Page 45 of Tailored for Them

Taylor exhaled at that, blinking once before asking, “And our mutual friends?”

I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling too much before I continued, “I lost all my friends when Colleen cheated on me…” I inhaled a shaky breath before I elaborated, “They were all her friends first, before she started dating me. So, even though she was the one who cheated, when it came down to choosing sides…I wasn’t chosen.”

“Oh, babe.” Taylor wrapped me in their arms, pressing a firm kiss to the crown of my head, making sure not to mess with the daisy in my air, “I’m so sorry.”

I sniffed, accepting their comfort as I wrapped my arms around them too and spoke against their shoulder, “I finally feel like I’m forming my group. Friends. Maybe even family, but…if you and I…if we don’t…”

“I totally get it,” Taylor murmured against my head, “I understand your hesitation.”

I leaned back, trying to compose myself. “You do?”

“Yeah,” Taylor gave me a comforting smile, “I’m not going to try to convince you that it won’t ever happen, because I don’t know the future. But…believe me when I tell you that Idon’twant that to happen. I also don’t think our friends are so emotionally immature that they’d feel the need to ‘pick sides’ between us.”

I nodded, pecking their lips once.

I loved that they were having this conversation with me on the first date.

I loved that I felt safe enough expressing my perspective toward them, without the fear of them weaponizing it against me later.

“Thank you for listening.” I nodded, “I like you. A lot. And…it’s scary liking someone a lot after, well…”

“Being treated the way you were,” Taylor finished for me.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

We sat there in comfortable silence, my concerns floating around us, not like a looming threat, but as a simple reality. Something to be acknowledged and respected but not intimidated by.

“Well,” Taylor sighed, settling us back against the brick to admire the darker sky, “I guess the only thing to do from here is keep dating the shit out of each other.”

I snorted, “That’s it? Just like that?”

God, how were they so relaxed and carefree all the time?

Taylor smiled, their profile lit up from the setting sun, reflecting off their septum ring, “Just like that.”

The more I got to know Taylor Desmond. The more time I spent with them and the more conversations we shared, the more I felt like I had finallyfoundsomething. Something IthoughtI knew how to find in the past. Something that escaped me in a way I had no concept of understanding, until I could finally see it in its reality. Feel it. Comprehend the truth of it. It was an overwhelming feeling of finally standing in front of something I had been seeking my entire adult life. Now that I could visualize it in front of me, understanding the reality of what I was missing somehow seemed bigger.

Scarier.

Every aspect, every detail I learned about Taylor, made me feel like they were stitched together in complete perfection. So different than me, and yet sorightfor me.

It was as if the universe was finally, finally throwing me a bone.

Here is this person, she was telling me, in all her glory,you will fall in love with every part of them. Every perfection, everyflaw. You thought you understood love before? You have no idea what you’re in for. They are tailored specifically to you. For you.

I just hoped, with everything I had left in me, that I could be tailored for them.

Chapter Thirteen

TAYLOR

On my phone screen,Violet reached behind herself to tie her hair up before settling into her spot on the stool, “Okay, I’m ready.”

I nodded, glancing up briefly when Nicole tiptoed out of my bedroom toward the kitchen. She wore nothing but a shirt and cheeky panties, and god, she was gorgeous.

We’d gone on an official date once a week on average since our first date over a month ago. We went on more walks, on a hike, to the movies, even to a paint-and-sip art class that we both agreed never to do again.

But our poorly painted trees were now proudly hanging in Nicole’s apartment.

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