"Taylor!" Joe called from the balcony.
"I'm coming!" Taylor replied, tying up her hair. They'd woken up early this morning to watch the sunrise, and she was bringing out blankets for the two of them.
"You'll miss it!" Joe said, and Taylor laughed.
"I won't! I'm right here," she wrapped her arms around his neck. It was beginning to get hard to hug him, and she was getting more and more frustrated about that. Joe had started to hug her from behind, but she still missed being able to hug him herself.
She handed him a blanket and sat down beside him on the chair. It had been Joe's idea a couple of nights ago that they should wake up early one morning and watch the sunrise together. The last few mornings it had been cloudy and raining. This was the first clear morning, and both of them were excited to see the sun. It was the most perfect picture. The sky was streaked with colour, and Joe wrapped his arm around her, stroking her back. These little moments meant everything to the two of them. The little moments where they'd truly feel as if they were the only people in the entire world. Taylor thought that she'd never feel like she was alone like the cameras weren't watching her every move, but they'd begun to find these little moments of peace. She wouldn't give them up for the world.
"I can't believe that there are only just over three months to go," Joe whispered in her ear. She turned to face him, smiling. "It's gone so fast."
"It's been the best part of my life," Taylor leaned in and kissed him. "I love you." She'd never get tired of telling him that. She was sure that if she counted up all the times she'd tell him that in a day, it would near fifty. She just loved him so much and she wanted to make sure that he would never forget that. She stared up at him, a loving smile on her face.
"I love you too," Joe kissed her. Taylor gasped against his lips when she felt the baby begin to move. She took his hand in hers and placed it on her stomach. "I'll never get tired of that feeling," Joe murmured against her neck as he kissed her. "You've come so far, my love."
Taylor blushed. She was in love with life again. She thought she'd never find that love again, but here she was. She loved life with everything she was. She loved this life that the two of them had created together.
Taylor found that she had more energy than she did in her second trimester of pregnancy, which was a relief to her. It was nice to be able to do small things without feeling exhausted. She'd really tried hard to keep up her physical exercise. Often she and Joe would go for midnight walks along the beach. No one else was there, and even if they were, it was too dark to tell that it was Tayor Swift and Joe Alwyn. It was nice to get out of the house and do things that normal people did, even though they had to do it in the pitch-black darkness. She'd had to buy maternity clothes a week or so ago. That had been something that had set off her eating disorder a little bit more, but she'd managed to recover from that. It just took the feeling of butterflies in her stomach, the feeling of their baby girl moving inside of her, that reminded her why she had to eat. Their daughter was a constant reminder of everything there was to live for, everything there was going to be experienced.
They'd finished Folklore three weeks ago, and it hadn't even been released yet and Taylor was certain that she wanted to do another album. She had loved the process of Folklore so much, and she just wanted to experience it all over again. She also didn't feel ready to stop writing songs, particularly with Joe. They were a great team, and their vocabulary together was superior to anyone else she'd ever worked with before. She loved his ability to tell a story through his songs, how he turned any song into a completely heart shattering masterpiece.
And she knew that as soon as the baby arrived, she wouldn't have the time to write songs for a while. And this would be another thing to make up for the fact that she'd had to cancel the tour. Two albums in a year? That was something no one was expecting. Fuck, they didn't even know that today she'd be announcing Folklore's release. They wouldn't see it coming. And she wasn't going to make them wait a long amount of time before she was releasing it - she was going to post it at nine in the morning, and they'd release it at midnight. She was stressed, like she always was before the release of an album, particularly because it was so different to everything she'd released before.
Taylor smiled as she got a text from Blake, wishing her good luck, and that she felt so honoured to have Betty's name announced in the song. Release days were always stressful, but they were exciting. Joe kept her busy, they baked cookies together, and she kept him company while he started to take some of the furniture out of the bedroom they wanted the nursery to be in. She helped him to a certain extent, but it got to the point where Joe wouldn't let her help anymore, and so she followed after him. The timer on her phone went off and she got her photo ready to post. Joe stopped at sat beside her on the bed.
"I'm so nervous," Taylor bit her lip. "What if they don't like it?"
"Of course they're going to like it," Joe told her as he took her hand. "It's a great album. It's so good, Taylor. Don't forget how talented you are."
"Do you think that Karlie's going to know that track number five is reserved for her?" Taylor gave him a small smile. "I hope she does. You don't think that people are going to think that it's far too different? It's not like anything I've done before... and it's so different to Lover..." he cut her off, kissing her.
"Stop, love. It's a phenomenal album. I couldn't even pick a favourite song. They're all incredible, and have so much depth. People are going to love it."
"You really think so?" She really doubted her abilities when it came to the release date of an album. She could have produced a perfect album and she'd still worry that people weren't going to like it.
"I know they are. Blake loved it, so did your mum. And my mum and dad are still so surprised that I've written a couple of them with you." He kissed her. He paused, smiling against her lips. "Don't you think for a moment that this album isn't good. It's a beautiful album. You know as well as I do, that everyone is going to have it on repeat for months. Until you release the next album," he told her with a grin. "And then they'll be playing that on repeat. And after that, the re-records. They love you, Taylor. They'd listen and love anything you wrote."
Taylor nodded, biting her cheek. They were going to love it. Well, she hoped they would.
She took a deep breath, before she pressed post.
"Fuck!" She sighed as she put her head in her hands. "It's so real now." Her heart was pounding. "At least I'm not doing any live interviews for this album," she sighed, relieved that the world finally knew about it. She'd kept the name so secret, only five people knew the albums real name, and she was one of the only people who knew the true William Bowery. "I'm doing a couple of videos about it... but hopefully I should be able to hide the bump for the most part. I'll have to make sure that I say all the right things, considering that they haven't seen me since the Lover tour." She still posted the occasional cat photo on Instagram, but no one and seen a photo of her in months. "I just wanted to say thank you, Joe. For everything. For coming up with the absolutely beautiful piano for Exile, and for coming up with the idea of Betty." She took his hand, bringing it to her lips. "And for sitting with me and while I scribbled down lyrics, or for keeping the cats quiet when I was recording. And for breaking up all the cat fights that were happening on the bed behind me," both of them laughed. "And for all the late night hot chocolates, and all the kisses, the shoulder massages... and everything. I couldn't have done it without you. And I suppose I should thank you for being the one to move all the furniture. I would help if you'd let me," she smiled. She looked down at her stomach, smiling. "I'm just over three months, we're going to be parents."
Joe pulled her into him. "I can't wait." He kissed her cheek, and then moved to kiss her stomach.
"Do you hear that?" He murmured to her stomach, and Taylor felt her heart melt. "We're waiting for you, little one."
That's it, her heart was no longer beating, the moment was just too special. She felt the tears stream down her cheeks as she smiled. "These are happy tears, I promise." She laughed while she cried. "I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you." She told him as he kissed her stomach once more, before he kissed her cheek. He looked at her with a loving smile, as if she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world. As if she was the only person in the universe that was worth looking at.
Taylor kept herself distracted by helping Joe, by helping him take down the bed and bring in the paint that they'd chosen together. Joe had gone to the shops a couple of weeks ago, and he'd sent her photos of all the colours he liked. They'd both decided on a pale yellow colour, mostly because Taylor loved the name of it. Ethereal Daylight. It was such a soft and pretty colour, and the fact that the walls of their daughters nursery were literally going to be painted in daylight made her happy.
"Are you going to let me help you paint?" Taylor asked as she opened the new packet of paintbrushes.
Joe grinned at her as he finished taking down the bed. "You can - but I'm not letting you get on that ladder." He walked over to her, kissing her forehead. "I'm just going to get a drink of water, would you like one?"
Taylor shook her head, and went over to look out the window. This room was similar to the room that she played the piano in, and the view of the ocean was so perfect. From here, she could see the rest of Rhode Island, she could see the people waiting on the beach for a possible glimpse of her. She closed her eyes, grateful that they couldn't see her. It was so isolating to feel like you were trapped in a box with people staring in at you, waiting for you to do something exciting. It's what it felt like, a lot of the time. The fans that would wait outside everywhere she went, would scream her name in the streets... it was all just so isolating. Some of them tended to treat her like an animal at the zoo, and that was an aspect of her life that she couldn't quite get past. He rest her arms on her stomach, the baby kicking her. It brought her attention away from the beach, and back to her baby. In just over three months, she was going to be a mother. She was so excited for that point in her life, but had never expected it to feel this good.
"I brought you up a drink anyway," Joe laughed as he came into the bedroom, Meredith following along behind him. "Because lately you say no when I ask you something and then you change your mind two minutes later." Taylor laughed. "So I'll just put it on the shelf and then you can drink it when you want."
"I'm sorry," she smiled.
"Don't be sorry," he grinned. "It's cute."
Taylor rolled her eyes, smiling. She stood up, and went to drink the water. "Thank you for bringing some up for me."
"If there's anything else I could get you, just let me know." He opened the lid of the paint and begun to mix it. "This colour is perfect."
"We definitely have good taste." Taylor said as she passed him a paint brush.
The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon painting the walls of the room.
"I love this colour so much," Taylor said as she stopped to take a look at it. Joe was still up on the ladder painting the top of the wall that he wouldn't let Taylor touch. "It makes the room look so much bigger and brighter."
"It definitely does."
Taylor went downstairs to go and get something to eat, when she heard a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" Joe called out, and she heard him coming down the stairs. She always made sure that Joe answered the door just in case it was someone she didn't want to speak to, or someone who didn't know that she was pregnant.
She heard voices murmuring from the kitchen, and tried not to feel too anxious about who it might be.
If it was something bad, Joe would have let her know already.
"Taylor," she heard Joe call. He didn't sound stressed, or worried, so she took a deep breath, getting a glass of water. "Come here!"
She didn't know what to expect as she walked to the door, but it certainly wasn't that.
"Patrick? What are you doing here?!" She flung her arms around his neck.
"I know that it's a surprise and everything... but I just needed to get away for a while." Something was wrong. Something wasn't right. He wasn't laughing, or smiling. "Long time no see." He finally greeted her with a smile, but it wasn't the same smile that she'd seen the last time he was here. Hell, it wasn't even the same smile that she'd seen a week ago on FaceTime.
"Come in," Taylor said, as Joe helped him with his bags. She waited until the door was shut, before she questioned what was wrong. "Are you okay? You don't seem like yourself..."
Patrick ran his hands through his hair and looked down at the floor. "I'm so sorry to intrude. I just had to get away from London for while. Preferably forever- I never want to go back." Taylor was getting more and more worried about him. He was deflated.
"Come... I'll make you something to drink."
"Do you have any alcohol?" Patrick asked her, half joking but could really do with a drink.
"Of course we do," Taylor linked her arm through his. "The place is a bit of a mess at the moment, so you'll have to forgive us for that. We're painting the nursery."
"I don't care, I just... thank you so much for letting me stay." He sat down beside Joe at the dining table, his head in his hands. Benjamin immediately jumped up onto his lap, but not even he could make Patrick give his usual grin.
"Of course. You're welcome to stay as long as you want to," Taylor said as she poured him a drink. "Do you want one?" She asked Joe. He shook his head.
"Water will be okay, thank you." He gave her a smile.
Taylor took their drinks over to the table, and sat down in front of Patrick. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Patrick looked up with tears in her eyes. "I just feel so stupid, you know? Like... it all just happened so fast..." he had tears in his eyes now. "I guess that I fell in love with a girl with... champagne problems." He told them bitterly as he took a big gulp of his drink. He wanted to drink all of that pain away. "So now I'm here, and I'm never fucking going back."