The Lucky One (2) - Taylor Swift

17

For the next two weeks, life went on in a terrific manner. It was slightly past the mid-June mark. Grace had gone to AA meetings every day and had been working with the rest of Taylor's team on the upcoming album rollout while also finding a balance in their day-to-day life.

She didn't realize how much went into making Taylor into Taylor Swift until she started to really see the numbers, the crew, the needs of a brand like that. She did her best to separate the two, to see Taylor as more than someone who was going to have an all-stadium tour the following year that would apparently consume her entire life surrounding it.

She was on the couch with Meredith one Friday morning after she had been mysteriously been given the day off, they said they didn't need anything that day. Grace wore a sweatshirt from Taylor's half of the closet and a pair of sweatpants that had come in the mail a week prior from Taylor's over the top shopping haul for her girlfriend.

She spoiled Grace no matter how much the brunette fought it. She insisted that she had so much money it didn't matter, Grace could understand that feeling and tried not to think about it too much.

"You look like you're about to fall asleep," Taylor cracked a smile as she walked in, toothbrush hanging out of her mouth still, "You should grab some coffee."

"Meredith and I are staying on this couch all day long," the brunette replied. She had no intentions of moving, she was more than happy to let her bones settle into that sofa forevermore.

"The plane leaves in an hour and a half?" Taylor had toothpaste around her lips, still brushing.

"What?" Grace opened her phone to look at the calendar, "No, we're going to Nashville next— oh, this weekend."

"Did you pack?"

"No," Grace sighed and gave Meredith one last kiss. She was about to get up when her phone started to ring from an unknown UK number. She pressed answer and held it up to her ear as she followed Taylor the up stairs towards their room, "Hello?"

"Hey! Hi, this is Nellie— Eleanor James. Uhm, we met a few weeks ago!" Her younger half-sister was far too cheery for Grace's current state of panic, but it obviously stemmed from a sense of awkwardness between them.

"Yes, I do remember you," Grace chuckled, she pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder so she could remove her suitcase from the closet in the hallway, "How are you? Sorry, I haven't had a chance to call. Between moving, a new job, trying to stay sober, and then moving and a new job again, I'm a disaster."

"Right, no, I'm good! I just wanted to call and see how you were doing with the news? They're being pretty brutal and you know, we are siblings... so," Eleanor trailed off. She could hear the zipper on the suitcase undoing in the background as she waited to Grace's response.

"What is taking place in the news?" Grace stood up straight. That caught Taylor's attention, her head poked out from the bathroom again. No toothbrush in sight any longer.

"You didn't see? It looks like... your mum didn't know about me and she didn't take it well. She left him, the story was leaked this morning," Nell answered. She didn't intend on being the one to deliver that information.

Grace felt the air in her lungs hitch, her heart rate felt unsteady. She had never once in her life thought that Jennifer would do such a thing, she knew of the affairs. She knew what her husband was, but if she didn't know about Eleanor then it must have been the ultimate betrayal. A lie of omission over two decades in the making, with the possibility of more.

"Have you told Michael?"

"I called you first."

"We have to protect Michael's privacy, I don't want the media finding him. It's part of the reason I moved, they were sniffing around looking for Taylor after someone uploaded pictures," Taylor didn't know that part, "Was it you who leaked the reason for it?"