I woke up to the sound of Teddy's laptop. Someone was Skyping him.    

    "Bloody hell, what time is it?" I heard him mutter.

    I looked at my watch. "8:30," I told him. "It's time for us to get up, anyway."

    "Thought I turned the sound off," he said, reaching for it. "Shit, it's Ronan." He answered it.

    "What the fuck, Ro? It's the ass crack of dawn over here," Teddy said in his gravelly morning voice.

    "WAKE UP, mate!" Ronan shouted, his blond head filling the screen. I scooted over so I could see him too.

    "Good morning, sweetheart," I said, smiling at him.

    "Whoa, Tink," he said, covering the screen with his hand. "Buttons, petal, buttons."

    I looked down, and indeed, I was unbuttoned, nearly all the way down, showing way more than I ever wanted Ronan to see. Teddy quickly buttoned me up, laughing.

    "Geth and Matty are joining us in a minute, we have some decisions to make about the Bahamas, remember?" Ronan said.

    "So while we wait, how's New York? Get your audition all sorted?" he asked. "Only I've been that worried, after I heard all that arsehole did to ruin your chances."

    "Thanks for your concern, everything's fine, no problems," I answered him. "I start hard core practices today, in fact, and I feel really good about it."

    "Just so you know, even if you don't win the scholarship, all you have to do is get accepted, petal, the boys and I will gladly pay all your fees, whatever they are, we don't care," Ronan said with a smile. "We support you, whatever you do, it's worth any amount of money to have a doctor in the family."

    This made me tear up, and I had to move out of the frame to grab a tissue. I sat up on the edge of the bed, trying to control my emotions.

    "Where'd she go? Theo?" Ronan was perplexed.

    "You made her cry, idiot," Teddy answered. "She's blowing her nose. You know better than to offer her large sums of money so early in the morning." He turned to rub my back, just as Geth and Matthew rang in.

    I moved back into the frame just as they came online. We all said our good mornings and good afternoons, and made small talk for a few minutes, talking about the past week. It turned out that Matty had actually exchanged information with Allie Northland, and planned to see her again.

    "Yay!" I exclaimed. "I really liked her, Matthew, I'm so glad."

    "Don't get too excited, Tink, we're only going to see a show next time I'm in London, we're not picking out china patterns, as you Yanks like to say," he said with his lovely smile.

    "I don't care, Matty, it's the first time I've seen one of you boys with someone I think is good enough for you," I said.

    Teddy looked over at me. "Very generous of you to approve," he said, crossing his arms and smiling.

    I looked at him, and looked away, saying nothing.

    "Ah, Theo, don't be such a wanker," said Gethin. "She's family, course her opinion matters to us. And I agree with her, by the way, Matthew, I thought Allison was absolutely delightful."

    Matty grinned. "Me too."

    "Asshole," I said to Teddy.

    "Yeah, but you love me anyway," he said, scooping me into his arm, giving me a big, warm kiss on my cheek.

    I made an attempt to shrug his arm off me, but not a very serious one. He smelled so good.

    "So where in the Bahamas do we want to go, boys?" Gethin began. "There are lots of islands there that have the accommodations we need, we just have to decide what we want. Pool, beach access, car, nightlife, housekeeping, full kitchen, AC, airport access?"

    "Yes to all of the above, right?" said Teddy. The other boys agreed, though Matty questioned the necessity of "nightlife". Wouldn't that just be a distraction?

    "Good point," said Ronan. "So not a necessity, but not a deal breaker, either, let's say."

    "And I don't know if you guys have talked to your reps yet, but I heard from mine already," said Matty. "We're not to be 'traveling with or bringing to be in attendance any female partners of a permanent nature'."

    "What in the hell does that mean?" asked Ronan.

    "It means no Tink," said Matty.

    "What?" said Ronan, outraged. "It can't mean that. She works for us. She's our bloody translator."

    "In the Bahamas, Ro?" asked Gethin. "Tink, what is the official language of the Bahamas, anyway?"

    "English," I laughed. "I don't think it's going to be an issue for any of you."

    "Guys, let me talk to Douglas before we get all in an uproar about this," said Teddy. "They're mainly worried about disruptions. Once they realize that she's traveled with us before, that we all know her already and that she's really family, maybe no one will care. So let's just shelve the matter of Birdie for now, yeah?"

    They all agreed.

    "So," said Ronan, rubbing his hands together, "the next item on the agenda has to be Theo's birthday, then, right? It's right around the corner, on the twenty-first. What do you want to do? I say we splash out on a fancy do in New York, since that's where we'll all be, anyway, and we'll be celebrating Tink's scholarship, too, won't we, angel?"

    I looked at Teddy blankly as all hell broke loose .

    "Oh, fuck, Ronan, no." This from Gethin.

    "Ronan, shut up, shut up!" shouted Matthew.

    And just a face palm from Teddy next to me.

    "What's he talking about?" I asked Teddy. "Your birthday's in February, right? February twenty-first?"

    He looked at me and sighed. Then he looked at the screen. "Ronan, I swear, if you were here, I'd staple your bloody mouth shut, Jesus."

    He looked back at me. "We decided, way back when we were in Wales, after Matthew found out about the date of your audition, not to mention when my birthday was to you. I found out, just by chance, that you didn't know when it was, and I thought that it might be easier for you to focus on your audition if you didn't know it was the very next day. So I lied by a month. I didn't know how long we could keep it from you, but it turned out to be very, very easy. You don't look on UKC sites very often, and you just took my word for it."

    "But why?" I asked.

    He touched my face. "I know you. You'd fret about what to get for me, or what to make for me. It would take up your time, your attention, when you should be focused on other, more important things." He looked at the boys on the screen. "We all knew, and we all agreed.

    "And we were almost there, too, until Mr. Big Mouth over there in Ireland went and wrecked it."

    Poor Ronan looked awful. "Fuck me, guys, I feel that bad, I do. I can't believe I forgot. Shit. Why is it always me?"

    "And now she knows we're all going to be there for her audition, too," said Gethin. "We wanted that to be a surprise, little one, didn't want to stress you about it."

    I had to smile. "Well, all the secrets are out now, nothing to be done, right? So Ronan, forget about it, okay? Don't feel bad anymore, please. I can't stand that look on your face. It makes me feel terrible. Please? Smile?"

    He made an attempt. I laughed. "I guess that'll have to do for now," I said. "I'm blowing you a kiss, okay?"

    "Thanks, petal," he said.

    "Well, one thing's for certain," said Matthew. "You aren't to worry about planning anything, okay, Tink? We'll handle everything from our end. We'll figure out some sort of party for Theo's birthday on the twenty-first, and all you have to do is show up, all right?"

    "Okay," I said. "And please, don't tie it in with my audition, promise? I honestly might not get in, and it would just be too sad if I didn't, and you had banners that said 'congratulations' or something. I might just have to kill myself and ruin Teddy's birthday," I said, laughing.

    "I promise," he said with a smile.

    We talked a little longer, comparing notes about what the weather was like in New York compared to the UK. It turned out that it was warmer over there, but the weather in NYC was much nicer, very clear, whereas the UK was having rain and fog. I much preferred blue sky.

    We said goodbye to the boys and headed off to the shower. My online time with Prof Van Dyke began at 11:00 AM, 8:00 AM for him, so I had some time to shower and eat before.

    We took our time in the shower, as usual, and I tried to remember what it was like to shower alone. I had been doing it just six short months ago, surely it shouldn't be too hard to remember? But I already associated the sound of the water and the humid feel of the stall with the feel of him, the smell of him, with sex. I turned into his arms and surrendered myself to him, to his mouth, his hands, his body, closing my eyes and giving my body to him, my heart, my everything.

    After breakfast I headed off to my practice session Professor Van Dyke, while Teddy went back to our room to write for a couple hours. It was a relief to be under the professor's  steady tutelage again, after months of fighting with Richard. I was sure that, on some level, I'd been picking up on his motives, and that's what had been causing the trouble with my music. I'd never had so much trouble with a piece or an instructor before, and I truly believed that his poison had somehow worked its way into our time together.

    Teddy came into the practice room about fifteen minutes before my practice time was up, and I introduced him to the Prof, who seemed pleased to meet him, and stopped our work to talk to him.

    It turned out that he had actually grown up in Hertfordshire, quite close to where the Shelleys now lived, and he enjoyed talking to Teddy about the village close to his parents' house. This was a side of him I'd never seen before; I had a hard time picturing Professor Van Dyke as a little boy, frolicking about Hertfordshire with his dog Wilbur, but Teddy was chatting and joking with him about it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

    We finally all said goodbye, I thanked him, and we agreed to see each other again at the same time tomorrow.

    So," Teddy asked, putting an arm around me as we left the room, "how'd it go? Okay?"

    "Actually, yeah, it was pretty good," I answered. "I feel good.

    "How about lunch?" I proposed. "I'm starving."

    He laughed. "Of course you are," he said, kissing my temple. "What do you feel like?"

    I shrugged. "How about if you choose today?" I said.

    "Italian? I know a pretty good Italian place 'round the corner," he suggested.

    "Ooh, yum," I said, "let's go."

And so our days fell into a pattern, of waking up, showering, eating, and me heading off to practice, him staying in the room to write, then lunch, then spending the afternoon being tourists, much like the previous fall in London, except that this time there was no pernicious Dr. Allen poisoning us. We were ridiculously happy. We went to the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, all of the touristy places.

    One day, when we were out walking, we got caught in the beginnings of a snowstorm, a quick one that was just supposed to pass through, dust the city, and move on.

    I looked up when I saw what seemed to be large particles of ash floating and spinning around us.

    "Teddy, look! It's snowing! On us!" I clapped my gloved hands and held them out, catching snowflakes in my palm.

    "Well, yes, it is snowing, and we are out in it, so some of the snow is going to land on us," he said, laughing.

    We were in Central Park, on one of the myriad footpaths that criss-crossed it; it was late afternoon, and the sky had darkened so gradually that I hadn't noticed. People hurried by, wrapped up in coats and scarves, not even sparing a glance at the beauty that was around them.

    "I've never been out in the snow before," I responded, spinning, as I looked up.

    "What on earth are you talking about? We just came from London. It snowed lots of times! And we were nearly stranded in one of the worst storms of the decade when we were driving back from Wales," he concluded, grabbing me before I tipped over and pulling me in for a hug.

    "No, that was different," I explained, looking at him. Snowflakes were settling on his beautiful eyelashes and his cheeks were turning pink from the cold. He smiled, dimples popping, so handsome it was hard to look at him and breathe.

    "That was different," I repeated, standing close to him. "I watched it snow, once or twice, from in your house, which is not the same as being in it. And the snowstorm we drove home in was horrible, wet, cold, snow."

    "And this snow is what, warm and dry?" he asked, rubbing noses with me.

    It was starting to stick, making everything look like it had been dusted with a fine, white powder. The trees, the leaves on the ground, everything was starting to catch the snow, making the scenery around us look like something from a fairy tale.

    "Stop making fun of me, Shelley," I responded. "I'm from Los Angeles, where it hasn't snowed in at least fifty years. And I only ever went to Tokyo in the summer. So that means that this is, semi-officially, at least, the first time I've ever been out in beautiful snow like this, okay?" I went up on tiptoe to kiss his beautiful mouth, his lips looking like they were made of raspberry ice, made even darker and more luscious by the cold.

    He smiled as he kissed me back, enjoying my pleasure. The park was nearly empty as people headed indoors to beat the "bad" weather; I knew, however, that this wasn't going to be bad. This was just New York, decorating itself in a new way for us to appreciate its beauty.

    "You know, it's really starting to come down," he remarked, looking around. "We should probably head back to the hotel." He looked at me.

    I nodded back at him, reaching for his gloved hand. A horse cab went by, the horse's hooves clopping on the pavement, as they, too, hopefully, headed out of the snow.

    We walked the ten minutes or so back to the Plaza, hand in hand, as the park grew quieter and whiter. We didn't even talk, not needing anything to enhance the experience.