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A Nice Date
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All Grown Up Casual
Audrey“I know that,” Jesse said, and I hated the defensive note that crept into his voice. Because I knew that he knew that. I wasn’t trying to imply that he was an idiot or that he hadn’t thought about the same things that I had. I knew that he knew I was leaving.I took a deep breath. “I just, I haven’t been acting like this thing has an ending,” I told him. “I’ve been acting like I’m here and I’m going to keep being here. I’m acting like this is forever. But it isn’t, and we both know that.”Jesse frowned. “Where is this coming from?” he asked. Then he continued, “Do you want to leave? Because seriously, it’s okay if you do. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”“You didn’t make me feel uncomfortable,” I told him, sharply shaking my head. “The opposite, actually. Jeez, Jesse, you always make me feel the most comfortable that I ever do, in the whole world. I’m more comfortable around you than I am when I’m dancing.” I paused for a second, wondering if that was true. The word
All Grown Up Missing Out
AudreyI grinned at him, even though there was nothing really funny about it. “You just want to know how much time you have left with me, don’t you?” I asked.He grimaced. “I hate thinking about it that way, but yes. In a way.”I shrugged. “Well, I’m back to training on it, but I’m still being careful. More than that, I don’t really know,” I told him. “It doesn’t feel as bad now as it did when the director first sent me here, but that’s not saying much. I’m not training quite as hard as I was then. We were almost to the end of the string of shows, and that means I was dancing pretty much every night.”“Wait, you didn’t lay off it when the injury first happened?” Jesse asked, sounding appalled.“No way,” I said, shaking my head. “Like I said, we were almost to the end of the string of shows, and I was giving it everything that I had. That’s what you have to do if you’re a dancer.”“Why?” Jesse asked simply.“Why do I dance?” I asked, confused.“No,” Jesse said, shaking his head. Then h
All Grown Up Private Dance
JesseI didn’t know what to expect when Audrey led me up to her studio. Of course, this wasn’t the first time that I had seen her dance since she had come back. Not that I had gotten to see much of her dancing the day that she’d reinjured her ankle when I’d surprised her with lunch, but I had seen enough to know that she was right when she said that she didn’t dance the way that she used to. No, she was a lot more refined now.That wasn’t really the right word for it. Except that in some ways, I supposed it was. Refined like a diamond, sharp and cold. There was something about watching her dance the other day that made it seem like she was just going through the motions.That was something that I had never seen when she was younger. She’d put her heart and soul into dancing. I wondered if it had something to do with the lack of audience. It had to be a pretty big difference, going from dancing on a global stage to being here in Aberdeen, dancing in a dingy studio upstairs from a downt
All Grown Up Undone
JesseI didn’t know where to look. There was her expression, which was utterly serene as she twirled and skipped around the room. I had seen Audrey look happy before, but it was nothing compared to this. She turned a smirk on me as she moved through a particularly complex, and panty-baring, series of moves.Then there was the fact that she had put this whole dance together herself. She had told me that these moves were easy and designed to allow her to train without putting too much strain on her ankle. Her definition of easy seemed to mean something like ‘impossible to mere mortals’. She contorted her body in ways that I could never have imagined a person could do, and then some.All while keeping a smile on her face.Her hair came undone from its braid as she twirled, but she didn’t pause to tie it back again, instead just leaving it to ripple down her back. It flowed in waves with the momentum of her movements, and that was yet another thing for my eyes to snag on.She might have d
All Grown Up More Than Dancing
AudreyWhen I first leased this place, planning to use it as my dance training studio while I was stuck here in Aberdeen, I had thought about getting rid of the couch. After all, the thing wasn’t very appealing, with its worn-out leather and dust. It looked like it had been there since before I was born. Not only that, but it was just going to get in the way as I was dancing.I had wanted a proper dance studio, with all the trimmings. Floor-length mirrors and good lighting and everything. A place like I had back in France. At the very least, I wanted a good rectangular room that was large enough to move around in. A place where I didn’t have to worry about some couch that the previous owners hadn’t taken with them when they moved on. Because I was sure that I was never, ever going to need that couch.Now, I had to admit that I was pretty dang glad that I had kept the stupid thing around, in spite of the time that I had stubbed my toes on the leg.I smiled up at Jesse as he trailed his
All Grown Up Losing Her Already
JesseI knew that, eventually, I was going to have to let go of Audrey. This night had cemented that fact in my mind more than anything else. Of course, she had flat-out told me, right from the start, that she was only here for six months, and only because her director had told her that she had to take six months off from her dance academy. I had never even expected her to actually be here for six months.Her impending departure was nothing new, but at the same time, it up to now had just been some nebulous thing off in the future. Something that I dreaded, sure, and something that we probably needed to talk about at some point. But it was something that I knew I still had time to tackle.Tonight, I wasn’t so sure. Tonight, it felt like I was losing her already.It was all to do with that dance of hers.First of all, it had shown me that her ankle, although not fully healed yet, was definitely on the mend. She hadn’t wrapped it before dancing, and even though I knew it was a workout s
All Grown Up It's All an Act
Jesse“You’re so sappy,” Audrey said, but I could tell that she wasn’t unhappy with that.We lay there quietly for a while longer, until I felt like I could doze off right there on the couch, uncomfortable as it was since I couldn’t stretch out and since it wasn’t really meant to fit both of us like this.I finally sighed. “I guess I’d better get you home, huh?” I asked her.“I guess,” Audrey agreed with a small sigh of her own. “I kind of wish I had my own place so that I wouldn’t have to worry about getting home. But I don’t want Mom to wonder where I am or if I’m all right. Nor do I really want to tell her that I’m, you know, sleeping with you. I’m sure she already knows, but it’s not the conversation that I want to have with her.”“Yeah, but if you had your own place here in Aberdeen, then you’d have to stay,” I pointed out, trying not to sound too wistful as I teased her about it.She was quiet for a moment, and I knew that she was considering how to answer that.“Just a joke,” I
All Grown Up Unexpected Phone Call
AudreyI woke up early Tuesday morning to the sound of my phone ringing on the nightstand. I frowned as I groped for it. I had just peered at the screen when Annabelle’s pillow hit me from the other side of the room. “Seriously, put that thing on silent before you go to bed,” she grumbled before rolling over and curling toward the wall.“Sorry,” I whispered, getting up and bringing the phone out into the hall with me. It was still early, but I felt surprisingly awake. And there was no way I wasn’t taking this call. The name that I’d seen on the screen? The director of the Global Travelling Dance Academy of Performing Arts.My heart thumped in my chest. Was he calling to tell me that they had found a replacement for me? That they no longer needed me in Paris, and that I should start making other plans?Of course, when I thought about the other plans that I might make, my mind immediately leaped to Jesse. I tried to remind myself that that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to go back to Pa
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