Chapter Text
“Now I’m pacing back and forth...”
Taylor sat staring at the phone in her hand for a long moment. This is insane, she thought to herself.
It’s single girl summer. You and the girls literally just swore off dating less than a month ago. The media is still recovering from the Joe-to-Matty-to-nothing whiplash. And frankly, so are you. The last thing you need is to actually give fuel to this story instead of letting it die out.
With a groan, she tossed the phone onto the couch beside her for at least the fifth time and stood to resume her pacing. Halfway across the room, she glanced down and realized that she had begun leaving a trail imprinted across the freshly vacuumed plush rug. This was getting ridiculous.
The visual of the trail of footprints was the push that she needed. Taylor turned back to her seat on the couch, snatched up the discarded phone from where it lay face down on a cushion, and began to type out a message.
It was just a text. It wasn’t a declaration of love or even an offer for a date. It would lead to a few messages back and forth, then a knowing smile and perhaps a hug when they inevitably crossed paths at some event down the road. Single girl summer would continue as planned.
Only a few moments later, Taylor quickly hit send before she could talk herself out of it. She again tossed the phone onto the couch and stood. She definitely wasn’t about to sit here waiting to see if a reply came through. Baking would be a good distraction. She paused on the threshold between living room and kitchen, then turned back and dragged her foot across the trail from one end of the rug to the other, smoothing it until there was no evidence remaining.
Satisfied, she was again on the threshold of the kitchen when something else suddenly brought her to a halt.
Her phone had buzzed.
--
Travis sat staring at the phone in his hand for a long moment. This is insane, he thought to himself.
It can’t possibly be her. Someone got ahold of your phone number and is trying to embarrass you. It was a mistake to mention it on the podcast. You should just delete it and forget about it. Be more careful next time about what stories you use to liven up a boring ad read.
His finger hovered over the delete button. But what if? He read the text again, as if somehow it might have changed in the past thirty seconds.
Unknown Number: Hey Travis, this is Taylor. Sorry you left the show disappointed the other night. Security is tight these days. I hear you might have a bracelet for me?
Fuck it. If there was even a chance in hell that it might be her, he couldn’t just leave her on read.
Travis Kelce: Hey I’m really sorry but I’m going to need some sort of proof here to know I’m not being Punk’d right now
He hesitated for only a second before hitting send, then leaned back into his chair and slowly let out the breath he realized he’d been holding. Well, that was stupid. Either he had disappointed the would-be prankster, or he had been entirely too blunt and offended the most famous woman in the world. No matter the case, there was no way he’d be getting a reply now. No use sitting around dwelling on it. He rose with a stretch, rubbing his hands over his face as if trying to wipe the image of the text directly from his eyeballs. He had only taken a couple of steps towards the door, not even sure where he was headed, before he froze in place.
His phone had buzzed.