isn't it? [taylor swift]

chapter 55

Leia had to give it to her fellow celebrities - they knew how to keep their mouths shut.

Despite the multiple onlookers after Joe's drunken outburst at the charity event the month prior, there had still been no stories or even whisperings of the awfully complicated relationship and friendship between Leia Hudson and Taylor Swift.

Well, they knew how to keep their mouths shut about certain things.

Because there certainly had been one or two blind items floating about that were being attributed to a variety of different party attendees, and Leia had already been made aware from Riven that a few fans were speculating on social media that the blind item related to her and Joe Alwyn.

It had been splashed on some gossip blogs the next day, and then all over the fan-sphere on Twitter by noon.

It was supposed to be a night of glamor and goodwill, but one A-list charity event turned into something a little less charitable when a British actor known less for his work and more for his public life had a bit of a public meltdown.

Witnesses say the usually low-key star was experiencing some champagne problems when he cornered a chart-topping pop darling outside the venue. What started as awkward small talk quickly devolved into a heated argument, with the actor raising his voice and slurring accusations that left guests stunned and this returning pop darling to decode his behaviour.

🕵️‍♀️ Word of advice to the actor: next time, skip the open bar. And to the singer? Keep doing what you're doing - because someone clearly can't handle your spotlight.

It was pretty easy to guess that they were talking about the duo, especially with the song title drops - but thankfully there were more delusional fans of other attendees out there that had more than just the truth as a theory.

Regardless, Leia had been given an earful from Riven who had only found out that something had happened after Tree had been tipped off about the blind items before publishing and had called him at the crack of dawn to ask what the hell had happened.

Any press about Joe was press about Taylor.

Leia had made a snarky comment about how she wondered if it hurt Joe to know that any press of Taylor had no mention of him. She had said that he didn't even haunt her narrative and Riven had promptly told her to shut up and let him defuse this with Tree his own way.

She hadn't argued with him, but mostly because she knew that she had done literally nothing wrong for a change. She'd been fully sober, she'd not yelled back and she'd left instead of continuing the drama. Nothing like old times.

What can she say... she was a changed woman.

For now, at least.

_____

"Do you know if Taylor and Joe are... okay?"

Of all the things Jack had expected Leia to ask when she walked into his Brooklyn studio that end-of-August morning, that was not on the top of the list. In fact, he was sure it wasn't even on there at all.

He'd heard about the blind item from Margaret Qualley, the girl he had just started to see. She was an up-and-coming actor, who just so happened to be staring in a film with Joe Alwyn that was set to begin filming in a few months time. Naturally, the blind item had made her nervous so she'd ask Jack as she knew that he knew him.

Jack was mid-sip of his iced coffee when Leia asked the question, and he nearly choked.

He looked up from the synth he'd been fiddling with, brows knitting as he tried to assess her tone. She didn't sound curious. Not really. She sounded... tired. The kind of tired that came from a mind running laps around memories it couldn't outrun.