"And a five, six, seven, eight!"
Julia Houston's heeled shoes tapped on the wooden dance floor as she waltzed into the practice room, only five minutes late and still receiving death glares from the stage manager. Look here, she thought. I wrote this damn musical, and all you do is sit there scribbling in your copy of the script. I have a right to be late if I want to be. Instead of starting yet another interesting conversation, however, she settled on scowling and tried to inconspicuously take her seat.
"Glad you could make it, dear," Derek purred, his voice low and close to her ear. She pretended not to notice, reaching for a pen to impatiently flick between her fingers. If there was one thing she didn't want, it was for the rest of the room to be let in on her little fling with Derek. If having an affair was cause for constant battering, having an affair with the director himself might just get her a headline in the New York Times.
Ivy sounded amazing, as always, belting her top notes with ease, but Julia couldn't help but regard her with contempt. She hadn't even remembered that the rising star was supposedly "with" the man with whom Julia had spent the night. If that was true, why wasn't Derek being more careful? Even now, as they watched the 14th try on the same chorus song with decreasing interest, his hand casually rested on the back of her folding chair, moving in barely noticeable circles against her back.
"Talking, last night, were you?" Tom leaned over, speaking through his teeth.
The woman shot him a look, her blue eyes pounding into his.
"You covered for me, didn't you?"
Her best friend, her writing partner, nodded, seemingly annoyed. True, he had a blatant dislike for the man she was secretly with, but she couldn't help but feel his irritation was at something more. She almost laughed in hopelessness at the list of things he could be mad at. Like the fact that she was cheating on Frank, that she hadn't seen Leo in two days, that she was forgetting her lyricist duties for her love life…that she was actually happy for the first time in months, and it had nothing to do with Tom. It made her cringe. He deserved more than that.
"Honey, we'll talk later. Just…leave it alone for now, okay?" Her eyes were pleading for understanding. Despite his aggravation, Tom felt himself having sympathy for the woman, and he leaned close to her ear.
"As long as it's not the type of 'talking' you and Derek do."
He smiled a little lopsidedly and she giggled, happy that he had momentarily forgiven her, that they were back to joking around as always. Even the stage manager seemed less arrogant as she called for a ten minute break. Derek stood suddenly and Julia sat up straighter, her world clouded with love struck melodies and those brilliant hazel eyes. She had fallen, she realized, deeper than she had meant to, but it didn't seem to matter. As long as she could be with him.
"We have ten minutes, you know," she murmured, gazing up at Derek as she stood.
He smirked, raising his eyebrow.
"How fast do you think I am?"
Julia laughed out loud, not caring who saw, not caring who cared. She was happy, truly blissfully happy, and the only thing that could get in the way was…
…was the blond haired man approaching her seat with his sad, innocent eyes, begging her wordlessly to take him back.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Also, I'm keeping this story at a "T" rating to have it accessible to more people, but if you want more, FluffyMareep wrote a lovely little bit of "M" Derek/Julia, so go check it out =) As always, please review!
