Page 6 of Last Dance, Second Chance

Jessica woke up the next morning to the sounds of her parents moving around downstairs in the kitchen. She checked her phone. It was 10a.m. — she’d slept for thirteen hours.

She pulled her old dressing gown around her; she’d found it in the wardrobe in the corner of the room — she couldn’t believe her parents had kept all of her clothes from when she was a teenager!

The smell of coffee led her downstairs, where she found her mum and dad tidying up. She was greeted enthusiastically by Monty. He certainly didn’t act like a dog who’d only met her yesterday!

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty!” said her dad when he saw her.

Her big news came flooding back to her: how could she have omitted to tell her parents? That had been one of the main reasons she’d wanted to come to visit them. It must have been the excitement of seeing everyone combined with how tired she was from travelling.

“I forgot to tell you last night,” Jessica said. “I’ve been given the role of Princess Aurora in my company’s new production of The Sleeping Beauty. It’s my first role as a principal ballerina. Rehearsals start in two weeks.”

“Well done, love,” said her mum, giving her a hug and placing a large mug of coffee in front of her. “I bet it’ll be nice to get back to dancing. This summer break thing is really unfair. You should get paid for your summer holidays like I do.”

“It’s what all ballet companies do, Mum, not just mine,” Jessica replied defensively.

“It just doesn’t seem very reasonable to me to expect you all to find alternative employment for months at a time.”

“Would you rather I didn’t have any off time at all and risked an injury?”

“Of course not!”

“You’ll make a brilliant Aurora,” her dad intercepted, always the peacemaker.

“I’m sorry I’m down so late. I must have slept through you both getting up.” Jessica found she wanted to change the subject. She didn’t want to argue with her parents before they left.

“You were exhausted, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?” Sarah asked.

“Like a log,” Jessica said, smiling.

“Good to hear,” her dad said. “I’ve written down instructions for feeding Monty. You’ll need to watch him because he does still jump up to grab food from the countertops. He’s pretty good on the lead now, but he’s only one and a half and his recall isn’t great, so if you let him off make sure it’s in a contained area. There’s that bit down the river by the golf club which is perfect for him.”

“We’ll be fine, Dad,” Jessica said, rubbing Monty’s ears. It was sweet how her dad fussed over the dog. He’d wanted one, and a golden retriever in particular, for as long as she could remember. Jessica and Andrew had both regularly joined in his entreaties, but her mum had always said no because they were such a commitment. Looking back at her childhood, Jessica could understand why. Her parents had spent a huge amount of their spare time driving her around to dance classes and competitions; trying to fit a dog into that life as well would have been pushing it.

“We’d better be off,” Sarah said. “We’re going to drive round to Andrew’s so that they can fit some of their luggage into my car. It’s a bit of a squeeze with the five of them in their Renault as it is.”

Jessica helped carry her parents’ luggage out to the car for them.

“Have a brilliant time. Make sure you send me loads of pictures,” she said as they did up their seatbelts.

“We will! And we’ll see you when we get back!”

They drove off and Jessica went back into the house with Monty.

“This is a bit strange, isn’t it boy?” she said. She felt deflated by her parents’ reaction to the news of her role. They’d congratulated her, and she knew it was silly to expect more than that from them, but Bethany’s mum had insisted upon taking her daughter out for a special dinner with her whole family when she’d heard about her casting, and Bethany was only an understudy.

She was also wondering just what she was going to do by herself while her mum and dad were away. She wasn’t used to having a lot of free time — it was usually filled up by ballet-related stuff. Yes, she’d need to train and work out, but with no rehearsals, classes or waitressing work, she’d have hours more available to her every day while she was here.

Her dad had made her solemnly swear that she wouldn’t leave Monty alone for more than a few hours at a time because he wasn’t used to being left for long periods, so anywhere that she wanted to visit that was further afield than in town itself, she’d have to have him along with her.

She could take him for lots of long walks she guessed. She had use of her dad’s car, so maybe she could go hiking for the day? She was still feeling pretty jet-lagged, though, so maybe she’d take it easy today. Of course, taking it easy for Jessica Stone wasn’t quite what most people would count as taking it easy.

Jessica had a piece of toast and some peanut butter as that was about all there was left in the cupboards which her mum had carefully emptied before going away, and made a note to pop to the supermarket to pick up some skyr yoghurt and some of her other favourite things to eat. She had a shower and got dressed in leggings and a T-shirt before putting on a touch of make-up and returning downstairs.

The sitting room had the biggest amount of clear space, and Jessica went through her daily exercises as best she could without a barre and a mirror and with a large golden retriever attempting to join in. She struggled to calm her frustration — it wasn’t her parents’ fault that they didn’t have a ballet studio, and it wasn’t Monty’s fault she was being weird and he didn’t understand why. She knew she’d struggle trying to keep fit like this, though. She’d have to figure out a better solution. She had to be in the best shape possible for when rehearsals began. Maybe her rash decision to fly halfway across the world at such a vital point in her career wasn’t such a good idea.

Going to the supermarket was something she could do to make things easier for herself and make her feel more in control, so she let Monty out for a wee in the garden, and then grabbed her purse. She considered taking the car but the supermarket was only a few minutes away and it was probably more effort to drive and park than to walk.

It was another lovely day, warmer than yesterday though still mild compared to New York, and Jessica’s mood began to lift. She knew she was stuck in her ways. She was very used to only having to think about herself and putting herself first all the time. When she was at home she had the dance studios available to her generally whenever she wanted; it was easy for her to dance in a professional environment within five minutes of her apartment. She couldn’t expect to have that here.

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