Taylor finds herself rushing down the street, moving as quickly as she can around the crowded sidewalks. She was supposed to be meeting up with Karlie, but she was now running over 20 minutes late. She decided to pull her phone out to let the girl know she was still coming.
"Hey. Sorry I'm running so late. I'm on my way, I promise! I should be there in a few minutes."
Taylor hated running late and she never wanted to keep people waiting for her. She thought she would have enough time to get everything done before she left, but she underestimated how long her meeting was going to take.
"It's ok. No worries. I just got here myself. I'll see you soon :)"
Taylor smiled, slightly relieved Karlie hadn't been waiting the whole time. She put her phone away, continuing her way down the street with a smile, knowing her day was about to get even better.
Taylor finally made it to the café and quickly looked around, looking for Karlie. Her eyes scanned the room a few times before finally spotting Karlie, the normally easy to spot girl was hidden behind her laptop.
Taylor made her way over, watching Karlie as she got closer. She could see her eye brows furrowed in concentration, her fingers moving relentlessly, typing away on the keyboard. Taylor was only a few feet away from the table now, but Karlie was so engrossed with her computer, she still hadn't noticed Taylor's arrival.
Sensing someone else's presence, Karlie finally looks up from her computer, her face breaking into a bright smile and her eyes lighting up as she sees Taylor.
She quickly stands up from her chair, wrapping her arms around Taylor in a tight embrace. "Hey you." She says happily, glad that Taylor was here now. "Hey yourself." Taylor replies, smiling at the happiness she feels emanating from Karlie's hug.
Pulling away from the embrace, Karlie immediately walks over to pull out Taylor's chair. "Thank you." Taylor says softly, lowering herself into the seat.
"Mhm." Karlie hummed in response. "I was going to order your drink for you, but then I thought maybe you would want something different from last time. So I figured I would wait until you got here to see what you wanted."
"Oh. You didn't have to wait for me." Taylor replies, scanning the menu quickly, before settling on a drink.
Karlie can't help but chuckle, seeing how quickly Taylor had settled on a drink. "You know what you want?"
"I think I'm gonna go with the French Toast latte."
Karlie stands with a smile. "I'll be right back."
"I can go with you, you know." Taylor says as Karlie begins walking towards the counter.
Karlie throws a laugh over her shoulder before turning to face the shorter blonde. "It's ok, I got it." Karlie says easily.
Taylor tries to force back a smile, knowing Karlie was just spoiling her. It made her feel guilty sometimes because Karlie was always so quick to do things like that for Taylor, but she knew that Karlie would refuse her help anyway. That's just who she was.
A few minutes later, Karlie returns with their drinks, sliding Taylor's across the table as she settled into her chair opposite the girl.
"Thank you." Taylor says quietly, lifting her lid to blow on the drink before she dared to take a sip of the hot liquid.
Karlie nods her head in response, too caught up in watching Taylor to give a verbal response.
Karlie watches Taylor finally take a sip, smirking and looking away as blue eyes meet her stare. "What?" Taylor asks softly, wondering why Karlie was smirking.
Karlie was fighting to keep her smile under control, her eyes shining brightly, making Taylor insanely curious to know what the girl was thinking. Karlie feels she has her smile under control when she finally speaks. "How's your drink?"
Taylor looks utterly confused, one of her eyebrows raised as she wonders why this is so funny. "It's good. Why?"
Karlie feels another bought of laughter threatening to spill out, so she pulls her lips into a thin line, biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling, her green eyes expressing something Taylor just couldn't figure out. Her hand comes to rest over her mouth, her thumb and index finger stretching outwards, tracing the sides of her jaw before resting her chin in the palm of her hand, hiding her smile behind her knuckles.
Taylor stares at Karlie, completely bewildered. She sits back in her chair, analyzing Karlie's smile and those expressive green eyes. Taylor brings her own hand up to rest against her chin, her knuckles resting just above her lip.
Taylor's eyes go wide and she freezes, a small, almost inaudible gasp escaping her lips. She can see Karlie's smile widening behind her hand.
Without missing a beat, Karlie removes her hand, taking a large sip of her own drink before her green eyes find Taylor's embarrassed blue ones over the rim. Karlie puts her drink down and Taylor can't help but smile.
Karlie now had a matching coffee foam mustache on her lips as well, making Taylor feel considerably less embarrassed about the situation.
Both girls burst into laughter simultaneously, caught up in the ridiculousness of the moment. Taylor appreciating Karlie making light of the situation and her embarrassing slip up, while Karlie was just happy to be the one to make Taylor laugh.
Finally collecting herself, Karlie grabs a napkin, leaning across the table, delicately wiping at the foam on Taylor's lip as lightly and carefully as she can. "There." She says, pulling back with a smile, before grabbing another napkin and wiping her own lip, crumpling the paper napkins into a ball with her fist.
Taylor was caught off guard by the action, but admittedly enjoyed the physical contact Karlie was offering. It was a new level to their dynamic, one that constantly seemed to be changing and evolving; one that Taylor is still trying to figure out.
"So, how was your meeting?" Karlie asks interestedly, finally drifting back to a normal conversation. Karlie doesn't miss the way Taylor's eyes light up, those lips pulling into a small smile at the mention of Taylor's work.
"It went really well; that's actually why I was running late. We scheduled a whole bunch of sessions and booked some studio time with this producer who's coming in from LA. A good friend of mine wants to come in and work on a few things for his new album, so that's pretty exciting..."
Karlie loved hearing Taylor talk about her work. She listens intently as the girl goes on and on about all these new amazing opportunities and big projects that she has coming up. Karlie couldn't be happier for Taylor. She knows how hard the girl works and from the times they've talked about it, Karlie knows Taylor's been working her way up through the industry for a while, so seeing it paying off really makes Karlie happy.
"And providing that I wasn't actually hallucinating at the time, I vaguely recall hearing someone say Justin Timberlake wanted to come in and do some writing with me." Taylor finishes drily, trying to hide her enthusiasm as she gets to her favorite part of the meeting.
Karlie's face breaks into one of incredible excitement. "Oh my gosh, really? That's amazing Taylor!" She says in awe, unbelievably happy for Taylor to be sharing this kind of incredible news with her.
"Yeah well, fingers crossed that it actually happens." Taylor quips.
Karlie's excitement is immediately distinguished hearing that Taylor doesn't believe it will happen. She extends her arms over the table, her hands finding Taylor's. "Hey, don't say that." She says softly with a light squeeze of her hands, hating the way Taylor puts herself down. "I'm sure it will happen. And I bet you'll blow his mind with whatever you come up with. You're good at what you do Taylor, I know you are. You're passionate about it, you work hard, and I know you put everything you have into your work. You're amazing Taylor. Never doubt that."
Taylor is stunned into silence. Karlie's comforting words and intense stare have completely disassembled her mind. She's completely blown away by Karlie's confidence in her and how comforted she feels hearing Karlie's reassurances. Taylor always hoped she was good at her job; she loved it more than anything. But to hear Karlie reaffirm it to her, it seemed to sink in for some reason.
"You're amazing. Do you know that?" Taylor says in a whisper, still blown away by Karlie's words. Karlie's cheeks flush with a slight tinge of pink, squeezing Taylor's hands once more before pulling away.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Hours have passed, the two friends sitting at their small table, each doing their own thing while enjoying the other's company. Karlie is busy typing away on her laptop, working on one of her projects for her coding class. Her green eyes tiredly navigating through pages of her hand written notes, hoping to find the right formulas she needs to help her input the right code.
Her eyes are burning from reading her own small handwriting and the small font on the bright computer screen. She brings her hands up to rub at her tired eyes, stealing a glance at the blonde across from her.
Karlie can't help but smile seeing Taylor so engrossed in whatever she was working on, those blue eyes narrowing as she focuses on the screen, followed by the smile on the girl's face, the blonde obviously pleased with whatever she was working on.
Taylor has her headphones in, her brows furrowed in concentration as she works on mixing some new tracks. Taylor has yet to really master the whole art of producing, but she enjoys the process and loves being hands on with the projects as much as she can.
She adjusts a few things on the electronic sound board before playing the track again. She sits back in her chair, her hands reaching behind her head, fingers locking together as her head bobs along with the beat. A pleased smile appears on her face when the new changes blend perfectly into the track, creating the effect she was going for.
Taylor can feel Karlie's eyes on her and she quickly looks up, catching the girl in the act. Karlie blushes at being caught, while Taylor cracks a small smile, appreciating the fact she caught Karlie looking this time instead of the other way around.
Taylor could always sense when Karlie was looking at her. At first, she thought she was just being paranoid, but the sensation soon became very familiar to Taylor and every time she looked up, she found Karlie's eyes locked on her.
Karlie's phone starts chirping on the table, interrupting the peaceful silence the pair had fallen into. Karlie picks up the phone, glancing at the name on the screen. She hesitates, unsure if she wants to answer this call or not. Against her better judgement, Karlie does answer the call. "Hello?"
"Karlie babe!! How are you?" the voice practically shouts through the phone.
Karlie can't help but cringe, already regretting answering the call. "I'm good Cara. How are you?" She returns, knowing full well from the sound of Cara's voice that the girl is obviously far from sober.
"I'd be better if you were here. Which... is actually why I'm calling. What are you doing?" Cara slurs.
Karlie nervously glances across the table, blue eyes looking concernedly back at her. Karlie assumes Taylor has stopped what she's doing and is attempting to not eavesdrop, but can obviously over hear the conversation now that her head phones are resting on her closed laptop.
"Um, catching up on some school stuff. Why, what are you up to?"
"Oh, boo. That's no fun." Cara replies, before humming to herself for a few moments, as if she forgot she was attempting to hold a conversation with Karlie over the phone.
"Cara?" Karlie questions after a few moments of awkward silence.
"Hmm?" Cara hums.
Karlie sighs, shaking her head at her friend's antics. "Did you need something?"
Karlie hears Cara intake a deep breath. "YES!" The brit shouts, though choosing to not elaborate further than that.
"What's up?" Karlie says with a laugh, knowing Cara probably won't even remember this phone call later.
"Me and Jourdan want you to come hang out with us."
"Um, I'm kind of-"
"Karlie Kloss, don't you dare try to blow me off!" Cara shouts, her words slurring together again, making her empty threat that much more amusing.
"I'm not blowing you off Car. I'm just kind of in the middle of something." Karlie replies.
There's a pause over the phone. "I thought you said you were doing school crap?" Cara questions accusingly, and Karlie can practically see the confusion on Cara's face right now.
Karlie sighs to herself, the blonde across from her biting back a smile as she listens to Karlie deal with Cara. "It's not crap." Karlie says defensively. "It's stuff for school."
"Who are you with?" Cara questions, the comment completely surprising Karlie and catching her off guard.
"A friend." Karlie says evasively.
"A friend huh?" Cara chuckles in amusement. "Why won't you tell me who?" she challenges.
Karlie thinks about it for a moment. She's not really sure why she didn't just come out and say Taylor. It's not like it was a secret that they hung out.
"JOURDAN!!!" Cara yells, her voice echoing through the phone's speaker. Karlie can hear Jourdan's muffled voice in the background. "Karlie's trying to blow us off. She says she's doing school stuff but she's with someone right now and won't say who it is, and that's why she won't come hang out with us." Cara complains.
Taylor giggles quietly from across the table. "Karlie, you can go see them if you want. I don't want to keep you."
Karlie looks over at Taylor, a small smile making its way to her face. "I'd rather stay here with you. Honestly, you'd be doing me a huge favor not making me go." She says with a laugh, hoping Taylor knows she doesn't actually want to leave.
Taylor matches Karlie's smile and nods her head in acceptance, choosing to fiddle with her fingers while Karlie talks on the phone.
"Karlie." Jourdan's voice says quietly over the line, a stark contrast from Cara's high pitched rambling.
"Yea?" Karlie asks unsurely, sensing Jourdan was about to ask what Cara originally had asked, but she had successfully managed to avoid until now.
"I'm going to ask you something, and you just have to answer yes or no." Jourdan pauses, already knowing the answer to the question she's about to ask. "Are you with Taylor right now?"
Karlie swallows the lump she hadn't realized had formed in her throat. She hates the silence over the line, but she knows Jourdan knows the answer and she can sense Taylor looking at her again, obviously confused by her reaction.
"Yes." Karlie says quietly.
"WHAT?!?" Cara's voice roars into the phone, clearly having listened to Jourdan and Karlie's exchange.
Karlie can tell Jourdan is attempting to get away from Cara, as she can hear Cara screaming unintelligible things while Jourdan laughs.
The background noise in the phone dies out, Jourdan seemingly getting away from Cara. "Are you going to do what I told you to?" She questions.
Karlie nervously glances at Taylor, hoping the girl is oblivious to the current conversation she's having. "I don't know if I can do that Jour." Karlie says quietly.
Jourdan sighs into the phone, and Karlie knows her friend is just looking out for her, but this is something she doesn't think Jourdan should be involved with. "I think you should." Jourdan replies quietly.
A lingering silence falls over the line before the girls finally exchange goodbyes and hang up the phone. Karlie puts her phone down, her eyes flitting over to Taylor to see how much of the conversation she picked up.
"Your friends are crazy." Taylor says with a warm smile, instantly calming any nerves Karlie had.
"Yea." Karlie scoffs. "They're something else." She says, trying not to laugh as she thinks about the ridiculous antics of her friends. "I'm sorry if they made you uncomfortable at all the other night."
Taylor shakes her head at Karlie's apology. "They were fine." She says with a coy smile, recalling the girls calling her out on the way she and Karlie had been acting towards each other. "Did you know they all thought we were together?" Taylor questions.
"What?" Karlie's eyes widen in surprise. She knew of the few comments Jourdan and Cara had made, but she didn't know anyone said anything to Taylor.
"Yeah. Martha and Behati flat out said it, I assumed that's why Jourdan didn't open up to me, and Cara..." Taylor trails off, laughing as she thinks of the brit. "Well, you know what Cara's like. She sort of implied it." Taylor admitted.
Karlie's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment; she honestly had no idea her friends confronted Taylor with this. She felt bad for not having noticed at the time, knowing it probably made the blonde incredibly uncomfortable. "I'm sorry about that. I had no idea." Karlie apologizes.
Taylor shrugs her shoulders, looking at Karlie, only to find the girl refusing to meet her gaze. "It's ok. I guess I should have expected it to be honest."
Karlie immediately looks up at that, her green eyes locking on Taylor's baby blues. "Why do you say that?" She questions shyly, dying to know the answer.
"They're your friends. I'm sure they'd be suspicious of anyone you brought around out of the blue."
"Oh." Karlie says quietly, mostly to herself, shielding her disappointment. She was definitely not expecting that to be Taylor's answer. "Yea, well... about that..." Karlie draws out, her voice trailing off as she fought the nerves from creeping in.
Taylor freezes, her eyes locking onto Karlie again.
Karlie can't bring herself to look at Taylor just yet as she struggles to get the next words out. "What do you think about that?"
"About what?" Taylor asks unsurely, her voice unusually quiet.
"Umm..." Karlie hesitates, knowing it's now or never. "Going on a date with me?" She says quietly, lifting her eyes and finally meeting Taylor's.
An awkward silence settles between the pair, neither one knowing what to do or say as the question lingers in the air between them.
Taylor's deep blue eyes bore into Karlie's green ones, pleading with the girl that this wasn't some kind of joke. Karlie's eyes reflected nothing but vulnerability and sincerity. Taylor knew Karlie wouldn't joke about something like this.
She couldn't help but think about what Karlie had said. 'She wants to go on a date... with me?' It's been months since the break-up, and Taylor knows she has genuine feelings for Karlie. That's been obvious to her from the moment they met. Taylor can only hope Karlie feels the same.
Sometimes, Taylor actually believes it to be true. Like when she catches Karlie looking at her and smiling at her in a way that makes Taylor feel like she's floating, like she's the only person in the world that Karlie sees. No one has ever looked at her the way Karlie looks at her.
There's times when she'll find herself just thinking about Karlie and out of nowhere, the girl calls or texts her, like she's reading her mind. Seeing that name light up her phone, or just hearing that sweet, soothing voice, it's enough to make Taylor forget about everything wrong in the world. When she's around Karlie, everything is just better.
Karlie is beyond nervous, having laid everything out on the line, she just stares helplessly at Taylor, hoping the other girl knows how much she wants this. This wasn't just a random question for Karlie. This is something she has thought about and it's something she wants more than anything. All she wants is a chance.
Taylor closes her eyes as she looks down into her lap, her mind reeling with so many thoughts. It's too heartbreaking to continue looking at Karlie who looks so vulnerable. Taking a deep breath, Taylor keeps her head down, her eyes shut tight.
"Ok." She says quietly.
Karlie's face falls, taking in the sting of rejection she was sure was coming. But wait... 'She said ok.'
"What?" Karlie questions, not believing she heard correctly now that she confused herself so much overthinking what she may have actually heard.
"Yes." Taylor replies calmly, finally opening her eyes, but not looking at Karlie just yet.
Karlie stares at the girl in bewilderment, trying to control herself as the girl's words start to sink in. "Yes what?" Karlie asks, wanting to clarify.
Taylor finally finds it in within herself to meet Karlie's uncertain green eyes. "Yes. I would love to go on a date with you Karlie."
It takes a moment for the words to actually settle in, but as soon as they do, Karlie's got a smile on her face that stretches from ear to ear. She reaches forward and finds Taylor's hands on the table across from her, holding them in her own as she lightly squeezes them. Looking at Taylor now, seeing the light dancing in those deep blue eyes, that shy smile still there, Karlie can't even hope to contain her happiness in the moment.
It was then that both girls finally made the realization that there was always something there between them. They were never really just friends. All the fears and the doubts and the insecurities from whatever damage they've gone through in the past didn't matter anymore. What happened in the past is just that, it's in the past.
All that matters now is what's to come in the future; one filled with the unknown, but that doesn't matter. The idea of the unknown future doesn't seem quite so daunting now that they don't have to go through it alone. It's not the time to worry about things they can't change, because all that matters now is...
'Karlie and Taylor are finally going on a date.'