Calum may be laid up, but I don’t have such an excuse. Which means today, I have to return to the New York Ballet.
God, I haven’t even been on a run for two days. My body will protest the entire ballet class, I bet.
I shower, get myself dressed, and drag myself and my duffel bag to the NYB building. It’s past dawn when I climb the familiar broad cement steps. A gust of cool wind makes me realize that autumn is not very far off.
I settle my bag on my shoulder as I open the huge glass door. Looking straight up the massive stone stairs, I spot Ella at the very top.
“Hey!” I call to her.
She turns around and looks surprised to see me. “Hey! I wasn’t expecting you for at least another day or two.”
I trot up the stairs, ignoring the twinge of protest of my legs. “I wasn’t shot, so I figured that my presence would be noted.”
She pushes up the sleeves of her huge sweatshirt. “Yeah. Is Calum doing okay?”
I start heading down the hallway toward the dance studios. “He is.” I scrunch up my mouth for a second. “He told me that he loved me.”
Ella flings her hand out, hitting me on the arm with a thwack. “Seriously? He did?”
Smiling a little, I nod. “Yep. And he asked me to move in. I mean, I lived on the same floor before now. But he asked me to like… sleep in his bed and move my stuff in his room.”
Ella gives me an owlish stare. “Whoa. You guys are moving fast. I mean, after fucking around for three months.”
Bobbing my head, I hold open the door to one of the dance studios. Ella exhales loudly as she steps inside.
“That’s insane. I mean, the next thing you know, he’ll be asking you to marry him.”
My cheeks flush as I set my bag down and kick off my shoes. “We have a long way to go. I’m barely nineteen… and we’re still dating on the down low for the moment. Don’t forget, no one at NYB can know about us.”
Ella frowns at me. “Umm…”
I pull off my sweatshirt. “I don’t like the sound of that. Who did you tell?”
“Me?” Her eyebrows rise. She presses a hand to her heart. “I’m the soul of discretion. But you might want to check out the Times. Their arts section is…” She pauses, cocking her head. “I think you should see it before anybody else gets here.”
I shoot her an odd look as I bend down and retrieve my cell phone from my bag. “That’s awfully cryptic.”
Ella stays silent, her brow puckering. She sits down and starts lacing up her pointe shoes.
It only takes a minute for me to find the article that she means. At the top is a photo of the New York Ballet’s stage. Two dancers that I don’t recognize are in full costume, their poses inferring movement.
The title stuns me. Are we doing enough to protect our dancers?
Scanning the article, I notice that my name and Calum’s name do not appear together. However, there are several references to ‘highly wealthy patrons who have morphed into hands-on dance instructors’ and implied that there was a young ingenue being coerced into sex. Emma is quoted as saying that she was dismissed and she thinks that was the reason.
My jaw drops.
The worst part of the article is the interview with Basil, where he tells the story of Honor and the previous instructor. Basil doesn’t conflate Honor’s situation with mine… but he does label both situations as being ‘perplexing’.
“Fucking hell!” I say. I look up at Ella. “Bas knows about Calum and me? I mean, I know we had a couple of close calls, but…”
She shrugs a shoulder. “It definitely seems that way to me. He obviously knows something.”
I shake my head at Ella, who is looking at me quite carefully while she warms up at the barre.
“This… this is like half lies and innuendo.” I shake the phone at her.
She squints and plies. “I figured as much. Although you didn’t tell me that Emma had been fired, so… it was news to me.’
I wrinkle my nose. Dropping my phone in my bag, I pull out my pointe shoes. “Sorry. It’s been a really crazy week. Like… after Crispin shot Calum, everything I knew flew out of my head. I had honestly forgotten that little tidbit. Sorry.”
I quickly finish getting my shoes on and head over to the bar.
“You really don’t have to apologize to me. I get it.” Using the barre to balance herself, Ella stretches her leg up over her head and pulls a face. “God, my hamstring is so tight.”
I smile at her, stretching my arms into the air. “Yeah?”
She gives me a playful pout. “Should I not have told you about the article?”
“No. You did the right thing. The more I know, the better. I’m just wondering what’s going to happen now that it is out in the world.” A thought occurs to me, making the blood leave my face. “Oh, god. I hadn’t even considered dealing with Bas today.”
“I wouldn’t say anything if I were you. Let Bas come to you if he’s so concerned about your protection.” Letting her leg down slowly, Ella winces.
I cast an eye over her. “Are you okay?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’ll be fine. I just have to dance it out.”
My lips curl up. “That sounds like a ballerina’s work ethic to me.”
“Mhm.”
“Oh.” Ella winces. “I am also supposed to tell you that Eric got offered a position with the New London ballet…”
My eyebrows shoot up. “He did?”
She nods. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that he already left.”
My eyes widen. “He what?”
Ella shrugs. “He got the call two days ago and said yes. He didn’t even say goodbye to me in person. He just said…” She screws up her mouth for a second. “He said that he noticed that you and Calum were an item. And he felt like it would be better if he just started fresh. Then he got the call from London…”
“Jesus,” I say, shaking my head. “He left because of me?”
“It sounded more like he had an incredible opportunity and he used your situation as fuel for the fire he would need to get himself to London. That’s all.”
She stretches her leg as high as it will go, as though she hasn’t just told me something big.
I turn, catching my reflection in the mirror. While Ella continues to warm up, I can’t stop thinking about Eric. I drove him away.
Well, more precisely, my relationship with Calum did. That means that he probably liked me.
Still, I can’t feel too bad for Eric. He had plenty of time to pay attention to me. Before Calum, Eric was the one who I was sure was going to take my virginity.
In the end, Calum took it. And I can’t say that I’m sorry about that. He’s brought me pleasure like no other every time he casts his brooding gaze my way.
I sigh, going into the splits. My mind wanders back to the article.
Namely, how many people will know that I’m the dancer in need of protection.
I should really tell Calum about the article so that he is not blindsided by it. Screwing my mouth to the side, I head over to my bag.
“I’ll be right back,” I call back to Ella. I scoop up my phone and head out into the hallway, already dialing Calum as I go.