(m)
'I'm sorry we can't go for your actual birthday, Trav. I wanted to celebrate with you'.
'We can celebrate plenty at the weekend, T, the actual day doesn't matter to me. I just can't wait to have you in my arms again'.
Travis smiles sweetly at her through the phone, the pair of them tucked up in their respective beds in New York and Kansas City, preparing to ring in Travis' 34th birthday.
'Time for the countdown! 3, 2, 1.... Happy Birthday, Travis. I love you'.
'Thank you baby, I love you too. Somehow I think it's going to be my best year yet, with you by my side'.
They talk for only a short while after that, Taylor conscious that he has to get up early for practice in the morning, the gruelling NFL schedule not caring that it was his birthday.
She smiled to herself as she tried to settle down to sleep: she'd told him from last week that try as she might, she couldn't get to KC for Thursday, the actual day of his birthday. She had an interview (with Time, how exciting!) and it couldn't be rearranged.
He'd masked it well, but she could tell he was disappointed, but she had made it up to him by promising to fly in on Friday, stay until Saturday when he had to leave for Minnesota, and they could celebrate then. He was looking forward to it - the time in New York was lovely, but all too short - and had already talked about taking her to his favourite steak house when she was there.
Little did he know, however, that she had in fact managed to get the interview bumped a few weeks and she was free on his birthday, after all. She'd enlisted Ross' help: not only to have him out of the house on Thursday morning, but to help her organise a little birthday get together for that night.
She excitedly bid goodbye to Matilda early on Thursday morning, handing her over to Hannah with a surprisingly little amount of mom guilt, knowing she'd be back with her on Friday. She touched down in KC a little after 10, a text from Ross confirming that Travis was out with him, and headed straight to his house.
Travis was in the process of buying a new house in a gated community - something he had been planning, he explained to her, long before they got together, but had accelerated the process due to the attention brought by their relationship and her security - he just wanted her to feel safe. This would be one of the last weekends spent together at his old house, as he was hoping to move at the end of the month.
As she entered, the key he had provided her with last week resting in her hand, she smiled as she looked around: she knew he wasn't as tidy as he made out to be when she was there. His sneakers lay haphazardly by the front door, a pair of sunglasses on the hall table. His Chiefs training hoodie was slung over the bannister, another pair of shoes on the bottom step, clearly to be taken upstairs, but she was willing to bet, walked past a few hundred times already.
She laughs, venturing further into the kitchen, glad to see he has tidied in here - or Kumar had when he was here this morning. She smiles looking at the pictures he's stuck to the fridge since she was last here: a Polaroid of them both, sitting on his porch, him kissing her cheek with their legs intertwined. She's laughing, a carefree belly laugh that has her eyes closed, with her hand tight against his cheek. The other makes her heart melt even further - a picture she had snapped of Travis reading Matilda a story, the baby looking right up at him while he concentrated on the story. He must have went straight to get it printed out - it was only a few days old, taken before the Jets game on Sunday.
