———

When I walk into Moka on 6th avenue, Taylor's already waiting for me.

I can't help but compare her outfit to the way she looked last night at that award show. She was all glamorous and sparkly, shimmering for the whole world to see. Today, she's wearing a pair of black jeans and a blue t-shirt with cats printed on the front, tucked into her pants. She barely has any makeup on. Her outfit is by no means glamorous. She stills looks effortlessly beautiful though.

I've always envied her ability to just look good.

"Rory! Hey!" She calls out, getting up from her seat when I walk inside.

I give her a closed-lip smile, waving a little awkwardly as I make my way over to the little table she has in the corner. "Hey... Taylor."

She moves toward me, and for a second, it feels like she might have been going for a hug, but she retracts and just points at the chair opposite hers.

I'm reminded of the last time we sat opposite each other at a café, about thirteen years ago. It was the Starbucks back home. Not a memory I'm particularly fond of.

"I'm really glad you made it! Hi!" She says, greeting me yet again as she sits back down.

I chuckle, placing my bag down just as a waiter passes by with a cup of coffee for Taylor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't wait for you. I feel like my head's about to explode!"

"It's cool, you're good!" I reassure her, sliding into the seat across from her.

"Hi, welcome to Moka. You can check out our menu on this QR code right here," the waiter says, handing me a small, laminated piece of paper.

"Thank you, I'll only have a latte, though, with oat milk, please!"

"Great! I'll be right back with your coffee!"

"Thank you!"

"Do you wanna eat anything?" Taylor asks, wrapping her fingers around her mug and bringing it closer to her side. "They have some really nice bagels here."

"I know, I've been here before," I tell her. I can see the Finch & Sparrow building from the windows.

The day of my first meeting with my publisher, Rebecca bought me a coffee from here. The day my first book got published, we all celebrated with their homemade chocolate chip banana muffins. When we learned that Stuck With You had sold a million copies, we ordered their coffee cake with "1,000,000" written on top in frosting.

I smile at Taylor tightly and clear my throat. "I've already eaten, though. Are you hungry?"

She just shakes her head. "I'm so hungover, the thought of food is making me queasy."

"That's probably the coffee!"

Taylor runs her hand over the mug, gently petting it. "Shhh," she whispers, leaning over her steaming coffee. "Don't listen to her. You could never make me queasy."

I laugh softly, picking a packet of brown sugar from the little cup in the middle of the table and tapping it gently between my fingers without opening it.

"Wow, you're funny today," I tease her. "Nice shirt!"

"Mhm, thank you. I don't know if you know this but, I'm a cat lady now!" She says, her grin widening. "I'm a proud mother of three!"

"Nah, three cats doesn't make you a cat lady. A cat mom, maybe. Not a cad lady. Now, if you want a real cat lady, you got Mrs. Paxton, across the street from Nana's house? Remember her?"

"Holy shit, how could I ever forget? She had like thirty cats!" Taylor gasps at the memory, giggling softly. "You're right, no one could ever even get on mrs. Paxton's level. Is she still alive?"

"Uh-huh. Still kicking and breathing. Still has a billion cats. They just keep making kittens faster than she can get them spayed and neutered!" I tell her with an amused smile as the waiter comes back with my coffee. I thank him and immediately empty the brown sugar into the drink.

"Wow, that's amazing. She was already ancient when we were in high school!"

"She's immortal," I tell Taylor matter-of-factly. "She's a vampire. We're going to die long before she ever does. You know, unless one of her cats goes bat-shit crazy. No pun intended."

Taylor tosses her head back laughing and I can't help but crack a small, proud grin.

"You think she's the kind of vampire that turns into a bat at night?"

"Absolutely. Only reason why none of her cats have turned against her yet!"

Taylor laughs harder at my joke and presses her cheek into her palm, leaning her elbow over the tabletop.

"What about you, though? Did you ever get that dog your Nana never let you have?"

I shake my head, following the steam that is coming out of my cup with my gaze. "Uh, no. No. I never did. Well, I do live with Cas, and we have Zorro. He's this giant half-lab, half-I don't know that they rescued."

"Ahh, is it 'cause of all the travelling?"

I slowly look up at her, adjusting my glasses as I do. Being here feels weird. Sitting at this table, catching up like nothing ever happened is weird. I still don't get why she invited me in the first place. At three a.m., no less. I don't know why I said yes, either. It always used to be hard for me to say no to her before. Maybe some things never change.

"Taylor," I say her name carefully, running my fingers over the grooves in the wood of the table. "What are we doing here?"

"Having coffee," she responds a little too quick, a small, playful grin on her face.

I breathe out a laugh and shake my head, pushing myself up in my seat. "No, I know. I meant— here, here. You and me. Having coffee. What are we doing? Why did you invite me?"

Taylor's expression falters. She slumps back and shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know," she murmurs.

"Because, to me, it's a little weird," I continue, chuckling dryly. "Taylor, I— I can't just sit here and pretend like nothing happened and pick off where we left off. That we're still friends and we hang out after school and make each other friendship bracelets instead of studying for our finals, okay? We're not teenagers anymore. It's been thirteen years. We're thirty-three now—"

"You're thirty-three," she mumbles, cutting me off. "I'm still thirty-two for another couple of months, thank you very much."

I have to fight back the urge to smile. "Taylor."

Her lips twitch as she leans across the table and forces our gazes to meet. Her eyes are so blue. Sometimes, it's a little overwhelming how blue they are.

"Look, I'm not trying to pretend like nothing happened, okay? I know I hurt you. I said some unforgivable things and, it's my fault you never returned my calls. I know that. I don't blame you. I— I was nineteen and I was so stupid. I did a lot of stupid things back then that I regret to this day but my biggest regret, Rory... my biggest regret is hurting you."

I sit there quietly, trying to gauge the sincerity of her words. I could always read her like the back of my hand. We always got each other better than anyone else. That's why it hurt so much when she said those things back then. I never thought she would.

But I'm looking in her eyes now and I can see that she means it.

"It still happened, Taylor," I respond quietly. "We can't just move past that."

"I'm not asking you to forget everything and just forgive me. I'm just..." she waves her hand around, trying to grasp the words she wants to say. "Rory, don't you think it's a little weird that we ended up sitting two feet from each other at a random café in Italy thirteen years since the last time we ever saw each other?"

That, I can't argue with. Still, I roll my eyes. "Still obsessed with that number?"

"Always!" She exclaims, smiling a little. "Always, Rory. Every good thing that's ever happened to me had the number thirteen involved somehow! We met on August 13th twenty years ago. That's not a coincidence. And it's been thirteen years since I last saw you and it's like the universe just knew."

I fold my arms over my chest as I listen to her, glancing around the coffee shop. One of the baristas keeps looking our way. Another girl a few tables over is just straight up staring, her mouth hanging open. There's also a big man with a scary glare watching us intently. I have a feeling he's Taylor's personal security guard. He's got one of those in-ear monitors hooked up.

"Okay... say you're right. That this is fate and I decided to book a flight to Sanremo by some freak chance and because the universe willed it. Because it's been thirteen years. Which is your lucky number. It still doesn't make a difference. This, us hanging out?" I wave my hand between us, pointing from her to me. "Still weird."

"I know. Okay? It's weird. Trust me, I feel it too. When I'm with you, it feels like we're teenagers again but in adult bodies and it's weird," she tells me, laughing softly. "I'm not saying let's pick up where we left off and pretend nothing happened. I'm just saying... let's start over."

"Start over?" I ask, raising my eyebrows as I turn the idea over in my head.

"Start over. A fresh start," she says with a nod and then holds her hand out for me to shake. "Hi, I'm Taylor."

I bite back a smile and slowly put my right hand in hers, giving it a firm shake. "I'm Rory."

"Lori? That's a nice name."

I roll my eyes but I can't help but smile fondly at the memory. Taylor grins back across the table from me, her eyes shining.

"You know, my last name's Taylor," I tell her, trying to recall exactly how our first ever conversation went.

"That's cool. This is going to sound weird but I was named after James Taylor."

"This is going to sound weirder but, so was I. My middle name is James," I tell her and Taylor squeezes my hand.

"You know what this means, right?" she says and when I raise my eyebrows, she beams and leans toward me. "It's fate. We're meant to be best friends."

"Hm, we'll see," I respond, finally taking my hand back from hers. My palm is warm and it feels a little sweaty. "Fresh start, huh?"

Taylor let's out a heavy breath and nods, adjusting the claw that's holding all her hair up. "Fresh start."

"Okay! Well, I do have a question for you," I say after taking a sip from my forgotten cup of coffee. "Actually, the question is directed toward Taylor Swift, not the cat mom but the award winning singer."

She raises her eyebrows, a little surprised by that. "Are they not the same person?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I admit with a small shrug. "There are lots of people staring at us right now."

"Right... yeah. Uh, you get used to it," she tells me with a tight smile. She holds her mug up to her mouth, takes a sip, puts it back down, dabs her lips with a napkin. People are just watching her drink coffee like it's the most fascinating thing in the world.

"I don't think I ever could," I say honestly with a small chuckle. "Does it not get tiring?"

"Sometimes, but I did sign up for it," she tells me. "If you're uncomfortable though, we can leave and find somewhere quieter. I understand."

"No, I'm fine!" I reassure her. "It's cool. It's... it's what we always talked about, right? We used to sit at the BlueBird café right before your small gigs, and we used to talk about how cool it would be when people started recognising you and... I remember one time we saw someone wearing a Britney Spears shirt and you went one day, I'm gonna be on someone's shirt. It's your dream
come true."

Taylor looks down at the table, smiling rather bashfully. "Yeah, I remember that," she murmurs. "No one really gets it. I can't really sit here and complain when it's all I ever wanted, right?"

"I understand that," I tell her but when I look at that girl staring at us and she makes eye contact with me and doesn't even look away, it makes me uncomfortable. "Still, a little weird, though."

"Oh, yeah! I know. Especially when you're trying to eat and someone's looking right at you and you're like, okay, no I need to do my absolute best not to eat like the cookie monster and make a fool of myself because I'm an adult and I can eat like an adult but sometimes spilling food down your shirt is out of your hands and there's someone with a camera and then you just look like a toddler who can't eat without a bib."

I grin crookedly at her, clinking my nails against the ceramic cup in my hands. "I feel like that has happened before."

"Yep, I had ketchup all over this white blouse and didn't even notice until I made it back home," she admits, grimacing at the horrifying memory. "Pictures of it everywhere."

"Wait, are pictures of us going to end up online right now?" I ask her, adjusting my posture. If Cas finds out, they'll definitely lecture me and remind me of everything that happened thirteen years ago as though I'm not already aware.

"Not if I don't want them to. I mean, sometimes it's out of my hands but," she reassures me. "That's what Greg over there is for."

"The guy who's been glaring at us for the past half an hour?" I ask, glancing at the security guy again.

"Yep. He's not glaring. He's just allergic to smiling," she says with a grin. "We're fine, don't worry."

I open my mouth to respond when the door to the café opens and I spot a familiar man walking in.

Xander. The man who has been publishing my books at Finch & Sparrow for the past three years.

He spots me as soon as he takes his sunglasses off and smiles that charming, expensive, pearly-white toothy smile.

"Rory! Hey!" He calls out, waving as he makes his way over to our table.

He's wearing perfectly pressed dress pants and a light blue button-up tucked in with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing an expensive Cartier watch. I offer him a polite smile while standing up as the panic starts seizing me.

"Hi... Xander. How are you?" I ask, extending my hand to shake his but he takes it in both of his palms and squeezes it gently.

"Really good! I didn't know you were going to be in our side of town today!"

"Uhh, yeah, I'm just, you know, catching up with an old friend, Taylor!"

My voice has gone a whole pitch higher. I fight the urge to cringe at myself as Taylor stands up as well to introduce herself.

"Oh, that's Taylor Swift. Rory, that's Taylor Swift!" Xander tells me, his grin widening as he laughs excitedly. "I'm Alexander Fin—"

"Hey, Xander, I've been meaning to talk to you about something actually. I'm glad I ran into you," I cut him off, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him away from the table. "Sorry. It's a work thing."

Taylor looks baffled but she waves me off as she sits back down and I pull Xander outside.

I know he wouldn't reveal my identity as Emily Lucas, one of his best selling authors. But he was about to reveal his own identity and if Taylor went digging, she would probably find that he's connected to Emily Lucas and connect it to me.

Why I don't want her to know about all that yet? I'm not sure...

"Rory! What the heck?" Xander laughs. "Taylor Swift?"

"Crazy, I know," I chuckle, pushing my hands into the pockets of my pants. "We went to high school together. Long story. Anyway, so, Rebecca sent you the chapters?"

"The first ten, yes! And they're amazing. An Italian romance? Amazing! I love it. Is it gonna get messy?"

"Super messy and not just in the melting gelato kinda way," I promise him. "I think I can probably have the whole thing ready as soon as next month. Worst case scenario, December."

"Wow, okay! That's fantastic. Is that everything you wanted to talk about?" He asks, one of his bushy not-quite-blonde eyebrows arching.

"Uhh, yeah. Yeah. That's it! Oh, the movie! That's still happening?"

"Absolutely! We're getting our lawyers to negotiate the deal and the copyrights as soon as possible. Obviously, you will have as much say as you want in all the decisions we make," Xander reassures me.

"Great. I trust you!"

"That's what I like to hear. Great seeing you, Rory! I can't wait to read the rest of your story. I gotta get going, though. We have a meeting in ten minutes with Mel," he tells me, his upper lip twitching in the tiniest grimace.

"Mel Greene?" I ask and he nods. No one likes Mel. "Shit, good luck."

"Thanks. Need my sustenance!" He tells me and pats my shoulder before holding the door open for me.

I walk back over to the table with Taylor as he goes to order his coffee.

"Who's that?" Taylor asks me, putting her coffee back down.

"Oh, that's just a uh, one of my coworkers," I tell her with a nod.

"Ah! From Odyssey Magazine?"

I hum in response when Xander stops by our table again and knocks on it.

"Aurora, by the way, you're coming next week, right? All the writers are gonna be there and it wouldn't be the same without my star author."

"We both know that's Mel."

"Mel sells big numbers, sure, but he lacks your humour and sometimes, he smells funny!" Xander says, getting a laugh out of me.

"Like vinegar, right?"

"Pickled eggs, more like," Xander whispers. "You'll be there, yes?"

"Yes! Sure, yes! I'll be there. Don't you have a meeting in five minutes?"

Xander groans and stands back up straight. "Yep. Alright! Taylor Swift, amazing to meet you! Oh, congratulations on the new album! That's crazy. Crazy stuff. Can't wait to hear it!"

"Oh, thanks! Thank you for that. Really nice to meet you too!"

"Rory, I'll see you next week!" And with that, he dashes out of there with his coffee.

Taylor's watching me curiously, an unreadable look in her expression. "Mhm, so you're a star!"

"Uhm, no, no, he's just saying that..."

Taylor shakes her head, her smile widening. "You are. I've read your articles. They're really well written. Made me wanna go all the way to Turks and Caicos once."

I breathe out a laugh, looking down at my hands. "Thanks, Taylor."

"You're welcome," she says softly, her smile widening. "Did he say you're his star author?"

I try to act as nonchalant as possible. "Author. Journalist. Writer. They're all synonymous, right?"

"Mhm. What's your next one going to be about?"

"You're gonna laugh," I tell her. "Ice cream. Specifically, melon ice cream."

"Seriously?" Taylor does laugh, but not in a teasing or mocking way. "Well, I can't wait to read all about your honest review on melon ice cream!"

"Number one ice cream flavour of the summer!" I chuckle, checking the time on my phone. "And I should get going. My lunch break's almost over."

"Aw," Taylor pouts but then when I reach for my wallet, she doesn't hesitate to glare at me. "No. It's on me!"

"Taylor, come on. It's just coffee—"

"Exactly. It's just coffee, and I invited you, so it's on me!" Taylor insists, placing her hand on my arm to stop me. "Think of it this way. Now, you owe me a coffee for next time."

I nod, dropping my hand. "Okay. I owe you a coffee."

"Great! Here, put your number in my phone and I'll text you when I'm free?"

She opens her phone and slides it over to me. I hesitate before inserting my number and saving it under my full name. When I hand Taylor her phone back, she chuckles.

"Okay, Lori Taylor. Thank you! It was nice meeting you."

I smirk amusedly. "You too, miss Swift. I'll see you around."

"Do you need a ride?" She asks but I pull my car keys out of my pocket and dangle them in the air.

"Still got my baby."

"Holy shit! Cherry? It's still alive?" Taylor exclaims, reaching for my car keys to take a better look at them. I haven't even changed the key chain, an old piece of leather that's been scratched one too many times now.

"She is, yeah! I've had to upgrade a few things but, she's still running! I wouldn't dream of ever selling her," I tell her with a small smile. "Anyway, I should get going."

"No, yeah, of course! Of course. Take care, Rory. And drive safe!"

I smile and nod as I gather my things. "You too, Tay. I'll see you around."

Taylor gets up and this time, she hugs me. My whole body stiffens, and Taylor notices, because she pulls away after a few seconds and gives me an awkward smile. "Bye."

I clear my throat and nod once before walking away, my skin tingling as I do. When I get in my car, it takes me a second to take a deep breath and recalibrate before I can even start the engine and drive back to the office.

———