by M. J. Duncan
Addison smiled at her in their reflection in the polished steel doors. “Good. Because I’m kinda getting addicted to it.”
Mallory leaned her cheek on Addison’s head as she teased, “Should I be offended that you’d prefer to fall asleep on me than stay awake and enjoy my company?”
“Yes.” Addison squeezed her side playfully as the lift pulled to a gentle stop and the doors began to slide open. “You should absolutely be offended that I enjoy cuddling with you so much that I’d rather drool all over you than let you go.”
“Well, the drool is rather unfortunate…” Mallory smirked.
“Did I say that I enjoy cuddling with you?” Addison looked up to leveled a playful glare at her. “Because I take it back,” she declared as she tried to pull away.
Mallory chuckled and tightened her hold on Addison’s shoulders to keep her at her side. “No, you don’t. And”—she hid her smile in Addison’s hair because she was certain she looked positively smitten, because she pretty much was, and she wasn’t at all prepared to deal with other people knowing that yet—“I can honestly think of no better way to end my day than with you curled up against me.”
“And just like that, I can’t even pretend to be mad anymore,” Addison sighed.
“Good.” Mallory pressed a hesitant kiss to Addison’s temple. It was the first time she had dared to do anything of the sort and, as her heart beat up into her throat at the feeling of Addison’s skin beneath her lips, a part of her looked forward to the next time she would have an excuse to do it again. She took a deep breath as she pulled away, and swallowed thickly when Addison looked up at her with warm brown eyes a small, entirely pleased smile curling her lips.
“If that’s what I get for talking about cuddling, I’m gonna do it more often.”
Mallory huffed a laugh and confessed softly, “If we keep cuddling, darling, I’m probably going to want to do more than that.”
Addison’s smile softened as her gaze dropped to drift over Mallory’s lips. “I look forward it,” she whispered.
“Oh, knock it the fuck off and let’s go already,” Matt’s voice called out from behind them, effectively shattering the moment.
Not that Mallory minded so much. Well, she could do without his roguish smirk and the knowing twinkle in his eye, but the corridors of The Royal Opera House weren’t the place for conversations such as these, and she was grateful for the opportunity his appearance provided for her to become comfortable with this new facet of her relationship with Addison.
“God, Matt,” Gabs groaned, “why do you have to run your mouth just when things are looking like they’re getting good?”
“Things are perfect, thank you very much,” Addison shot back. “And we are not here to serve as your entertainment.”
“Insists the professional performer,” Gabs laughed. “Whatever. It’s time for food, yes? How did your tech go?” she asked. As soon as she and Matt had finished with their part of the performance, they had been hustled off to rehearsals for The Nutcracker, which they would be performing the following night.
“It was tech.” Addison glanced at Mallory as she pulled her arm from her waist, and arched a brow questioningly as she brushed their hands together. Her expression was gentle, the faint curve of her lips signaling that she wouldn’t be offended if Mallory wasn’t comfortable continuing contact while they had an audience. “We don’t have any sets or anything,” she continued without missing a beat, so that neither Gabs nor Matt’s attention was drawn to the silent conversation they were having, “so it was just a lot of getting the lights settled.”
It was one thing to open herself up when they were alone and quite another to do so around others, but a hollow feeling settled in her stomach at the idea of losing physical contact with Addison, so Mallory offered her a small smile as she turned her hand so Addison could take it.
“Like, tracking type stuff?” Matt asked as he waved goodbye to Josh, who was working the desk at the stage door.
“There was a little of that, but it was more just color changes,” Addison explained as the rest of them waved to Josh as well. “You know, to help set the mood of what’s happening and everything since there aren’t really any sets or, hell, even breaks in the pas de deux where we get to move out of the way for a minute and catch our breath while the corps takes over for a few.”
“Please,” Gabs scoffed as she pushed the stage door open and held it for the rest of them, “you two could go out there in burlap sacks with the house lights on and no frills of any kind, and you’d still blow everyone away.” She let the door fall shut and fell into step beside her so they were walking four-across down the narrow street. “But, whatever. I’m not here to prop up your already inflated egos.”
Matt laughed. “She’s right, you know. We’re going to be completely overlooked when the reviews come out on this thing.”
“Or just barely mentioned as the reviewer rushes to swoon over what they did,” Gabs added, her tone light and playful and her smile proud as she looped a hand around the crook of Mallory’s arm and gave it a light squeeze, letting her know that she was teasing. “Really, Addy, you’re just lucky we love this new partner of yours so much that we’re willing to let it slide.”
“Cheers, darling,” Mallory murmured.
Addy squeezed Mallory’s hand and smiled at her as she asked, “So, Matty. What’s the wine selection for the evening?”
“Oh, you’re gonna love it.” He grabbed the straps of the large backpack he was wearing as he bounced on the balls of his feet in excitement and winked at Addison. “We’re going American tonight, just for you. My dad just discovered this new vineyard in the Pacific Northwest that he can’t stop raving about.”
“Did you bring a Merlot?” Gabs asked.
“Of course. And a bottle of their Pinot Noir from their reserve selection that he says is the best of their line. I hope you like reds, Mal. Because Addy said we were having lasagna, I didn’t bring any whites.”
“I’m perfectly fine with either,” Mallory assured him with a smile.
“Excellent.”
Addison bumped shoulders with Mallory as she asked, “So, did anything particularly exciting happen while we were stuck in tech?”
“Maybe? I heard a rumor that Tania is talking to a headhunter about a spot that will be opening in Paris after the season.”
“I head that, too,” Gabs chimed in.
“No way? Seriously?” Addison shook her head.
Mallory dragged her thumb over the back of Addison’s hand as she allowed herself to tune out the dancers’ gossip. She had no idea who this Tania was, and she honestly wasn’t all that pressed to find out.
It was nice, though, to just be able to walk and let the rise and fall of their voices drown out the sounds of the city around them. Even though it was her day off from the symphony, she had still been in her office by nine to work on the bowing notations for the next set of performances and to meet with a second violinist whose ego wasn’t equipped to handle not being grouped with the firsts, and she had run out of there to make the tech rehearsal in time. There had been so much to see and learn whilst she had been sitting in the audience watching the first half of the ballet that she hadn’t had time to decompress from her morning, and so this was really the first time all day that she’d had to just zone out and not focus on anything in particular.
Before she knew it, they were at Addison’s place, and she reluctantly let go of her hand so she could tend to the doors to let them all in. The group all but scattered the moment they were inside and out of the cold, Addison ducking down the hall to toss her bag into her bedroom as Matt wandered toward the kitchen with his backpack, leaving Mallory and Gabs in the small entryway.
Mallory glanced at Gabs as she hung the strap of her violin case over her coat on what had become her usual hook in the entryway, and set her briefcase on the floor beneath them. “Here, allow me to move out of your way,” she murmured.
“No need.” Gabs
dropped her tote onto the floor beside her briefcase with little regard for its contents as she hollered toward Addison’s bedroom, “What does the oven need to be at?”
“Three seventy-five,” Addison called back.
“On it,” Gabs declared, winking at Mallory as she skipped off toward Matt in the kitchen.
Mallory shook her head as she watched her go, feeling far older than she had all day when faced with the amount of energy Gabs still had even after a long day of rehearsals, and was about follow when she saw Addy making her way toward her with a gentle smile.
“Oh good, they haven’t scared you off.”
“Oy, Addy!” Matt yelled. “Where’s your wine opener?”
Addison sighed. “How about we leave them here and go over to yours for tonight instead?”
Mallory laughed and arched a brow as they started for the kitchen, where far too many cabinet doors were being slammed to be anything but a ruse to get them to hurry up. “Do you reckon the place would survive them being here unsupervised?”
“Good point,” Addison agreed regretfully. She motioned to the sofa as they passed through the sitting area. “You want to just grab a seat? Once the lasagna is in, it’ll be about an hour until it’s ready. I figured I’d just bring snacks out here and we can hang out while me and Gabs ice our feet.”
“I can do that while you and Gabs get your ice sorted. What are you thinking about for snacks?”
“You’re sure?”
“Of course.” Mallory smiled and bumped Addison’s arm with her elbow. “Besides, this way your feet will have defrosted before they wind up on my lap later.”
Addison laughed. “Oh, I see how it is.”
“See how what is?” Matt asked.
“Nothing,” Addison told him. “The corkscrew is in the drawer to the right of the range.” She smiled at Mallory and added, “For snacks, I’ve got veggies and hummus, and I picked up a couple whole grain baguettes the other day that should be nice and crunchy now that we can slice up to dip in the hummus too. Oh, and there’s a little jar of sun-dried tomato pesto in the cupboard we can put on the bread if we want.”
“Oh, we definitely want,” Matt interjected as he spun the corkscrew on his finger and bumped the drawer shut with his hip. “I’m starving.”
“You’re not the only one,” Mallory muttered as her stomach grumbled in agreement.
“I got the oven going already,” Gabs said as she set four stemless glasses onto the counter beside the sink. She picked up one of the bottles he had set on the counter and smirked when she turned it so Addison and Mallory could see the rainbow-hued outline of a grasshopper on the matte black label. “Look, it’s a gay grasshopper.”
Addison arched a brow as she looked at it, and opened a narrow cabinet beside the fridge to pull out two plastic tubs. “You really shouldn’t label the grasshopper like that, Gabs,” she lectured playfully as she worked the tubs apart and handed one to her, “maybe it just likes the colors.”
Gabs chuckled wickedly and shook her head. “If we hadn’t promised to be on our best behavior tonight…”
“Seriously,” Matt agreed as he began working on uncorking the bottle of Merlot.
“But you did,” Addison reminded them both as she handed Gabs one of the tubs, “so you’re going to just keep whatever inappropriate quip you got there in your head all to yourself.”
“You can tell me later,” Matt assured Gabs in a loud whisper.
Addison rolled her eyes, but otherwise didn’t rise to the bait.
Mallory smiled at her and gave her wrist a light squeeze as she slipped past to open the fridge. “Let me get the lasagna out, and then you two can start filling your buckets.” She shook her head when she lifted it from the shelf, the aluminum pan it was in felt dangerously flimsy, and hurried to set it on the stove as she went to grab a baking sheet to put it on.
Addison’s kitchen wasn’t nearly large enough to accommodate four adults, but it didn’t take Addison and Gabs long to get their ice baths sorted, and once they had moved to the lounge, it was much easier to move about. Mallory was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to work with Matt as they prepared the various snacks Addison had mentioned earlier, and by the time they, too, retired to the lounge to wait for dinner to be ready, she felt like she was in the company of old friends.
“The lasagna should be ready for the foil to come off in forty minutes or so,” Mallory told Addison as she set the cutting board she and Matt had arranged the food on onto the coffee table.
“You two are amazing,” Gabs groaned as she traded her wineglass for one of the larger pieces of baguette that she dragged through the hummus.
“You say that like it’s a surprise or something,” Matt shot back, winking at Mallory as he dropped to the sofa beside her.
“Definitely not a surprise,” Addison murmured, running a light hand over Mallory’s thigh when she sat beside her. “Thank you.”
Mallory looked down at Addison’s hand on her leg, and a soft smile curled her lips as a feeling of absolute rightness enveloped her. “My pleasure, darling.”
Mallory lifted a tired hand when she spotted Will at a table toward the back of The Barbican Kitchen, a small restaurant on the ground floor of The Barbican Centre. The restaurant was mostly empty as it was still two hours before their concert was set to begin, and she was grateful for the empty tables and chairs that allowed her to walk without worrying about accidentally hitting anyone with her violin or briefcase as she wound her way through the narrow aisles between tables.
“You look like hell,” Will teased as Mallory set her things on the floor and dropped into the chair opposite him.
“Cheers,” Mallory muttered as she laid her head on the table and seriously considered whether it would be possible for her to steal a few minute’s sleep like that.
“Well, on the bright side, it’s Friday, which means tomorrow we pull a triple, Sunday’s a double, and then we get two days off for Christmas and Boxing Day. Of course, then we’re back to daily doubles until New Year’s, so…”
The upcoming days off were good news, indeed, but she flipped him off anyway. He could have left it at that and not reminded her of all the performances still to come before things settled back to their usual pattern. The holiday season was the busiest for the LSO, with twice-a-day concerts for the fortnight leading up to Christmas and then through New Year’s. It was a grueling time of year normally, but she now looked back on last year’s stretch with an aching fondness rooted in the knowledge that she truly hadn’t realized how good she’d had it.
Will laughed. “Love you too, Mal. Anyway, why are you so tired? I thought you had the afternoon off from the ballet?”
Mallory nodded, rather liking the way it made the cool, hard table massage her forehead. She had been fighting a headache for the last couple of days, and this was actually the first measure of relief she had found for it. “‘Off’ is a relative term, I’m afraid. Nina still made us run through it twice without a break before she dismissed us. And the only reason we got off that easy was because Addy’s dancing tonight and she needs to rest.”
He made a small sound of sympathy and patted her arm. “So no nap for you, then?”
Mallory shook her head, noting that the massage wasn’t quite as pleasant when she moved it in this direction. “I would club a baby seal for a nap at this point,” she groaned. “I mean, Addy and I went down to the physio suite for some recovery work after our shortened rehearsal, which was nice, but by the time we’d finished there, I had just enough time to shower, run home to collect my blacks for tonight, and get over here to meet you.”
“You could have canceled, you know. We didn’t have to get dinner beforehand.”
Mallory waved him off. She had considered it, of course, just for the hour’s sleep she might have gotten, but she couldn’t remember the last time they had spent any time together, just the two of them, and even tired as she was, she missed her best friend. “I need to eat anyway.”
“So are you ready to go up and choose something?” The restaurant was more of a canteen, really, a super-casual place where one selected plates from different stations and then paid before finding a seat. “Or are you going to just sit there and hope the food magically arrives in front of you?”
She shrugged. “Honestly haven’t decided yet.”
He laughed. “Well, at least Max gave you last night off though, hey? So you got one night off this week—which is more than the rest of us got.”
Forehead still firmly planted on the tabletop, Mallory allowed herself a small smile as she acknowledged his statement with another nod and a low hum. She should have taken that gift of a night off to catch up some much-needed sleep, but she had lingered at Addison’s long after Matt and Gabs had called it a night, knowing that they wouldn’t get to really see each other again until Boxing Day. And, even as exhausted as she currently was, she could not find it in herself to regret those few extra hours spent lounging on the sofa with Addy curled against her side as old Grey’s Anatomy episodes played on the television.
And she certainly didn’t regret the way Addison had smiled at her when she had kissed her cheek whilst saying goodnight.
“Yes, at least I didn’t have to work last night,” she agreed.
He hummed and then offered in a hopeful tone, “Well, Devereaux will have to back off on your rehearsals leading into the actual performance though, right?”
Mallory sighed and forced herself to sit up. “One can only hope.”
“Excuse me,” a new voice spoke up hesitantly. “Are you Ms. Collingswood?”
Mallory looked over at the girl who was standing a few feet away from their table. She was young, perhaps in her final year of primary school or somewhere near there, with positively wild strawberry blond curls that Mallory doubted would ever submit to being tamed. Her dress had that department store crispness to it that suggested it had been recently bought, and there was a determined set to her jaw that made Mallory smile, especially once she noticed the way the girls’ fingers were rubbing nervously over the back of a glossy leaflet she held loosely in front of her stomach so as to not wrinkle the paper. “Indeed I am. But you can call me Mallory. And who might you be?”