CHAPTER THREE

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2021

Chapter Song: 'Can't Help Falling in Love' by Hailey Reinhart

She remembered this picture. The dinner plate, the expensive food, the man in a shirt and tie sitting across from her as if waiting for her to take the picture already.

Although, in the past year and a month of receiving these pictures, Kiera had come to realize that some of them were just things that she was looking at, and not taking a picture of. Things like the faces of friends and things that she couldn't possibly have gotten a clear shot of in the moment it happened.

"I thought this place looked cool." Taylor told her as they walked into the restaurant, which was completely decked out in Valentine's Day decorations—but not in a tacky way. There were silver hearts hanging loosely from the ceiling, light pink tablecloths and menus, and heart-patterned ribbon lining the hostess' stand. The servers, hosts and busboys were all wearing baby pink button-down shirts with white ties, and Kiera noticed some of the waitresses with heart-shaped earrings and hair clips.

"It looks wonderful," Kiera beamed as they sat down at a candlelit table and thanked the hostess, "I can't believe I've never heard of this place before."

"Well, it is a solid thirty minutes from NYU." Taylor laughed, "Speaking of which, I can't believe you're graduating in May. It's crazy."

"That's what happens when you don't take a total of a year off to go work in D.C." Kiera shook her head, "You could be graduating in May too."

"I am," Taylor winked, "Just not this May."

Taylor had spent a semester during his sophomore year and then the first semester of what should have been his senior year to go live in D.C. and work on Capitol Hill. His sophomore year, he had been able to work as an intern for someone else's intern, which wasn't amazing but was much closer to the action than Kiera had ever gotten. And then just the previous semester, he had worked for the Chief of Staff of one of New York's senators—a noticeable upgrade for a college undergrad.

Kiera had already started applying to jobs in D.C. for after she graduated—specifically for the summer right after. She wanted to get her feet wet in the political world for her gap year before she started law school. Or...gap semester. She hadn't quite decided yet.

"Whatever," Kiera rolled her eyes, "I just think it would have been fun for us to graduate together."

Assuming we're still together by then.

Kiera inwardly shooed away the intrusive negative thought and focused her attention back on Taylor.

"It would be fun," he agreed, "But I wouldn't have given up my experiences in D.C. for anything in the world."

"Yeah, I get that." Kiera nodded, looking over the menu. Everything was written in a fancy script that she could hardly read, but she managed to figure out that there were three options for each course: appetizer, entrée, and dessert. All nine options looked delicious and Kiera had to stop herself from wanting to order all of it. A good reminder of the fact that she couldn't order everything was that she felt like her dress was suffocating her stomach—she hadn't been to the gym in over a week and had eaten far too much Valentine's Day chocolate already. She was much more of a pants and blazer type of dresser in the first place, but Valentine's Day was a special occasion.

"What are your plans for the summer?" Taylor asked after they had ordered their food, "Have you decided yet?"

Kiera shook her head.

"Not really," she responded, "I'm trying to get someone to recommend me for a job with Senator Gillibrand."

"Like, actually Senator Gillibrand, or with her Chief of Staff or something?"

"Like, actually Senator Gillibrand," Kiera laughed, "I have a friend from one of my freshman classes who worked on her campaign in 2018 and still has connections in her staff. He thinks he can get me to work directly for her for the summer at least, maybe longer."

"Wow, that's...super dope." Taylor nodded in surprise, "That would be a great opportunity."

"I thought so too," Kiera nodded, trying not to blush. "Thanks."

"Of course. You know that you're an impressive person," he grinned.

"Maybe a little bit," Kiera smiled back. In her head, she gave him brownie points for using the word 'impressive' instead of 'intimidating.' She had met and dated far too many guys who told her that her goals and drive were intimidating to them. She knew they meant it as a compliment. She really did. And yet, it still rubbed her the wrong way. They shouldn't be intimidated by someone who knew what she wanted to do with her life—someone with big goals and big dreams. They should be impressed.

And that's the word Taylor had used. Impressive.

That night, Kiera went back to Taylor's apartment, having already convinced him to watch a romantic comedy with her instead of yet another Avengers movie. She wasn't sure how those movies had such a hold on twenty-something-year-old guys, but they did.

Then again, romantic comedies tended to have an inescapable hold on twenty-something-year-old women. So perhaps it was the same thing but in a different genre.

Anyway.

They settled on Valentine's Day—fitting—mainly because Kiera had a slightly large crush on Patrick Dempsey. She had watched every season of Grey's Anatomy religiously, and could essentially tell which season was which based on the length of Patrick Dempsey's hair and the state of his facial hair. Until he died.

Whoops. Spoiler alert.

They started the movie and within twenty minutes Kiera was shaking her head at the screen.

"Why does he always play a character who's cheating on his wife without the mistress even knowing that he's married?" she scoffed, cuddling up closer to Taylor. He remained silent.

She assumed he had never seen Grey's and had no idea what she was talking about.

By the end of the movie they were laying down on the couch and Kiera was practically asleep. The end credits jolted her out of her almost-slumber and she flipped around so that she was lying on her back with Taylor's arms around her.

"Thanks for a great Valentine's Day." She smiled, looking up at him with the eyes of someone who had never before felt the way she did. Sure, she had been in relationships before. But never like this. Never with someone who looked at her like she was the only person in the entire world—someone who looked at her like he had never before seen someone so insatiably beautiful.

"It was my pleasure," Taylor smiled softly and leaned down to kiss her. "I'm just glad that you had a good time."

"Did you?"

"Of course," Taylor smiled and kissed her again, slowly and purposefully, "I always have a good time when you're around."

He kissed her again, a bit deeper, and Kiera felt the butterflies dancing around her stomach at a rapid pace. His left hand was in her hair, pressing against the back of her head while his right was still wrapped around the small of her back.

A door opened from somewhere behind them and they pulled away from each other. Taylor rolled his eyes and muttered, "Roommates."

Kiera giggled and snuggled up closer to him, content to simply be near him.

The door closed again and Taylor looked down at Kiera, his eyes wide and full of an emotion that she didn't quite want to specify without knowing for sure—

"Kiera?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

She really needed to stop saying that any particular night was the best night of her life, because they continually topped one another.

"I love you too."

()()()

"He said it first?"

"Do guys ever say it first?"

"Every guy I've ever said it to has said it last, if they say it back at all."

"One time a guy said it back three months later as he was dumping me."

"As he was dumping you?"

"Yeah, remember Adam Peterson?"

"Oh shit, that's right."

"Guys." Kiera interrupted Cori's retelling of her tragic love life, "We were talking about me?"

"Such an attention hog," Steph winked, "But Kiera, that is amazing. He said 'I love you!' You said 'I love you!' This is a big day for everyone."

"I just can't believe that he's dating me. After having these feelings for so long, they're finally reciprocated..."

"Hey, bad mindset." Rose shook her head from her perch on the arm of the couch, "We do not idolize men, no matter how pretty or nice they are. They are lucky to be dating us. That's how we have to look at it if we don't want to lose our entire identity to the men."

"'The men.'" Cori mimicked Rose, "I think it's sweet that you're so in love with him, Kier. You guys are such a cute couple. Honestly, you're the most perfect couple I've ever met."

"Agreed." Steph piped up as Rose nodded her concurrence.

"I just...I don't know. I feel like he's everything I've ever wanted and then some."

"Not to be a downer again but," Rose rolled her eyes at herself, "I need you to remember that you're in the cupcake phase."

"The cupcake phase?" Cori repeated. "Do you mean the honeymoon phase?"

"I like to call it the cupcake phase." Rose retorted, "Anyway, Kiera," she glared at Cori, "you are in the cupcake phase right now. Everything seems perfect and happy and he has no flaws. But in reality, everyone has flaws. And when you figure out what those flaws are, I want you to be able to look at them objectively and not just brush them off. I worry about you, you know."

"I know, and I appreciate it." Kiera smiled slightly, keeping her annoyed feelings to herself. She was capable of gauging whether or not someone was a good person. She knew in her bones that Taylor was good. That he was nothing short of perfect. She didn't need to be talked to like a toddler and told that she should remember to think the worst of her boyfriend. "I'm just going to enjoy the cupcake phase while it lasts."

"I'm very against calling it this."

"Shut up, Cor."

"So much kindness in this apartment," Kiera teased, "I just love coming home to it."

"Cori annoys me." Stephanie muttered.

"You started annoying me when we were twelve years old."

Kiera left them to their arguments and walked into her bedroom, plopping down on the bed and staring up at her ceiling. She replayed the night over in her head eighty times, going over exactly how he said 'I love you,' exactly how he looked when he said it, exactly how it felt to say it back. She thought about everything that she had ever wanted and how it was all seemingly falling into her lap.

Ding.

The text alert went off on her phone and Kiera picked it up. It was a bit late for the photo of the day to come in—11:50 PM, to be exact. She opened the picture to see a screenshot of a Snapchat. It was of her own face, tear stains obvious, her eyes red and puffy. The text on the picture said, "dude I hate this."

Maybe she was going to end up with an evil boss in D.C., or she was going to start law school earlier than she expected and be overwhelmed by the workload. Kiera tried not to think too hard about the pictures when she received them—that was going down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole.

So, she put the phone down, stared up at the ceiling, and wished that her picture one year ago had been of the look in Taylor's eyes as he told her he loved her for the first time.

A/N: Hey guys! Big news! I officially have a mailing list and will be putting out a weekly newsletter every Sunday. It will contain news about books, Wattpad, blog posts, and even have exclusive giveaways and news through that avenue first! If you click the external link to this chapter, it will take you to a place where you can read the first four chapters of Forbidden (the print version!) for FREE if you subscribe to the list!! I hope you'll give it a chance.

Katherine