The next morning, Taylor had to drag herself out of bed and into the shower. There were hickeys on her inner thighs and parts of her body were sore in places she didn't know could feel like that, it was delightful and terrible all at once.
Grace was still asleep, the blanket pulled over her frame did little to disguise how strangely she was laying after Taylor had to essentially surgically remove herself from Grace's sleepy grasp. Taylor was only in the shower for a minute when she could see Grace walk into the hotel suite's bathroom with the blanket barely wrapped around her through the glass door, "Taylor?"
"Morning," she slid the door open, "I'll be quick."
"Can I come in?" Grace yawned. Taylor noticed the bruises on her thighs where her hands had been the night before. Not too dark, just reminders of a fun night where they let go a little more than usual, "No funny business, I'm just cold without you."
"Yeah, c'mon," Taylor slid the door open fully and Grace stepped in. She brunette got her footing and then leaned against Taylor under the shower head softly, "Feeling delicate today?"
"Yes," Grace was sleepy and overall feeling gentler in her movements. Some mornings she woke up and wanted to stay in bed all day with her eyes shut and the curtains drawn.
"That's okay," Taylor kissed her head as the shampoo ran out of her own hair. Her arms went around Grace's waist to keep her close, "I've got a little while before I have to leave for my meeting. We can get ready and get some breakfast."
"Sure," Grace kept her cheek pressed to Taylor's shoulder, her eyes were glazed over as she tried to keep up with Taylor's words.
"You can cancel with Nell if you need to decompress," Taylor reminded her lover softly over the noise of the shower head. The water splashed against the tile around their feet and onto the foggy door.
"I'll be fine," Grace said with the same low voice, "Would you mind holding me for another minute?"
"As long as the water doesn't run cold," Taylor smiled against Grace's head softly, "You're my favourite, don't forget it."
"Love you," Grace closed her eyes as the water ran over them.
"I love you, too," Taylor said and then she stood there with her arms around Grace in such an intimate way until Grace rubbed her eyes and asked for the shampoo.
They walked to a cafe down the block and sat at a small table in the corner. A few teenage girls who should've been in school whispered about them by the cash register as Grace examined her bagel and picked off the over toasted edges. Taylor laughed at her softly and told her it wouldn't kill her to eat the darker brown bits.
Grace disagreed with that and checked the time on her phone, "What time did you say your meeting was?"
"Nine-thirty," Taylor bit into her own bagel and opened the plastic lid on her coffee cup. When she swallowed the food she said, "How far is your sister's house? Fifteen minutes from here?"
"Seventeen according to Google Maps walking directions," the former heiress replied, "I am nervous about it. We haven't seen each other since, well, the day we met."
"Yeah but you're texting constantly, it's always Nellie this, Nell that. She is your sister."
"Texting is so much easier than truly interacting. I can think about what I send before I reply, I don't have time to buffer in-between real life conversations," Grace explained with too many hand movements.
Taylor reached across the table and grabbed her hand to calm her, "Grace, you and I spoke over the phone and in-person only for the majority of our relationship before we moved in together. Do you know how many times I hung up and had the biggest smile on my face? Like every time so you'll be fine! You know how to talk to people."
"All I'm saying is, now that I've had the privilege of not having to interact with people, I realized I don't want to do it. I want to hide in a dark cave with you forever."
"But if it was dark I wouldn't be able to see your beautiful face," Taylor sipped at her coffee to hide the smile that formed on her face when she saw Grace's blush.
"You're too much," Grace started to laugh softly, "I love it."
They finished eating and Taylor gave her a kiss before she got into the car. She made Grace promise to text her when she got to Eleanor's house so she knew she got there safe and then again to let her know when and where to send the driver to pick her up later on unless she finished early and would join them.
Grace made the short walk to the house Eleanor owned just outside the city limits. It was nice a charming neighbourhood with perfectly manicured trees along the sidewalks and fresh paint on the pothole free roads.
The house itself was nestled in a row of townhouses, a small herb garden next to the door was dying off for the season as winter approached. She rang the doorbell and waited until the door swung open and her half-sister greeted her.
"Hi!" Eleanor awkwardly waved, "Do you want to come in?"
"Sure, thank you," Grace nodded, the uncomfortable feeling in her gut returned as she stepped inside, "This is a nice place."
"Yeah, it's cozy. I had the kitchen redone a few months ago, it was crazy living off takeout for so long," the younger sibling shrugged.
"I didn't know photography paid so well. This is real hardwood," Grace teased. She knew where the money for the house came from, they'd put that together long ago. Robert paid off her mother and Eleanor inherited what was left when Rachel James had died.
"The pay is shit," Nellie laughed, "Wedding season is just coming to a close and I still have four weddings worth of pictures to edit, never mind the one I'm shooting this weekend."
Just as Grace was about to reply, an alarm went off on Eleanor's phone. She quickly turned it off and apologized to Grace.
"I'll be back in a second, that's my second reminder to take my pill."
"Okay," Grace didn't inquire further, she assumed it was birth control because Taylor used to take it at the same time every day. That was until they got serious and Taylor stopped taking it because there was no reason for it and the multitude of side effects that it brought.
Eleanor came back a minute later and asked Grace if she wanted to stay in or head out. That hadn't made much of a plan because Taylor's meeting moved from over the phone to in-person rather quickly and had a fitting tagged onto it.
"We can head out once it warms up a bit, it's quite chilly," Grace posed it more of a question than a statement but Eleanor agreed and showed her to the living room. They sat down on the couch and Grace just had to ask, "Are you seeing someone?"
"No," Eleanor realized she should have offered Grace some water, "I would have told you. Why?"
"Oh, sorry. I assumed the pill was birth control."
"Haha, fuck no, I have an implant. It's Adderall, I have ADHD. That's why I have two alarms, one to ignore while telling myself I'll take it and one to actually take it," the taller woman chuckled, "Have I never told you that?"
"No," Grace shook her head, "Isn't that the stuff people took when they wanted to pull an all-nighter? With the crazy focus, right? I believe Taylor told me she took it once and felt like she started to utilize one hundred percent of her brain. She never took it again because it freaked her out."
"Yeah but it just helps me manage my symptoms. Impulsivity, fidgeting, that kind of stuff. Without it I was a disaster. I mean, I still am but less so."
"Right," Grace nodded, "Do you mind if I ask what that is like for you? I've never met someone with it, at least not that I know of."
"Uh, that's fine. I hate a lot of foods and textures, like, despise them. I also get obsessed with things pretty easily. Like roller coasters, I could tell you everything there is to know about roller coasters— especially ones not in use. Why? I have no idea but I love the ones that are just in pieces in fields, rusting away. I also started crocheting one day and that was like the only thing I did for two weeks because I was really good at it and then never picked it up again. And my brain is always moving faster than I am, it's kind of exhausting. I also talk too much and miss social cues, like that horrified look on your face that tells me I've rambled on way too long," she pursed her lips as she trailed off, a sheepish expression on her face.
"Oh," Grace knit her eyebrows, "Shit. That's- huh."
"Too much? Sorry."
"No, you just described me," Grace's lips didn't close for a moment. She was processing, buffering in real time.
"You are more likely to have it if someone in the family has it," Eleanor said anxiously, "You don't seem like that though. You're very well put together all the time."
"But then I go home exhausted from being put together," Grace started to recall all of her knowledge on it from medical journals, "Anyways."
"Right," Eleanor noticed the sudden shift in tone and changed the topic, "How is being back in London?"
That afternoon, Taylor texted Grace to find out where they had ended up. Grace replied that they were about to head towards her old block so Eleanor could see her old house. She didn't believe Grace when she said it had an ugly turret on the fourth floor and was roughly the size of what would have been Kensington Palace's large baby.
Taylor said she would meet them by the back gate, she wasn't too far away. Grace and Eleanor walked down the block just as Taylor's rental SUV and driver pulled up.
The blonde got out of the car right when they reached the gate, about to say something when Grace gasped, "That bastard had my pond filled in!"
She gripped the gate, not daring to go inside. She was busy peering over it to look at the backyard. The pond was filled with dirt, the bird feeder was gone and the cobble stone had been ripped up. There was a for sale sign on a stake hammered into the grass where people could see in.
"Oh no," Taylor pulled Grace back gently because she looked like she was about to hop the fence and start digging it out with her hands angrily, "It's almost like you don't live here anymore, sweetheart."
"That's a personal attack," Grace muttered, not even acknowledging Taylor's presence as she placed her hands on the ones around her waist and let her shoulders down. She settled right into Taylor's arms like it was her home, "I hate him."
"I know," Taylor replied quietly, "You probably shouldn't have come here."
"It's public property on the sidewalk," Grace mumbled grumpily. Taylor chuckled and let go of her to finally introduce herself to Eleanor properly.
"Hi," Taylor said and offered a hug. They'd briefly exchanged greetings while Grace was on the phone but hadn't met in person yet.
"Nice to meet you," Eleanor panicked internally, "Can I just say that Speak Now changed my life? It's like you wrote that album knowing it would scratch my brain in all the right ways."
Taylor laughed, "Thanks. Oh my god, I didn't know you listened to my music."
"Are you kidding? Who doesn't?" Nellie replied with an excited, nervous laugh.
"Grace hadn't even heard of me when we met," Taylor mentioning her did not catch her girlfriend's attention. She was too busy muttering curse words under her breath about the pond. She loved that pond, everyone knew she loved that pond. She loved all ponds, especially the one in Taylor's Nashville apartment.
"Yeah but Grace is Grace."
"She's not even listening," Taylor looked at the other brunette, "Gracie, how about some tomato soup for dinner?"
No response came from the former heiress.
"Let's take a trip to Prada," Taylor tried.
Grace's head turned and she gagged, "Don't say that again."
"There we go," Taylor laughed, "Did you walk around the front yet?"
"No," Eleanor chimed in, "You wanna see the front?"
"I've seen it, it's up to you."
They walked around the front and got to the front gate just as a blonde woman and a man with brown hair exited the front door. Grace immediately recognized them and was about to turn on her heels and hide when the woman gasped and rushed down the path towards her, "Grace Kent?! As I live and breathe, I cannot believe you are here! Oh and look at you, you don't look as poor as I thought you would!"
"Hello, Cassandra," Grace instinctively stood up straighter and polished her words, "Riley."
"Hello," he shoved his hands in his pockets, he did not offer a handshake or even a fake smile.
"What are you doing here? The word around town is that you and your parents are not on speaking terms," Cassandra gestured to the for sale sign on the fence, "Considering your house is for sale."
"I think the real question is what are you two doing in my old house?" Grace ignored the snarky comment and the fact that she didn't bother to inquire about who Grace was with.
"Riley and I are tying the knot in the spring and thought we should get a jump on house shopping. This isn't a good fit, there's a weird room off the study. It's so creepy, I don't even want to guess what you and Charles were doing in there! Talk about murder room! Plus, the master bedroom is hideous, no offence of course, Grace."
"Ha," Grace muttered drily as she grit her teeth, "It was file storage, hence the sprinkler system. We should get going, barely tolerable to see you. Best of luck with... things."
Grace tugged on Taylor's hand before Cassandra could reply and started down the sidewalk. Eleanor caught the drift and followed Grace as they turned around the block quickly.
"Who was that and why do you look like you're about to crawl into your skin?" Taylor asked with amusement. Grace was practically running in her heels.
"That was Cassandra and Riley," Grace gulped. She looked over her shoulder to see if they'd followed her and took a breath when she realized they hadn't, "There's some history there."
"Well tell us," Taylor insisted, "You can't just let someone call you not as poor looking as she thought you would and not tell us why."
"Cassandra is the woman Michael was supposed to marry before he took off," Grace whispered, "Riley was one of Michael's best friends and it just so happens that Cassandra and I went to school together."
"High school together?" Taylor raised her eyebrows. If Cassandra and Grace had attended the same private secondary school then that meant that Grace had...
"Yes."
"What number is she?!" Taylor gasped as she pieced the details together.
"She's the first," Grace closed her eyes with embarrassment. Taylor covered her mouth as she started to laugh loudly, "Stop it."
"I can't believe you lost your virginity to that asshole!" Taylor bent over, engulfed with laughter. Next to them, Eleanor started to chuckle too, highly amused by Grace's embarrassment written right across her face with a dark red blush. It was only funny because Grace looked so panicked running away like that.
"Stop it," Grace groaned and turned her face towards the sky, willing some higher power to let the ground swallow her whole, "She's only gotten worse over the years, it seems."
"Good news is, if she does buy the place then she gets a pile of dirt instead of a pond," Eleanor chimed in, still laughing at her sister's complete and utter mortified face.
"She doesn't even deserve the dirt."