Karlie had promised herself she would be at Taylor's apartment half an hour early before Tree's 5:30 arrival. She knew this was something she definitely couldn't be late for. She's lucky she made herself that deadline, however, because she's panicked as she blow dries her hair, glancing at the clock that shows it is 5:00 now. Okay, I will be twenty minutes early.
Karlie tosses the hair dryer aside and runs a hand through her still damp hair. She grabs her purse and is out the door, glad to see there are no paparazzi waiting for her. She decides to walk to Taylor's apartment once glancing at the city's rush hour traffic around her. It's only a ten minute walk, I can probably do it in eight.
She puts her headphones on and quickens her pace, but she is surprised when her music isn't playing, but rather her ringtone sounding.
"Hey, Jourdan," Karlie answers.
"Hey, Karlie! I want to plan a trip to see you in New York. What's your schedule like?" Jourdan asks.
"Um.. I really have no idea, can I call you in a bit and figure it out? I said I'd get to Taylor's early and I'm rushing to—"
"You? You are going to get somewhere early? And that's why you can't talk to me right now?" Jourdan asks, disbelief and annoyance in her voice.
"Okay, no I take that back. Hold on, I'll look at the calendar on my phone," Karlie says quickly, slowing her pace to look down at her screen as she walks.
"Forget it. Just text me some dates," Jourdan says, hanging up the phone with a snap.
Karlie groans and shoves her phone in her backup. Tomorrow I will get to explain everything to her. That's what this meeting is for. We'll be totally fine after tomorrow.
At 5:11, Karlie is bounding up the steps to Taylor's apartment building. A member of her security lets her in the lobby, and she takes the steps two at a time until she's on the very top floor. She walks to Taylor's apartment door more slowly, searching for Taylor's apartment key. By the time she gets it and unlocks the door, the key is slick with sweat.
"All that cardio in the gym for nothing," Karlie mumbles, her chest still tight as she continues panting slightly.
"Hello?" Taylor calls out, her voice sounding from upstairs.
"It's me," Karlie yells back, walking towards her favorite couch to sit down, realizing just how quickly she went up all those stairs.
"You're early!" Taylor exclaims when she walks into the room.
"Yeah and it practically killed me, so you're welcome," Karlie says. Taylor sits beside her and they give each other a quick kiss. "I wanted to be here like half an hour early, but I guess we only have like fifteen minutes. I just wanted to calm you down because I knew you'd be freaking out."
"We actually have like forty five minutes. I told you 5:30 instead of 6:00 because I figured you'd be ten minutes late," Taylor admits with a laugh.
"Ha! Proved you wrong!" Karlie says triumphantly. "I am not even that bad! I'm on time for important things!"
"You wouldn't even leave the apartment this morning on time! And I woke you up early!" Taylor laughs.
"That's what messed me all up! I am used to rushing, but you woke me up early so I thought I could take my time, but then I took too much time and was later than I would have been otherwise," Karlie replies with a smile. "Plus you were wearing this shirt and those shorts," Karlie says, her fingers lightly brushing the small of Taylor's back.
"You make no sense," Taylor replies with an amused smile and tender eyes, and once more Karlie feels as though there is something in her stare that she just can't identify.
"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?" Karlie yells playfully, grabbing Taylor's shoulders and pushing her against the couch before lying on top of her. "Tell me. Or I won't release you," Karlie says, unable to keep herself from laughing along with Taylor.
"I'm just looking at you!" Taylor insists as she continues to laugh at Karlie's outburst.
"You're lying," Karlie says confidently.
"No, I'm not. I just think you're losing it. With all those paparazzi, it's going straight to your head," Taylor replies drily.
Karlie laughs, "Shut up!"
Taylor pulls the collar of Karlie's shirt down towards her, bringing the model in for a kiss, as the singer wraps her legs around Karlie's hips, pulling the model tighter against her.
Karlie greedily grips each of Taylor's thighs with one of her hands, roughly rubbing her hands up and down them. "Thank god I got here early," Karlie says breathlessly, pulling away to begin working on the button of Taylor's shorts.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, Tree will be here in like half an hour!" Taylor says amidst shocked laughter as she swats Karlie's eager hands away.
She laughs even more when Karlie is sure her face displays the feeling of disappointment she feels. "We have time!" Karlie whines, trying not to laugh herself.
"I'm not doing that right now!" Taylor replies laughing. "Go away, go sit on the end of the couch," Taylor says, pushing Karlie off of her.
"You're not even letting me sleepover, when else are we supposed to do it?" Karlie says, moving off of as Taylor as slow as possible. Taylor gently kicks her the rest of the way off, as Karlie grumpily sits up on the couch, crossing her arms.
"You're so dramatic," Taylor laughs, putting her legs on top of Karlie's lap.
Karlie dramatically sighs, just for Taylor's entertainment, as she rests her hands on top of Taylor's legs. "Does that still hurt?" Karlie asks, gently stroking the still visible cut along Taylor's calf.
"No, it's okay," Taylor replies, blushing slightly as she recalls how she got it.
"So what are we even supposed to do while we wait?" Karlie asks, dramatically leaning her head back against the cushions.
"You seriously have never shown up early for anything have you?" Taylor asks.
"Honestly. No," Karlie says, looking at Taylor with a smile.
Taylor laughs and Karlie loves the sight of it, especially since she had been sure she was going to need to assure Taylor that the meeting was going to be fine.
They giggle the next half hour away, until the sounds of laughter are cut short by a knock at the door.
"That's her," Taylor says sternly, sitting up quickly. Before she can jump up from the couch, Karlie pulls her near for a kiss.
"It's going to be fine," Karlie says. Taylor nods her head and quickly goes to the door.
Karlie stands unsteadily, surprised to find herself feeling a bit nervous. She pulls at her shirt a bit as she follows behind Taylor a bit more slowly.
"Hey, Tree," Taylor says, swinging open the door.
Tree looks her up and down and simply replies, "Legs," as she shakes her head in disbelief.
Karlie cracks a smile as Taylor laughs. "Oh, good, you're here too to make me feel even more short," Tree adds, glancing to Karlie.
"Sorry about that," Karlie says smiling. She has met Tree before at the Met Gala, mostly in passing.
"So, where do we want to do this?" Tree asks, ready to get down to business.
"Maybe the kitchen," Taylor replies, as she begins leading them off. Taylor pulls out a chair and sits, as Tree walks around the table to sit opposite her.
Karlie smiles, when Taylor pulls a chair slightly out beside her, gesturing for her to sit.
"Okay, well, first of all, congratulations," Tree begins gesturing to the girls sitting in front of her. "If you're happy, I'm happy," Tree says, mostly talking to Taylor now.
Out of view from Tree, Taylor reaches a hand for Karlie's under the table. The model gladly squeezes her hand, recognizing the clamminess of it is a sign of nervousness.
"First, why don't we just get some house keeping out of the way. Do you have an exact schedule for your music releases?" Tree asks.
Karlie sits back silently as she watches Taylor and Tree exchange dates for Taylor's single and album release, along with potential dates for late night shows and other press tour stops Tree has already organized.
"These are potential dates that you could take to talk to Kimmel and Fallon. I can probably try getting you a spot on Meyers if we are in the studio with Fallon the same day anyway," Tree says. "I think it would be cool for you to announce the livestream on a late night show. We can start the promotional tour then, and re visit them after the album releases."
"You can do that?" Taylor asks, sounding surprised.
"I told you, I'm the best," Tree says, dramatically proud as she pretends to wipe something off of her shoulder. Both of the girls laugh, and Karlie finds herself liking Tree. "So just choose from these dates and I will make it work."
"Give me your schedule," Taylor says, turning to Karlie.
Karlie is surprised to have been spoken to as she has been only a bystander for the past couple of minutes. She hands Taylor her iPhone smiling, watching her girlfriend try to make their schedules work together as sh goes through Karlie's calendar.
"Either way it's sort of tough," Taylor says, slowly scrolling through Karlie's calendar.
"Just do what works for you, we'll be okay," Karlie assures her. Taylor hands her back the iPhone and releases Karlie's hand as she leans over the table more, pointing to different dates with Tree and writing some notes down.
Karlie feels pretty useless as she watches on, but sees an excitement she has never seen in Taylor begin to surface. This was the beginning of her album release, and Karlie was witnessing it firsthand. So why wasn't Taylor's excitement contagious? She's even busier than I am. Karlie is shocked to hear the truckload of dates that is being dropped on Taylor, and the singer doesn't even bat an eye. This is normal to her.
"Okay, so now let's get down to the good stuff," Tree says slowly as she scribbles some final dates into a notepad, as Taylor does the same electronically on her iPhone. "Okay. Well. I sort of asked earlier, but this relationship is something we plan to hide, right?"
"Yes," Taylor answers, she folds her hands on the table, and Karlie is glad to see that her nervousness has abated but now she finds herself being the one who would like a hand to hold.
"Okay. So let me think," Tree replies, pulling out a totally separate notebook from her bag. She opens it and glances at some notes, and Karlie can't help but wonder she could possibly have notes on. "Well let me start talking to you, Karlie. I'm just going to explain to you what my job is, Taylor obviously already knows that," Tree says, looking up at the model.
"Okay, sure," Karlie replies, nodding her head as she swallows.
"Well, I'm Taylor's publicist. So you know that means when it comes to press coverage, media outlets, public events, press releases, I'm Taylor's go to girl," Tree begins. "Taylor is paying me, quite well I might add," Tree says with a wink to Taylor, "to manage her public image."
"Right," Karlie says.
"So that's just a general description of any publicist's job. But when it comes to Taylor, my job has been to re-construct Taylor's image. She wasn't happy with her public image in 2013, her personal life in the press became a joke for everyone to laugh at, as unfair as it is. She was given this horrible image, one of a desperate stalker-crazed neurotic man-eater. There's a couple things I've started doing and will do in the future to get even further away from this image of her, but that's my job. What happened was, when Taylor was a teenager, she sang about true love and fairy tales. It's easy to poke fun at someone who has a couple failed relationships, especially when that someone sings about finding one true love. Taylor's been associated with a pretty conservative view of love because of her more fairy tale-ish songs, and that's where the jokes started coming from," Tree says quickly, easily taking control of the conversation. "How does that apply to you? Parents like their daughters looking up to a girl who sings about finding that one guy. She's not singing about kissing different people at parties. She's singing about true love, with one person, forever. That's why her failed relationships got a lot of crap from the press, it was just ironic to them. But it's also partly why Taylor is considered to be such a great role model, among many other reasons. But the problem is, the people who appreciate Taylor's viewpoint here, probably wouldn't appreciate a homosexual relationship. As unfortunate as that is. So that's one reason why I would agree this relationship should be hidden right now."
Karlie's mouth has gone dry, hearing everything become much more calculated than she ever thought it could be.
"There will be a huge disconnect between Taylor and the general public of America if all of a sudden she is dating a woman seemingly out of nowhere. And the second a celebrity has a disconnect with the general public, their careers take a turn for the worst. There is a way that Taylor could potentially go public with you, but it will take planning, mostly on my part. There will be things Taylor can begin saying now, as she does this promotional tour, that can begin a slow build to you guys being public. But if you want me to be honest with you, that's years down the road," Tree says simply.
Karlie suddenly realizes why it is so easy for Taylor to convince herself that she isn't normal. "Well... I mean, she's a person. She's not just some product on store shelves," Karlie replies, sounding slightly defensive.
Taylor begins, "Karlie—"
"She is. Have you gone into Walmart or Target lately? She takes up a large percentage of every music section in stores that sell CDs. You go into the children's section you can buy some posters with her face on it. You go to a clothing store, you might see a cardboard cutout of Taylor wearing Keds. If you go into a convenience store for a soda, when you open the refrigerator you might see a sticker of Taylor drinking a Diet Coke. You can go to Macy's and some employees in the cosmetics department will ask if you'd like a spritz of a Taylor Swift fragrance," Tree replies easily.
Karlie is shocked into silence. "She's more than that."
Taylor starts, "Karlie, it's o—"
"I know that! Of course I know that. We both know that, because we both know Taylor. But how many people know Taylor? People only know Taylor for the product that she is. It's my job to make sure that I construct that product in a way that Taylor is happy with," Tree replies. "What you need to remember, is this is my job. If I say something that neither of you want to hear, it probably means I'm doing my job really well. Taylor's paying me to say this. Just try to remember that as much as you want the best for Taylor, I want that just as much," Tree says.
"Okay," Karlie replies stubbornly, after a pause.
Tree turns to Taylor. "You being a unique client, I have to ask. How many songs should I be worried about on this CD?" Tree asks.
"Um..." Taylor says, looking down at her hands as she starts numbering her fingers. "Like...six...kind of," Taylor replies looking back up at Tree.
Karlie is shocked to hear the number of songs. She knew Taylor had been recording, but that many?
"When do I get to hear those?" Tree asks, writing a note down for herself.
"I only have them on my computer right now, I don't want them to leak. They need to be brought to Max Martin to just fix some frequencies and master them. If I burn you a CD before you leave you need to destroy it after," Taylor replies.
Tree nods her head. "We're going to make this album about you being single," Tree replies.
"What?" Taylor asks, sounding confused.
"You're going to talk non-stop about being single and happy about being single. You're obviously happy anyway, but we're going to say it's because you're single," Tree replies.
"How are we going to do that? Every song just about is about a relationship. That just wouldn't even make any sense," Taylor replies shaking her head.
"Believe me, if we say it enough, people can listen to a song about heartbreak and still think it is somehow different than your other albums," Tree replies. "The more you say you're single, the less people will be looking to spot a secret relationship. And the less people will analyze any songs written about Karlie. It's an album you were inspired to write because you're happy and single. Got it?"
"Every song on this album is about a relationship just as much as all my other albums were, I just don't think that will do anything. People are going to analyze my songs just as much as ever, trying to match the songs to people I've dated," Taylor replies, sounding unconvinced.
"No. Because we're going to tell them this album is different. So it will be different. Because you're telling them it's different. You're telling them it is different because you were inspired by being happy and single, and therefore it is different," Tree insists.
"We can try, but it won't stop people from analyzing the lyrics," Taylor says stubbornly.
Karlie sits back, going quite ignored once more, feeling quite lightheaded by the whole operation. Why do we need Tree? We've been sneaking around just fine on our own.
"Then we'll shame people for analyzing lyrics. How dare people try to make your music, your art, about the people they're about. It's sexist, it shouldn't matter. They're undervaluing your art when they do that, and you're going to say that. Discourage people from trying to figure your clues out," Tree replies.
Taylor sits quietly, thinking it all through. "For years I've put secret messages in songs, practically encouraging that kind of analysis. I don't think I can change what people do with my lyrics," Taylor says slowly.
"What you say is more powerful than you realize," Tree assures her. "We convince people this album is about being single and happy, and shame people from analyzing lyrics too deeply for who they are about, and suddenly you and Karlie are much safer off than you would be otherwise."
Taylor is quiet. "You're right," she says, sounding almost stunned. "It's so simple."
"That's what we want. Simple," Tree replies. "So be seen together. Call each other best friends. Tell people how great Karlie is in interviews, you can do the same Karlie," Tree says, finally bringing Karlie back into the conversation. "You'll be hidden in plain sight. The last place anyone searches for a secret," Tree says smugly.
Karlie's heart is racing, for some reason all of this seems like too much, too complicated.
"Go over each other's apartments in broad daylight. No one will question it. If you act like you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to hide. What we don't need are random blurry shots in the darkness of night of Karlie coming over through your backdoor. That's when people ask questions," Tree adds.
"You're right," Taylor replies, smiling as though everything is making perfect sense to her.
"Now, Karlie, I was looking through some of your social media and past interviews, and I see that people think you're dating Joshua Kushner right now?" Tree asks.
Karlie's throat tightens, not liking that Josh has been brought up in this. "I...yeah, we broke up."
"Does he know about Taylor?" Tree asks sternly.
"No," Karlie replies.
"Are you on good terms with him?" Tree asks.
"Yeah," Karlie replies.
Tree writes a note down. "Okay, so friends, or what? When's the last time you spoke to him?" Tree asks.
"Um yeah I guess friends. Just a couple days ago," Karlie replies, confused as to where this was going.
"What?" Taylor interrupts, sounding shocked. "A couple days ago?"
"It was just business," Karlie says, shaking her head. How'd I forget to tell her about that weird phone call?
"He invests in your Kookies right? And your jeans and sunglasses? And the coding program you're involved in, doesn't he?" Tree asks.
Karlie is stunned into silence. "How do you know all that?" Karlie asks, becoming more and more uncomfortable with this situation.
"He does?" Taylor asks, sounding completely shocked, staring at Karlie.
"Yeah, but it's just...it's because..." Karlie begins, hating Tree's eyes trained on her.
"Spend time with him soon, as friends. Do it in public if you can. By all means, post about it when you spend time with him," Tree says. "Added security."
"Are you implying that I use him?!" Karlie asks, sounding accusatory. No, Josh isn't her boyfriend anymore, but he definitely isn't someone she can just use as a puppet.
"Karlie, Taylor is my priority. If using people protects her, sounds good to me," Tree replies simply, not matching Karlie's confrontational tone.
"I haven't even spent time with him as—"
"We'll talk about it together later," Taylor says quickly, cutting off Karlie. She grabs Karlie's hand, nodding to her with a small smile. "We don't need to figure that out now," Taylor adds, speaking to Tree now.
Karlie is surprised when she's the one being comforted by Taylor's hand, rather than the other way around. Taylor is holding onto her hand tightly and she is thankful for it. Karlie hadn't even been realizing how badly she needed a hand to hold.
"Okay, there will be meetings in the future," Tree says, searching through her bag once more. She pulls out a folder, heavy with paperwork. "So, who knows about you two?"
"My family," Taylor replies first, before looking towards Karlie.
"Cara Delevingne," Karlie replies sheepishly.
"Here, this one is for you, Karlie," Tree replies, sliding a thick stack of papers towards her, stapled at the top corner. Karlie studies it, realizing it is a legal document and suddenly feels very confused. "And this one..." Tree says, as she flips through a similar document, making marks with her pen on certain pages, "Is for Cara. If you give me her e-mail address I can send it off," Tree finishes.
"What is this thing?" Karlie asks, for some reason not wanting to touch it for further investigation. She glances at Tree, who is still busy with Cara's copy, and when she glances at Taylor she knows the singer is purposely staring straight ahead, not looking at her. "What is this?" Karlie asks, staring at the side of Taylor's head.
"It's a non-disclosure agreement," Tree replies. "I understand if you'd like to meet with a lawyer about it, I'm not quite as worried about you signing it as I am for Cara signing it. I need hers ASAP."
"A non-disclosure agreement?" Karlie repeats in disbelief. "I need to sign a contract saying I won't tell anyone about us?"
"I'm protecting Taylor. This is part of how I do that," Tree says simply. "And it isn't 'anyone' but there are restrictions. It's just legally binding you to telling only approved people about your relationship. Everyone else's version will be much more restrictive. They're not allowed to tell anyone."
"I need to sign this? Me? This is my secret too!" Karlie says, feeling frustrated. "And how am I supposed to ask my family and friends to sign a contract?! Who does that?"
"Shhh," Taylor says quickly, turning in her chair to face Karlie. "I know, it's not normal. I told you none of this is going to be normal, but we'll talk about it later, okay?" Taylor says, squeezing Karlie's hand tightly.
"And you don't need to be the one to ask them. You give me an email address and I can take care of everything," Tree adds in.
"No, I'm going to ask them. That's even worse if I have someone else ask for me," Karlie says shaking her head. "I'm not asking my family to sign those though. I don't even want to ask my friends, but I'm not asking my family," Karlie replies stubbornly. "That's not normal, it's ridiculous."
Tree and Taylor are both quiet as they stare at Karlie.
"We'll talk about it later," Taylor says, but this time she is speaking to Tree, not Karlie.
Tree nods her head and write something else down in her notebook. What the fuck is she writing?
"Speaking of your family, Karlie," Tree begins. "So there's Mom and Dad, then three sisters?"
"Yes," Karlie replies, quiet anger in her voice as Tree prepares to pick apart her family.
"And the twins, the twins are younger than you? They're teenagers?" Tree asks.
"Yeah," Karlie replies.
"I found their social media accounts and—"
"That's none of your business," Karlie snaps coldly, feeling very protective when she thinks of Tree scouring her little sisters' statuses.
"I only saw things that were available for the public to view," Tree says quickly, raising her hands.
"Karlie, shh," Taylor says with a small smile, using her free hand to rub Karlie's arm up and down. "Protective older sister," she says softly.
Karlie keeps her stare trained on Tree, all but ignoring her girlfriend beside her. "Fine, what about them?" Karlie asks stubbornly.
"I have to ask, do we think it is all that smart to inform them of your relationship? I mean they are old enough to sign the—"
"They're. My. Sisters," Karlie says sternly, venom lacing each of her emphasized words. "They're going to know about my fucking life!"
"Okay! Karlie!" Taylor says quickly, lightly slapping at the model's arm. "Karlie, it's okay, we're just talking, she's on our side," Taylor says, slightly laughing, with that strange look in her eyes that Karlie has been confused by.
"Why are there sides?! Why are you laughing?!" Karlie asks quickly, directing some of her anger towards Taylor now. "And why do you keep looking at me like that?!"
She quickly wipes the small amused smile from her face. "I'm sorry," Taylor replies immediately. "We'll talk about this later," Taylor says, again speaking only to Tree.
Karlie huffs and has the instinct to cross her arms, but as much as she hates to admit it to herself, she'd much rather be holding Taylor's hand right now.
"This is all stupid," Karlie says stubbornly, and she hates how ridiculous and child-like her complaint sounds, amidst discussions of legal contracts and public relations.
"I know, babe," Taylor replies patiently, rubbing the top of Karlie's hand.
Karlie doesn't have much else to say to Taylor, she isn't trying to argue with Karlie. She hates how she knows that Taylor and Tree are wordlessly staring at each other, silently communicating things Karlie is too new to all of this to understand.
"What else do you have to say?" Karlie says coldly, sick of feeling things go right over head, despite the silence of the room.
Tree turns her attention back towards Karlie. "Nothing really. Not for now. I would recommend telling as few people as you can at first. Once you tell someone, you give them a copy of this contract, and explain that they can't tell anyone anything. Now, we don't want all these contracts floating around everywhere. We can't have all of Hollywood sign, and I think it will be best to start particularly slow," Tree replies. "So, I'll leave you with a copy for each member of your family, as well as Cara Delevingne. Who else should I leave copies for right now?"
"Jourdan Dunn and Derek Blasberg," Karlie says quickly. However, as she begins thinking of more friends to name, Tree quickly slides over two more contracts.
"Good start. What about you Taylor?" Tree asks, silencing the rest of Karlie's thoughts.
"Um..do you want to tell Lily?" Taylor asks, looking at Karlie. "Yeah, we'll tell Lily Aldridge. Ed and Selena for now," Taylor adds.
"Do you want to do it personally like Karlie or do you want me to just take care of it?" Tree asks.
"I'll take care of it," Taylor says nodding her head. "What a trailblazer you are," Taylor says smiling, nudging Karlie's arm, but Karlie isn't in the mood to return the smile.
"Karlie, I really need Cara's ASAP," Tree says. "And as for yours—"
"You still want me to sign one?!" Karlie exclaims.
"It's a joint agreement. All these other agreements for your family and friends are void if you don't sign yours. They're linked," Tree replies.
Karlie shakes her head and grabs the contract for the first time, staring at it. "This is so ridiculous, I'm the one dating her!" Karlie says angrily. "Don't you trust me enough not to sign one of these things?" Karlie asks, turning to Taylor in disbelief.
"Of course I do!" Taylor says quickly. "It's just...a formality," Taylor adds, struggling for the word.
"We're just dating, Taylor. We don't need formalities," Karlie pleads. "This isn't normal."
"This is everything I warned you of. I told you it wouldn't be," Taylor replies sadly.
Karlie realizes how true that is. This is everything Taylor has been talking about for months, the reason why she thought it would be best for Karlie to stay far away from her for a time in their tumultuous relationship. For months, Karlie had assured her she understood that and was ready for this. Did she really understand what she was getting into?
By the look of Taylor's sad blue eyes, she obviously thought Karlie didn't.
Karlie quickly leans forward and reaches her long arm to grab a pen from Tree's area. "I'm going to trust you enough that this isn't going to sign away my first born child or my soul or anything like that," Karlie says with a small smile to Taylor as she begins initialing the first page.
"You can refer to a lawyer first, if you want," Tree says quickly. "I don't represent you."
"I trust Taylor," Karlie says shortly, staring up at Tree. The publicist points to all the areas that needs to be signed, initialed, and dated, and soon Karlie is sliding the paperwork back across the table to Tree. "Are we done now?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taylor walks Tree out of the apartment as Karlie stubbornly remains behind, seated at the kitchen table.
"So, we'll meet next week and just go over go-to responses that you'll be using during promo about being single and everything else," Tree says, as Taylor opens the door to let her leave.
"How do you think she took it?" Taylor asks, her voice low, nodding her head back towards Karlie in the kitchen.
"Honestly, Taylor, I've seen a lot worse in my career. She took it better than most," Tree says, patting Taylor's shoulder.
They say their goodbyes and plan to meet the following week as Taylor passes her a demo version of new songs on the upcoming album.
Taylor takes a shaky breath as she walks back into the kitchen. Karlie is still seated at the same chair, the table filled with separate stacks, each one a non-disclosure agreement for each member of Karlie's family and her friends.
"Kar?" Taylor says hesitantly.
When the model turns around, her green eyes are filled with anger.