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His Place
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All Grown Up When I Grow Up
Jesse“Not all of them,” I admitted. “But probably ninety-five percent of them? Why?”Audrey shook her head. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? They never could get you to read anything when we were still in school.”I grinned crookedly at her. “And you were expecting me to be just an idiot hardware guy, weren’t you?” I asked teasingly.“It’s not that,” Audrey said. She paused, staring quietly down at the table for a moment. “It’s just, you really aren’t the same old Jesse, are you?”“Are you the same old Audrey?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Weren’t you the one who was telling me that you don’t feel like you fit in here anymore because you’ve changed so much and no one else has?” I tried to say the words lightly, teasingly, but I could tell from Audrey’s startled expression that she hadn’t thought of things that way.She shook her head. “I guess you’re right. Sorry, I just don’t think about all the things that are different until…” She trailed off and shrugged, takin
All Grown Up Impatient
AudreyI wrapped my arms around Jesse’s waist as he pressed me back against the counter, kissing me heatedly. It was exactly where I had felt the whole evening building to. At the same time, there was something surprising about it. Maybe because this relationship with Jesse was still so new. Maybe because I still couldn’t believe that somehow, we were finally here.I had never really thought that he would think of me as anything other than his good friend. I had never really thought that he could like me the way that I liked him.There had been something so comfortable about tonight, though. Being there in his house, sharing a meal that he had cooked, laughing about how different we were from the kids that we had once been? It made me wonder why I had been so desperate to get the hell out of Aberdeen. It made me think about what I had said to the director, about the pace of life being slower here. I found myself wondering if that was really such a bad thing.I trembled as Jesse’s hand
All Grown Up Falling For Her
JesseI usually never minded going back to work on Monday morning. Where most people dreaded that day, it was normally just another day for me. The hardware store wasn’t open as late over the weekends, but it was still open. This weekend, however, I had called Joe on Saturday morning and told him that I was taking a rare weekend off.I knew I was being too transparent. He had to know exactly what I was up to, but at the time, curled up on the couch with Audrey in my arms, I didn’t care. Let him suspect. I wanted to spend the whole day with Audrey. The whole weekend with her. Joe might tease me, but it would be worth it.We might not have much time. At some point, I knew I was going to have to talk to Audrey about what Annabelle had said about her heading back to Paris sooner rather than later. As much as I didn’t want to think about that, it kept weighing on my mind. Would this be the last day that I got to see Audrey? Would next weekend be the end of us?I wanted to spend every momen
All Grown Up A Month Gone
AudreyAnnabelle grinned at me as I walked into the kitchen for breakfast, still wiping sleep from my eyes. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she said, putting a plate down at my place. I smiled at the healthy breakfast that she had made for me.“Thanks,” I said. “All of my favorites.” It was sort of a joke between us. On the days that Annabelle was home, she’d started taking over more of the cooking from Mom, making sure that she cooked meals that were both appetizing for Mom and her as well as healthy for me. That way, I didn’t have to eat on my own all the time. I appreciated it more than I could say.It was starting to feel like I had a place here in Aberdeen after all. I didn’t know what to feel about that.“Can you believe that you’ve already been here for a month?” Annabelle asked as she sat across from me at the table.“I know, right?” I shook my head. When I had first arrived here, I wouldn’t have thought that I would make it a month in Aberdeen, or if I did, I would have expected to ha
All Grown Up Pushing It
AudreyI finished up my email to the director and started another one, this one to some of the girls that I shared an apartment with in Paris. I had gotten over my initial jealousy that they were all still there dancing. I’d gotten over my frustration about the lack of things to do there in Aberdeen. Now, we all emailed regularly, and getting emails from them was one of the highlights of my days. I tried to make sure I responded as soon as I could.Not that there was all that much to say. I had steered mostly clear of talking about Jesse, although I had mentioned that I had hung out with an old friend of mine on a few occasions. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to hide my liaison from everyone. I knew that they wouldn’t have a problem with it. It wasn’t like I was the first ballerina to ever sleep with someone. The costumes and choreography might be pretty traditional most times, but we still lived in the modern day and age.Was I trying to protect my reputation? Was I ashamed to be wit
All Grown Up Where I Belong
JesseI left Joe in charge of the store when I went on my lunch break on Friday. Then, I headed down the street to Audrey’s appropriated dance studio. I had stopped by a few times before now, but it had always been planned. Today, she wasn’t expecting me, but I was hoping to surprise her with a nice lunch that I had made for the two of us. The weather was beautiful outside, the sunlight warm on my face as I walked down the sidewalk. Definitely summer weather now, although I knew it was going to get hotter and more humid as the weeks went on.For now, it was nice. It was the perfect weather for a picnic.I smiled to myself as I thought of surprising Audrey with the idea. She’d probably giggle and tease me for being such a romantic. I just couldn’t help it around her, though. She made me want to be an old sap.I had to admit that I was falling for her. It wasn’t really a surprise, given our history. I had only managed to stop myself before because our parents had been together, and we h
All Grown Up Bruised
JesseI felt bitterness well up inside of me, but that was stupid. I knew right from the start that this wasn’t a forever sort of thing. Audrey would be going back to her dance academy, and I would be staying here. There were no surprises now. Still, it was eye-opening, being slapped in the face with the real truth of things like this.Audrey liked me. I had no doubt about that, but I could never have her the way that her dancing had her. There was no competition there.So there was something sad about watching her dance. It was as though with every motion she made, she was waving goodbye to me—to us. Of course, she wasn’t leaving yet. Her director had told her he wanted her to give it six months before she went back to dancing the way that she had been.At the same time, the reality of it was suddenly all too there. Audrey and I were already saying goodbye in each moment we spent with one another. It was a fact that she would one day leave again.She spun quickly in a circle until I
All Grown Up You Don't Understand
JesseA couple of her tears slipped free, falling in tracks down her cheeks. She didn’t look at me. “You don’t understand, Jesse. I can’t just stop dancing.”“I know you can’t,” I said, nodding. “I don’t fully understand because I don’t have something like dancing that keeps me going, but I know you well enough that I know how much this all means to you.” I paused. “But Audrey, if you want to keep dancing, you need to give this time to heal up. You know that. With the way this looks and judging by the fact that you can barely move it, I’d say it’s a pretty bad sprain. That’s not something that you want to mess around with.”Audrey sniffed. “I just feel so helpless,” she said. “Like there’s nothing that I can do to help it.”“Sure you can,” I said gently. “First, you need to stay off your feet as much as possible. And second of all, you should be icing this.”“I guess.” Audrey sighed. She ran a hand over her face, scrubbing away the tear tracks. Then, she gathered herself and tried to
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