Work Text:
It was another cold December night in New York, and Taylor and Harry had spent the night in at her apartment. Too many tourists had crowded the streets taking photographs of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and the Macy’s store windows for their liking. They were sitting on her couch silently, his thumb rubbing hers as their fingers intertwined.
“Do you think maybe...we should turn the TV on?” Harry finally asked after clearing his throat.
“Oh yeah...right,” Taylor said, unable to hide her smile or her red cheeks. She flipped through the channels with her free hand. “Oh my god , Harry! Love Actually is on!”
His face broke into a huge smile as he continued to stroke Taylor’s thumb and quote along with her, “ Just because it’s Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth, to me you are perfect .” Her eyes were on the TV, but she could feel his magnetic green eyes glued to her, and it brought heat to her cheeks.
“It just doesn’t feel like Christmas until I watch this,” she said, still smiling, and he nodded in agreement.
She stood up for a second, and his eyes followed her. “Would you like to bake cookies with me? I bought the mix at the store the other night.”
Harry smiled. “Would I like to make cookies with baking extraordinaire, miss Taylor Swift? I’d be a fool to pass this opportunity up.”
Taylor covered her face and elbowed him. “Oh, stop.” They looked like two teenagers in her kitchen, smiling like idiots and making excuses just to touch each other.
“Okay, okay,” Taylor said, trying to stop giggling. “Let’s get it together.” He raised his eyebrows in amusement and rolled up his sleeves, which made her giggle even more. “First things first. You get all the ingredients out, and I’ll preheat the oven.”
Harry returned right back to her side with two bags of chocolate chips, one open.
“I saw that,” Taylor laughed.
Harry looked around whistling, with his best poker face on. “Saw what?”
“What are you chewing on right now?”
“Nothing…” Her hands were on her hips. “Okay, okay. Won’t happen again. And by that, I mean next time, I’ll be sure to do it when I know you’re not looking.”
She gasped. “Hey!”
*****
The cookies were in the oven, and now Taylor and Harry were just waiting impatiently. He laughed to himself while watching her tap her feet, then she looked up at him and smiled back. His sleeves were still rolled up and Taylor found herself admiring his ink all over again, like she was looking at him for the first time. His silence shattered her eardrums, and she wanted to know so badly what was going through his head; if she made him as nervous as he did to her. His eye contact made her feel like she was looking directly into a lighthouse. He was completely irresistible. She wanted to feel his heartbeat to know if it was beating as rapidly as her own. Her eyes traveled to his lips, as the distance between them seemed to become smaller and smaller, and it wasn’t long before her lips crashed onto his. His fingers immediately wove through her beautiful blonde hair. Their teeth collided and their mouths clumsily crashed into each other, as neither of them could erase the huge smile on their face.
Their kiss was growing more and more heated, and Harry had his arms on Taylor’s back and was attempting to pick her up until he heard her yell, “Oh my god! The cookies!”
She opened the oven door to find a dozen dark brown, crispy cookies, and pouted as she held one in her hands. “Can’t be that bad,” Harry said, taking it from her hands, in an attempt to make her feel better.
He held the cookie up to his mouth until Taylor scolded, “Harry, you’re going to break your teeth.”
“You know, this would’ve never happened if you never came onto me like that,” he smirked.
“ Came onto you ? I -- I did not ---” She stopped herself short after the realization that there was no way of denying that she did, indeed, make the first move, and he grinned at the thought of his adorable girlfriend feeling unable to control herself around him. It was just one more thing to boost his ego.
Harry shrugged and placed his arm behind his head. “Well, I actually am pretty hungry, and I was looking forward to those. Shall we order takeout?”
“Eh, I’m not in the mood...” Taylor said, scrunching her nose. “Wait! I have an even better idea.” She reached in the fridge for leftover cookie dough. “Everyone knows the cookie dough is better than the cookie itself.” She held out a clean silver spoon for each of them. She sat down on the kitchen floor and made herself comfortable, as Harry walked to the living room. “Where are you going?”
He turned around. “Oh. I forgot your rule against eating on the couch,” he laughed.
Taylor shook her head jokingly. “How could you forget? I don’t have many rules.”
“Right. No eating on the couch, no spoiling Law & Order or Grey’s Anatomy…”
“...and the cats always come first.”
“Yeah.”
An awkward pause followed, and Taylor’s long legs were stretched out on the kitchen floor with her eyes on her bowl of cookie dough, and Harry hadn’t stopped stealing glances at her, until she looked up and giggled, “What?”
“Nothing. I just...I’m just in love with you.”
Taylor’s heart stopped and every part of her body felt like it had been set on fire. She was expecting to hear that she had chocolate on her face or something of the sort, but, her boyfriend just said he loves her.
She smiled at him. “I…” For a moment, she thought she could say it. She thought it was coming out of her mouth. But...something else was. “I have to throw up.” She raced to her bathroom and Harry followed her just as quickly. She sat in front of the toilet and Harry held her hair back in his strong hands, gentle and as loving as ever.
“I think you ate too much cookie dough, dear,” he told her, smiling nervously. Taylor nodded in agreement, although she knew that wasn’t the only reason this happened.
After wishing each other good night, Harry fell asleep on her couch that night, and Taylor lay in her bed for hours staring at the ceiling. Her stomach was still in knots for more reasons than one. She heard Olivia wander into her room and purr. “Since when did I become the worst girlfriend ever, Liv?” she whispered. Of course, there was no one to respond, and that was what she felt she deserved.
*****
Taylor woke up late the next morning, and after stretching and feeding her cats, she was greeted to the sight of an empty living room with a single handwritten note on the coffee table.
“T-
WENT TO GRAB SOME FOOD AND MEDICINE FOR YOU AT THE STORE. I’LL BE BACK LATER. HOPE YOU’RE DOING ALRIGHT.
--H”
Taylor smiled at his messy scrawl, and his all capital letters as always, which she swore she hated. She held the note in one hand as she held her cell phone in the other and began to make a call.
“Hey, we need to talk. Meet me at the coffeeshop in 15.”
*****
Karlie, Selena, and Cara were already at the coffeeshop waiting for Taylor when she arrived. Karlie immediately put her hand on Taylor’s back as she sat down at the table. “Tay, is everything okay? What’s going on?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she reassured everyone. “I just need advice.”
“We’re all ears,” Selena responded, handing Taylor her coffee they already ordered for her, just the way she likes it.
Taylor took a deep breath. “Harry said he’s in love with me.”
The look on their faces all went from concern to absolute joy. Karlie was practically bouncing in her seat. “Taylor! Oh my god, this is great! I’m so happy for you!”
“You deserve this so much! This is amazing!” Selena chimed in.
“Wait…” Cara said. “You said you need advice...what did you say to him?”
Another deep breath. She shut her eyes, unable to make eye contact with any of them. “I threw up.”
“You...you threw up ? Literally? You vomited?” Karlie was hoping she was somehow exaggerating.
“I ate a lot of cookie dough right before,” Taylor said in self-defense. “Like, a lot .”
Cara shook her coffee mug a bit. “I feel like I’m going to need a different kind of drink for this conversation.”
“Okay, sweetie, tell us the whole story. What happened after you threw up?” Selena questioned.
“He followed me into the bathroom. He held my hair back. He was really sweet about the whole thing. We said good night afterwards, and he fell asleep on my couch and I fell asleep in my bed and he left this morning to go get food and medicine.”
“Aww, what a great guy,” Karlie gushed.
“You’re really lucky, Taylor. Not all guys would do that,” Selena told her.
“You think I don’t know that?” Taylor was so upset and frustrated and Selena reached to hold her hand. “I...I don’t know why I couldn’t say it. I’ve never had that problem before. I feel like I’m always the first one to say it and I’m always the one who falls first and harder and he just totally caught me off guard.”
“You’re just nervous, sweetie,” Karlie said softly. “You’ve been in some shitty relationships, Tay. You just don’t want to get hurt again. It’s normal.”
“That’s exactly it. What if...what if I’ve forgotten how to love? How to love as fearlessly as I used to? What if I’ve forgotten how to love someone without that voice in my head telling me he’s going to leave me and I’m going to end up alone and heartbroken yet again?” Everyone frowned as Taylor’s voice broke.
“Taylor, you taught all of us how to believe in love. You taught all of your fans the same exact thing. You’re the reason I still believe in fairytales and romance and magic and everything that makes life beautiful. You can’t stop believing in love. You just can’t. Because you make us all believe in love,” Selena said.
“Do you love him, Taylor?” Cara dared to ask the question that definitely needed to be asked.
Taylor stared at the table and gulped. “I’m crazy about him,” she said softly. “Sometimes I feel like I can barely breathe around him. I’m actually terrified of how much I love him.”
“Taylor, that boy loves you with all of his heart. I see the way he looks at you. I see how he always goes the extra mile for you. He cares about you so much. And you love him. I’ve known it too. I see you around him. I see it in your face when you tell us about him. You guys have the kind of love that you can just see and hear in every single part of you. I’ve watched you date some horrible guys, Tay, and I like Harry. I think he’s perfect for you . And I think the timing is right. I’ve never seen you or him this happy.”
“And he’s absolutely gorgeous,” Selena smiled. “You’re crazy if you don’t love him.”
“Eh, not the type I usually go for,” Cara said, giving everyone at the table a much-needed laugh, “but he’s quite handsome.”
Taylor sat there with each of them, taking the moment in and wondering how she ever got so lucky to have such a great group of girls in her life. “So...how do I make it up to him?” she asked.
Selena pondered for a moment. “Harry’s a great guy. I don’t think he’s expecting anything from you except honesty.”
Taylor knew she was right, and she hugged all of her best friends, tipped the waitress, and was on her way out back to her place to see her beautiful boyfriend who she loved. The crisp Manhattan air and the voices of people singing on the city streets gave her some kind of hope. For a brief moment, she felt once again like the girl with the curly hair in the sparkly dresses who sang about true love like it was all she knew.
*****
When Taylor got home, the only things there to greet her were her two grumpy but adorable kittens, and there was still no sign of Harry. Taylor’s heart sunk as she held the handwritten note from him close to her. She just hoped he wasn’t upset and drunk and forgetting all about her. She decided to just take a nap for a little while.
A couple hours passed, and Taylor awoke to the noise of keys jingling and footsteps. “Hey,” she said, her voice a bit shaky. She wasn't used to feeling this nervous around a guy, but it had been years since she liked someone even half as much as she liked Harry.
“Hey yourself,” Harry smiled. “Have you been sleeping all day?”
“No, I went for coffee a few hours ago and I took a nap when I got home.”
“You feel okay?”
“I’m fine, Harry,” she smiled. “It was just my stupid idea to eat so much cookie dough. I’m gonna be fine.”
He nodded and looked at her, and maybe she was crazy and expecting the worst, but there was a certain kind of sadness in his green eyes and she hated knowing that she caused it.
“Harry, I’m sorry I threw up,” she finally spoke.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“But I am sorry. Because you’re so great and you took care of me and made me feel safe like you always do. And I’m crazy. I’m crazy for not telling you how much I love you the second I felt it because I’ve felt it for a while now.”
Harry opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but she placed her soft fingertips over his lips. “Shh, shh, my turn to speak. You know what they say, right? Christmas is in a few days, and… ‘at Christmas, you tell the truth.’ I love you, Harry. I’m so, so in love with you. I love your messy handwriting and your loud music early in the morning and your sweaty hands, especially when they’re holding mine. I love how nervous you make me, and I love how happy you make me even more. I love the little things you say and the little things you do and I really want to make this work because I’ve never felt like this before.”
“I love you too, Taylor,” he said, and kissed her forehead. “I feel the same. About, uh, making it work. As far as I’m concerned...I’m yours as long as you want me.”
They stood in the living room for a moment, just happily looking into each other’s eyes.
“I got you something,” Harry said. “I stopped at the liquor store earlier too. Close your eyes.” She hated surprises, but not as much as he loved the frustrated, impatient look on her face while her small hands covered her eyes. He moved her to the kitchen and took a bottle of champagne out of a plastic bag. “Open.” Taylor looked at the bottle in awe. “It’s from the year you were born.” He pointed to the “1989” engraved on it.
She swatted his hand away. “I know when I was born,” she giggled. “And if I ever forget, luckily I named an entire album after it.”
“That you did,” he laughed.
There they were again - those two teenagers, laughing and touching each other late at night in her kitchen.
“Lemme open it,” she said. She twisted the bottle with both hands, held the cork, and pushed it, and the cork went flying into Harry’s eye. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!”
Harry was just laughing. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Taylor couldn’t help but laugh a bit too, then she cupped his face and inspected his eye. “Um, it looks okay. Does it feel okay? Do you need anything?”
“Um, maybe just an ice pack,” he said, sitting down on a stool and covering his eye.
“Okay.” She left and came back with ice and sat on his lap applying it to his eye, and she looked up and kissed his cheek.
Karlie was right. She was in love with him, and he was in love with her. And she felt in the small distance between them, and in the way she spoke, and in her strands of hair and in her clothes. And she wanted everyone to know. She could only hope to feel this way for the rest of her life.
Taylor’s eyelids were getting heavy, and she whispered softly inches away from his ear, “I’m going to bed, are you coming?”
He nodded, and carried her in his arms to her bed. He was laying on his back with his eyes closed, his tattoos peeking through the fabric of his white t-shirt, and Taylor lay on her side watching him. His legs and his chest were moving, but he wasn’t asleep yet, and she could still admire his tan skin even in the dark.
“Stop staring at me,” he mumbled, and covered his face (and his smile) with a pillow.
Taylor didn’t move, she just smiled back, and all she said was, “Harry, would you like to move in?”
His eyes widened. “I’d love to.”
Love . There was that word again.
Taylor fell asleep that night with a smile on her face, and for once, she didn’t have to dream of fairytales and magic and romance. Her fairytale was right next to her, their chests rising and falling in sync with one another. The girl who made everyone else believe in love might have finally written her own love story.