a sound she hadn't heard before

seven.

When a few days go by after the press releases in Playbill and The New York Times, followed by every news outlet in the whole world publishing the news about Taylor writing a musical after so many years of virtual silence from the superstar, she starts to feel better about the whole situation. There hasn't been any incidents of stalking, no photographers hunting down her house, and even nothing outside of New 42nd Studios.

She does, however, worry momentarily when she gets a call from an unfamiliar New Jersey phone number on Thursday evening, just after dinner.

"Hello?" she says tentatively. She hopes that she doesn't regret answering the phone.

"Hi. Is this Mrs. Swift?"

"Um, it's Miss... but yes, this is she."

"Hi. I'm Holly Meyer. Jane's mom. Your daughter gave Jane this phone number and Jane asked for me to set up a playdate."

"Oh." Taylor freezes. "Um..." She's a little bit scared to even trust that the woman is telling the truth, but she has been dreading the moment that Ayla starts wanting playdates with her school friends. She knew it would happen, but she didn't think it would be so soon.

At that, Taylor sees Ayla walking up beside her. "Who's on the phone, Mommy?"

Covering the microphone on her phone, Taylor bites her lip but then answers her daughter. "It's Jane's mom, sweetie. Did you give her my phone number?"

Ayla's face lights up. "Yay! Can we have a playdate Mommy? Please please please? Like I do with Betty and Nezzie and James?"

Taylor sighs but then speaks back into the phone. "Ayla would love that."

"Oh, wonderful," Holly says. "Are you free this weekend? Say, 1:00 on Saturday? Jane says that the girls want to swim. We have a lovely little pool in our backyard that they can play in."

"Yeah, I think that's fine..." Taylor says. "Just... is it alright that I stay? Just security concerns for my little one, that's all."

"Yes, that's absolutely fine," Holly replies. "I'd be the same way. I'm looking forward to meeting you, Miss Swift."

"You too. We will see you on Saturday."

"I'll text you our address."

"Thank you," Taylor says. The two mothers exchange goodbyes, and then, Taylor turns to an expectant Ayla, who is waiting to hear the good news. "You and Jane are going to swim at Jane's house on Saturday at 1:00."

"Really?" Ayla gasps, her eyes getting wide. "I didn't think you'd actually say yes Mommy! Thank you thank you thank you!"

Taylor can't help but feel her heart break a little bit upon hearing her daughter say that. "Why didn't you think I'd say yes, sweetie?" she asks, leading her daughter to the couch.

"Because I've never had a playdate with anybody except for Auntie Blakey's kids. And you don't like us to do stuff sometimes. My friends at school didn't believe that I had never had a real playdate. And they do all sorts of stuff that we don't do. They take walks with their parents around their neighborhoods and they go out to restaurants and don't sit in a special room and their mommies don't wear wigs and they go to Target and the grocery stores and they have babysitters and they do all sorts of things that we don't do."

As her little girl is speaking, tears form in Taylor's eyes. She already felt so guilty that she couldn't do those sorts of normal things with her daughter, but now that Ayla is aware of it, it's a million times worse. She searches the depths of her brain to try to find something to say, but she can't.