Camera Flashes (1) - Taylor Swift

6

Taylor decided to go to Australia.

Grace Kent had absolutely no business giving relationship advice, but Taylor actually realized it was decent advice in her own way. She got to Australia and promptly realized she had no business being with Tom.

She should have known from the moment they were seated next to each other at the pre Met Gala dinner that it wasn't a good idea. The first sip of her drink had led to indiscretion after indiscretion, it wasn't meant to go far. It should have gone nowhere at all.

He was just a rebound, he was falling for her hard and didn't realize that it was supposed to be casual fun. He told her that he loved her one night and that really sealed the deal, that she had to end it with him as soon as possible.

She was just so scared that another failed relationship would reflect poorly. She was stood at the bathroom sink of the hotel room they were sharing only a few days into her trip, the very next morning after he confessed his love and she looked at him with a vacant stare and internal panic, no response provided.

"I should've listened to Tree," she mumbled to herself while she collected water in her hand to rinse the excess grit of the toothpaste out of her mouth. Tree told her not to do it, not just as a publicist but as a friend of sorts. She probably shouldn't have said that out loud, but she was so jet lagged it was making her brain fog.

"What was that?" Tom asked as he picked up the shave cream and began to lather his chin, he raised an eyebrow without noticing his face move like that. Ugh, why did his face move like that?

"Nothing," Taylor replied as she rinsed the sink out. She then realized that if she didn't do it now, she'd have to wait until that night once he got off work, which meant an entire day of overthinking how to do it.

"Okay," he accepted it easily. Taylor knew she would've pushed for an answer.

"You know what, I'm just going to rip the bandaid off. We need to break up, you're moving really fast and I was looking to keep things casual and I'm sorry."

He blinked at her with surprise for far too long, until he swallowed and said, "I don't really understand."

"I know you don't," Taylor genuinely felt bad, she swallowed thickly as she tried to give him more to work with. His eyes just looked so defeated so quickly, "I just got out of a relationship and I rushed into this too soon. I'm sorry to do it like this, or at all. Really, I'm just sorry. I don't want to have any ill feelings between us, it's just not right and it's not going to work out."

He nodded and remained quiet, dragging the grooming device across his skin carefully, "Will you be gone when I get back?"

"Sure," Taylor agreed. For someone who had over-shared his feelings every step of the way, he sure was silent then. It was for the best, they were cursed from the start.

While it was early for Taylor in Australia, it was already time for dinner in Grace's house. It was a quiet night of just her and Charlie, Mather's pulled her chair out for her while Charlie was waiting for her to be seated before he picked up his utensils.

Unlike her parents, they didn't sit at complete opposite ends of the table. They usually sat with him at the head of the table and Grace adjacent to him, it was much easier than sitting so far apart. The table had room for a dozen chairs at it, it would've been shouting just to speak to each other.

"What did you do today?" Charles inquired, picking at his potatoes with the tip of his fork. Everything was prepared by the private chef, perfectly cooked as to be expected.

"I won chess against myself, again," Grace hummed, not joking. One of her favourite hobbies was to play both sides of the chess match. Before, she always played against Michael. They took chess lessons for eight years together.