Chapter 20

TWENTY

The conversation with Charlie was now barely two hours ago and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t focus on her routines like she should. And of course Lodinski noticed. He made her do routines she knew so well over and over again and she tried to give her all, but meanwhile the conversation kept playing in her head. And also the question whether or not Jon should know. How would he react, would it matter if she never told him? Her head just wouldn’t shut up and then it happened.

Even before her feet touched the ground she knew it was going to hurt. And it did. A stinging pain shot right through her and she had to press her lips together to avoid to cry out loud. She looked around if anybody noticed but luckily Lodinski was just busy correcting Veronica’s shoulder position and wasn’t looking at her. Nobody else had seen it either, but she felt it. She kept going on though, because she didn’t want to let Lodinski down even more than she already had. The pain didn’t go away anymore but it didn’t get worse either and she managed to get it through the rest of rehearsals without telling anyone what happened.

By the time she got home that night her ankle had started to swell up and it turned slightly red, but this wasn’t the first time that happened and she knew it would probably be back to normal by tomorrow. And it had to be because she couldn’t risk to miss rehearsals. Over the last few weeks Lodinski had gotten mad at her more than in the fifteen years before that and she knew she had to get her priorities straight. She was sure Jon didn’t let this situation affect his stage presence and neither should she allow that to happen. So she made a decision. She had to tell him about Charlie and leave it behind her. She put compresses on her ankle, made herself a salad for dinner and she sat down on the couch with her foot on the table in front of her. While she ate her dinner she called him. He answered immediately.

“Baby,” he said and she smiled. She just loved when he called her that and it also told her he was alone. “Hey,” she said.

“How are you?” he asked her and she looked at her ankle in front of her. “I am okay, what about you?”

“Busy,” he answered and sighed. She pictured how he would pull a hand through  his hair.

“Always busy,” she said and he nodded.

“Jon I need to tell you something,” she then said as she figured she should better get this over with quickly before she would change her mind.

“What is it? Am I in trouble?” he joked and she tried to laugh.

“No but I might be… listen this wasn’t supposed to happen but it did and I thought you should know…”

“Now I am worried,” he said and she heard in his voice that he was. And  maybe he should be.

She told him about Charlie and that he saw them and he dealt with that part alright. Which made her sigh with relief. But when he asked her what she told him he was no longer as understanding as she hoped he would be.

“What do you mean you told him everything?!” he shouted after she explained it to him.

“I couldn’t lie to him, Jon,” she said and put her plate beside her on the couch.

“Oh now you suddenly have a problem with lying to people?”

“Jon please?”

“Don’t ‘please ‘ me now,” he said. “You should never have told him Georgia, I don’t know that guy, he could be out telling everyone for all I know!”

“He is my friend, Jon I trust him.”

“I thought we agreed that nobody could know and that was for a reason Georgia, we are taking a huge risk and I believe it is worth it but I can’t have anyone else involved in this…”

She didn’t say anything anymore, he was really pissed.

“Fuck this!” he added then.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered.

“I bet you are but that won’t get us anywhere now will it?!”

“I guess not, but he is my friend Jon, I trust him and you should trust me.”

“I did, but this isn’t making it any easier for me… I’m starting to wonder what all this means to you anyway… It’s not a game.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss this over the phone,” she tried.

“No, maybe it’s best if we end this conversation now.”

She sighed.
“I’ll call you, don’t call me, you need to think before you do, Georgia.”

“But he saw us, it’s not my fault.”

“You could have said it was a onetime thing, hell you would probably even have gotten away with saying that wasn’t me, but you chose to tell him every damn thing. That’s the problem.”

“But it was you and this isn’t just about you,” she said getting angry now as well.

“You have no commitments to anyone, Georgia, but I do and that is what this is about, I need to think about where we are going from here, I’ll call you – bye.”

“Bye,” she said, hang up before he could and threw the phone into the corner of the couch.

Yes it sure was the best decision to tell him, she thought to herself and stood up to take her plate to the kitchen. Too fast. A strong pain shot through her leg.

“Fuck you,” she yelled, frustrated. Not sure if it was directed to herself, to him or her ankle.

**

Needless to say that the next day she was thinking about it all even more than the day before. The swelling didn’t get worse but her ankle had turned slightly blue and lilac so she asked the company’s physical therapist to tape it for her and she made him promise not to tell Lodinski anything. He wasn’t too keen on that at first and he didn’t think it was a good idea to dance on it already again either but then Georgia was forced to use her secret weapon. Her looks. She flashed him a sexy smile while she swore she would go see the company doctor after rehearsals and that did the trick. Like it always did.

She managed to hide her taped ankle underneath her leg warmer and started doing warm up exercises that hurt so bad that she had to blink against tears several times. But she was sure she just had to get through the worst pain before it would get better and all would be fine. And she would rather feel this pain that tell Lodinski about her misstep, and the missteps before it that caused this particular one.

Soon after that she turned as white as a ghost and everything else went black.

When she opened her eyes again she found herself in a bed in an unfamiliar room, with Lodinski and a man standing behind her bed. It turned out they brought her to the private section of some NYC hospital, according to Lodinski. Then the doctor started to talk.

“Hey Georgia, I am doctor McQuinnes, how are you feeling?”

She took her time to think about that question before she answered it and then she shrugged her shoulders. “Alright, I think.”

The doctor nodded and asked her if she could sit up. In fact she was really feeling okay so she did what her was told and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She then saw that her foot was no longer taped and twice the size it was supposed to be. Her skin was also no longer only lilac and soft blue, but deep  purple, dark blue, green and even black.

The doctor nodded again as he followed her eyes. “Yes, that’s quite a nasty injury you got there, but I have to examine it and you have to tell me exactly what you feel.”

He started bending her foot in all possible incredibly hurtful directions.

“Yes that all hurts fucking bad,” she managed to say as she squeezed her eyes together and grabbed the mattress tight on each side of her.

She was used to pain. Straps cutting in her skin, blisters, bleeding and torn toenails happened on a weekly basis, and she also strained countless muscles before and she never complained or moaned about anything because it was part of her job. But the pain that now went through her was nothing compared to anything she felt before.

The doctor nodded his typical nod once again. “That’s what I thought. We’re going to keep you here for the night and you will have to take the summer off to rest.”

In a split second she turned her head to look at Lodinski. He hadn’t moved a bit. Maybe he already knew. Georgia started to panic.

“But I can’t, this is my job, people paid to see me, I can’t just take a whole summer off, that’s not possible.”

Lodinski sighed. “Stop it drama queen. It’s either this or go on and destroy your whole career. We can’t take any risks with you Georgia. You are taking the summer off, you are coming back for therapy with Jacque in July and we will start the rehearsals for the winter season in August. End of discussion."

Georgia couldn’t believe it. “But what about… everything?”

“What about it?” Lodinski said. “And let’s be honest, maybe you do need a little break from it all. You haven’t had a proper one in the fifteen years I know you and that is why you became who you are today, but I’d like to keep you around a little longer. Your body is protesting and you need to listen…” He looked at the doctor who nodded his head. “Doctor’s orders,” doctor McQuinnes said.

“But will I be able to walk?” she asked then.

The doctor wrote something down on his clipboard before he looked up at her. “Not for the first week or so you won’t. Then you’ll have to do with crutches but in a month or so, if you do keep your rest, you will be able to walk. That doesn’t mean you will be able to dance or do anything other than walk on it but that speaks for itself.”

She fell back in the cushions. “I think I need a moment on my own to let this sink in,” she said and Lodinski nodded. “Sure, I’ve got work to do anyway. I need to get a message out to the press and find myself a new Princess Aurora before this day is over, I will be back tonight is there anyone we can call?”

She swallowed and sighed. Yes, there was this one person, but that didn’t seem to be an option anymore. “Yasmin,” she said.

Lodinski pulled a face at her. “I know your mind might be a little clouded but she was right there when it happened, she is at your place now to get you something to read and some clean clothes for you to put on when you go home in the morning.”

“Oh that’s right…” she said and she vaguely remembered then how she passed out in the middle of rehearsals. For everyone to see. They must have had the day of their lives.