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"say it's been a long six months"
"and you were too afraid to tell her what you want"
♠ ♥ ♦ ♠
"Well, um, all my shit is packed and you can get rid of anything I've missed," Joe said. "I don't think there's anything else to deal with, and here are the house keys." he continued, placing two keys onto the small wooden console.
"Uh, thanks," Taylor said, picking the keys up and closing her hand around the cold metal.
"Well then, goodbye," Joe gave an awkward small wave, before pulling up the luggage handles and opening the door.
"Shit, wait!" Taylor called after him.
For a moment, a glimmer of hope was lit up inside Joe. Maybe Taylor was having second thoughts, maybe she still loved him, maybe she wanted him to stay. But of course, this wasn't a fairytale, and the flame of hope was quickly extinguished again.
"Hm?" Joe asked cautiously, afraid that any move he made or word he said would anger Taylor.
"What are we going to do about little Benji?" she asked, looking at the cat who was nestled near her legs. He always followed her wherever she went, and she had grown so attached to him over the months, but so had Joe.
"What do you mean?" Joe asked, scratching his head in confusion.
"Meredith and Olivia and technically mine, but we adopted Benji together. He's our cat, it's not fair to you if he just stays with me," Taylor explained, squatting down to pick Benji up.
"Uh," Joe frowned. "You're right."
"I always am," Taylor smirked jokingly, but it felt like it was in bad taste since their fight. "Sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean it that way."
"It's fine." Joe was tired of arguing with her. "My house is around twenty minutes away from here, we could just alternate every two weeks," he offered.
"Like joint custody of a child, but for a cat." Taylor slowly nodded. "Yeah that works for me."
"You can have him first, I already have too much with me anyways," Joe said. "Just... text a time to hand him over."
"Great..." Taylor said awkwardly. "Bye."
"Bye." Joe pulled his luggages behind him and shut the door, then Taylor followed him from behind and clicked the lock shut.
"It's just us now, ladies," Taylor said, tears brimming in her eyes. "Except your brother will swap around with your dad- I mean Joe," she said. "Joe." she clarified to the cats, who had already crawled away.
Over the course of the next few months, the system worked for Taylor and Joe. It was the same old routine every two weeks: bribe Benji into his cat carrier, get into the car, drive to your ex's place, drop him off and avoid eye contact, then go home and spend the rest of the day reminiscing over their past memories their scent brought back.
