Thank You

It wasn’t instant. It wasn’t something that could be easily forgotten. Austin didn’t take the fact that she cheated on him lightly. They had been working on trying to get back to normal, and for the most part, it was working. There were a few times where he caught himself looking at her, thinking about what she had done and hating her for it. He was taking it one day at a time.

“What do you think about these?” she asked, holding up a few samples of fabric. It was September, and in Taylor’s eyes, that meant Fall. She was redecorating his apartment to make it more festive for the dinner party they were having. And really, “they” meant Taylor. Austin was just going to show up and mingle, like he always did. Taylor liked throwing dinner parties for their friends. “It makes me feel like we’re grown ups,” she’d said. He nodded at the scraps of fabric, leaning on the shopping cart and watching her go. She was like an Energizer bunny on speed when she was in a craft store. Today was one of those days where he was insanely in love with her. Who knew though, tomorrow he could absolutely hate her.

“Remind me that we have to pick up the flowers on the way home.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Do you think everyone is going to show up?” she asked, trying to pick out more fabric.

“Why wouldn’t they? And what are you even using that fabric for anyway?”

“I’m going to make placemats,” she answered, looking at him like he was supposed to know that.

“Why can’t you just buy placemats like a normal person? Or hey, how about we not even have placemats because our friends are animals and are going just spill beer on them anyway.”

“Ugh, you’re right,” she sighed, letting go of the fabric samples and leaned into his side, kissing the side of his neck. “I just want everything to be perfect.”

“Why?” he asked, confused. “They’re our friends. They aren’t going to care about anything except the food and the football.”

“Because,” she shrugged, taking a step back from him. “I know that most of them still hate me for what I did.”

“If I can forgive you, they can,” he shrugged. “Nobody’s going to say anything, Tay.”

“Yeah, but you really haven’t forgiven me and you know that someone is going to drink too much and say something.”

“Look,” he sighed, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes so that she got the full effect of what he was saying. “If someone says something, I’ll make ‘em leave. And what do you mean I haven’t forgiven you?”

“Oh come on, Austin. I’m not stupid,” she replied, shaking his hands off of her shoulders. “I catch you looking at me sometimes and I can tell that it physically hurts you sometimes to look at me or even talk to me.” She sighed. “It was a mistake. It happened. ”

“Taylor,”

“Look, forget I said anything. I’m going to work on making you trust me again. Until then, I’ll just take all of the glares and discomfort because I deserve them. I hurt you. I never want to do that again.”

“Taylor,”

“And besides, I’ve learned from that mistake. I’ve learned that-”

“Ugh Taylor,” he laughed, leaning down to wrap his arms around her and bring her in for a tiny peck. “I forgive you.”

“Fully?”

“Almost fully,” he shrugged. “But that’s progress. I forgive you a little more almost every day.”

“Almost every day?”

“Some days you really piss me off,” he laughed, leading her down the next aisle. “Now, let’s decorate this apartment!”

//\\//\\//\\//\\

The next night his apartment was packed with (almost) all of their friends. All of the guys were collected around the television, beers in hand and crumbs all over the floor. The girls were in the kitchen, helping Taylor clean up a little. None of them had said a word about Eric or what she had done, which was a relief. She knew that a lot of them were against Austin giving her a second chance, but that didn’t really matter. In the grand scheme of things, what other people thought didn’t hold any kind of weight on their relationship. She stole a moment to peek into the living room and watch Austin. She’d missed this. It wasn’t like this with Eric. Then again, all she’d done with Eric was wonder why he didn’t treat her the same way Austin did. It always came back to Austin. She would probably never love anyone else the way she loved him.

He was right. She didn’t need to go all out on decorating the place because ultimately it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the company. He caught her eye and smiled. God, she loved his smile. He smiled so wide that his eyes always seemed to get lost. He blew her a kiss and then sent her a wink.

It almost made her mad at how easily he had forgiven her. If the roles were reversed, she didn’t think she could forgive him so easily or if she could have forgiven him at all. She was a mess when she found out that he got married so close to after they called it quits. Well, that he got married at all. She’d met Jessica. She knew how absolutely gorgeous she was. She wondered if Austin missed her at all. He told her he didn’t, but he wouldn’t actually tell her if he did. Austin’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Anyone want another beer?”

A bunch of grunts of approval rang through the apartment. By that time, the girls had all relocated to the living room. Austin needed a bigger place. She was already digging through the refrigerator when he snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, planting a small kiss to her neck. She pulled out the rest of the beer and turned around to set it on the counter. As soon as she sat it down, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.

“Thank you,” she sighed against his lips, planting another tiny kiss there.

“For what?” he asked, his eyes doing that squinty thing they did when he was confused.

“For forgiving me. For letting me have another chance. For loving me.”

“Of course I love you, you dingus! I’ll never stop.”

“Rule number three,” she laughed softly, amazed that he still remembered that.

“Always,” he chuckled, pulling her back in for a kiss.

//\\//\\//\\

After the football game had ended, the drunken discussions had started. Taylor was comfortably sitting on Austin’s lap, listening to him and John rant endlessly about absolutely nothing at all.

“Yeah, but Petty man, Petty’s where it’s at,” John said, lifting his bottle of beer into the air.

“Springsteen,” Austin replied, nodding. “Springsteen always. Isn’t that right, Tay?”

“Really, Austin?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Oh I forgot that you hate The Boss.”

“I’m going with John on this one.” She lifted her beer bottle and clinked it with John’s.

“Yeah!” John smiled, leaning over to whisper something into Parker’s ear. She giggled and nodded, wrapping her arms around him.

“Well, we hate to cut this short, but it’s getting late. We should probably go relieve the babysitter.”

“Us too,” Julia and Garrett piped in. “I can’t believe we stayed out this long.”

“We should get going too,” Kennedy spoke up, pulling Peyton up off of the floor.

“Well, shit. Guess the party’s over. All of you old folk and your offspring,” Austin said, gently nudging Taylor off of his lap so that he could stand up.

“Don’t go yet, guys,” Taylor said, shuffling to the kitchen. “You guys have to take some of this food.”

“Gladly,” Jared said, rubbing his stomach. A knock on the door drew Austin’s attention away from his friends. They were all here, so who could it be?

“Ugh, if it’s Eric, I’ll just go ahead and kill myself,” he mumbled under his breath.

He slowly opened the door, just in case it was.

It wasn’t.

He couldn’t find his voice, so he was silent. The voice that met his ears, however, was frantic.

“I need your help.”