It's All Part of the Story

Everybody's watching her, but she's looking at you

September 2014

"Karlie, can I talk to you about something?" Taylor asks, loathe to disturb the calm that they had been enjoying all weekend. Things had been manic for both of them for the past number of weeks with Taylor preparing for the imminent release of her fifth album in less than a month and Karlie having just finished up a hectic schedule of runway shows for New York fashion week. 

When Taylor had suggested a weekend by the beach in Rhode Island to unwind, Karlie had happily accepted. They had spent the weekend on the beach, cooking outside and tangled up in the sheets of the king size bed, which is where they currently are, the salt air and evening sun streaming in through the open bedroom window.

"Sure," Karlie replies, suddenly nervous at the way Taylor is steadfastly refusing to meet her gaze.

"Tree sent me this," Taylor says, unlocking her phone and handing it to Karlie.

Karlie takes the phone that's handed to her and presses play on the video, confused as she watches a video of herself fill the screen of Taylor's phone. Karlie can feel the heat rush to her cheeks as she listens to herself gush when an interviewer asked her a question about Taylor. She had known at the time that she had probably gone overboard but she's so proud of her girlfriend, she can't help it at times. But she knows from the way Taylor is looking at her and the text from Tree that says 'we should probably talk about this' that she's in trouble.

"She asked me, what was I supposed to say?" Karlie groans, dropping Taylor's phone back to the mattress between them, the video having come to an end.

"Baby, you can't be so obvious about it," Taylor maintains.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Karlie protests. "I was just thinking about you and it just came out."

"Well, we'll be the ones coming out if you don't tone it down a little," Taylor teases but they both know that she's only half-joking.

Karlie drops her head back on her pillow and throws her arms over her face out of frustration, sighing loudly. Taylor can't help but think that she looks adorable so she turns her face into her pillow to hide her smile from Karlie.

"I'm sorry I'm so bad at this," Karlie says softly, peeking out at Taylor from behind the arm that's still resting on her forehead. 

Something about the way Karlie says those words, her voice sounds so small and defeated that Taylor's heart clenches in her chest.

"Oh Karlie, no," Taylor says shaking her head as she rushes to reassure her girlfriend. She tugs softly on Karlie's arm, coaxing her to turn over so that she can meet her eyes.

Taylor knows how hard this has been for Karlie, she's not used to having to pretend to be anything other than herself and Taylor hates that she's the reason that they always have to be so careful. Karlie is naturally a very tactile person, whether it's pulling Taylor's legs on to her lap whilst they're sitting on the couch, wrapping her arms around Taylor's waist when they're cooking in the kitchen or even just a gentle hand on the small of her back when she's brushing past Taylor.

Taylor has lost count of the number of times they've out in public and she'll see Karlie instinctively go to reach for her hand or put a hand on her back to guide her and the only thing that stops her is the panicked look Taylor shoots her or a gentle shake of Taylor's head to remind her that they have to be more careful.