new romantics - taylor swift and travis kelce

The light of freedom on my face

-Taylors Pov-

Flower arrangements and gift baskets are filling up my house. Today is the premiere of my movie "The Eras Tour" so I'm getting congratulations from people and brands. I try to see who things are from as they enter the house, just to have an overview.

I come downstairs after a shower and see a few new arrangements on the kitchen table. So I head over to see who they are from. I'm drawn to a huge one made completely out of white roses and read the card.

Sorry, I couldn't be there. It will be amazing just like you. I love you and I'll see you soon – Travis.

I didn't think Travis would send anything, but sure enough, he did. It's really a beautiful arrangement and I love white roses; they are so elegant and clean. I also love the rustic style of other flowers, but there is something so innocent, so pure, about a white rose.

There are more so I look at those too. there is a gift basket from Rare Beauty, Selena's brand, and a separate flower arrangement from her personally. Then there is a smaller arrangement than all the others, it has the rustic style I love, and I pick up the note.

Congratulations on your movie. Hope to See you soon love – Joe.

I feel sick to my stomach and let the note drop to the floor. He is the last person I wanted to hear from today.

"Taylor, are you okay?" tree says as she comes into the room "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I pick up the note again and hand it to her, it should be self-explanatory. Does he get a sick joy out of tormenting me? he knows I don't want to hear from him, but yet again he makes a move. Isn't the rejection enough by now? I've done everything I can to keep him out of my life. but yet again he finds a way to torment me.

Tree reads the note and sighs "he is obsessed. I'm so sorry Taylor. is there anything I can do for you? we can talk to your lawyer about a restraining order maybe? For harassment"

"I don't want a restraining order; I just want him to get the message that I'm not interested. I'll contact him if I really need to regarding Thea, but otherwise, I want nothing to do with him unless he does a 180 and gets his shit together. I'll never want to be with him again, but I would let him be a father if he changed at least. Not that it seems like that will ever happen" I rant to her, and she patiently listens. The redhead has been with me for years now, and I trust her with anything and everything. I'm her only client, as she is hired to 13 management full time, so we spend a lot of time together. she is damn good at her job and along the way has become my friend as well.

"just let me know if you change your mind. There's got to be some way to spin this so you can get a restraining order against him. But I'm not gonna push. Just know that it is an option to explore if it gets worse" She smiles as she picks up her ringing phone. That thing seems to constantly be going off.

As Tree goes into another room, I look down at the flower arrangement Joe sent again. It's painful to think about him. I think about everything that we once were, and how good things could be at times. But then there is the dark cloud of all the bad stuff that overshadows the good stuff. I don't know if I ever will get to a point where I can talk to someone about what went down between us, but maybe never.

**

I drive down to Malibu where we are meeting Selena for a hike. Thea is excited to come with us for the first time even though I have told her that there is a good chance there will be some cameras. It's the first time she gets to come along, as now people know about her anyway.

We jump out of the car and head over to where Selena is waiting for us. "Aunty Selena" Thea shrieks and runs into her arms. "hi princess. It's so good to see you."

Selena is one of her godparents, she and Blake are her godmothers. If anything were to happen to me, and Joe, they were always to take custody of Thea. I made sure to write that in a will as soon as I knew I was pregnant with her, just in case. You never know when it's your time to go, and I wanted to make sure Thea didn't go into the system if something happened to both of us. Now I have changed it to just me being gone and not Joe as well, as he doesn't have custody anymore. He can apply for it if something were to happen to me, I think, but otherwise, she goes to either Selena or Blake.

"ready for a hike?" Selena asks her and Thea nods. It's fall here in LA, so it's not as hot as it is in the middle of summer, but we don't need a jacket. I'm in a t-shirt and Lululemon align shorts while Thea is in shorts and a t-shirt as well. We both also have a zipper hoodie around our waists just in case we get a little cold. Selena is dressed similarly too; everyone is ready for a hike.

"yes, Mommy said I get to come for once" the girl bounces a little and I smile at her. It stings a little to know I've kept this from her for so long, but I can't change the past. I can only focus on the future, and right now we are going to see how this goes if we meet any cameras.

Thea skips in front of us, but I tell her to keep close. I don't want her running off when we don't know who we will run into here. it's a hot spot for celebs to go hiking, and for good reason. It's a good spot with beautiful views. But it also means that there are almost always paparazzi lurking around somewhere. You can take a few shortcuts to try to sneak around them, I've done that before and sometimes been successful.

"so how was it the other day?" Selena asks about the premiere. She would have been there, but she just flew in this morning from New York after filming for her show. "it went well, I'm really happy about the turnout and how excited the fans were. Everyone was singing along like no one was watching. It was like being at a concert, but we were in a movie theatre."

I've seen some videos of people watching the movie in other places around the world as well, and I'm so happy about their excitement. It turned out just like how I wanted, people singing along and dancing. It's not one of those movies where you need to sit quietly and watch, no you can really get into it if you want to.

"I'm excited to watch it, just have to make the time," she says and I'm excited for her to watch it too. Of course, she has watched it live though, she took her sister to one of the tour dates and I gave Grace the 22 hat.

We continue to walk and talk about all and everything. She asks me about Travis, and I happily talk about how happy we are together. he makes me smile even from far away, and I can't wait to be back in KC to see him. I have never felt like this before, been this deep into something with someone. Sure I thought Joe was it for me, that he was the love of my life, the most epic love I would ever feel, but I was wrong. This is deeper, this is more passionate. It's hard to explain, but this is just.... More.... In every way possible.

I hear the clicks of cameras and Thea stops suddenly "Mommy there are big guys with cameras" she says and looks up at me. I take her hand and have her walk between me and Selena. "it's okay, remember we talked about them probably being here? it's fine. they are going to be quiet and take our pictures, but they won't hurt you, promise."

Thea doesn't actually seem bothered by it, more surprised than anything else. We get closer to where we will pass by them and Thea smiles brightly at them "I'm Thea, hi. I'm Thea" she says over and over again to everyone there who all chuckle and say hi back to her. "bye bye now" she yells when we pass them, and I laugh.

She is taking everything in strides, and it makes me feel guilty for keeping her hidden for so long. For her the cameras doesn't seem to bother her, even though it's something new, so my fear that they would traumatize her was in vain. I don't like to regret the past, as I can't change it, only the future, but I do wish that I was a little less uptight about her being out and about. She lost some experiences with me that she won't be able to get back just because I wanted to keep her hidden. It's the consequences of my actions, and I know that. I just wish that I had known that she could handle it, and maybe fought joe on the matter. but it doesn't really matter, I can't take it back, I can't change it. what I can do is let her do what she wants to do going forward. I won't keep her hidden anymore just because there might be cameras there. I don't want people to make money off pictures of her, and I will continue to feel that way, but I won't take experiences away from her because of it.

When we get a safe distance from the cameras Thea lets go of my hand and skips a few steps ahead of us again like nothing is wrong in the world. I wish I had her carefree ness.