Jitterbug

"Taylor," I gasped at the elegant setup he'd created in his living room. There had to be at least fifty tiny candles burning in here, dimly lighting the room.

"You like it?" He asked with a smile, bringing two plates of food to the table he'd also set up here. A vase of freshly cut flowers had been set in the center of two more candles, surrounded by his mother's best dishes.

"Daffodils? Ohh..." I recognized the flowers in the bouquet as my favorite.

"Yup."

"How on earth did you find any in the fall?" My smile couldn't get any larger. If not, it might crack my face in half.

"I have my ways."

"Oooh, quite the mysterious one." I walked over and lightly punched his shoulder.

"Now is that the thanks I get in return for all this?" Pretending to be upset, he waved his hands frantically at the table. I responded by wrapping my arms gently over his shoulders, sliding my body against his in a hug.

"Better?"

"Much." He replied with a smile, his hands circling around me. I shivered slightly under his light touch against my back. I had to admit that I'd also cleaned up considerably after Mia's aerobics class.

Certainly couldn't get much worse. I smiled, glancing down at the long black skirt and silver silk shirt that I'd decided to wear tonight.

"Not that this isn't fun." I pulled away from Taylor. "But I am famished."

"Should I expect anything else?" He patted my back as I stepped toward the table and sat down at one of the chairs. Glaring at Taylor as he took the seat across from me. I couldn't pretend to stay mad for much longer, not with the way all the tiny lights from the candles danced in his eyes.

"Actually, today I have a good reason to be hungry." I protested, pulling my napkin onto my lap.

"As opposed to not having a good reason to be hungry?" He teased me.

"That's not what I meant." I stuck my tongue out at him briefly before continuing. "As I was going to say, I tried out one of Mia's classes today."

"Really? How was it."

"Ass-kicking." I immediately replied with a sheepish smile. He laughed at my response.

"Not so tough if you aren't teaching the class, are you?"

"I guess not."

"Ohh.. That was great Taylor." I said slowly, flopping onto the living room couch and kicking off my shoes before turning back around to talk to him.

"Thank you so much."

"Not a problem." He sent a smile in my direction before going back to clearing the table.

"You'll have to thank your Mom for me too." I called out to him.

".. What?" Pausing with his hand in mid-air, he stared at me with open eyes.

"Oh, don't give me that innocence." I smiled knowingly.

"Margaret Suzana, I have no idea what you're talking about."

But he spoke with indignance, I noted to myself.

"Sure, Taylor." Resting my elbows on the back of the couch, it dawned on me that I was being a little rude by not helping him clean up the dishes. "Do you need any help with that?"

"Nope, just sit right there." He replied. "I'm almost done anyway."

"So what do you want to do now?" I called after him as he took the last round of dishes into the kitchen.

"I figured we'd just relax, watch a movie or something."

"Sounds good to me." As if on cue, a slight yawn escaped from my mouth. "Get over here so I can fall asleep on your shoulder."

"Now how can I resist an offer like that?" With a laugh, Taylor jumped over the couch and settled next to me. Instinctively, I leaned against him, before it dawned on me that neither one of us had actually said the words until I turned my face toward his and said:

"Happy Anniversary."

"Happy Anniversary, Babe." He leaned over and kissed me softly. As I sighed happily and started to pull away, I was again surprised when Taylor held me close to him, deepening the kiss to a greater depth of passion. My cheeks burning brightly at the thought as I debated whether or not he'd try to French kiss me again, but not once did Taylor open his mouth again.

I have to give him credit for that, I realized, before my thoughts turned wicked.

Even better than credit, he gets a reward. I wondered what on earth he was thinking the moment I parted my lips and gently slide my tongue into his, softly caressing it against his lips. Surprise wasn't quite the word for it: in fact, he immediately broke apart from me in utter shock.

"Did I just feel that right?" He asked me seriously. I nodded, biting my lower lip.

"You're sure it's ok.." My mouth pulling into a smile, I didn't answer Taylor but pulled his face to mine again, kissing him lightly. He grabbed my hands gently, pulling away again.

"I just want to make sure it's ok."

"Taylor." I replied softly.

"It's ok." However 'ok,' I certainly wasn't prepared for the tingles that shot through my system as my tongue connected with his. All of the sudden, I felt an invisible force on my body, lowering me down onto the couch. A few seconds later, I realized it'd been Taylor laying me gently down, for he lowered himself on top of me. For once, I was relieved that he didn't weigh that much.

However, something instantly froze inside me. Maybe it was the warmness of Taylor's body over mine, wrapping over me light a warm flannel sleeping bag in the stark cold of winter, or the way he gently rubbed his fingers over my shoulders, or the fact they were starting to travel over my collarbone now, and our tongues now danced roughly against each other, but I instantly knew this couldn't go any further. How I was going to stop it was another issue.

".. No."

I broke away my lips away from Taylor's with a frown on my face. As I pushed him off of me, I sat upright on the couch and yanked my shirt back to its original position, for it had also shifted slightly when we'd laid down together. This evening wasn't headed in a direction I was willing to go.

Should've said that sooner, a little voice in my head scolded me.

"What's wrong Maggie?" The look on his face was absolute annoyance, plus a little confusion. I couldn't blame his feelings of irritation though. Up until this moment, fooling around with him was exactly what I'd led Taylor to believe I wanted to do. However, that couldn't be further from the truth, and I hated to break it to him.

"I'm sorry.." I reached my hand up and stroked the line of his jaw lightly. He looked down on me for a second through a blank look before relaxing the tensed muscles in his cheeks, pulling them into a small smile.

"I don't get it, Maggie." The frown immediately returned. I swallowed lightly, dropping my hand.

"I.. I don't know." I looked down at my hands, where my fingers were picking at non-existent pieces of lint in the couch's apolstry. Anything for a distraction, I felt incredibly helpless at the moment.

"You know I love you." Glancing back into his eyes, it rang through my ears like a statement, not a question. I believed it so much it hurt.

"Of course I know that, Taylor." I closed my eyes and rose onto my feet. "It has nothing to do with love."

"It has everything to do with that. Sit back down." He grabbed my hand and pulled me back down next to him. I sighed, knowing this would erupt into the full-scale, emotion-soaked conversation I'd been avoiding for months, just as long as I'd avoided furthering our physical relationship. Everything was so perfect before, without messing around, so why did it have to change? And how on earth could I explain it to him?

"I love you Maggie." He repeated softly, staring deeply into my eyes. This time he held my gaze.

"I know. Besides, you said that already, like three seconds ago." I mumbled, a half-smile forming on my lips. He rolled in his eyes in response.

"I wasn't finished." At least he smiled. "I want to love you more, if that makes sense."

"Yeah, but..." as my voice trailed, my thoughts wandering with it.

"I-I'm just not ready now, that's all. I'm sorry, but I can't." I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, as if there were nothing that could change the situation.

"Well, I don't want to make you do anything to make you feel uncomfortable.. Geez, now I feel terrible." He rested his elbows on his knees and buried his heads in his hands, massaging his forehead.

"No, don't feel bad. It's contagious: I'll feel bad too." I leaned over and patted his back reassuringly.

"So you want me to wait?" He glanced at me again, asking for clarification.

"Yeah.. I do."

"Not a problem. I'll just have to start browsing in the porno section of Blockbuster more often, that's all."

"Taylor!" I slapped his shoulder lightly, but laughed. Inside, I was incredibly relieved this discussion had ended as quickly as it had started. That was a road I'd never intended on going down, nor did I ever want to even see it again, if I had anything to say about it.

"Hey!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I didn't have a clue where I was, surrounded in complete darkness. This was more than weird.

"Maggie.." A voice trailed toward me. I shivered suddenly, noticing a large temperature drop. Sliding my fingers over my arms, I glanced down and screamed when I found myself completely stripped of my clothes.

"What the hell is going on here!?" I yelled, hugging my shivering body, my breathe coming out in short puffs of vapor in the frigid air. I watched, a sense of fear building in me as the thick silence enveloped my body once more.

"Maggie." A pair of hands, so much colder than the air, grabbed me tightly on the upper arms. Immediately, my mouth opened and I let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Let go of me." As the person's fingers dug deeper, my skin felt like it was on fire. Squirming as hard as I could didn't help, as the fingers closed around my arms even tighter. It was horrible.

"Maggie."

"Get away from me!"

"Maggie.." I felt the fingers release my arms and move up to my shoulders, shaking me gently.

"Oh God." I gasped, my eyes springing open. A blurry figure stared down at me curiously. I stared back for a second, until-

"Ahh!" I screamed in Taylor's face. It was about two inches from mine. My hands immediately sprung up between the two of us in defense.

"Calm down." He closed his hands over mine warmly. "It's just me."

"Oh.. Taylor." My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry. I don't know what happened."

"You fell asleep a few minutes after talking to me." He said with a grin. "I must be that boring of a person to hang out with."

"Exactly what I was going to say." I playfully pushed him away from me and found myself curled up on the Hanson's living room couch, right where the two of us had been..

About ready to watch a movie, if I remember correctly. As I sat up, I tucked my feet beneath me and smiled as Taylor sat next to me.

"Actually, I think it was Mia's awful workout more than anything." I confessed. My body was starting to feel a little dull and achy. I couldn't wait until tomorrow morning, when I'd feel the real pain.

"I was going to let you sleep for awhile, but you started tossing and turning, so I figured it best to wake you up." He explained. "But then you started screaming something at me."

"Nightmare, I suppose." I lifted my hands to my forehead and rubbed it gently, trying to release some of the pressure that felt built up there.

"Headache?"

"A little one." I smiled as Taylor lowered my hands from my face, lifted my chin, and softly kissed my forehead. I responded by leaning forward and wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

"You are too sweet." I sighed, nestling my head in the soft spot on his chest, right below his colar bone. My head always seemed to fit perfectly there. I felt my heart skip just a bit faster as he gently enveloped me in his arms. It felt nice to just sit here. Not talking, not discussing things, not groping each other... just sitting quietly.

"Hmph.." His breathe tickled the top of my hair as he snorted softly. "Thanks."

"No, I'm serious." I sighed and closed my eyes. "I don't deserve you."

"Hey." Taylor pulled away so he could look directly into my eyes. He grabbed my shoulders tightly, alarming me.

"Don't ever say that." He said firmly. I stared at him for a moment, wondering how the situation could've gotten so serious in a matter of seconds. Immediately, my insecurities flared up as I tentatively asked,

"Why?"

"Because you deserve more." He said softly, a look of wistfullness coming into his eyes. I frowned in confusion, wondering where this was coming from.

"What?"

"Oh come on," he scoffed. "I only make fun of you every five seconds we're together. It's.. just not very nice sometimes."

"Taylor, it's ok." I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, worried it might've been something serious. "Besides, it isn't like I don't make fun of you."

"No argument here."

"Well, can you blame me?" I quickly retorted. "I've got such good material."

"You.. are such a crackhead." God, it felt so good to have things back to normal between us.