Pas de Deux Page 20

  “You got it.” Addison’s popped onto her toes. “Ready, Mal?”

  Mallory smiled and nodded. “When you are, darling.”

  Fall turned to winter in what seemed like a blink of an eye, making typically dreary days even darker with the shortened daytime hours, and suddenly there was less than a month until the first performance of Evolution and it was time for their first full-call.

  For Mallory, trying to wrap her head around just where the time had gone was as dizzying as following the dancers on the floor in front of her who were working through the final section of the first half of the ballet. The eighteen corps dancers and the principal pair reminded her of the band from Stanford that she had seen when Gwen had taken her to a football game at the Coliseum—dressed similarly enough for one to know they were a group but so individually that they didn’t look like an organized one until you saw them perform. Matt’s rainbow sweatpants clashed horribly with Gabs’ merlot-colored leotard and black skirt, and the corps dancers were equally mismatched.

  “Hold there, please,” Nina called, waving for everybody to stop, and the dancers fell to the flats of their feet as she turned to the small collection of répétiteurs and notators that were responsible for each of the performance groups that were huddled near the mirrors at the front of the room.

  Mallory sighed and pushed herself to her feet. Even though Addison had warned her that the first full-call would be disjointed as the different rehearsal groups got together for the very first time to work through each section of the performance in order, she honestly hadn’t expected the various groups to be stopped for their positioning or movement to be corrected so many times. She had been looking forward to getting a feeling for the flow of the entire ballet, from the first notes through to the end of hers and Addison’s part, but the rehearsal so far had been fragmented at best.

  Their last three weeks of rehearsals had moved at light-speed compared to what she had experienced so far and, knowing that they had only three short weeks until their first performance, she was starting to feel more than a little anxious as to whether or not they would be ready in time.

  “How much longer until they get to us?” she whispered to Addison as they made their way down the short flight of bleachers at the back of Clore Studio to stretch at the barre near the back corner of the room and keep their muscles warm. It didn’t matter for herself so much, but it would be reckless for Addison to get up and dance after sitting for close to two hours.

  Addison shrugged and leaned into her side as she laid her left hand on the barre. “Not much, I’d imagine,” she murmured. “Gabs and Matt look good—they tweaked that bit that seemed to have been pissing Nina off—and the corps’ steps seem to be there, so now it’s just a matter of getting them all aligned how they want for the finish. Then it’s the corps’ little set-up bit for us, and we’re on.”

  “Wonderful,” Mallory muttered, though it was impossible to be properly annoyed when Addison chuckled softly in her ear and wrapped an arm around her waist as she leaned in closer.

  “Are you not enjoying sitting on those oh-so-comfortable wood bleachers and hanging out with me?” Addison teased.

  Mallory squirmed away from the playful dig of Addison’s fingers in her side. “Not at all.” She laughed when Addison’s fingers dug in harder and grabbed her hand to stop her tickling as she relented, “Fine. Fine. Yes, I’m quite enjoying myself. Best day ever, and all that.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Addison drawled as she turned and leaned her cheek on Mallory’s shoulder.

  “Oh you did, did you?” Mallory teased as she wrapped an arm around Addison’s shoulders, and her heart fluttered into her throat at the way Addison melted into the embrace.

  They were still on the platonic side of the line that her slowly healing heart had drawn firmly in the sand but, over the last few weeks, she had found herself increasingly comfortable reaching out for Addison when she wanted her, and letting herself enjoy the easy comfort and gentle affection that was slowly building between them. The idea of having more than this was still overwhelming, she was still re-learning what it felt like to be whole and happy, but it was so easy to be with Addison that those moments of doubt were becoming fewer and further in-between.

  “Well, yeah. Because I’m awesome and completely irresistible.”

  “Yes, you are,” Mallory agreed softly as she touched her cheek to Addison’s forehead. “And, while I quite like this, aren’t you going to stretch or something to keep warm?”

  Addison sighed and nodded. “Yeah, probably should.”

  “One last time,” Nina declared, clapping her hands to make sure she had everyone’s attention. “And then we’ll jump right into the corps for the second half. Chloe”—she looked to the pianist who had been accompanying the dancers all afternoon—“from the beginning of the pas de deux, please.”

  “Or not,” Addison muttered. “We better get out of the way.”

  Mallory nodded and followed Addison back to the spot in the bleachers. They reclaimed their seats just before Gabs and Matt started dancing again, and this time the group got all the way through to their final position without being stopped.

  “Good. Good. We’ll work on it more next time, but that was right where I want to see it,” Nina declared. “Gabs, Matt, thank you for your work. Corps, I’m afraid you have more work to do. Positions, please. Chloe, once they’re in place, if you could vamp the first few bars a few times, I’ll count them in.”

  Chloe nodded and began shuffling the sheet music in front of her as Gabs and Matt bounded across the room to the bleachers and scrambled up to where Mallory and Addison were sitting.

  “So?” Gabs demanded as she all but threw herself onto the seat beside Addison.

  “You sucked,” Addison teased, laughing as she leaned in and dropped a loud kiss to Gabs’ cheek.

  “Fuck you very much,” Gabs sassed, her Spanish accent making the curse sound positively musical. She playfully shoved Addison away from her, and they all laughed. “Seriously though, you two are up next. You ready?”

  “Of course,” Addison scoffed.

  Mallory nodded in agreement as she welcomed Addison’s weight against her side. “What she said.”

  “Please don’t encourage her,” Matt said as he sat down on the bench in front of them and laid his leg out along it to stretch his hamstrings. “She’s bossy enough already.”

  “Wouldn’t you be better suited doing that somewhere else?” Mallory asked.

  “Probably,” he agreed, turning his head so his temple was pressed to his knee instead of his forehead and winking at her. “But we want to see what you lot have gotten up to. It’s been all mystery and intrigue for your half, and now we finally get to see what we’re up against. I mean, with two distinct halves of the performance, one of us is going to get more applause.”

  “Oh, Matty my boy.” Addison laughed and shook her head. “You know I love you guys, but you don’t have a chance. We’re going to bring the roof down with our performance.”

  “Fancy a wager on that?” Matt shot back.

  “A hundred quid?” Addison offered.

  “Two. One hundred each. You in, Collingswood?” Gabs countered, arching a challenging brow at Mallory.

  Mallory smiled at the way Addison turned hopefully toward her and nodded. “Sure. I mean, it doesn’t seem fair to you lot, but if you really want to give us your money like that… I’m sure we can find a way to spend it. Maybe a nice dinner out somewhere?”

  “Great, she’s just as cocky as Addy,” Matt grumbled playfully.

  Addison grinned and ignored him as she reached out to give Mallory’s leg an approving squeeze. “Absolutely. Or maybe just a couple bottles of really good wine and some delivery.”

  “Oh, that sounds lovely,” Mallory agreed as she covered Addison’s hand on her thigh. “Let’s do that.”

  “Don’t you reckon you’re counting your chickens before they’ve hatched?” Matt chuckled.


  Addison shook her head. “Not at all. You’ll be settling that bet after rehearsal today once you see us dance.”

  Matt looked poised to respond, but Chloe started playing just then, so he settled for rolling his eyes at her as he turned to watch the corps do their thing.

  As the introduction for the second half of the ballet was only about four minutes, it didn’t take the corps long to work through it, and Addison grinned as she gave Mallory’s leg one last squeeze and asked, “Ready to go show these fools how real professionals show up for work?”

  Mallory nodded and quickly shed the hoodie she’d been wearing over her tank to keep warm in the chilly studio, and she turned to retrieve her violin. “Just try to keep up, darling,” she sassed, knowing it would make Gabs and Matt laugh.

  “Oh, I like you, Mallory,” Gabs laughed.

  “Please.” Addison shook her head. “You’ve liked her for a while now.”

  “Well, yeah, but that’s mostly because you like her so much,” Gabs retorted with a wink.

  Mallory blushed, and Addison smiled as she warned, “Be good.”

  Gabs held a hand over her heart and batted her lashes innocently. “Who, me?”

  “Exactly. Now,” Addison said as she shucked her leg warmers and hoodie, “just sit back and enjoy watching your money disappear.”

  Mallory didn’t miss the speculative looks the corps dancers gave her as they spilled into the bleachers and she and Addison made their way down to the floor. There was a hint of jealousy in a few faces—mostly from the girls who brushed past her just a little too closely, as if challenging her right to be there—but rather than making her nervous, the barely-veiled animosity solidified her confidence. She might be new to the world of ballet, but she had decades of experience dealing with passive-aggressive challenges like these.

  The hum of quiet voices questioning just what it was they were going to do was the wind at their backs as they made their way across the pale lino to where Nina waited, and the small smile quirking her lips suggested that she was very much looking forward to what was about to happen.

  “Ready?” Nina asked, though it was more of a challenge than a question. She chuckled softly when Mallory nodded and Addison just smirked in response. “Excellent. Off you go, then.” As they began making their way to the side of the room that acted as the wings from which they would enter, Nina called, “Chloe, can you start with the last thirty seconds of the last bit you were playing?”

  Chloe tucked her mousey brown hair behind her ears and pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “Of course.”

  “Good. Vamp it once or twice if needed, and then when Mallory starts playing you can stop. They’ll be good to do this without further accompaniment.”

  Mallory smiled at the surprised hum of chatter that bubbled up from the back of the room at that.

  “Got it,” Chloe agreed as she found her place in her music and lifted her hands to the keys.

  After months of being the sole source of music in the room, it was strange being started off by a piano, especially given the fact that there was a distinct pause between when this music ended and when she would begin, but Mallory bobbed her head with the melody, letting herself get a real feel for how the pieces fit together.

  She shouldered her violin at the first pause and nodded to Chloe that she would join the next time through, and cleared her mind of everything except these next forty-four minutes of music and movement. The lede neared the pause that marked her beginning, and she winked at Addison as she lifted her bow. “Try and keep up, won’t you?”

  Addison laughed softly and nodded. “Bring it on, beautiful.”

  Mallory turned her eyes forward as the music stalled and, after a couple of beats, began playing as she made her way toward the center of the room. She had long since mastered the turn-out that Nina had found missing that first day, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling at the murmurs from the back of the room as she stopped on her mark. Then her violin soared, filling the room with the kind of sublime beauty only a life devoted to music could make, and everyone fell into a hush. Every dancer in the room had surely heard this kind of music ad nauseam, had perhaps even been to a performance of the LSO when Mallory’s instrument was one among many. But they had never heard anyone play like this. They had never heard just her, pure and solo, the best of her generation. She could feel them almost straining in their seats, leaning forward like sunflowers turning their faces towards the sun, enraptured by the notes pouring from her Storioni.

  Yeah, she had this.

  Her gaze drifted along the strings of her violin to the mirror beyond, and her heart leapt into her throat as she watched Addison’s reflection begin to make its way toward her. They had been so thoroughly rehearsed these last few months that she didn’t even have to think about the music as her fingers danced along the neck of her violin, and something inside her settled when Addison’s hand curled around her shoulder.

  Their eyes locked in the mirror as Addison’s hold tightened in a quick squeeze, and just like that, they were on the same page, equal halves of a perfectly balanced pair.

  The light brush of Addison’s fingertips across her upper back and along the length of her left arm was the touch that transferred the who was leading and who was following, and Mallory sighed softly as she gladly handed Addison the reins. They might not be able to pull this off without her playing the violin, but Addison was the star of the show, and she was more than happy to do whatever was needed to make sure she shone.

  Where rehearsal to this point had been marked by fits and stops, corrections and repetition, they played through the entirety of their epic pas de deux from start to finish without interruption. The hush in the room was positively electric as she extended her right leg behind herself, toes pointed to draw an invisible arc on the floor as she pulled her bow across the strings of her violin for the last time, and her heart beat up into her throat as her bow arm fell away and Addison’s hand curved ever so gently around her cheek. It was so, so easy to give herself over to that oh-so-soft pressure, to let it and the hand on her hip turn her and urge her closer, and she resisted the urge to grin as their foreheads came together and silence settled around them.

  They had done it.

  The resulting applause from the collection of dancers in the “audience” was a veritable explosion of sound, a cacophonous wave that nearly knocked her over, and she laughed along with Addison as strong arms wrapped around her neck and pulled her into a surprisingly tender embrace.

  “We did it,” Addison murmured against her ear.

  Mallory’s pulse tripped over itself at the feeling of Addison’s breath against her skin, and she held her even tighter as she whispered, “Yes, we did.”

  It would have been so, so easy to stay like that for the rest of the night, but the applause from the back of the room was turning into hoots and hollers, and Mallory sighed as she felt Addison’s hold on her neck begin to loosen.

  “Take your bows, ladies,” Nina cheered as she clapped a hand on each of their shoulders and turned them toward the crowd at the back of the room that, Mallory realized, were all on their feet.

  Mallory offered them a small bow as Addison dropped into a regal curtsey beside her, and she couldn’t keep from laughing when Matt’s voice carried over the noise—“Goddamn it, I just lost a hundred quid!”

  Mallory had thought the first full-call rehearsal had been long, but it was positively expeditious compared to the four and a half hours it had taken them to get through their first wet tech a week later. It made sense, really, that it would take time to align lighting arrangements and sets—not that there were many of those in the first half of the ballet and none in the second—but as she waited in the doorway of Addison’s dressing room for her to finish packing up her things, she dearly wished she had thought to throw a protein bar or something into her bag to hold her until she could get a proper meal.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Addison tossed the str
ap of her duffle over her head and smiled tiredly at Mallory as she followed her into the hall and quickly locked up after herself. “Matt and Gabs better be down there waiting for us,” she groaned as she dropped her keys into the side pocket of her duffle, “because otherwise, I’m going to just text them to meet us back at my place.”

  Mallory chuckled when her stomach growled loudly in agreement and shook her head as she draped an arm over Addison’s shoulders. “I was just thinking that I should have packed a protein bar or something,” she shared as they started making their way toward the lift.

  “I’d fucking kill for a a protein bar right now,” Addison muttered as she leaned into Mallory’s side.

  “Are you sorry you offered to cook tonight? Because I’m sure we can get something delivered instead.”

  “It’s fine.” Addison looped an arm around Mallory’s waist as they stopped to wait for the lift. “I picked up a lasagna from Tesco the other day that I just have to pop into the oven. It’s not frozen or anything, so it won’t take long to heat up. And I think Matty said something about wine.” She shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, it is a school night and everything, so he might have changed his mind on that. But I kind of doubt it. He knows Gabs loves a good Merlot, and his dad is a sommelier at some posh restaurant near the castle in Edinburgh, so he’s always sending Matt crates of wine to share with ‘all his starving artist friends’.”

  “That’s nice of him.”

  Addison yawned and nodded as the doors to the lift began to slide open. “Yeah. Anyway, so there will probably be wine. Which means I will probably fall asleep on you at some point this evening, so I’ll just go ahead and apologize for that now.”

  “That’s perfectly fine,” Mallory assured her as she steered them inside. She pressed the button for the ground floor as she passed the console, and guided Addison to the back of the car so they could lean against the wall. “I quite like when you fall asleep on me.”