2 (jaylor) ethereal daylight and golden epiphanies

chapter eleven.

Today was a busy day. Taylor wasn't overly looking forward to how rushed it was going to be, but she had Joe. She was lying wrapped in his arms in bed.
"I'm lucky Meredith got up," Joe chuckled. "If she was still here, I wouldn't be able to do this."
"You love it. You love being her favourite. You love that she comes and sits with her head on your shoulder," Taylor laughed. "And Benji loves sleeping on your chest. And yet they call me the crazy cat lady."
Joe laughed, leaning over and kissing her. "Are you ready for today?" Joe asked and Taylor pushed her head further into the pillow, shaking her head.
"I might just stay here with you all day. I'm sure we've got plenty of things we could occupy ourselves with." Taylor draped an arm across him, and kissed him. "I'm so scared, Joe."
"It's going to be okay. We've talked this through. You've got your own changing room, there's just you in this music video, and it's okay. You've tried on the dress already and you know that you can't see anything. It'll be okay," He assured her. "And like I told you last night, I'll be there to hold out a towel or something when you get out of the water. That way, no one will see anything."
Taylor and Aaron had managed to finish Cardigan in a matter of days. She'd sent him a voice memo with the lyrics she'd come up with, and then they'd edited it together from there. She loved it, and she'd absolutely loved the concept of the music video.
"We tried everything when the dress was sent to us, Taylor. You sat down and it didn't show the bump, and it didn't show the bump while walking, either. And you're stomach is under water for some of it, and no one will see. You're going to be great, my love."
She loved him so much. She leaned over and kissed him, her eyes closed. She loved him more than anything else in the world. She couldn't believe that this is what love was supposed to feel like... a fire that didn't quite consume her, but flickered endlessly in her chest.
"Thank you for coming with me," she smiled, getting up. "Thank you for always coming with me to these things."
"Of course!" Joe got up too, and Taylor saw Benji running through the hallway, and laughed. She went to go and investigate what he was doing, and saw that he was flicking a pen around. She laughed, taking a video of that cuteness. She'd started taking a lot more photos and videos than she used to, because she wanted to remember it. All of it. There wasn't a part about it that she wanted to fade into memory. Joe came and wrapped his arms around her from behind, and she turned around to face him. She gently rested her arms on his shoulders, smiling.
"I love you," Joe murmured. "I'm so proud of everything you're doing."
"I love you too - and I wouldn't be doing any of it if it weren't for you." She kissed him. "I still don't know how I deserve you."
"Taylor - you know how. You deserve me and I deserve you." He told her firmly, cupping her face. "You do deserve all this and more. Of course you do, my love."

It felt weird to be walking out of the house. Getting in a car. She hadn't left in a few months now, and she often found herself completely forgetting that there was a life outside of her home.
She was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, and she was relieved that the weather was cooler today. She didn't know what she'd do if she had to wear something accomodating for the warm weather.
The car ride was long, but both her and Joe played scrabble, and Joe was happy because he'd finally beaten Taylor.
"See, I don't need a dictionary- but you can borrow mine next time if you want!" The two of them laughed.

"Alright. So this first shot is just going to be of your hands, so if we could just get you to play the piano at the same time as the beat," the director told her. "We're going to do all of the shots we need to do in this room first, and then next door we've got the other scenes sorted out."
"Sounds good," Taylor smiled as she sat down at the piano. She was so nervous.
"Okay... five, six, seven, eight."
She started playing the tune, relieved that they were finally starting to film it. The sooner this was done, the sooner she could go home. The sooner she wouldn't have to hide everything anymore.

They'd finished all of the indoor scenes by lunch time, and Taylor was happy that she'd done those parts. She loved the ending, loved the Cardigan so much that she didn't want to take it off. She was sitting in the corner of the room eating lunch with Joe. Everyone else was sorting out the camera angles for the next scene. She was excited to see it all put together, because she knew that it was going to be spectacular.
She was so nervous for the scene in the water. She was nervous that Joe wouldn't get to her in time and that she'd have to... she stopped herself from thinking like that. It was ridiculous. She knew that Joe would get to her in time, that he wouldn't do that to her.
She could do this.