Daylight

Chapter XIII - This Is Me Trying

June 6, 2019

"Hello?"

"Oh hey," she tries to sound cheery, "I know this is super random, but I was just sitting here in New York by myself and got really bored and thought," she paused, "how is Cara Delevingne doing, you know?"

"Swimmingly, darling. I'm in Los Angeles at the moment for a shoot, doing really great. How have you been? How was Paris?"

"Paris was," Taylor tries to pick the right word, "nice? It was very Paris. Um," another pause, "Cara, can I ask you something really weird?"

"Sure?"

"Have you heard from Karlie lately?"

"Kloss?" Cara sounds surprised, "A few days ago, I think. Didn't chat for long because she had an investors' meeting for that cookie bar thing."

"She's in New York?"

"Yes? Probably? Why don't you just text her?" Cara asks, and Taylor curses herself for not being able to respond before the model's penny drops, "Oh. What happened now?"

"Nothing happened," Taylor immediately hates how defensive she sounds, "I just bumped into her last month for the first time this year and things got a bit awkward."

"It's bound to be awkward, init."

"I don't want it to be awkward." Taylor mumbles, "I just want us to be friends."

"Darling, do you genuinely think that's going to happen? Like, ever?" Cara sounds both amused and worried, "I love you both, but I don't think I have seen you two in the same room in the past three years, so -"

"I saw her the night of her bachelorette party," Taylor objects softly, "that was last summer."

"Yes, fine, okay." Cara inhales sharply, "Forgot she went to Nashville to celebrate her wedding-to-be and you did your Dress song and she recorded it and sent it to all of us." There's another pause, "See what I mean? Awkward. You two are just infuriating."

"And I'm trying to get to a place where we can actually be in the same room again." Taylor counters, "I'm trying, Cara. This is me trying. If I could actually get a hold of her and talk to her face to face, I think we could probably be civil with each other."

"Cool, right, I'm gonna call her right now in this call, and I'm going to go do my shoot."

"What?" Taylor feels panic surging, "No, don't do that, that's -"

"Too late, doing it." The Brit interrupts her, "Oh, there we go. Hi Karls!"

"Cara? Hi? What's -"

"Listen babe, I'm about to do a shoot but I have Taylor on the line so you two talk amongst yourselves for a few minutes, yeah? I'll be back in a tick."

"Taylor?" Karlie sounds equally panicked, "Hold on -"

"Bye darlings, duty calls, bye!"

Silence. Palpable, tense silence. There's a lump in her throat and she would very much like to clear it but it would be too loud - wherever Karlie is, it's quiet. Taylor settles for stretching her arm holding the phone away from her and exhaling slowly before initiating a conversation.

"Hi."

Ground-breaking.

"Hey Taylor."

"Hey," she echoes, "I have been trying to reach you quite a few times in the past weeks but you seem to," Taylor pauses, contemplating her words, "miss my calls. Or my texts probably get lost between all the texts you must get, or -"