Back to me

Chapter 8

Having coffee with Karlie had become a frequent occurrence for Taylor. In between Karlie's classes, she'd try to meet her at the Starbucks where they first met. They'd talk about school and work until the dancer had to get back to class. Occasionally, Cara and Martha would show up too. Although Taylor had a fondness for both of them, she enjoyed some one-on-one time with Karlie.

Across the small table, Karlie was playing with Taylor's Polaroid camera. The blonde always tried to have one on her person if possible.

Squinting into the machine, Karlie urged Taylor to pose for the camera. The singer hid her grin behind her cup right before the flash of the camera went off.

As Karlie waited for the photo to be developed, Taylor silently watched her. Her ecstatic grin, the softness of her features, the intensity of her stare, Taylor couldn't get enough of it.

As if sensing Taylor's gaze, Karlie's eyes darted up. The brunette was surprised, her eyes widened. Slyly, blue eyes averted the green orbs that still trained on Taylor.

But Karlie's eyes lingered. This hadn't been the first time the two shared the sem-awkward eye contact. The last time had been at Taylor's house.

She and Taylor had just placed a tray of cookies into the oven. Karlie leaned against the counter and pulled off her black apron. Standing next to her, Taylor checked her phone for the appropriate amount of time to leave the cookies in. Karlie turned her head to get a better view of the woman.

"Taylor," she softly chuckled upon noticing the flour on the blonde's chin.

Curiously she looked back, unsure of what was causing the taller woman to laugh.

She used her thumb to brush away the flour. While her hands stilled, so did her eyes. Those blue eyes rendered her speechless.

With Karlie's thumb hovering over her chin, Taylor stared back up at her. No knowing what to do, neither of them broke the starring-contest.

Karlie's apron fell from the hand that dangled by her side. She snapped out of her trance, grateful for the distraction. Karlie reached down to grab the fallen article and pretended to be busy cleaning until the cookies were done.

When the photo of Taylor was spit out of the camera, Karlie shifted her attention from Taylor to a 2D version of Taylor.
"Hey!" She cheered. "This looks pretty good, I'm keeping it!"

She turned the picture around proudly. Taylor, a self-declared Polaroid-professional, rated Karlie's work as two thumbs up.

"Nice work," she took a sip of her coffee. "We should get you to do one of the cat-photo-shoots."

Karlie made a noise of disagreement, but smiled. "Meredith gives me that weird stare all the time."

She thought back to the few times she had been over to Taylor's for baking. Olivia was friendly, while Meredith was the epitome of a grumpy cat.

"She's just not a people person... Or a cat person." Taylor reassured. "Or a person at all, actually." She quickly added, remembering that Meredith wasn't a human being.

Karlie laughed, but half way through she stopped abruptly.

So fast that she should've gotten whiplash, Karlie's head snapped to her phone.

"Oh, shi-"

At Taylor's disapproving smirk, Karlie chose a differnt word to express herself.

"Shoot. Oh, shoot." She corrected as she hastily grabbed her things and handed back Taylor's camera.

Karlie tossed a goodbye to Taylor when she rose form her seat.

"Bye..." Taylor slowly said to Karlie's back as she stepped up to the counter to grab her usual bottle of water for her next class.

With a smile and some other inaudible noises that sounded like laughing, the barista let Karlie go without paying.

"It's on the house." he assured.

In a rush, Karlie excepted and headed for the door.

"Thanks, Josh!" She called before the door shut behind her.

His eyes followed her as she left, a captivated look on his face.

Taylor stared at Josh as he refilled the cake-pops. He knew Karlie's order, but not the correct spelling of her name. Though she hated to admit it, she was glad that they didn't seem to know each other on a personal level.