The Tchaikovsky Affair (13 page)

“Hey now. Is that a way to treat your girlfriend on our anniversary?”

“Oh, is it our anniversary today? Must have slipped my mind,” Jackie grinned down at the blonde.

Shannon
opened her mouth to retort with a witty comeback, when the kids started pushing through the tiny space between her leg and the doorway.

“Say ‘excuse me’ to Ms.
McClintock!” Jackie demanded.

“Excuse me, Ms.
McClintock,” they chorused, before attempting to barge past her once again. They all recognized her, because she would often come in to duet with Jackie, which the kids loved.

“No running!”
Jackie called after them as they scurried down the hall to get to their homerooms.

“Hi,”
Jackie said, leaning down to peck Shannon on the lips now that the students were out of sight. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Well, since my concert’s tonight, I won’t be able to see you until after midnight, and I wanted to be able to spend some time with you on our anniversary. So I brought lunch!”
Shannon grinned, holding up a bag of Chinese take out. “And flowers!” she added, bringing her hand out from behind her back.

Jackie
beamed at Shannon’s enthusiasm and thoughtfulness, while taking the bag of lunch and setting it on the table. She was about to thank her girlfriend for the flowers, when she actually noticed the absurd little bouquet Shannon was holding. Two beautiful flowers stood proudly in the middle, wrapped by a wiry purple flower and something that looked a lot like some sort of grain.

“I’m usually not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but uh…is that wheat?”

Shannon laughed brightly. “It’s oats!” she replied as if it were the most obvious choice of flower for an anniversary. “According to the florist, it means music.”

“Okay…”
Jackie said, wondering if the blonde was going to explain further.

“This one is a
hyacinth,” she explained, pointing to the elegant, white, tubular flower in the middle. “I liked it at first because it sounds like your name, but then she explained that the red ones symbolize love and happiness, I knew it was perfect, because that is exactly what you have brought me.

“This one represents me,” she continued, pointing at the bright orange star-shaped flower. “It’s a day lily, which symbolizes cheerfulness and enthusiasm.”

“It’s beautiful, thank you,” Jackie replied, dropping another kiss on Shannon’s lips.

“Not done yet! So these two flowers represent us, and as you see, they’re wrapped in the music flower, which is what brought us together. And this,”
Shannon paused to point to the bristly purple flower, “is a passion flower. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what that stands for,” Shannon finished, lowering her voice suggestively at the end.

A short burst of laughter exploded from
Jackie’s mouth as she pawed at Shannon’s hips, bringing their bodies together. “You’re adorable, thank you.”

Shannon
snaked her free hand around Jackie’s neck to pull her down in a kiss that probably shouldn’t have happened within the walls of an elementary school.

“
Mmm, close the door,” Jackie mumbled against Shannon’s lips.

Shannon
pulled back abruptly, trying to look Jackie in the eye. “Wait, seriously?”

“No, not that! I just wanted to eat lunch with my girlfriend in peace without some little munchkin coming in to ask if they can get an extra sticker. Oh! Speaking of which, I have something for you.”

Shannon shut the door before coming back to sit at the extra chair next to Jackie’s desk, while Jackie shuffled through a drawer to find the gift.

“Okay, so your real gift is coming later tonight, but I saw these online a while ago and thought you needed to have some,”
Jackie said with a mischievous glint in her eye. Shannon quirked her head to the side before taking the envelope. Opening the envelope, she allowed five slips of thick paper to fall into her hand.

“You got me stickers? For my case?”

“Yes, because I know how much you love mine.”

Shannon
groaned as she flipped through the stickers. She giggled at the first one: a picture of a violin with a butterfly flying around it. The second had the words “Kiss me, I’m a violinist” printed on it with red lips. The third was a warning label that read “Danger: Hot Violinist”.

“I can’t put these stickers on my case,
Jacinta,” Shannon chided with a huge smile on her face. “Well, maybe the butterfly one, but I have to maintain some semblance of professionalism.”

“Okay, fine, but look at the last one!”

As Shannon flipped over the danger sign, she came to one that said, “Cellist by day, rock star by night.”

“Oh, I bought that one for myself!”
Jackie grinned, grabbing the sticker out of Shannon’s hands.

This just left one that had a picture of a cello and a violin displayed in the middle of two bass clef symbols, one of which had been inverted so that they formed a heart.

“Who knew the bad ass Jacinta Ortiz was such a cheesy romantic?” Shannon asked rhetorically with a dimpled smile. “I will definitely put this one on my case.”

They continued their playful and loving banter while they ate, grateful for the rare free time they had in each other’s company.

“Crap, I have 5th grade orchestra in 10 minutes,” Jackie said finally.

“That’s okay, I have to go back to my place and get ready for tonight anyway.”

“Ah yes, the big debut of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. You nervous?” Jackie goaded.

“Please,
Shannon McClintock doesn’t get nervous. I’m awesome.”

“You are awesome, and I can’t wait to see the performance tonight. And more specifically, I can’t wait to see what dress you wear.”

*
              *              *

Jackie made her way through the bustling lobby of Avery Fisher Hall to get to her seat in the most sought after booth, which would give her the perfect view of Shannon. She had spent so long fussing about her own appearance and trying to pick out the perfect dress that she was just barely in her seat when the lights flashed to signify that the concert would start in a few minutes.

She impatiently sat through the first half. She was enjoying watching her former colleagues play, especially
Stacey who had been moved up to principal cello in Jackie’s absence, but the lack of a hot blonde violinist on stage was making her lose interest.

Soon enough, though, the musicians were once again taking their places on stage for the second half. As the audience waited patiently for
Shannon and Maestro Gallo to walk on stage, Jackie felt her muscles tensing and palms sweating from sheer excitement. When Shannon finally stepped on stage wearing an elegant jade dress that hugged her curves perfectly, Jackie thought her heart might actually beat of her chest. Shannon walked to the middle of the stage and Jackie finally noticed that the sides of her dress had a couple cut outs, some of her skin only covered by lacy mesh. Jackie groaned audibly, wondering how she was going to survive the next half hour.

As was to be expected,
Shannon played the familiar melody flawlessly. For most of the solo, Shannon kept her eyes closed, swaying into her violin every so often. Watching her girlfriend perform so sensuously was almost too much for Jackie to take. Jackie bit down on her bottom lip to keep from making any noise. She wondered what Shannon was imagining when she closed her eyes.

During one particular passage,
Shannon played several long, soaring notes. She opened her eyes and instantly sought out Jackie’s box, which was fairly well lit as it was next to the stage. Jackie smiled to her encouragingly, and they locked eyes for a few moments while Shannon’s pace began to quicken. It was almost as if in that moment that the rest of the orchestra or the audience didn’t exist. Soon, the intensity of their gaze got to be too much, and Shannon once again closed her eyes and turned to face the center of the audience.

Jackie
’s breathing was becoming more and more ragged. She internally berated herself for getting so worked up. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t watched Shannon play before, but this performance was conjuring up memories from the opening night of their duet, their public display, and the celebration that followed it.

Lost in her thoughts,
Jackie almost didn’t notice that the piece had ended. She leapt to her feet with the rest of the audience, cheering loudly. After just a few seconds of applause, she rushed out of the concert hall to make her way backstage. Enough stagehands recognized her that she was allowed access to Shannon’s dressing room. She paced around the room waiting for the incessant curtain calls to be finished.

She grinned as she heard
Shannon’s lilting voice thanking someone for his compliment. As soon as the door opened, Jackie was on the blonde, attacking her lips with frightening ferocity and practically mauling her face. Shuffling them over to the counter so that she could safely put her violin down, Shannon reacted with equal intensity.

Finally pulling away,
Shannon asked, “So I take it you enjoyed the performance?”

“You. Are. Amazing.”
Jackie replied, punctuating each word with a kiss. “And this dress…God, this dress. Were you trying to make me have a heart attack?”

“You’re looking pretty sexy yourself,”
Shannon giggled, pinching Jackie’s butt playfully. Jackie groaned and rocked her hips into Shannon’s in an emphatically less playful manner.

“Let’s get out of here,”
Jackie whispered, before tugging gently on Shannon’s ear with her teeth.

“I thought you’d never ask,”
Shannon replied, whisking around to pack her violin as quickly as possible.

As they walked out of Lincoln Center,
Shannon tugged Jackie towards the side of the block where it was easiest to hail a cab.

“No, we’re going this way,”
Jackie said, pulling the blonde in an opposite direction.

“Um, as much as I’m enjoying this nice weather, I really just want to get you back to my apartment and out of those clothes as fast as humanly possible.”

“Just trust me,” Jackie intoned, leading them up Columbus Avenue. After a few blocks, they turned right, heading towards Central Park. At about the halfway point, they stopped at an apartment complex. Shannon cocked her head as Jackie expertly unlocked the front door and lead them to an elevator.

“What are we doing here?”

“You’ll see,” Jackie replied cryptically, pushing the button in the elevator car for the top floor. When the elevator doors slid open, Jackie led them towards one of the two doors and once again used a key to open it. Inside the door was an unfurnished spacious two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with a full kitchen, living room, balcony, and roof patio.

“What is all this?”
Shannon asked after she had stopped gasping and gawking at the large apartment.

“It’s my new apartment. Well, actually I’m hoping it’s
our
new apartment. It’s ridiculous that I’m practically living at your apartment while still owning one on Long Island, and this is just a short subway ride from school and just a few blocks from the Lincoln Center, so I thought…”

“It’s perfect! Say that again.”

“Say what again?”

“What you said at the beginning.”

“Ummm…it’s ridiculous that I basically live at your apartment?”

“No, the other part.”

“That this is my new apartment,” Jackie smiled, catching on to Shannon’s questioning.

“Hmmm, no, the part in between,”
Shannon said, walking towards the brunette.

“Our apartment?”

“Our apartment,” Shannon confirmed, stopping just inches from Jackie. “I like the sound of that.”

Jackie
reached out to pull her closer. When her hands rested on Shannon’s hips, she felt the mesh fabric under her thumbs and groaned, remembering her thoughts from earlier.

“When you closed your eyes while you were playing, what were you thinking about?”
Jackie asked, nuzzling the blonde’s neck.

“I was thinking about our first time,”
Shannon blushed. “Your naked body pressed against my back while you played and I touched myself.”

Jackie
moaned into Shannon’s skin at the thought. “Seriously? If I had known that I actually might not have made it out of the theater alive.” Jackie tugged on Shannon’s hand, leading her to several blankets she had laid out earlier in the middle of the otherwise bare living room.

“So you thought I was a foregone conclusion, huh?”
Shannon asked coyly, while stepping backwards and unzipping her dress, letting the green material fall to the floor and revealing that she had been wearing no underwear all night. Jackie’s eyes went wide and she quickly reached for the hem of her own dress to join Shannon in her state of undress.

“Just shut up,”
Jackie replied, pushing Shannon gently back on to the blankets. Lowering herself on top of the smaller woman, Jackie positioned her knee in between Shannon’s thighs, eliciting a moan. She began kissing her way down Shannon’s body, but as soon as she reached her bellybutton, Shannon pushed her back up into a sitting position. She made quick work of removing Jackie’s bra and underwear, before attaching her lips and hands to Jackie’s breasts.