isn't it? [taylor swift]

chapter 39

The big New Years party that had been marked on their calendars for months had been drastically overshadowed in Leia's life as November continued on. 

She had honestly been dreading thinking about it - knowing that Joe and Taylor were having a PR kiss at the countdown to midnight so that those in attendance would leak that to the press, since he was in New York for the holidays. Taylor would soon go on to start to film Cats in January in London and Leia knew that the PR with Joe was only going to be amped up as that happened.

Yet, it had been overshadowed by something that Leia had been delighted to hear - Taylor was opting to not renew her contract with Big Machine. She'd kept Leia out of a lot of the loop when it came to her negotiations, but Leia wasn't stupid - she'd known something was off. It had been a few days after Georgie admitting to them that she was seeing someone when Taylor had finally told Leia what had been going on - she wanted her masters, and BMR said only if she gave them a new album for each of her old ones.

Leia hadn't even asked Taylor if she was sure about leaving once she'd heard that. She'd have honestly gone to UMG herself, stood on a platform and made the announcement as soon as Taylor informed her of the switch. 

She was proud of her girlfriend. She'd always be proud of Taylor.

So November came and went, and then so did December. They had a chilled day for Taylor's birthday - opting to skip the big parties and have a small celebration in Upstate New York. Leia had offered to fly out Taylor's parents as a surprise, and had given Georgie permission to have her 'mystery man' come over to their apartment while they were gone for the weekend. While Taylor's parents had politely declined and said they deserved some time just the tow of them for a change, Georgie had been delighted to hear that she was getting free rein of their apartment.

They still weren't sure who it was, but at least Georgie had promised not to sneak him into her room while they were in the apartment together. They'd already had to have a bit more of a serious chat with Georgie about not knowing who her mystery man was since he had clearly enough insight to figure out about Leia and Taylor if he wanted, and Taylor had expressed that she'd really like for him to have signed an NDA.

Georgie told them that they didn't have much to worry about on that front, and that she'd get him to sign it - even if she kept a hold of it until she finally wanted to tell them about him. It was a... strange situation, Leia thought, but she didn't want to pressure Georgie into telling her about this mystery man. He cleaned up his dishes and cooked her little sister dinner every time he came round when they were gone, and the flowers that constantly turned up at their door was certainly making a somewhat good impression so far.

Regardless, Leia would have to wait longer to meet him as they were spending the weekend in some cozy collections of cabins that Leia had booked for Taylor, a moment of peace and quiet for them all for a chance. She'd offered to drive them there too - since it was only around a 3 hour drive from Manhattan to near Lake George - giving Azul and the rest of Taylor's security team the weekend off for the first time in a long time. 

Azul would probably just spend it with Riven, since Leia had learned they'd just moved in together a few blocks away from her apartment, and she had no idea what Taylor's security would do - she just knew they appreciated the time off.

"I'm going to hit post," Taylor squealed, less than ten minutes into their car journey. "Do you think I should do it now?"

"I think you'll give your marketing team a heart attack if you don't hurry up," Leia joked back, pressing a kiss to the back of Taylor's hand that was wrapped around her own, the other hand on the steering wheel as she kept her eyes on the road in front of them. "They're going to call Tree who is going to call you and ask if you've forgotten, and then you'll start talking about work and the entirety of this trip being a no-work, just-fun weekend will fade into nothing."