Back to me

Chapter 5

Each yellow cab that passed by earned the attention of Taylor. She was sat outside the Marea with the comfort of black tinted windows hiding her from the public eye. She felt like an undercover spy, waiting for her enemy to arrive on the premises. But instead of an evil spy, she was waiting on a pretty woman named Karlie. Spelled K-A-R-L-I-E Taylor remembered proudly.

Taylor checked her phone For the fourth time in the past two minutes.

"What time did you say they were going to meet you?" Taylor's driver, Bryson, looked at her through the rear-view mirror with sympathetic eyes, for they had been waiting so long that he assumed the other party was a no-show.

"At one." Taylor checked her phone again.

Four minutes.

"But why did we get here at 12:25?"

"Because punctuality is my middle name-- well, no, it's actually Alison, but that's beside the point."

Bryson started speaking again, but Taylor quickly lost focus and watched as a taxi cab pulled up in front of their car. A pair of long, slender legs exited the vehicle followed by the rest of Karlie. She cast a glance to the right and the wind effortlessly carried her hair as far as its roots would allow.

"Thanks for the ride, Bryce." Taylor interrupted him and stepped out to meet Karlie.

The natural reaction to hearing any noise behind you is to look that way, which is exactly what Karlie did when she heard the sound of a car door shutting.

A goofy and lopsided smile shined brightly at Taylor, and the blonde was taken aback. Karlie, who was basically a stranger, warmed her with a gesture as simple as smiling. She recovered quickly and grinned back at the smiling woman.

"Hey," Taylor walked up to her, an arm distance between them.

"Hi," Karlie offered a shy and unsure wave.

"Let's go in, shall we?" Taylor bent slightly at the hips in a mock bow and pointed both hands at the door.

"Let's shall, it's freezing out here." Karlie burried her hands into the pockets of her coat, and followed Taylor in.

Taylor didn't need to speak a word before they were showing the two to their table. The pairs of eyes that chased after them were slightly unnerving to Karlie, but Taylor looked back at her with a smile and she became both calm and uneasy. Calm, because Taylor's smile was reassuring, surely she knew that any normal person would be unused to the attention. Uneasy, because Taylor wasn't any normal person.

They came to a table in the corner, almost hidden from the rest. The girls took a seat on either side and the man asked if they'd fancy a beverage.

Water for both of them, Karlie's with a lime slice. When he left, Taylor turned to Karlie and posed a prompt.

"So tell me about yourself." An energetic lift of her shoulders showed the enthusiasm behind the words.

Her eyebrows rose and green eyes widened. "Well," cleared her throat. "I'm a dance major, I actually graduate this summer."

"Wow, you have to be really athletic to do that, don't you?" Taylor was impressed.

"It's not as..." She pursed her lips, searching for the right word, "pressing as other sports, but I would say it definitely requires some athleticism."

"Me and anything requiring physical movement do not mix." Taylor hummed as she wagged her finger and head side to side. "If you put me on a treadmill, I might die."

That got a chuckle out of Karlie. Taylor mentally high-fived herself for being able to get another smile out of the girl.
It was like Taylor was snow and Karlie's smile was the sun, it melted her. In a good way, the warm kind of melt, not the burning kind.

"I would never had expected that. You're in amazing shape. And your legs are-" That warmth Taylor was feeling was felt in Karlie's cheeks, and suddenly the menu was very interesting to her. "You have nice legs."

"Thank you," Taylor picked up the menu too, a smile playing on her own lips. "And you have very nice legs as well, Karlie."

The brunette peered up from the menu to meet Taylor's eyes. She adored the way her name sounded when Taylor said it. It's sounded so natural.

And then Taylor flipped her menu, tipping over the salt shaker, so she reached down to retrieve it. It was then that Karlie remembered that Taylor was human too.

"So what do you do? Besides being Taylor Swift?"

Her eyes lit up. "I have two cats, Meredith and Olivia, they're the loves of my life. They're named after my favorite Characters from my favorite shows."

Taylor was cute when she was so animated-- even cuter then usual. Karlie relaxed and they engaged in a normal conversation.

Taylor went on about her cats, Karlie was more of a dog person, but when Taylor showed her a picture of the two, Karlie grew a new fondness to felines. Then they talked about tv; when Karlie admitted that she had only a small knowledge of television shows, Taylor claimed that she would force her to watch *Grey's Anatomy* and *Law and Order* one day. Finally they had started talking about baking and their mutual love for it.

"- And if you let the cookies-" Karlie's phone rung. She apologize to Taylor, who was not bothered at all by the intrusion. "Sorry, excuse me."

An unflattering photo of Cara flashed across the screen. Karlie deeply wanted to ignore it because it was probably something really silly and Cara-like, but she owed it to her friend to answer it like she would for her.
"Yes?" Karlie answered.

"Hey! Karlie, buddy of mine!" Cara's voice was more cheerful then usual.

"Why did you call?" She was straight to the point, but not rude.

"Can you put Taylor on?"

Karlie looked over to Taylor, who drove a fork into a cake slice. "I don't think-"

"-I just wanna ask a question." She promised.

She hesitated-- for good reason-- before saying, "Alright."

"Hey, Taylor?" Karlie called with her hand over the phone's mic.

Taylor looked up at Karlie with her mouth hidden behind her glass. "What's up?" She took a short sip of her water.

"If it's not any trouble, my friend wants to ask you a question."

"Are you kidding? It's no problem at all!" She cried exuberantly. "It's like, the opposite of a problem."

Karlie handed over the cellphone and curiously watched Taylor talk with Cara for the next few minutes. She desperately hoped Cara wasn't doing anything embarrassing, but she should've known better-- It was Cara after all.

When their talk came to an end, Taylor returned Karlie's phone (wouldn't want to have a relapse of the last incident) while having a good dose of giggles.

"Your friend is funny, I like her." Taylor said through chuckles.

Karlie's eyebrows drew together suspiciously, but her eyes smiled nonetheless. "What did she ask, exactly?"

"She said:" Taylor produced a terrible reenactment of Cara's accent, "How did you get such a nice bum?"

Karlie shook her head, and laughed alongside Taylor.

Of course, Cara.