It's All Part of the Story

Please picture me

August 2020

As birthdays go, so far, this one is shaping up to be a pretty good one Karlie thinks. It's not always a given that she gets to spend her day with Taylor, although they try to always at least see each other at some point during the day. There have been times when they have had to settle for birthday phone calls and FaceTime dates, so getting to spend a lazy morning in bed with Taylor before cooking brunch together is already the best birthday present ever.

They spend the afternoon baking cookies and cupcakes and are planning to round the day off with a socially distant birthday dinner at her parents place.

Karlie is relaxing on the couch with her legs stretched out on the coffee table waiting for Taylor to come back from checking their cookies in the oven so that she can unpause the movie. Karlie had been skeptical when Taylor had suggested a Disney movie marathon seeing as how the Kloss family tradition of going to DisneyWorld for her birthday was obviously on hold for this year. But Karlie had to admit that getting to cuddle with Taylor on the couch, stealing kisses in between belting out their favourite songs was just as magical.

So when Karlie hears Taylor's squeal of "Oh my god!" from the kitchen she thinks that they must have gotten distracted with Snow White and burnt their cookies, so she goes to investigate.

She finds Taylor leaning against the kitchen counter, oven glove on one hand and her phone in the other, a dozen perfectly baked cookies cooling on a rack.

"Oh my god, this is the cutest thing I've ever seen!" Taylor gushes staring intently at her phone and she actually bounces on her toes in excitement.

"What is it?" Karlie questions wrapping her arms around Taylor's waist from behind so that she can peer over her shoulder at whatever has gotten her girl so worked up.

"Look at what Kari just sent me," Taylor says tilting her screen so that Karlie can see. She bites her lip and fixes her gaze on Karlie to get her reaction and she's not disappointed when recognition washes over Karlie's face before heat rushes to her cheeks.

"Oh my god, I'm going to kill her," Karlie whines dropping her head to rest on Taylor's shoulder. Karlie loves the fact that Taylor is so close with her family, particularly her sisters. But she could really live without them scheming with her fiancée behind her back, sharing childhood photos that really never needed to see the light of day with her.

"Why? I think this may be my favourite photo of you in existence," Taylor says with a wide smile, looking back at the picture of a roughly two year old Karlie smiling up at the camera.

"This is so embarrassing," Karlie sighs dramatically but she doesn't move from where she is wrapped around Taylor.

"This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, I can't stop looking at it," Taylor shoots back and Karlie knows that she's smiling; she can hear it in her voice.

Taylor turns to drop a quick kiss to Karlie's cheek before double tapping the screen on her phone to zoom in and is overcome with giggles again.

"I do not miss those bowl cuts my Mom used to give us," Karlie complains. "All four of us had the same haircut as kids and they were not flattering."

"That's not fair, I think you pull it off really well," Taylor soothes, patting Karlie's arms where they are locked around her waist.

"You knew how to work the camera even back then," Taylor teases and she can feel Karlie chuckle. "I'm serious, I think you might even be smizing."

Karlie doesn't say anything in response, just rolls her eyes and turns Taylor around in her arms before leaning down to kiss her in the hopes of distracting her a little bit.

It doesn't work as well as she would like when Taylor pulls away and turns back to her phone. "Seriously though, what are you wearing?"

"I don't even know."

"Look at those little baby cheeks, I could just smush them," Taylor says tracing her fingers over Karlie's baby face. "I swear you are the gift that keeps on giving," she says turning to face Karlie again, wrapping her arms around her shoulders.

"Hey, you can't make fun of me on my birthday," Karlie whines.

Taylor leans in and kisses her softly in apology. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispers even though in Karlie's opinion she doesn't look one bit sorry. She's smiling so wide that her eyes are crinkled and Karlie can't resist pressing a kiss to her forehead when she looks at her like that.

"At least you can't show anyone else," Karlie says as if to reassure herself that things could be worse.

"Oh, yeah, about that, I may have sort of dared Kari to put it on her Insta story for your birthday," Taylor replies, grinning like a maniac.

"Why would you do this to me?" Karlie demands, skirting her fingers up and down Taylor's sides in an attempt to enact some retribution.

Taylor jerks out of Karlie's embrace and swats her hands away before going back to staring at her phone from a safe distance away. "The whole world deserves to see how cute you were as a kid, I can't keep that to myself," Taylor says as if it should be obvious.

Inspired by the photo above, I just couldn't not.... Let me know what you think, comments give me life!