Taylor x Travis: In Every Life

birthday

- December 8th 2024 -

Everyone cheered as I entered the bar, clapping and congratulating me as I passed. I smiled, greeting people as I was passed through the crowd, embracing all of my backup singers, dancers, band, backstage crew, and production team. I'd rented out a bear nearby to the BC Place stadium for everyone as a celebration of the end of the tour, and the bar had pulled out all the stops.

The music was pumping, and colourful lights filled the room as people got drinks from the bar, danced, and mingled together. I made my way through the people, chatting with as many people as I could. There was a little knot of disappointment in my stomach that Travis wasn't able to be here, but I knew he had to stay in Kansas City since they were smack in the middle of the football season.

I got a drink at the bar - vodka diet coke - and joined in the party, talking and laughing with Paul. After a couple hours, everyone filtered out to go back to their hotels or catch their flights out, thanking me and saying goodbye as they left. Once everyone had left, I sat alone at one of the bar tables, sipping the last of my drink and swirling the ice around inside. The bar staff packed up all of the glasses around me, sweeping the floor and cleaning everything up.

"Would you like anything else?" A teenage girl in a bar apron asked me as she passed with half a tray of drinks balanced on one hand. She was the last one in the bar, finishing up by herself.

"No I'm alright, thank you." I smiled, and she took my empty glass to put on her tray. "I'll get out of your hair so you can go home."

She nodded and I jumped down from my chair, heading over to the bar and taking my wallet out of my purse to pay. Once she'd put the glasses down, the girl came over and pulled up the tab, printing out the total and handing me the receipt. I thanked her as she placed a pen down next to it and wrote in a five hundred dollar tip before handing the receipt back to her. Glancing down at it, she did a double take and then looked up at me.

"Are you serious?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked, handing her my card so she can run it. "Give a hundred each to the other two people that were working, but the rest is for you." She'd taken great care of the whole group the whole time we'd been here and had been amazing. "Thank you so much for tonight, they needed a celebration."

"Yeah, I heard the show was amazing tonight. I watched the surprise songs on my break." She admitted, running my card.

"You didn't get tickets?" I guessed, and she shook her head.

"I really wanted to go, but I lost out."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I said, and she shrugged. "Hey, what's your favourite album?" The girl blinked, thinking for a moment.

"Reputation." She told me.

"Alright, wait there one second." I told her, holding up a finger and heading for the door. Rushing out to the car, I rifled in the back where I always kept a few boxes of merch and pulled out a Reputation (Taylor's Version) CD as well as one of the merch shirts.

Finding a sharpie, I signed the CD with a little heart and told my driver I'd be back in a minute before taking the merch back into the bar. The girl working glanced up when I came back in and her eyes widened a fraction when I put the CD and the shirt up on the counter.

"I can't take these." She insisted.

"Yes you can." I told her. "I'm going to leave these here anyway, so you might as well take them." She smiled thankfully.

"Okay, thank you so much." She beamed.

"Have a good night." I told her, heading back to the door. She waved me off as I left, closing the door behind me.