Audrey“Aren’t you working?” I asked, suddenly realizing that his lunch break was probably over by now.Jesse shrugged. “It’s a Friday afternoon,” he said. “I’m sure Joe can handle things. Chance has been doing a great job lately, too.”“Oh, okay,” I said, even though I still felt unsure.Jesse pulled the ice pack off my ankle and inspected it. “Looking better,” he said, nodding approvingly, but all I could see was the fact that it was still a purple mess down there. I winced, looking away. Jesse laughed. “Oh come on, you’ve seen worse than this. Remember that time I fell out of that pine tree and punched a hole in my arm?”I couldn’t help giggling at the memory of it. Of course, the sight of pine needles sticking out of his arm had been disgusting, but it was the way that he had marched inside while his dad had friends over for a Sunday afternoon football game and barbecue and held up his arm declaring that something was wrong. The faces on the adults, staring in disbelief at how cal
AudreyI looked over at Jesse and grimaced, suddenly realizing that he was still standing there. He had heard all of that. I winced, looking down. “Sorry you had to hear that,” I said.I peeked up at him through my eyelashes. Jesse shook his head but didn’t say anything.“What are you thinking about?” I finally asked.Jesse sighed. “I had a realization when I was watching you dance, and I’m only getting more and more sure of it,” he said.“What realization?” I asked, frowning.At first, I didn’t think he was going to tell me, but finally, he shrugged. “There’s just no way that I can ever compete,” he said.I stared at him blankly. “Like, in a dance competition? You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who would want to compete in a dance competition.”Jesse gave me an exasperated look. “Not what I meant,” he said. “I don’t know how I could ever compete with dance. When it comes to your heart, dancing is always going to be more important to you. Important enough that you’re willing to br
Jesse I tried not to grit my teeth as I left Audrey at her mom’s house with her injured ankle. But her words kept ringing in my ears. Can’t we just enjoy the time we have? she had asked me. The question went around and around in my head.The thing was, I wished that I could say yes. That we could just have a little fun and not worry about any of the consequences of that fun. But the truth was, I liked Audrey. And the more time I spent with her, the more I was going to get attached to her, I was sure.It was easy enough for her to want to just enjoy the time that we had without worrying about putting a label on things or whatever else. But she wasn’t the one who would be left behind here in Aberdeen at the end of her six months’ stay. Once her ankle healed up, she was going to go right back to Paris, to her life there, and I would be left here with a giant ballerina-shaped hole in my life.But at the same time, I knew there was no way that I could tell her that it wasn’t okay for us
AudreyI stared up at the ceiling unseeingly as my thoughts swirled chaotically around in my head. I couldn’t help feeling guilty for the way that I had snapped at Annabelle earlier when she had told me that I needed to take it easy and give my ankle a rest. The thing was, I knew that I needed to rest my ankle more. I was more frustrated than I could say about the way things had happened that day.It was like each time I thought my ankle was getting better, it somehow managed to get worse all over again. Like I was never going to get back to dancing.Not being able to dance, to have my life back, was starting to drive me crazy. I didn’t know how much longer I could stay couch-ridden. I didn’t want Mom or Clayton to have to drive me everywhere. I didn’t want to be sedentary.I knew that I needed to take things easy. But it was just so damned hard to do.But I felt more guilty for what I had said to Jesse. Can’t we just enjoy the time that we have?I knew that I was avoiding conversatio
AudreyI heard the front door open. Mom and Clayton were already in bed, so it must be Annabelle coming home after her shift at the bar. I hadn’t realized that it was already that late, but when I looked at my phone, I saw that it definitely was. I sighed and flopped back on my bed. It was late, yet I still felt ages away from sleep.Annabelle crept into the room, taking pains to stay quiet. I appreciated the effort, but I wasn’t asleep. And I knew that I needed to apologize to her for earlier. There was nothing that I could do about the Jesse thing at the moment, but at least I could try to take one weight off my mind for the evening.I sat up. “Hey,” I said quietly.“Hey,” Annabelle said in response, her tone frosty. That, in itself, told me just how hurt she was about what I had said earlier.I looked down at my duvet. “I’m sorry for earlier,” I apologized. “I know you’re just looking out for me. And I don’t want to make excuses, but I’m just frustrated about all of this. I want to
JesseThe more time I spent training Chance on the opening procedures for the shop, the more sure I was that I was never going to trust the kid to open up on his own. Or at least, I would risk getting called in halfway through, as he somehow managed to screw something up or get confused on something simple like, oh, opening the register to count the float.“Come on, you’ve got this,” I coaxed. “I know you know how to do this when we’ve got customers.” The kid had been working there for over a month, after all. And even though he was a bit clueless, he seemed to mostly be doing fine.Until something new came up, something that he hadn’t dealt with before. Whether it was a person asking him where the paint chips were or opening procedures, any time something new was introduced to him, it was like his brain just totally shut down.Right now, he looked at me with pleading eyes, clearly hoping that I would just give him the answer. I tried not to sigh. “All right, now pretend that I’m a cu
JesseOnce everything was up and running for the day and I had Chance occupied with a messy drawer full of nuts, bolts, and other hardware bits to sort, I slipped into the back and pulled out my phone.I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what Audrey had said the night before, about just enjoying the time that we had. That wasn’t what I wanted, not in the least. But at the same time, I would have had to be a fool to tell her no.Anyway, right now, that wasn’t what I was thinking about. Right now, I was wondering how she was doing, how her ankle was treating her. I gave her a call, holding my breath as I waited for her to answer. She did so almost immediately, and a smile broke out across my face.“Hey,” she said brightly. “You must have been able to feel my boredom from all the way over there.”I laughed. “How’s your ankle?” I asked her. At least if she was bored, it had to mean that she wasn’t dancing on it, right?“It’s been better, but it’s feeling okay,” Audrey said, and I co
AudreyI groaned internally as I heard Jesse knock on the front door. I was still in my bedroom, which meant that by the time I made it to the door, moving slowly and doing my best not to hurt my ankle anymore, Mom would have had plenty of time to reach the door and start interrogating him. He should have just texted me that he was here; I could have met him outside.But on the other hand, there was something about him meeting me at the door that made me smile. It was almost like we were going out on a date.I tried to remember that I had been the one to say, the day before, that we were just enjoying the time that we had. Tried to remember the fact that as soon as six months were up, if not sooner, I was headed right back to Paris where I belonged. It wasn’t a good idea to start thinking of this as dating. Even if that was what I sort of wanted when I let myself think about it.I didn’t know if we would last forever, but I did know, now, that I had feelings for Jesse. And not just in