Through The Eras

The Great War

"Tay, baby. Please come out."

Taylor was sitting on the ground, leaning against the door she had just slammed shut in Evie's face no more than 5 minutes ago. She had tears streaming down her face. Her mascara was running. She couldn't face Evie. She needed out. For the first time in 16 years, Taylor wanted out.

On the other hand, Evie wasn't going to give up on Taylor or this life they had built together. It was a simple miscommunication and they both let their insecurities get in the way of their love for each other.

"Taylor. I can't lose you. We've been married for eight years, do you think I'm going to let this be the thing that breaks us?"

Evie was genuine but Taylor just couldn't get that through her head, or she just wouldn't.

Honestly, what had happened was nothing. They had been through worse so Evie didn't understand what made this any different than all the other times. 

Evie had been sitting in their living room earlier that evening while Taylor was downstairs writing in her studio. Nothing was out of the ordinary until Taylor received an email from Tree with a picture of Evie having lunch with what she was assuming was a friend with the caption, 'Do you know who this is?'. Taylor had no clue who the other woman in the picture was.

After taking a closer look at it, aka zooming in on all the different parts of the photo, Taylor quickly realized that Evie was wearing neither her engagement ring nor her wedding band. This struck her as odd because usually Evie always wears her wedding band. Even if she doesn't wear her engagement ring, which was understandable even to Taylor because it was a huge diamond and she was sure it got in the way of everyday tasks, she would always have her wedding band on. 

After noticing this detail, Taylor ran up the stairs, taking two at a time so as to waste not another minute overthinking the situation, which she had already done a tremendous amount of downstairs.

"Hey, baby?" She had called out while making her way up the last three at a much slower pace.

"Hm?" Evie was looking down at her phone, not paying much attention to the world around her but still acknowledging that Taylor was there. She wasn't expecting anything major so she didn't really give it any thought.

"What'd you do today while I was at the studio?"

"Mostly just sat here and played with the cats and watched movies. Oh! I got caught up on some paperwork for that case I had last week with the ki-" 

Taylor knew she was lying but once she really realized it, it set her off.

"No, you didn't, Evie. Tell me the truth. That's all I'm asking for here." Taylor's voice was more stern than it had previously been. 

"Tay, I have no idea what you're talking about. I had lunch with Monica bu-" She, again, was cut off by Taylor's obsessive thoughts.

"Who the fuck is Monica? And why were you having lunch with her without either of your rings on?" 

Evie could tell that Taylor was hurt but she knew there had to have been some sort of misunderstanding here.

"Please stop cutting me off while I'm trying to explain to you. Like I was saying, I had lunch with Monica but I told you about that last week. And as I said then, Monica was one of the girls in my friend group in law school. She didn't hang out with us as much as the others did because she has a kid and priorities, you know." Evie was telling Taylor the truth but there was that little voice in the back of Taylor's mind that kept telling her that Evie was lying.

"That doesn't explain why you had both your rings off, Evie. Both of them! You never take both of them off. Which means you were trying to hide the fact that you're married from this mystery woman. But how could she not know you're married because we were literally the only thing in the headlines for three months after our wedding? It just doesn't make sense to me. It feels like something's going on and I can't take it. I won't." 

With that, Taylor stood from the couch and stormed off up to their shared bedroom but not before she was met with Evie's voice, echoing off the walls from how loud she screamed.

"WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE," Evie stood to follow Taylor up the stairs. Taylor kept walking, trying to get to the bedroom. Her thoughts booming in her head and Evie's voice filling their house were starting to be too much.

"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT I CAN'T GO HAVE LUNCH WITH A FRIEND FROM SCHOOL BUT 13 YEARS AGO YOU GOT TO GO OUT ON THE TOWN WITH WHOEVER WAS THE MAN OF THE MINUTE WHILE I SAT IN MY DORM JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO CALL? AND MOST OF THE TIME, YOU NEVER FUCKING DID!"

By this time, Taylor had slammed the door in Evie's face, trying her best to block her out.

What Evie had said was true. The era of Taylor and John had consumed most of Taylor's time which left little to nothing for her actual girlfriend who was waiting back in Cambridge for Taylor's late-night calls that as time went by, started to only be here and there. 

But after things "ended" between Taylor and John, as messily as they did, Taylor sat down with Evie and explained the whole situation and how John would be so controlling and would throw his tantrums like a toddler. She thought Evie had understood, but apparently, she didn't.

Something in Taylor snapped as soon as Evie had finished her sentence. She wouldn't be talked to like this when she did nothing wrong.

"SHUT UP YOU JEALOUS BITCH," she yelled through the door. "I GAVE MY EVERYTHING TO YOU WHENEVER I COULD BECAUSE YOU WERE SO FUCKING NEEDY ALL THE DAMN TIME! THE WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND YOU 24/7 EVIE SO JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Taylor regretted it as soon as she said it. The argument was getting too out of hand now for it have came from just some insecure thoughts. 

There was a long moment of silence between the pair. Both of them with their backs to each other, nothing but a door separating them.

Each could hear the cries of the other, muffled because of what seemed to be a wall between them.

Evie was the first to extend an olive branch, as she always had been whenever the two of them had a fight. 

"I'm so sorry, Tay. I should've thought before I spoke. I know what the situation between you and John did to you and I shouldn't have used it against you. You didn't deserve that." 

Evie sat there, staring at the door, silently begging Taylor to let her in.

But Taylor couldn't. Even though Evie had hurt her, she didn't deserve the words that Taylor just threw in her face.

She had been there for Taylor through everything and this is the way she repaid her. Evie deserved better than that. 

At that moment, they both felt that they had just lost the best 16 years of their life. Evie knew what Taylor was thinking and Taylor couldn't stop herself from saying, "Maybe we should get a divorce."

As soon as she heard the words, Evie sat straight up, confusion written all over her face.

"Taylor, what the fuck are you talking about? You want a divorce? Because of a stupid little argument? Baby, you are working on an album AND the biggest tour of your career. You're stressed. We're both stressed because of it. Do you wanna know why I didn't have my rings on at lunch? I took them to get cleaned this morning. Baby, I literally picked them up right after we finished eating. I promise that was all. I'm not ashamed of you or trying to hide you from anyone. Even if I was, it would be impossible. I'm pretty sure that #Mrs&MrsSwift is still trending on Twitter and you and I both see the fan edits of us on TikTok. Everyone knows who we are and I could not be happier knowing that people know me as 'Taylor Swift's hot wife'."

Taylor quickly opened the door with tears still running down her face.

"Who called you hot?"

"You do, all the time," She reached her arms out for Taylor and she quickly latched onto Evie. They sat back down on the ground, still twisted together as one.

"Taylor Swift, don't you ever mention divorce to me again or I will sue you for everything you have before you can even get the word out of your mouth."

And with that, Taylor looked up at Evie, "Deal," she said, sealing it with a passionate kiss.

No matter what, Taylor knew they could survive anything, even the great wars of life, as long as they always had each other.