"L A B E L S"

Episode 111

HIT THAT PLAY BUTTON ;)

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“It feels like you’ve been gone for months. I miss you so much.”

Taylor smiles at the masculine voice on the other end of the phone. “I miss you too,” she responds just as the door opens and Jake steps inside the hotel room with two sodas. She smiles and places her hand over the mouthpiece to whisper, “Andrew.”

Jake nods with wide eyes before placing a finger over his lips to indicate that he would be silent until she ended the call. He tiptoes across the room and jumps back on the bed after setting the sodas down on the nightstand.

“I should be back by Friday,” she continues the conversation absentmindedly and stifles a laugh as Jake’s soda explodes over his hands. She senses Andrew’s frustration on the other end and forces her attention back to the phone call. “Yeah, yeah, I know and I should be back by Friday but a lot has happened the last few days and I might need to stay a little longer.” She sighs at the sound of Andrew’s disappointment and places a hand on her forehead as she turns away from Jake. “Okay. Love you too.”

“When are you going to break up with him?” Jake questions casually from the bed after Taylor ends her call. She turns to him quickly, her forehead creased in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re obviously not going to marry the poor guy so, why keep him hanging onto hope that you’re going to come back and say yes?”

Her expression immediately hardens as she places a hand on her hip. “Just because you came to your own conclusions about our relationship doesn’t mean it has any relevance.”

“Tay…”he drifts off and Taylor can already tell he was going to try and tell her something she didn’t already know.

“No,” she announces in frustration, “I’m tired of people telling me how I feel and assuming I’m still hung up on this town and certain people in it. I can’t spend my life waiting for him to open his eyes. I’m tired of being everyone’s second choice! I love Andrew and I’ve never felt like I was second to anyone when it came to him. So, unless you are going to tell me it’s my life and I can do whatever the hell I want, then you can just shut your mouth.” She takes a breath after her overdue rant and watches as Jake complies by closing his mouth slowly in shock. She stands there a moment as the anger slowly fades away and she begins to apologize. “I’m sorry.”

Jake shakes his head, a small smirk playing subtly on the corner of his mouth. “No, no, don’t apologize. You should do it more often.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “Do what? Take my frustration out on you?”

“No, tell people how you feel.”

She takes a step back in surprise as his words settle in the silent room. The silent buzzing from her phone breaks the momentary silence as she lifts it to her eyes. She glances past the name and narrows her eyes at Jake before answering the phone. “Hey, how was work?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

“You tell me." 

“Well, I had an interesting lunch date.”

“A date? Really?” Taylor’s eyes widen in interest as Jake chuckles from the bed in front of her. She quickly grabs a pillow from the foot of the bed and chucks it at his head. He dodges the flying white pillow as Joe begins clearing up her confusion from the other end of the telephone line.

“Yeah, Nick wants to bunk with me at the apartment for a couple days.”

Her smile turns into a frown as she sits down on the edge of the bed in heartache. “I guess him and Scarlett are really separating then?” Jake’s interest peaks as he lowers the soda from his lips and begins listening more intently to her conversation. She can practically hear Joe shrugging on the other end as he continues to speak.