’t the first time they’ve seen her with a girlfriend.
Just before midnight, a few minutes before the album was out, it was time to bring out the cake. Karlie tried to convince Taylor once more that perhaps it was better if she stuck with the original cake that was made for the event, but Taylor insisted that Karlie bring out the one she bought. Eventually, Karlie gave in, took it out of its box and carried it to the table. Everyone was already gathered there, with Taylor and Jack sitting on the sofa, and everyone else standing around them. Karlie had the cake custom made, and it had the album cover printed on it in its true black and white colors. Karlie, like everyone around her, pulled out her phone to film. Although she didn’t even begin recording when she noticed Taylor was looking at her and mouthing come while gesturing at the free space to her left on the sofa. Karlie smiled back at her, mumbled a few sorrys as she made her way, and finally sat down next to Taylor. She felt chosen.
There was a large knife next to the cake, and Taylor picked it up. Someone said that there were thirty seconds left. Taylor’s elbow was on Karlie’s lap, and Karlie understood what Taylor was trying to tell her and put her hand on top of Taylor’s, so they both held the knife together.
“It’s out!” Jack announced, just as Taylor and Karlie cut the cake. Taylor noticed that in it, beneath the black and white frosting, the layers were rainbow colored. The look on her face was priceless as she turned to look at Karlie. Her eyes were full of nothing but pure sweetness and appreciation before she kissed Karlie’s lips. Everyone was cheering, and for a moment, Taylor felt like she was in heaven.
⌕
“Look how cute we are!” Taylor showed Karlie the photos Selena had taken of them just twenty minutes before. There was a series of three of them - one taken during and two taken after cutting the cake. Their bodies had no space between them, they both were visibly ecstatic, and Taylor was adorable in the second one, where she looked at Karlie with her mouth open in shock. The third one captured their emotional kiss.
The girls were up on the roof, all by themselves, when Taylor showed Karlie the photos. They decided to go up to get some fresh air. It was a windy night, and the air was chilly. The lights of New York shined bright in the dark sky, and they were both leaning with their stomachs against the railing, taking in the view. Taylor had seen it countless times before, but with Karlie’s arms around her, this was definitely the best one.
“I’m going to post these pictures on Instagram right now,” she declared, and opened the app.
“You’re drunk,” Karlie doubted her, but soon realized that Taylor was serious about this; she was already setting up a post. “You don’t want to consult with Tree or anything before you do this?” She tried to talk some sense into her.
“Not really,” Taylor answered, and broke into a fit of giggles.
“Taylor, this is serious,” Karlie made another attempt to be the responsible one out of the two of them, although she has been drinking plenty herself, too. “Are you sure you’re not going to regret this tomorrow? This is going to change your life.”
“It’s mostly going to change yours, if I’m honest. If I post it, you won’t ever be able to live a regular life, get a regular person job without it being an issue-”
“Fine. You know what? The idea of being your stay-at-home trophy wife doesn’t sound particularly bad to me,” Karlie replied, and they both laughed. “Seriously. I’ll figure it out, I don’t want you to worry about me. Now that I’m thinking about it, this is actually the perfect timing for you, with the album being out. You have nothing to lose.”
“It’s not about what I have to lose,” Taylor answered softly as she looked into Karlie’s eyes. “I have so, so much to gain.” At the sound of these words, all Karlie could do to try to express how she was feeling was hold Taylor tighter. “3… 2… 1…” Taylor’s finger hovered over the post button. Finally, she pressed it, and posted the photos without a caption. Just like the album, they speak for themselves.
⌕
Three years later , Taylor and Karlie were sitting next to each other during dinner. They were in Saint Louis, surrounded by Karlie’s family. Kristine’s son was playing with Kimby’s daughter, Grace, on the floor in the corner of the room. Everyone was chatting, laughing, and having a good time together.
“Put it on,” Karlie whispered to Taylor. Taylor hesitantly reached out to her pocket, where she kept the ring, since they arrived in the morning and only wanted to announce it in the evening. She took it out gently, and Karlie helped her slide it onto her finger. Then, Karlie took out the second ring, which was in her pocket, and Taylor put it on her finger for her. “Ready?” Taylor nodded, and took Karlie’s hand in hers. They both stood up, and all eyes turned to them in an instant. Everyone was silent as Karlie’s voice sounded.
“We have something exciting to share with you guys,” she looked at Taylor proudly.
THE END