Calamitous (Kaylor)

36

When Taylor arrived in the kitchen about 40 minutes later, Andrea was just pulling the cinnamon rolls out of the oven. The smell was heavenly, but Taylor couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. She slunk into the kitchen as quietly as possible, taking a seat on one of the tall stools next to an island. Placing her elbows on the granite countertop, she rested her chin in her hands and kept her gaze straight forward, avoiding looking at either of the other two.

"Taylor?" The blonde flinched a little when Karlie's voice sounded behind her. "Can we talk?" She closed her eyes for a moment, tensing her shoulders up before relaxing with a sigh. Nodding, she stood and followed the taller girl into the living room, keeping her eyes on the ground.

As soon as they stepped out of hearing range of Andrea, both girls began to speak. "Look, I'm sorry for -" Karlie began, but was drowned out by Taylor.

"I completely understand why you'd want to break up with me and I won't try to change your mind if you do," she said in a rush. Karlie blinked at her, baffled.

"Uh, what?"

"I know I'm hard to handle. What happened last night was completely unacceptable, and I don't expect you to have to deal with it," the girl said robotically, sounding as if she had rehearsed the words many times before saying it.

"I'm not breaking up with you," Karlie said reassuringly. "I just wanted to apologize. You have nothing to feel bad about; I should have told you the moment I found out that there was a chance of finding your family, and your emotional response was completely justified."

"I screamed at you in front of our landlady. In front of my mother."

"Well, that's hardly going to reflect poorly on me," Karlie pointed out. "I'm not going to break up with you just because you embarrassed yourself in front of your own mother." Taylor let out a watery chuckle and stepped into her girlfriend's open arms, sighing and letting her body relax. She'd been feeling tense since last night, and although Andrea had helped greatly, she would have felt awful if she wasn't able to smooth things over with Karlie.

"I've got something for you," Karlie said softly, interrupting the quiet hug. She stepped over to the couch, Taylor still attached, and pulled a vase out from behind it.

"Daisies!" the blonde exclaimed, her eyes brightening.

"You seemed to like them last time, so I figured it would be a good choice," her girlfriend said, watching Taylor's reaction with a grin. "And they symbolize new beginnings, too. They're perfect for us."

"I love them," Taylor said, turning to look up at Karlie. And I love you too, she almost said, but couldn't bring herself to voice the thought.

"I'm glad." The taller girl pulled closer and kissed her gently. They pressed into each other, enjoying the feeling of closeness again, before Karlie pulled away, resting their foreheads together and looking into sparkling blue eyes.

"Seriously, though, I'm the one who messed up," she said after a moment. "Don't beat yourself up about this. It's behind us, we're still together, and we have a big day today, so let's go back to the kitchen and eat some cinnamon rolls."

"Okay," Taylor agreed, "but what's a cinnamon roll?"

You are, Karlie thought as she led the blonde back to the kitchen.

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"I don't know about this, girls. It sounds dangerous," Andrea said, looking from Taylor to Karlie. It was mid afternoon, and they were sitting in the living room, waiting for the time of the attack. Karlie had decided that it would be best to keep Andrea informed of their plans, considering how badly things could go, and Taylor had reluctantly agreed. Unfortunately, the older woman wasn't so keen to allow them to run into danger.