Audrey
I stared at him, sure that I hadn’t heard him correctly or that he was just trying to scare me and that he would laugh soon. Not that he was that kind of man. Of course, he didn’t laugh, and I faced the chilling truth of things, that he was really planning on sending me on a six-month leave.
In silence, he continued to watch me for a reaction.
“You can’t do that,” I finally said. He raised an eyebrow at me. “I mean, of course you can do that. But I don’t need six months.”
Suddenly, the end of the season seemed minor in relation to everything else. Six months would mean that I would miss out on casting for the fall’s roles and all of the training and everything else.
It would put me behind, to a point where I might never come back, no matter how much I wanted to. “Just give me a month off,” I pleaded. “And then I’ll see the academy’s physician to make sure that everything is all right.”
The director shook his head. “Six months,” he said levelly. “You know injuries can’t heal overnight. You need time off to rest it, and then you’ll need time to train yourself back up to your full strength. That’s the way it goes. I think six months gives you enough time that you won’t have to rush anything.” He was quiet for a moment. “Go home and see your family. It’s been a long time.”
I frowned. The thing about the Global Traveling Dance Academy of Performing Arts was that there were no secrets. It was what I had been worrying about with the injury in general. I didn’t think that I had ever had an in-depth conversation with the director of the academy about my home, but everyone knew that I hadn’t been home in a while and that I didn’t have any desire to go home anytime soon.
Now, it seemed like I didn’t have any choice.
“We’ll reimburse you for your flight,” the director said. “And you don’t have to go home. That’s just a suggestion. But you won’t be able to live in the academy dorms during your leave. You have until the next show to leave.”
I stared at him, shocked beyond comprehension. “Five days?” I finally asked, my voice faint. “I’ve lived here for two years, and you’re giving me five days to move out? Why, so that someone else can take my place?”
“No one else is going to take your place,” he said firmly. The way he said it gave me a little bit of hope, but all the same, I was scared.
“I don’t need six months,” I repeated again.
“I want you to take six months,” he said, his voice gentle. “Audrey, you know that I love how important this position is for you, but I like well-rounded dancers on my crew. People who can bring their other experiences and their other passions to everything that they can do. People who can bring their emotions to this academy.”
I stared at him. “You don’t think that I’m good enough?” I asked, my voice nearly a whisper.
“I never said that,” he said impatiently. “But what I want you to spend the next months doing is exploring your other interests and passions. I want you to come back here ready to push the envelope even more. I know that there are hidden depths to you that we have yet to reach.” He smiled at me. “Call it research if you prefer.”
I swallowed hard. The idea that I was doing this to make my dancing better didn’t make the six months of leave feel any better, but what choice did I have?
I nodded and stood abruptly, heading out of there. I called Mom when I was halfway home. She sounded surprised to hear from me. “What’s up, twinkle toes?” she asked, using the nickname she’d given me when I was younger.
“Could I come home for a little while?” I asked, even though I was sure that I knew the answer. Mom had been asking for me to come home for a while now. And each time, it seemed that something came up. Often by design.
I couldn’t imagine going back to Aberdeen, North Carolina now. I would be bored to tears after two years of living in Paris. Bored to tears and lonely.
I would miss all my friends here, the amazing women that I’d trained with, that I had spent nearly every day with over the past two years. And anyway, Mom had been good about coming to see me abroad as often as she could. It wasn’t like we didn’t see one another.
I didn’t exactly want to go home now, but I could at least go home for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, until I figured out what else to do. I couldn’t really afford to joyride around the world for the next six months. I had to figure out some sort of plan to support myself when I wasn’t dancing.
I remembered what the director had said about using this as if it were research. What exactly did he think I was going to find back in the small towns and fields of North Carolina anyway?
“Of course you can come home!” Mom said excitedly, and I could tell that she was beaming. “When will you be here?”
“I’ll send you all the flight details,” I said, trying not to sigh too heavily.
I got off the phone and booked my flight for two days later, going so far as to book it in business class. If the Academy was going to reimburse me, then they could bite the cost. The director didn’t even blink when I went in to his office the next day and showed him the details. Instead, he just nodded and filled out the paperwork for me to have the cost reimbursed as part of my next paycheck.
My final paycheck. Possibly forever. I tried not to think about that.
Instead, for the next two days, I thought about everything that would be different when I got home. I’d seen my younger sister a few times since I’d left for the conservatory, but in the back of my head, I still thought of her as fifteen. We hadn’t chatted in a while, and I barely knew what she was doing with her life, except that she was still wasting time living at home.
Would she and I still get along like we always had before? And what about my mother’s new boyfriend? What was he like? Ugh, I didn’t want to think about him. From what Mom had told me about him already, he sounded like a total tool. The fact that he was already living with her after they’d only been dating for a matter of months said all that I needed to know about him.
I was going to have to be in the same house with all of them, at least until I figured out what I was going to do next.
Maybe if I took it easy for the first month and then trained hard after I recovered, I’d be able to get the director to reassess that whole six-month thing. I could only hope so.
JesseI cut into the meat that was simmering on the stove and nodded approvingly. It was just the perfect amount of pink. I turned the stove off and transferred a portion to a plate, scooping out some rosemary-roasted potatoes and steamed vegetables onto the side. Then, I headed into the living room and watched the news as I savored the delicious meal.Afterward, comfortably full, I headed back into the kitchen to put away the leftovers and clean the dishes, still listening with half an ear to the news in the other room. It was my nightly ritual, polished down to an art. There was no better way to relax at the end of a long day of work than to come home and cook a good, satisfying meal and get caught up on what was going on with the world beyond this small town in North Carolina.Like most of the other people my age around here, I had once thought only about how I was going to get the hell out of here. But shit changes. I had responsibilities here, and even though I liked to keep up w
AudreyI got out of my ride and grabbed my bags. For a moment, I just stood there in the driveway, staring up at the family home there in Aberdeen. Oh Lord.Place hadn’t changed since I had left. Not one bit.I looked around, up and down the street. A couple of younger kids were out playing in the cul-de-sac, just like we used to when we were kids. The Leroy house was painted blue now instead of gray, but even that blue paint looked faded and worn now.I looked back at our house. What the hell was I doing here again? For the first time, I started to think about where I would even fit into this life. This was a tiny, two-bedroom house. Back when Annabelle and I were kids, sharing a room had been fine, but what about now? The whole unit wasn’t very big. There would be no getting away from Mom or her boyfriend. We’d constantly be bumping into one another.Not for the last time, I was sure, I found myself feeling homesick for the Academy’s dorms. It was just housing for us dancers, but I’
AudreyI shook my head. “No,” I said. “I love Paris. I don’t want to leave any time soon.” I paused, thinking back over my time there. “The Global Traveling Dance Academy of Performing Arts is so amazing, Annabelle. They’ve helped me so much with my dancing, and—what?”Annabelle was cracking up, and I tried to think about what I’d said. “The Global Academy of Traveling Pants, or whatever it is,” she said, giggling. “Do they make you say that every time you talk about them?”I bristled, unable to help it. “The Global Traveling Dance Academy of Performing Arts,” I corrected. She giggled some more. “It’s one of the most prestigious dance academies in the world.”“Sure,” Annabelle said. “Well, we watched that DVD performance that you sent Mom. Hate to say it, but it all just looks like ballet to me. I mean, really good ballet. But just ballet.”I shrugged, looking down at my hands. I didn’t know what to say to that. I knew that no one here in Aberdeen would ever understand anything about
JesseI was expecting Dan to show up on Saturday morning, which was part of why I hadn’t wanted to draw things out with Joe the night before. Dan owned a restoration company in town, and he always came to me for lumber, tools, and other odds and ends for his crew. He was a big money-maker for the store, one of our best companies. I didn’t trust anyone else to handle business with him.That was partly because Dan was one of the most demanding customers that we had as well. I watched him run his hand down a piece of lumber. He looked up at me with knitted eyebrows. “This the best oak that you’ve got?” he asked. “We’re refinishing countertops and trim in some of those old cabins out by the lake, and the woman who has us doing it wants everything to last into the next century, not just the next decade. Look at all the knots in this piece!”I peered at the sample and then the piece of paper attached to the pile. Then, I nodded, jabbing my finger at it. “Yep, this is the stuff for the trim.
JesseJoe followed me into the back. “Maybe you should have hired the kid on probation,” he said.He didn’t say it loudly enough for Chance to overhear him, but I still gave him a look. “Everyone deserves a chance,” I said.Joe snorted. “Chance deserves a chance,” he said. “That’s really funny, Jesse.”I rolled my eyes. “Come on, get to work.” “Aye aye, boss,” Joe said, saluting me, his eyes twinkling.“Mixed metaphors,” I muttered under my breath, but I couldn’t help grinning as well.We hadn’t done much when Chance came running back to find me. “There’s not enough cash for me to give change,” he said, sounding panicked.I frowned. I had counted the drawer this morning, and unless someone was trying to pay with a really huge bill, there shouldn’t be any problem. Most people paid by card, so I doubted the drawer was already empty. We hadn’t had that many customers in there that morning, even.Joe gave me a look like “can you believe this fucking kid”.“I’ll be right back,” I told him
AudreyWhen I got up on Sunday morning, I could smell breakfast cooking in the kitchen. Bacon, pancakes, orange juice, and who knew what else. Mom always liked to go big on Sunday morning breakfasts, and I was sure going to get big if I started eating like I used to. I’d never get back to dancing again. I really needed to talk to her about that.I was surprised when I wandered into the kitchen, though. Mom beamed at me when she saw me, gesturing toward a plate. “I remembered when we were in Paris that you always ate those egg white omelets and fruit for breakfast,” she said.I knew the omelet had probably been cooked in butter, but I was touched again by the effort that she was making, even though I had just shown up here out of the blue. “Thanks, Mom,” I said, sliding into my seat at the table across from where Annabelle was already seated.“How are you feeling this morning?” Mom asked. “Better?”I nodded, and in fact, I somehow was. I was getting used to the idea of being here, at l
Audrey“That sounds like fun,” Mom said. “I bet you really would love it, Audrey. Maybe you’d run into some of your old friends. You could probably show them a move or two.” She winked at me, and I had to fight not to roll my eyes.Show them a move or two? Did she think I was going to bust out a few of my ballet moves right there in the middle of some small-town bar? It just showed how much she really thought of me and my career.“I’m not in contact with any of my old friends,” I said, hoping that would be the end of the matter. The last thing I wanted to do was go to a bar by myself. I didn’t want to be that desperate stranger standing off to the side, trying to attach myself to a group.I felt another pang of homesickness for my life in Paris. I hadn’t gone out alone in all the time that I’d been there. The other dancers at the Global Traveling Dance Academy of Performing Arts, the ones who had been there for a while, had immediately taken me under their wings when I had arrived, sh
JesseI mounted the sign back where it was meant to go and climbed back down, to applause from Tristan’s daughter. “You fixed it!” she said excitedly as she peered up at it.I grinned in spite of myself. “Wasn’t too difficult,” I told her, but I accepted the high five that she gave me anyway. I straightened back up and turned to Tristan. “That wind last night was pretty crazy, huh?”“Yeah, came up out of nowhere, too,” Tristan said, looking worried. “I’m afraid what that means for storms this year.” Then, his worry cleared as he clapped me on the shoulder. “At least I’m lucky enough to work right next door to the town handyman. You want to come inside for a piece of pie?”“God, that sounds great,” I said. I’d been going since dawn that morning. Not only did I have the hardware store to open, but I’d gotten calls from half a dozen people in town who all wanted to know if there was any way that I could help them with storm damage that they had suffered overnight.I’d left Tristan’s dine