Off Balance (Ballet Theatre Chronicles Book 1) by Terez Mertes Rose

immediately realized was the wrong thing to do. Gil didn’t look at her.
    Andy did.
    “I’ll tell Alice you’re in the kitchen,” she improvised. “If she needs to talk to you.”
    What a stupid thing to say. What a stupid girl she was. Out of her league didn’t begin to cover it, next to Andy Redgrave, in this mansion of Andy Redgrave’s, where it seemed as if even the portraits on the walls were now frowning down at her.
    She left. Fled.
    In the living room she found Montserrat and Alice, still, unfathomably, talking about music. She remained there, nonetheless, willing herself not to shrink when she saw Andy approach five minutes later, Gil by his side. Andy and Montserrat bantered about the night’s recital, about how Montserrat, Matthew and their pianist partner had been simply using the performance as a rehearsal for one of their upcoming recitals. Lana tried to avoid looking at Gil, but the moment she gave in and snuck a furtive look at him, his eyes were on her. It was like that first meeting; she couldn’t tear her gaze away.
    Not after what had happened upstairs.
    Alice’s nudge was a rude awakening. Lana looked over and the others were regarding her in an amused fashion. “What?” she stuttered.
    “Andy wanted to know if you liked classical music,” Alice said.
    Andy was studying her like before, but this time he wasn’t smiling. “Um, sure,” she managed.
    She could feel confusion coming from Alice, who hurried to fill the awkward pause. “Of course you do, as a ballet dancer. All that Tchaikovsky, for starters. Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker .”
    “Yes,” Lana said. “All that. Definitely.”
    Andy looked over Lana’s shoulder and beyond. “Ah,” he said in reply. He nudged Gil, who’d remained silent. “There’s a couple for you to meet. Paul and Laura Giordano. Their endowment handed over a generous contribution to the symphony last year. Shall I introduce you?”
    “I think you know the answer to that one.” Gil began to laugh, a low, conspiratorial sound.
    “I do indeed.” Andy turned to Alice and Montserrat. “Ladies, we must leave you.”
    “Gil, get to work,” Alice mock-commanded, and they all laughed. But the smile dropped off her face the instant Andy and Gil walked away, Andy’s arm now slung over Gil’s shoulders. When she spoke a moment later, it was in a tone that chilled Lana.
    “What just happened?”
    Montserrat looked at Alice in concern. “What is it? What’s the matter?”
    Alice didn’t answer her. She turned to look at Lana, her expression troubled.
    Lana’s heart began to hammer. “I don’t know.”
    She didn’t. Andy had just caught her gazing at Gil, and he’d heard her call his name in that certain way in the kitchen. He’d probably figured out that Gil had been in the bedroom with her. But that didn’t explain the coldness now coming from him, not when he was looking so pleased with Gil.
    Alice searched Lana’s face. Forehead creased, she turned to Montserrat. “Nothing’s the matter. It’s just that we want to make sure Andy’s happy with us. That he wants to work with us.”
    “But he looked happy,” Montserrat pointed out. “With you and Gil both.”
    Alice tried to smile. “You’re right. I just felt a little nervous there. No big deal.”
     
    This was how the next hour proceeded for Lana: Gil became Andy’s best friend, his protégé, and Lana became invisible. No one spoke with her; no one even glanced her way. Gil wouldn’t even try and catch her eye anymore. Instead he talked to Andy, focused on Andy, joined any discussion Andy was lording over. Meanwhile, Andy’s polite disdain toward Lana morphed into an unspoken yet palpable hostility she could feel radiating from across the room.
    She was no stranger to hostility. Look at how the other dancers had treated her when they saw the cast list for Program II. Her whole professional life, she’d produced this kind of reaction in others. But that was the dance