In an attempt to save him, she pointed at Theo. “You’ll just have to watch both shows and make your own decision.”
“Two beautiful ladies make that an easy request.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ana spotted Natalie across the way, chatting with some of the younger members of the corps.
“Plus, that means you get to see me twice,” Jason said. “I’m pretty easy on the eyes myself.” He went up on his toes as best he could, imitating a traditional ballerina.
“Well, you can’t win ’em all.” Theo grimaced, earning himself a jab in the shoulder from Jason, who found himself in a headlock as a result.
“Maker’s Mark, Everclear, Diet Coke? What am I buying you?” Jason asked her, once freed.
“Actually, I’ll get this round.” He raised an eyebrow and she smiled proudly, flashing a twenty. A couple of the company members whistled at her playful sashay to the bar. Okay, so the drink display was a pathetic move to see if she could slap a Band-Aid on things between her and Natalie, who sat at a table not too far from the bar. It had been a few days since Morgan had made her appearance and then headed home. She and Natalie had tiptoed around each other since, speaking politely in the course of rehearsal and even trying to land a joke now and again. The joke thing hadn’t really worked, which was a shame because she missed the laughs they’d shared.
The friendship felt…broken. And she, for one, needed to do something about it.
As she waited for service, she glanced back at Natalie, who was caught up in a conversation. She had her hair pulled back on the sides today, which offered an extra glimpse of her neck. Damn it. There should be no neck-looking if she wanted to fix things. She rolled her shoulders. Friendship Mode in effect. A second glance showed that Natalie was now laughing at something one of the guys said, and this time Ana couldn’t look away. Natalie really did have the most amazing smile, and when she leveled it on you, all bets were off. That was something a friend was allowed to think about another friend, right? That’s all they were, friends. All they would ever be. Natalie hadn’t so much as looked at her since she’d walked into the bar.
“Uh, hello?” the bartender said, loud enough to suggest that this probably hadn’t been the first time.
“Oh, sorry.” Ana snapped to attention. “A Diet Coke and Old Fashioned, please.”
“Coming up,” the bartender said. He was an older guy—most likely the owner.
She watched as he mixed Jason’s drink and she slid the twenty onto the bar after he delivered the final product. She turned to go and found herself face-to-face with Natalie, who smiled.
“Do you think his last name is McKenna?” she asked quietly.
Ana smiled. “I was just wondering the same thing myself.”
“I’ll find out,” she said, stepping up to the bar. “Take one for the team.”
“The team will be, uh, waiting for a verdict.” Smooth, Ana. Really smooth.
Natalie nodded, but she looked about as unsettled as Ana felt.
What was happening right now? Why were they so on with each other?
“Indulging a little tonight?” Natalie inclined her head toward the Old Fashioned.
“Not until we’re open. This is for Jason. You know me.”
“I do,” Natalie said in all seriousness.
Silence. Ana had no idea what to say, and decided to abandon ship before it got any more awkward. “I’ll let you get a drink.”
“A ginger ale.” She shrugged. “Since we’re not open yet.”
“I’m impressed. Enjoy.”
“You, too.”
She returned to Jason and Theo, who were now deciding whether the Cowboys or the Bills were worse. She smiled and chimed in, just as Audrey arrived and chastised them for being boring and clichéd. But all the while, she never really lost track of Natalie, including her departure from the bar a short while later. While part of Ana wanted to walk home with her, find a way to make conversation, she knew her efforts at normalcy would once again fall flat.
An hour later, when the bar started to get rowdy, Ana took her own leave.
“I’ll walk you,” Jason said, and shook hands with his buddies. Theo whispered something conspiratorially in his ear and Jason nodded, glancing in Ana’s direction. Sooner or later, she should probably have a talk with him. Make things clear. Tonight, she didn’t have the energy.
“You doing okay?” he asked as they waited on the light to change.
“I’ve had better days,” she told him candidly.
“This is the Natalie thing again, huh?”
She shoved her hands into her coat pockets in frustration and stared at the Do Not Walk sign. “It is. This is most definitely a Natalie thing.”
“If it helps, I think it’s on her and not you.”
She paused as they made it to the other end of the street. “What makes you say that?”
“She’s moodier, quieter. Audrey says the breakup is most likely weighing on her. Give her time. She’ll come around.”
“What breakup?” She asked. He had her full attention now.
“Apparently, she and her girlfriend broke up. Something about not really clicking the way they should.”
Ana took a moment, wondering why Natalie hadn’t said a word to her about it. Because she doesn’t want you getting the wrong idea after your kissing ambush, her brain supplied. “I’m sorry. What?” He had said something, but she couldn’t hear over the roar of her wounded pride.
“Lunch. Tomorrow. Want to grab some with me?”
“Yeah, sure,” she said distantly as her gaze landed squarely on the steps in front of their building. Natalie looked up from where she sat as they approached.
“Hey, you two,” she said a little wearily. “Long day, huh?”
“Killer,” Jason said.
Ana only nodded and met Natalie’s gaze.
Jason looked from Ana to Natalie and back again before making a decision. “I’ll leave you two to…chat. Good night.”
“Good night,” they each said absently.
Not knowing whether it was better to sit or stand, Ana held her ground. Neither one of them said anything, so Ana decided to just jump in. “You didn’t tell me about Morgan.”
“I didn’t? Been a busy week, I guess.”
“You know you didn’t,” Ana said gently, knowing this was potentially a difficult topic. “Are you doing okay?”
“About the breakup? Yeah, I’m good. Morgan’s good. Just wasn’t really one of those meant-to-be things.”
Ana nodded and smiled politely at a couple passing on the street. “And otherwise?”
Natalie blew out a breath and stared straight ahead. “That’s trickier.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I miss us.”
Relief flared and Ana took this opportunity to have an honest exchange. “I miss us, too. It’s been so strange the last couple of days. I’ve tried to be your friend again, but it’s different now and awkward and—”
“Totally agree.”
“I’m glad. You don’t understand how glad.”
“So I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“That what’s not a good idea.”
“Our friendship. It doesn’t work, and I’m tired of trying to force it.”
“Oh. Okay.” The words hit her hard. Ana squeezed the railing and climbed the stairs leading to the building. She was done. She had to be. She’d put herself out there and actually opened up to someone and what had it gotten her? Crushed. Beyond. “If you don’t want to be friends, we don’t have to be. I understand.”
“Would you wait a sec?”
“For what? All you had to—”
But she didn’t get to finish, because Natalie grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her in for a kiss she would spend the next week reliving…all authoritative and demanding and sexy as hell. When they came up for air, Ana gave her head a little shake to clear it.
“You’re so damn stubborn,” Natalie
said, quieter this time.
“But you said—”
“I said we couldn’t be friends anymore, because I tried, Ana, really hard to be your friend. But now that I know what it’s like to kiss you, friendship wasn’t really an option any longer.”
Ana blinked at her, taking in the words that lifted her up to a new and terrifying height. “So there might be more…um, kissing?”
Natalie leaned in and hovered just shy of Ana’s mouth before softly answering the question. “I hope so. It’s up to you, I guess.” As close as she was, Natalie didn’t kiss Ana, but instead she waited, so very close. Ana’s stomach twisted in anticipation, not to mention other parts of her. She dipped her head slightly and met Natalie’s lips again, tentatively this time, until the rush of heat that came with kissing Natalie assaulted her. All things halted—sound, awareness, life as she knew it. As she stood on those steps kissing the girl she’d been dreaming of kissing, Ana floated somewhere close to heaven.
“We should probably get off the street,” Natalie said, smiling against Ana’s mouth.
“Yeah. I guess we should.”
Natalie led the way to the elevator, but as they stood there, waiting for it to arrive, the impatience overtook them and they were kissing again. She wasn’t even sure whose fault it was. The door to the elevator at last slid open and Natalie walked her into it. With Ana’s back against the elevator wall, the make-out session continued. Fireworks. That’s what the whole experience felt like. Something powerful climbed steadily within her and made Ana feel like she just might explode in the most awesome way. She couldn’t get enough. Kissing Natalie should come with a warning label, “potential addiction ahead.” And God, Natalie herself had a wild streak, and Ana loved that about her. Normally, Ana would never kiss someone in public, on the street or in an elevator. She wasn’t sure she recognized herself, and that was surprisingly okay. Natalie’s kiss became more insistent, deeper, hotter, and Ana matched her every step of the way.
Distantly, she registered the sound of a bell, but it was in the way and she shoved the recognition aside. Natalie’s hands slipped beneath the back of her sweater and touched the skin there, and the sensation did crazy things to Ana.
“We seem to be interrupting,” a male voice said, followed by a female chuckle of appreciation. “We can wait for the next one.”
“Like hell we will,” said the female.
Ana pulled her mouth away and found the elevator door standing open with Audrey and a guy she recognized from the building gazing at them in amusement. Natalie turned and smiled at the pair as if running into old friends at the supermarket.
“Hey, Audrey,” she said. “And you must be Superman?”
“This is Tad,” Audrey told her. “He lives on the second floor.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ana said.
“Likewise.” Tad pointed at the panel on the wall. “Is it possible that you two forgot to push the button for your floor?”
Ana looked to the panel on the wall. That they had. She gingerly selected the seven and stepped to the side as Audrey and Tad joined them.
“Nice night,” she said as the elevator climbed, and then cringed at how ridiculously contrived she sounded.
“You two seemed to be enjoying it,” Audrey said gleefully and elbowed Natalie in the ribs while never taking her eyes off the climbing numbers on the readout. “We’re at seven,” she reported as the elevator came to a halt. “Unless you guys wanted to ride around some more.”
“No, we’re good. Aren’t we good?” she asked Natalie. Why was she talking so fast?
“We’re good,” Natalie said, sounding so much cooler than she did. “See you tomorrow, Audrey. It was nice meeting you, Superman-Tad. You two have a nice night.”
“Yours will be hard to top,” Audrey called through the closing elevator doors.
They walked in silence down the hall. Ana noted that everything still felt uneven, strange, but in a hopeful, the-world-has-possibilities-now kind of way. However, Mayday! She didn’t know the protocol here. Was there a chart she could consult about whether or not to invite Natalie inside? Did Google provide that kind of on-the-spot insight? They should just say good night and go their separate ways, right? That was more than likely what Google would say, or that irritable woman on her phone. Yep. That was what they should do in order to maintain control of this thing.
“We should make hot chocolate with marshmallows,” Natalie said to Ana when they arrived at their doors. “I’m a big fan of cocoa when it’s chilly out.” Her hands were on Ana’s waist and her thumbs subtly moved up and down over her ribs. Torturous and unfair!
She was already losing her resolve. “You seem to like my coffee cups.”
What?
Who says that?
Why was she the lamest person in New York?
“Well, they have little dancers on them,” Natalie said, stepping farther into her space.
“How can one resist little dancers?”
“It would be hard.”
“Harder than resisting you right now?” She placed a kiss on Ana’s neck that almost had her sinking to her knees. Holy Mikhail Baryshnikov.
“This is the problem,” Ana managed to murmur.
“Tell me,” Natalie said, refocusing on Ana’s neck, taking one hot nibble at a time. Ana was on fire and caught between her head and libido, which seemed to be in a war for the record books, and she didn’t know which the hell to root for. But, no, she had to stay strong here.
“You know I’m attracted to you. That’s not a secret,” she began.
“The feeling is mutual,” Natalie said, straightening. She smiled, and that was so not fair, because Ana loved her mouth.
“But you’re also my friend,” Ana explained, “And, um, I don’t have a ton of those, which means I want to do this right.”
“Then we will.”
“Thereby, I can’t invite you in tonight as much as I may want to. God,” she said, kissing Natalie one more time. “And as you can tell, I would want to.”
“So inviting me in is code for sex?” Natalie asked with an amused eyebrow raise.
Ana gave her shoulder a little shove. “Stop it. You know that if I took you in there—”
“That I’d have you naked in under ten minutes.”
Ana closed her eyes against the rush of desire that crashed into her at those words. “Yes,” she managed after a purposeful swallow. “That’s exactly why.”
“You would rather wait,” Natalie stated simply. “As in minutes? We’re talking minutes, aren’t we?” She was grinning that overconfident Natalie grin that Ana had grown rather fond of. “I’m kidding,” Natalie said, finally holding her palms up in surrender. “And I get it. We can reconvene at another time for…inviting in.”
“Understand this is a decision I’m probably going to regret as soon as I walk into that apartment.”
Natalie nodded. “I’m not sure it’s my vote, but it makes sense with everything I know about you. A cold shower, and I’m good.” She took a step back, looking like a sad little puppy.
“This is not a rejection,” Ana said, smiling at the adorable display happening in front of her.
Natalie laughed softly and covered her heart with her hand. “I see what you did there. That was good, the callback.”
“I thought you might like it.”
“Can I at least kiss you good night?” Natalie asked. “Just a little kiss and I’ll go in there. I promise.” She gestured to the door to her apartment.
Ana looked skyward as if there were even a decision to be made, when in fact there was not. “I think that will be okay.”
Whether the kiss Natalie left her with was designed to make her regret her decision even more than she already did was unclear. The reality of its effect however, was crystal. As Natalie pulled her lips away, Ana held on to the doorway for support while her skin thrummed and her thighs vibrated. That kiss had her aching for more. Instead of asking for just that, she looked on in rapt inte
rest as Natalie strolled the ten feet to her own apartment door and disappeared behind it.
“What just happened?” Ana whispered to the hallway. She touched her very swollen lips and marveled at how quickly things could change.
“I can still hear you,” she heard Natalie say from inside her apartment, followed by quiet laughter.
Perfect. Ana shook her head at herself, always the epitome of cool—that was her. It didn’t matter, though. She let herself into her own apartment and took a seat on her sofa to continue marveling. Things like tonight didn’t just happen to Ana. She’d never been that girl. But tonight she was, and it was an evening she’d never forget.
Chapter Eleven
“I’ll take the cheddar bacon burger,” Jason told the waitress at Five Napkin. “Extra sweet potato fries and a side of the vinegar slaw.” They’d snagged a table by the window at the trendy burger joint frequented by a handful of company members at the lunch rush.
Ana handed her menu to the waitress. “Chef salad with chicken for me, dressing on the side.”
The waitress nodded and disappeared into the kitchen as Jason balked at Ana. “I don’t know how you can do that. This place receives rave write-ups for their burgers, yet you still hold strong.”
“Welcome to being female in the professional world of ballet. I’d kill for your metabolism, Jase, but I wasn’t born with that kind of luck. I eat like you and I’m back in the corps, at best.”
“Whatever. You look great. Beyond. You could indulge in a cheeseburger now and again. The ballet gods will allow it.”
“I can. And I will. But it won’t happen until after we’re open, and then I will enjoy every damn bite in celebration.”
“Fair enough.” He grinned at her and sat back against the booth. “You didn’t remember we were having lunch today.”
“I did, too,” she told him in defense. “Just not entirely, is all.”
“I asked you last night, just as we walked up to your building.”
Ah, yes. The moment she saw Natalie sitting there, lost and confused and gorgeous. No wonder she’d gone into automatic conversation pilot. She smiled, reflecting on what had been a great day of rehearsal thus far. She’d gotten to watch Natalie dance the show, and watching Natalie dance had become one of her absolute favorite activities. Not to mention, it gave her left foot a rest. The stolen looks she and Natalie passed here and there were a bonus on the day that had her a little bit on cloud nine. Plus the teasing was back. God, she’d missed the teasing.
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