by M. J. Duncan
“And move on.”
Mallory blinked in surprise at Addison’s insight—she had never told her exactly where the photograph had come from. A soft smile curled her lips as she reached for Addison’s hand, and she nodded as she gave it an affectionate squeeze. “Yeah.”
“I’m glad,” Addison whispered.
“Me too.”
Addison smiled and lifted their joined hands to press a lingering kiss to Mallory’s knuckles. “So, do you want to open your present?”
“Of course, darling.” Mallory waved her toward the sofa. “Just let me get yours from beneath my Charlie Brown tree.”
Addison laughed and shook her head. “It’s a cute tree. And, can I just say that I’m so impressed you know that? It seems like nobody from here does!”
“I did spend close to a decade in the States, you know,” Mallory pointed out as she knelt down to retrieve the package she had carefully wrapped in elegant silver paper and set beneath the tree that morning.
Addison smiled at her as she made her way to the sofa. “It’s just more evidence as to how special you truly are.”
“I beg to differ, honestly, but I’m pleased you think so.” Mallory shook her head as she sat beside Addison, spinning her present between her hands. “Happy Christmas, darling,” she murmured as she held it out to her.
“Merry Christmas, Mal,” Addison echoed as they exchanged gifts. She bounced a little in her seat and insisted, “You first.”
Her excitement was adorable, and Mallory smiled as she slipped a finger beneath the fold of the wrapping paper to pry it open. “Wow, a plain white box,” she drawled, winking at Addison as she wadded up the paper and tossed it onto the coffee table. “Thank you, darling. It’s perfect.”
Addison laughed and shook her head. “Smartass. Shut up and open it.”
“Fine,” Mallory sighed as if she was being asked to complete the most impossible task in the world, and made a show of struggling with the flap on the side of the thin, rectangular box for a moment before she finally flipped it open and reached inside. She knew from the feel alone that she would soon be looking at a picture frame, and she bit the inside of her cheek as she guided it from its box. The frame was simple, a plain black wooden number that matched the others scattered around her apartment, and Mallory’s breath hitched in her throat when she saw the photograph Addison had chosen to give her.
It was the two of them in their costumes at center stage, the final moment of their pas de deux captured in time forever.
“Oh, Addy,” she breathed as she ran a light finger over the glass, caressing Addison’s hand that was wrapped around her jaw, utterly enraptured by the way each of their professional masks were completely lost as they stared at each other with such open affection that it made her heart ache. “When…?”
“First dress rehearsal,” Addison whispered, scooting closer to lean her head on Mallory’s shoulder so they could look at the picture together. “I had originally talked to Pierce and gotten him to send me a copy of the shot they’re using in the brochures, but then Gabs sent me this and I just…” She shrugged and reached out to touch their faces. “I knew it was a little…much, I guess you could say, given our situation before tonight, but it made me smile, and I just wanted you to have a copy of it, too.”
It was, without a doubt, the most romantic photograph Mallory had ever seen. Not because she was in it, but because of the composition of the shot. The lights and the shadows. The way the background was blurred, giving the impression that nothing in the world existed outside the two of them. The unfiltered adoration that was so plainly written in each of their expressions. It could have been two complete strangers in the shot and she would have been struck by it, but knowing it was the two of them brought tears to her eyes.
“It’s beautiful,” Mallory murmured, blinking back her tears as she smiled at Addison. “I love it. Thank you.”
Addison’s lips curved in a gentle smile and her eyes crinkled with affection and understanding as she gave Mallory’s hand a light squeeze. “You’re welcome, sweetie.”
“Okay. Now it’s your turn,” Mallory murmured, tapping the package on Addison’s lap with the edge of her picture frame.
She held her breath as Addison’s finger slipped beneath the edge of the fold, and couldn’t help but smile at the way the paper was summarily torn away from the shirt-sized box that had been nestled inside it.
“Oh, look a white box,” Addison drawled, her eyes twinkling with mirth as she began working at the lid.
“I can take it back, you know…” Mallory playfully reached for the package. Honestly, part of her wanted to. There were actually two gifts inside the box, and while she knew the first would make Addison laugh, it was the smaller, second present she had purchased on a whim Saturday afternoon whilst on her way to Saint Luke’s for their midday performance that had her feeling anxious. It had been too perfect to resist but, much like Addison’s picture, even with the recent shift in their relationship, she worried it would be considered a bit too much.
“Like hell, you will,” Addison sassed. She wiggled the top of the box free and laughed as she set it on the table. “I love it,” she declared as she pulled out a folded, heather gray hoodie and lifted it up to look at it properly. “This is so awesome,” she enthused as her eyes roved over the phrase printed on the front of it—If ballet were easy, it would be called football. “And so fuzzy! I’m going to live in this from now on!”
Mallory smiled, utterly pleased that the sweatshirt had gotten exactly the reaction she’d hoped for.“It seemed like something you would like.”
“I love it.” Addison pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure, darling,” Mallory assured her softly. She cleared her throat and added, “There’s one more gift in there.”
“There is?” Addison’s eyes widened as she spotted the narrow, rectangular velvet box that had been tucked beneath the sweatshirt that left only the exact type of jewelry that was hidden inside to the imagination. “Mal…” she breathed as she picked up the velvet box and shifted her legs so the one that had been holding it fell to the floor.
Mallory held her breath and nervously smoothed her thumbs back and forth over the edges of the picture frame that was still on her lap as she watched Addison pry open the hinged lid.
“Oh, Mal,” Addison breathed when she finally saw the necklace. She carefully, oh so carefully lifted it from the box, and Mallory smiled at the look of genuine awe on her face as she studied the white gold ballerina captured in an arabesque. The edges of the ballerina’s tutu glittered with tiny diamond chips, and further up the chain, an infinity symbol embedded with slightly larger diamonds held the length of chain the dancer dangled from.
“I couldn’t resist when I saw it in the shop’s window the other day,” Mallory confessed softly. “I just had to buy it for you.”
“It’s…” Addison blinked and shook her head, and Mallory was afraid that she was about to say that it was too much, too expensive of a gift even though it was something she could easily afford. But instead, she just whispered, “It’s beautiful. So, so beautiful.”
There was no mistaking the emotion behind Addison’s smile when she turned to look at her, and Mallory sighed with relief as a gentle finger hooked beneath her chin and guided their lips together in a tender, lingering kiss.
“Help me put it on?” Addison murmured the request against Mallory’s lips.
“Of course, darling.” Mallory smiled and, suddenly acutely aware of the way her heart thudded heavily in the base of her throat, took the necklace from Addison.
“Let me take this off real quick.” Addison pulled her hoodie off and tossed it onto the table. “I want to be able to see what it looks like on.”
The clasp took a bit more effort than Mallory had anticipated because there was the faintest hint of a tremble in her hands, but she managed to secure it without too much fumbling. “There you are.”
“
What do you think?” Addison smiled shyly as she turned.
Mallory licked her lips as she nodded. The infinity symbol was balanced perfectly on the point of Addison’s defined collarbone, and the dancer lay against the flat of her chest an inch or so below it, suspended above the collar of her heathered scoop-necked tee, the white gold of the necklace further enhanced by Addison’s olive-toned skin. “Perfect.”
“Come with me to look.” Addison took Mallory’s hand and tugged her off the couch.
Mallory laughed as she padded after, her feeling utterly smitten. “There’s the standing mirror in my room, or the vanity in the bath—” she cut herself off as Addison veered into her bedroom with a little skip. She shook her head as she followed behind her, and her heart lodged itself in her throat as she watched Addison’s expression in the mirror shift from playful to struck to awed as she lifted a hand to touch the foot of the dancer. Addison’s throat bobbed heavily as she released her hand and stepped closer to the mirror, and though the answer was clear by the look on Addison’s face, Mallory couldn’t resist asking softly, just to make sure, “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” Addison breathed.
Mallory’s heart fluttered in her chest as she stepped up behind Addison, wrapping her arms around the dancer’s narrow waist as she rested her chin on her shoulder. “I’m so very glad.”
Addison smiled and covered her hands at her waist as she leaned back into her, their gazes locked in the mirror, confessions too powerful to be put into words just yet conveyed by a look.
A comfortable silence fell around them, gentle and warm and without expectation, and Mallory tightened her hold on Addison’s waist as she tucked her chin to press a kiss to the delicate chain that drew a precious line across the slope where Addison’s neck and shoulder met. She smiled at the feeling of Addison shivering in her arms. “Cold?”
“A little. But that was for the kiss.”
Mallory hid just how happy that made her by kissing that same spot again, and then sighed as she relaxed her hold on Addison’s waist. “Let’s go get you back into your hoodie. Can’t have you falling ill. Nina will have my head.”
Addison laughed and nodded. “Okay. Can we cuddle on the couch and watch a movie?”
“Of course, darling,” Mallory all but purred as she ghosted a kiss over Addison’s lips. “I would like nothing more than to hold you in my arms for the rest of the night.”
“I’m going to go stretch.”
Mallory smiled at the feeling of Addison’s fingers curling around her waist and the tickle of breath against her ear. She nodded as she barely resisted the urge to turn her head, thread her fingers through Addison’s hair, and capture her sweet, sweet lips in a lingering kiss. After a positively blissful thirty-six hours of lounging about and making out like teenagers, they had been thrust immediately back into their hectic, often conflicting schedules a week and a half ago, and though they had managed to find slices of time here and there where they could be together, it wasn’t nearly enough for her liking. The last week and a half had been exciting and wonderful and absolutely, positively hellish with the LSO’s two-concerts-a-day holiday schedule that still had four days left to go and the exacting, demanding rehearsals for Evolution, which would finally premier the following evening.
It was like the entire world was on edge—stressed and frantic and borderline hostile—and she dearly wished the calendar had remained stuck on Boxing Day so she could still be her couch with Addison laying on top of her, trading slow, deep kisses that made her heart flutter and a pleasant warmth settle low in her belly as their wandering hands became increasingly bold in their explorations.
The only good news in her inability to stop time, she figured, was that things would return to normal on Monday and then they would have more time to themselves. But for now, they were little more than pawns to their careers.
Addison’s hands slid around her waist to press against her stomach and pull her closer, and her eyes fluttered as a playful, husky voice whispered against her ear, “If we were alone right now I’d totally kiss you, by the way.”
Mallory laughed and covered Addison’s hands with her own, selfishly enjoying this moment of unprofessionalism. “I would let you,” she confessed softly.
Addison groaned and headbutted her shoulder. “And on that note, I’m actually going to go stretch, now. It looks like Gabs and Matt are about to start their final pas de deux, we’ll be on in twenty-five or so.”
Mallory nodded. She had done a thorough warm-up with Addison up in the studio before the first act had taken the stage and, since her part was more musical than physical, she trusted the track pants she wore under her dress to keep her muscles limber enough to perform. “Have fun.”
“Always,” Addison drawled.
Mallory shivered at the feeling of Addison’s lips brushing a furtive kiss across the back of her neck as she pulled away, and shook her head as she watched her skip toward the portable barre that was set up near the rear of house entrance to the wings. A gentle, easy smile curled her lips as she watched Addison slip her wireless earbuds into place before pulling her phone from her left leg-warmer and selecting whatever playlist it was she was in the mood to warm up to that day.
She sighed as she forced herself to look away.
They were at work, after all, and it wouldn’t do to be caught staring at Addison like she wanted to push her up against the wall and kiss her senseless. And, besides that, they were taking the stage soon. It was time to focus and prepare.
She hummed along with the now-familiar music from Gabs and Matt’s pas de deux as she turned toward her violin to triple-check that everything was as it should be. She tightened the knobs on her shoulder rest to make sure that it would hold—she would make sure it was in-tune during the “intermission break”—and had just begun to rosin her bow when her phone began to vibrate and dance on the table beside her case.
Joseph Hayes?
A delicate frown creased her forehead as she stared at the name of the Managing Director of the LSO Board on her screen. She could think of no reason he would call her—Max was the one who was tasked with dealing with the Board, after all, not her. If he was calling her directly, it had to be for something at the LSO that was far more drama than she could even begin to deal with at the moment, and so even though she knew that she should take the call, she sent it to voicemail.
Judging by the time, her LSO colleagues should be beginning to arrive at St. Luke’s for their early evening performance. Which meant that whatever the problem was that prompted Hayes to call her wouldn’t be able to be properly dealt with until afterward, by which time she should be done with rehearsal and able to take his call.
The music from the theatre faded into silence, leaving nothing for her to listen to but the erratic beat of her heart, and she took a deep breath as she tried to refocus her thoughts on her upcoming performance. Nina would have her head if she wasn’t completely dialed-in for this final dress rehearsal.
Before she could even begin to do that, however, her phone buzzed again.
“Bloody hell,” she muttered as Hayes’ name flashed on her screen again.
One call she could ignore and blame on faulty technology or whatever, but she couldn’t ignore two—especially when they were so close together. Only a true emergency could prompt something like this, and her stomach twisted as she tried to figure out just what was going on.
Mallory turned to signal to Addison that she was going to duck out for a call, but she had her headphones on and her eyes closed as she worked through her stretches on the portable barre that was set up closer to the backstage entrance. The last thing she wanted to do was disturb her preparations, so she just sighed and moved to a quiet corner where she hoped her talking on the phone wouldn’t disrupt the rehearsal.
“Hello?”
“Ms. Collingswood, this is Joseph Hayes. I need you to report to St. Luke’s immediately.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, si
r, but I’m in the middle of a dress rehearsal in Covent Garden at the moment. I have actually snuck off just to take this call.”
He sighed, clearly exasperated that she didn’t immediately kowtow to his command. “The deal we made was that the LSO would be your priority.”
“And it is, sir,” Mallory replied evenly, keeping the flash of anger that she felt from her tone. It wouldn’t do to lose her temper. “I have missed only one performance before today since I began this collaboration project, and Max cleared all of them well in advance.” And, really, if the evening performance hadn’t been scheduled so unusually early—especially given that it was a Thursday—she might have been able to make it back to St. Luke’s for it. “As I’m sure you can understand, Evolution premieres tomorrow night and this rehearsal—while unfortunate in its timing—is a necessary part of the preparation process. Have you spoken with either Max or Clara about this? They both assured me the LSO would be fine for today without me.”
“Yes, I spoke to Max earlier, even though he’s at a conference in Barcelona,” Hayes snapped, sounding even more disgruntled. “And I would agree with his assessment that one day wouldn’t be a problem, except Clara was in a car accident on her way back to the Barbican this afternoon.”
Mallory’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my god, is she okay?”
“She says that she should be fine, but she is at Princess Grace getting checked out for whiplash and a possible concussion. Thad is in Chicago until the middle of January, so the Bellamy kid from the Royal Academy coming in to lead for the day.”
“I’m glad it sounds like she’s going to be okay.” Mallory nodded slowly as she finally understood what was going on. It was certainly less than ideal to have the LSO’s musical director, conductor, and leader unavailable for a performance. “Charlie, the assistant leader, knows that I’m with the Royal Ballet today, and is more than capable of assuming my chair for this one performance, sir, even with a guest conductor.”
“Yes, I know. He did a decent job covering for you this morning, but he just called in sick. Thinks it’s either food poisoning or the stomach flu, but either way he isn’t at all sure he’ll be able to perform tonight. We also had to send Alex home this morning because she couldn’t stop coughing, and when Johan went to his doctor’s appointment between performances today he was ordered onto bed rest effectively immediately. This leaves the first violins disastrously sparse.”
