In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

"I'm still growing."
"Jesus Christ! You can have my croissant with your tea, then."
She pushed both the cup and the plate with the splayed croissant
towards Penny.
"I did not know you were Christian, Ula," Signora said.
"I'm Taoist, actually."
"Really?" Signora scoffed.
Penny absentmindedly spread the lump of jam across the
croissant, still groggy from the night's cozy dreamless sleep and prebreakfast
love-romp.
"Oggi, lavoriamo. Today, we work," Sandro announced as he
got up, folding his napkin by his plate.
They were to spend the day in the studio on the top floor.
There were no radiators, just an electric heater that made a
racket every ten minutes or so when it woke up. R2D2 with an attitude.
Ula stretched at the barre. Penny set up camp in the corner by the old
standup piano, away from flying figures, but with a view. On top of the
piano were bottles of Evian, towels and energy bars. She sat on the
floor ensconced in one of Sandro's sweaters, the sleeves rolled up, with
her purged laptop on the floor between her knees. Ula was in her black
cashmere unitard, Sandro in a fresh assortment of dun colored dance
rags. Either he had stretched earlier or he was going to take it easy.
Ula went through battements and developpés at the barre then
moved into the center for jumps. Sandro's phone rang. "Dude!
Whassup ah?" He walked to the window by the barre nodding to Max
at the other end of the line.
"Score? Aah!" He chuckled and looked out the window,
scratching his head. He turned back to the room. "Hey, dude, we're
practicing, I can't talk now, okay? Ciao."
From practicing jumps, grand jeté en tournant, and jeté en
devant Ula moved on to combinations. Sandro watched, tapping out
the beat with his foot all the while.
Then, he sprang up and flew back, spinning through the air and
landed on both feet with a light spring, wincing and out of breath but
obviously quite happy with himself, for that explosive maneuver had
been flawlessly executed. He didn't look about to try any more, though.
"This is the most difficult of all the jumps, not across the stage
like Nijinsky, but about the precision. Cabriole à la quatrième dèrrière."
Ula pouted. "Show off! Okay, so turning jumps is your thing.
My favorite is Brisé volé."
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