one last try » taylor swift

Twenty-Six

Taylor

I hadn't seen him since our breakup, which meant it had been quite a while.

Even from across the park, I could see his green eyes shining brightly back at me.

I furrowed my eyebrows, making sure that i was seeing clearly. He didn't live here in New York, so I wasn't sure why he would be here.

It's not necessarily that I didn't want to see him, or that we had been avoiding each other, it's just that there wasn't time. After the breakup, he went back to LA and I stayed in New York, so we hadn't heard much from each other at all.

He started to walk up to me, so I began walking towards him too, with Grace following behind.

"Taylor?" He said in a shocked tone of voice. My mind flashed back through all of the memories of our love when I heard his soft, yet defined accent.

"What're you doing here?" I asked softly. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Well I would've, but since we've broken up I didn't want it to be awkward or anything..." he said. He kept talking, but I didn't hear much of it, as I was focusing more on his bright green eyes and pale brownish hair. His features were all so familiar to me, yet so different from the last time I saw him.

"Calvin..." I started. "I'm so glad to see you."

I wrapped my arms around him in a friendly hug, and he returned the gesture. Despite everything that happened in the media, we ended our relationship on good terms, so it wasn't as awkward as it could have been.

After the short hug was over, he noticed Grace standing shyly behind me.

He looked down at Grace with a forced smile on his face, and then back up at me.

Grace tugged on my sleeve. I leaned down to her level to hear what she had to say.

"Who's he?" She asked in a very quiet whisper.

I chuckled.

"Grace, this is Calvin, my ex boyfriend. Calvin, this is Grace, she's my..." I didn't finish the sentence, as I wasn't really sure how to answer. Daughter might come out too forward, since I hadn't officially adopted her, technically I was her long-term caregiver. There wasn't a simple way to explain how she came to be in my care, so I just left it at that.

He smiled and kneeled down.

"Nice to meet you, Grace." He stuck out his hand, and she grabbed it cautiously and shook it.

Calvin looked up at me, and I mouthed that I would explain later.

He nodded and smiled again, then stood back up.

"Taywor and I are pwaying at the pawk," Grace said to him, louder and less-shy this time. "Do you want to pway with us?"

I giggled, and Calvin smiled graciously, and looked back at me.

"I'd love to, but only if Taylor says it's okay," he said finally.

"Of course, let's play for a while and then we can grab some lunch," I offered.

After that, the three of us ran back over to the play structure.

I couldn't picture myself getting into a relationship with him again, for many reasons, the first being that I was still confused where Tom and I stood. He had only just left, and I wasn't sure how long things would stay how they were. Along with that, I just really couldn't imagine him as more than a friend. I knew that we once had something beautiful, but I didn't want to ruin the beauty of what it once was by trying to add more.

But just like an artist who couldn't decide if the already-beautiful painting was complete, I blindly felt myself adding another brush stroke, not knowing if it would complete the work of art or tarnish what had already been painted.