“The turnaround time from this show to the next is five weeks,” Isaac added. “Not enough time for me to create a whole newNutcracker. I have to plan out this stuff at least a year out in advance, plus we don’t have anything budgeted to revamp the production.”
“Start now, and only change the things relevant to Ivy and Preston. Keep everything else the same,” Demetrius suggested. “Use the studio here to work with them. Preston and Ivy have a light rehearsal schedule at the moment. Let’s take advantage of our free time.”
“They have a light schedule, I don’t. I’m still running rehearsals for our current production,” Isaac responded.
“I’ll take over the group rehearsals so you can focus on choreography,” Demetrius suggested as he stretched his arms. “It’ll be nice to get out of my office and work with the dancers anyway.”
Isaac slowly tapped his finger against his chin. “This can work. That takes care of their formal public debut. What about private funders and patrons?”
“I suggest we hold two viewings for our best supporters, along with those we hope to bring into the mix. This needs to happen before our first production. We can announce Ivy to them as a sneak peek of what’s to come.” Demetrius looked at Preston and me. “What if you two performed that duet from this production, Isaac’s new contemporary piece, and maybe a solo each?”
I inhaled deeply. It was a lot—not just the private patron viewings, but all of it.
I'd sort of refused to acknowledge up to this point what it meant to be part of a scent-matched omega power couple. But now I was staring down the path towards our announcement, and I was about to jump off a cliff into the unknown.
My throat tightened as my breathing grew shallow. I looked around the table at the expectant faces of my pack.
As if sensing my apprehension, Preston squeezed my hand. “Seems like a lot, doesn’t it?”
I slowly nodded my head, earning a soft smile from him.
“We already know the duet—it’s basically performance-ready. Isaac’s new piece is coming along and will be ready soon. We have more than five weeks to rehearse forNutcracker, and we won’t be bound to just studio hours. Wecan rehearse here too, even if it’s just playing the music and talking out the steps without dancing.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling more reassured.
“I don’t want to cast doubt on any of this. I just want us to be realistic with the timeline.” Lukas looked at all of us. “We’ll have more like four weeks, not five, in between the two productions. We have Ivy’s heat to plan for, too.”
I exhaled loudly, laughing at the whole situation. “Dear god, what did I sign up for?” I glanced back up at all of their faces as looks of doubt and concern started to spread.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and let each of their scents infuse and inspire me. Opening my eyes back up, I felt that spark of determination returning to me. “Yes—we’ve got this. Let’s do it.”
***
After helping with the breakfast dishes, Preston shot me a look and gestured towards the back hallway.
“Class in the studio?”
Agreeing, we both rushed off to change before returning to the studio, where I found Preston stretching on the ground, gently moving his neck around. I held up my dance bag for him and modeled my proper ballet attire. Unlike last week, I actually had shoes and ballet clothes to wear.
“Nice,” he smiled at me. “Ready to get started?”
With a quick thumbs up, I took my place at the barre right behind him, reminding myself not to stare at his exquisitely chiseled bottom during class.
We quickly proceeded through our barre exercises, working up a nice sweat. From there, we moved to the center of the floor to work on some pirouettes, jumps, and extension work.
As we paused for a brief moment to catch our breath, Preston looked over to me. “You’re more than welcome to warm up with me in the second studio during the week.”
“I’ve thought about it.” I paused, wiping the sweat off my forehead. “However, I don’t want to lose my connection to the rest of the company. It’s important I don’t alienate myself from everyone, even if I’m not too popular with some of the dancers.”
“I see. The offer always stands if you change your mind.”
Our mini class quickly turned into partnering work as we practiced steps that we needed to work on together. His strong, confident hands guided my waist and body as we worked, and I was the luckiest dancer on the planet that this partner was all mine. He was, by far, the most talented dancer I'd ever worked with, bringing such a soft yet firm touch to everything he did with each step.
“One more,” I said, preparing for another partnered turn with him. I executed the turn, planning for a triple pirouette, however instead of stopping the turn after three, his handskept spinning me around, forcing a laugh as I held my position tight for him. Eventually, he stopped the turn, but instead of facing forward, I was facing backward and looking right into his chest.
“We missed the front,” I joked as I looked up to him.
“No, this is perfect,” he whispered, staring into my eyes. A caring and passionate gleam shone from him as he looked down at me. My heart beat quickly while his hands firmly squeezed my waist.
