a sound she hadn't heard before

two.

"My name is Levi Bennett and I am a theatrical director. I was hoping to speak to you about an opportunity that you may be interested in."

Taylor can't help but feel her heart drop when she hears those words. She has no idea how to respond to this. She's gotten these calls before. Right before she got pregnant with Ayla, there was a huge push for her to play Roxie in Chicago. She had a lot of meetings about it and was seriously considering it, but the Broadway lifestyle is no joke. Taylor wasn't quite sure that she was in the shape to be able to perform eight shows a week. Looking back, she knows she wasn't in the right shape back then. She was barely eating anything until she realized that to keep her baby safe, she had to change her ways- even if it meant gaining some weight. Before that, she wouldn't have had the stamina for eight shows in the course of six days.

On top of the physical demands, it's mentally demanding too. The stakes of performing in a Broadway show are so high. Word on the street is that if you mess up your lines too many times, they might even sue you. Taylor isn't sure how true that is, but she didn't want to risk it then, and she doesn't want to risk it now.

Even on top of that, getting rid of all of those stressful factors, Taylor has a child. She's a single mom and her daughter just started kindergarten. The way that school hours and Broadway hours line up, she would barely ever be home at the same time as her daughter, and Ayla doesn't deserve to have her mom always gone. Her dad already isn't in the picture. She needs to have her mom there for her.

"Sir, I'm so sorry," Taylor says, "but I need to stop you. I haven't made a public appearance in over five years. I've spent those years trying to disappear. I don't want to reverse that by stepping onto a Broadway stage. It's nothing personal... I've been in talks for roles before, but I wasn't able to take on the lifestyle then and I'm certainly not able to now."

"Ms. Swift, I actually have a different job in mind."

That really surprises Taylor. "Oh?"

"I have a team of creatives right now and we are working to put together a show that is going to be really great if we get the right person to write our music. We want a score of music that has a versatile, but authentic pop sound... but let me say that I am using the term 'pop' quite lightly. We want it to sound like something that you might hear on the radio, which as you know, is a pretty wide array of sounds. We are also looking for this show to have a wide reach, because we think it's a very important story to tell, and we want to make sure that we are able to tell it to as many people as possible. Basically, we were thinking about how to meet those criteria, and we started thinking about shows like Waitress, which pretty much did what we are trying to achieve. Sara Bareilles wrote the music and brought in the audience at first, but it became so much more than just that. It became this beautiful telling of this important, heart-wrenching story," Levi explains. "Are you familiar with Waitress?"

"I didn't see it, but yes, I'm familiar with it," Taylor says. "I heard great things about it."

"See, that's what we want, so we knew that we wanted somebody with both immense talent and a name to write our music for us. Both melodies and lyrics. Lots of names were thrown around, but Taylor, you're our first choice. We want you to write our music."

"Oh." Taylor is taken aback by that offer. "Wow. I'm really honored."

"Just... with your whole catalog being so versatile, but still charting so well consistently... I'm sure you can see why we are so eager to work with you. Our team also feels that you would feel passionately about the story that we want to tell."

"Yeah, I'd like to know a bit more about that before I give an answer. I think it'd be a really cool experience but I'm not ready to make a commitment yet."