Page 71 of Last Dance, Second Chance

Jessica had set up an Instagram account when she’d first started her Substack. She’d shared some dancing photos on there, but hadn’t really done anything else with it other than posting links in a story to each Substack post when they went live. She opened the Instagram app on her phone, her heart in her mouth.

Her followers had gone up from twenty-six to over a thousand, and when she clicked on her notifications, she saw her latest post had been shared more than five thousand times, including by the Miami City Ballet! She quickly logged on to her blog and found hundreds of comments waiting for her.

There were some from ballet dancers she didn’t know, some from ballet lovers, many of whom had seen her perform over the years, and even a few from members of her own company, wishing her a speedy recovery and telling her how much she was missed. She felt her eyes well up. She doubted she’d cried as much in the whole of her life previously as she had in the past few weeks.

She texted Nathan immediately. He was at work so she knew he couldn’t see it straight away but he was the person she most wanted to share her good news with.

Then she gave herself a stern talking-to about how she was treating Bethany, who’d always been supportive of her. The role of Aurora was gone for Jessica and there was nothing she could do about that, but she could help her friend more than she had been. And who knows, working with Bethany on her technique might help Jessica with her own dancing in the future.

She messaged her friend to arrange a time for the video call she’d promised and suggested they do something like that regularly until Jessica was back in New York.

* * *

Time flew by in a way that Jessica would never have imagined it could when she’d first hurt her foot. With working at the dance studio, writing her increasingly popular Substack posts, exercising, spending time with her family, and seeing as much of Nathan as she could, her days felt full and busy in a way that seemed to fulfil rather than drain her.

Although she still hadn’t said anything directly to her parents about her relationship with Nathan, she knew they approved of him and they encouraged her to spend the night at his house claiming they didn’t like the idea of her walking home by herself late at night. Jessica was more than willing to go along with this. She couldn’t deny that her feelings for Nathan were getting stronger — she loved being with him. Thinking about how soon she’d be returning to New York was something she tried very hard not to do.

Things between Jessica and her parents were also probably the best they’d ever been. Not that they’d ever had a terrible relationship, but being so focused on her goals meant Jessica hadn’t spent much time just being with them, especially since leaving home. It was nice to get to know them more. She was getting along really well with both of them, but especially her mum. Sarah was so supportive of her blog, even proofreading Jessica’s posts for her and forwarding the links once they were live to everyone she knew.

Jessica had a surprise when she needed some old photos for her Substack and her mum disappeared for a while, returning with two boxes full of anything and everything to do with Jessica’s dancing. They contained newspaper clippings, photos, ticket stubs, and programmes, dating back to her first performance well over twenty years ago.

“I had no idea you’d kept all this,” exclaimed Jessica, looking through the top layers of one of the boxes.

“Of course,” Sarah said with a shrug.

“How did you even get hold of some of these programmes? This one’s from Berlin — you didn’t come to any of those performances.”

“I tracked any down online that I couldn’t get in person.”

“Wow. Thank you, this is great. A lot of this will be really useful.”

“Just be careful with them! Make sure your hands are clean.”

“They are, Mum,” Jessica reassured. “I’m really touched that you’ve got all this. There’s stuff here I’m sure I’ve never seen.”

“My daughter is brilliant,” said Sarah, getting up and giving Jessica a kiss on the forehead. “It’s only natural I’d want to collect evidence of this.”

* * *

Jessica was walking back home with her mum one Saturday after they’d been shopping together when she saw the all too familiar figure of Mrs Edith White bustling towards them. Her heart sank.

“Ah, Jessica,” Mrs White said once she was closer, “I see you’ve been forced to hang around here for longer than you’d planned.”

“Yes, it would seem so,” bristled Jessica, her good mood rapidly evaporating. She felt her forehead furrow.

“I imagine you’re appreciating your family now you need them to look after you.”

Before Jessica could manage to formulate a response, she heard her mother say, “Jessica has always appreciated us!” It was in the voice she usually reserved for particularly difficult Year 6s.

Clearly ruffled, Mrs White said, “Well, I only meant that maybe she’ll visit more...”

“Jessica has just been promoted to principal ballerina in one of the top ballet companies in the world. She’s based in New York which doesn’t make it very easy for her to pop in for a cuppa. She comes home when she can and we’re very proud of her.”

“I’m sure you are,” muttered Mrs White, continuing on her way rather more quickly than usual.

Jessica and Sarah watched her go.

“I can’t believe you said that, Mum!” Jessica was in awe.

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