Perfect Storms

chapter twenty-five

"And you would hide away and find your peace of mind with some indie record
that's much cooler than mine"
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together ~Taylor Swift

I woke up to a bunch of text messages and phone calls. I decided to call Tree, my publicist, first to see what was going on. Before I could get her to pick up I already knew it probably had something to do with Adam.
"Hey what's going on?"
"Your ex has decided to break some rules."
And that's how the at first calm morning started. Apparently Adam was getting sick of having to keep quiet about me and thought a few mean tweets attacking my line of work and of course my new boyfriend wouldn't hurt. And if that wasn't enough he decided to blow my cover after I was doing him a favor helping out with his song. Nonetheless I listened quietly, contently. Normally this kind of thing would light a fire inside my heart. I had always fancied myself the type of girl who did not mind and had honestly mastered the art of revenge. But this time I just wanted to move on. Maybe if I was single in the mist of all this things would be different.
Just to be sure, after our phone call ended I logged onto my Twitter for the first time in weeks. I looked up Adams account, he wasn't blocking me... Yet. I guess that was a plus. Sure enough all the tweets were there and they were all true. Logging on was a mistake. I had people throwing all kinds of things about me. Most popularly I was a snake. I took a deep breath. In this moment I could not help but feel helpless. Sure I could easily play the game back and probably end his career which compared to mine was inferior. But what would that do? Breed more anger? More hatred? I did not love Adam but I definitely didn't want to hate him either. We ended with what I thought was peace and I took that as a sign that things would be okay. But instead I had apparently just pressed start on a bomb that was bound to blow.
I found myself fighting back a few tears. For the world, I looked strong, I acted as though this whole ordeal did not bother me but in all honesty it did. And I adored Tom and appreciated his company but that does not mean I still feel a great deal of hurt and guilt for what I did to Adam.
I have learned life is all about a balance. You can have a great life and still be lonely at the end of the day. Just like how you can have the world falling apart around you and still manage to smile at the stars. That's the thing about life, it's not all black and white, it's a lot of shades of grey.
I remember I use to think I had no right to ever be upset because my life was a dream and I would mentally punish myself for feeling sad. But now I know it's okay to be sad despite all the wonderful perks that come with being Taylor Swift.
Tom came back to the pent house early that day. He said something about not being needed on set today as he walked into the shower. He had been training like crazy the past few days. I never dared to ask him to take me places. He always came home exhausted from the workout. I did not mind though. Despite how long we were separated each day, he was still the only person I got to take to bed. If falling asleep in his arms every night was the only time I would have with him I was grateful.
He came out of the shower, his hair still glistening with water, and sat next to me on the bed.
"What's wrong love? You look down."
"Just a lot of stuff going on," I could not make eye contact with him but I knew he knew what I meant. "It's getting ugly."
"I think we need a tea date."

A few minutes later we were escorted to a little coffee shop behind our hotel. Thankfully there were no paps today. Most of them vanished after I had not come outside for a few days.
It was 1pm when we arrived. The lunch crowd was gone and warm coffee in the middle of the day was not a favorite. Therefore we had the place mostly to ourselves. I order a vanilla latte, he ordered tea. It was winter in the Gold Coast but living next to the beach and the fact the calendar read July gave the day an unshakable summer vibe.
"So what's been bothering you darling?" He spoke after helping me into my chair like a true gentleman. He even paid for my drink.
"Adam's broken a few rules my team laid out for us. He's making quite a scene on Twitter." I talked casually stirring my latte. I did not want to make it look as though the topic bothered me too much. There was a coldness to my words. I think Tom heard it.
"I'm sorry."
"He thinks I'm trying to tear him down or something. If only he knew the quiet was for the best. I mean I know I hurt him but..."
"It's immature."
"Exactly. I wish I could do something about it."
"Sometimes silence speaks louder than words."
"I know..."
"I think maybe he feels the need to hurt you back."
"The Katy Perry tweet kind of sting."
We laughed casually. I loved how he could make a hurtful conversation into a light one. I found myself fumbling with the stir stick. I gave a heavy sigh, oh how I wanted to forget.
"I think there's something else you're not telling me darling." He said his hands stretched across the table and took my palms into his. I forced myself to look up at him. I felt bad for being the downer on our vacation. I should be motivating and supporting him, not the other way around.
"I helped him write that song you know, his current hit. I did it to be nice, during the time, working on it together was fun." I started slowly, cautiously. "We agreed to keep it quiet, I signed it using a fake name so no one would know. We did not want the added press. But... But now he's told everyone and he's... Well he's pulling my career into this and I don't like that. I'm not comfortable with that. I mean of course you could never understand what this means exactly, not being a musician and all..." I found myself mumbling through my rant. I took a deep breath. He chuckled
"Had to get that off your chest."
"Haha yeah, thanks."
There was a moment of silence.
"God I'm such an awful girlfriend..." I trailed off all of sudden feeling completely insecure. How awful I had been. It was so unfair of me to talk about my ex to my current boyfriend. It just hit me how insecure and doubtful I was probably making Tom feel.
"Why would you say that love?"
"All I talk about is my ex. I'm sorry." The words came out in more of a mumble. He probably felt like the most useless rebound and I was only making it worse. To him it probably seemed I was only getting with him to show the world I did not care about Adam or that I had moved on. And yes I did move on but Tom meant to much to me and I was here just treating him like total shit.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I mumbled as I felt a few tears begin to spill down my cheek. I was truly exhausted from all the drama, all the hurt. So much so I had completely lost composure of myself in public and more importantly in front of Tom.
I quickly tried wiping the tears away but the more I thought about the way I had been treating him the more I wanted to sob.
However he acted in a way that screamed I did not deserve him. Instead of telling me to stop or look embarrassed he got up from his seat and sat himself to the empty chair besides me and pulled me into his arms. The small gesture meant more to me than I could ever put into words.
"It's not easy being Taylor Swift is it?" He spoke. His words a soft whisper again my ear as he pulled me into his comforting embrace.
"Ha, no. Not in the slightest." I half laughed wiping a few tears away.
We kissed and then he went back to his chair. By the end of our conversation Adam's hateful comments didn't sting so bad.

*****
We got in the car for the short ride back to the hotel. Tom drove one hand on the straying wheel the only on my lap. I decided to turn on the radio. Lately I had been avoiding that too. But today was not going to be afraid by whatever song met my ears. I guess God likes to play games, I knew he was laughing above when the familiar tune of my old hit We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together filled the car. There was no other way to describe the irony other than a God send.
"Oh my god!" I laughed. Tom turned up the volume. Normally I would fight to change the channel when my songs came on the radio but today I would let it be.
"I REMEMBER WHEN WE BROKE UP" I started to sing along with... well myself, loudly. To my utter surprise the beautiful boy next to me joined in my pathetic chorus.
"BECAUSE LIKE WE HAVEN'T SEEN EACH OTHER IN A MONTH
WHEN YOU
SAID YOU
NEEDED
SPACE.
WHAT?!?"
The ride home became a jam session as we both belted out the lyrics to the top of our lungs. We had absolutely no pitch, we weren't hitting the notes properly, in fact it seemed to be a contest of who could sing louder.
"WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER... LIKE EVER"
The sass was evident in both our voices and once the song ended we both laughed hysterically despite the fact we were out of breath. I do not remember the last time I laughed so hard in my life. How many grown men do you know would sing a pop song like that at the top of their lungs making a complete fool of themselves? The song may have been a random gift from above but Tom was an angel sent from heaven.

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This chapter is so cute in proud of myself😁 What do you think? Is Tom the angel Taylor needs? PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT OKAY THANK YOU!