Page 5 of Spicy Sapphic Christmas

Bea bit back a groan. Surely, Jo hadn’t tried to set her up again?

She watched Jo as she rolled her shoulders and moved her head as she went through her pre-show warm-up.

No.

It couldn’t be a setup. Jo would be excited and energized, sure, but she wouldn’t be primping herself repeatedly and refusing to look Bea in the eye. Her normal MO had always been to butter Bea up with compliment after compliment.

It had to be something to do with the show.

“I’m not really feeling it tonight,” Bea said, blowing her breath out between limp lips.

“What?” Jo spun so quickly Bea wondered if she felt dizzy.

“Yeah. It’s just… I dunno.” Bea shrugged and dropped onto the dark two-seater couch that lined an entire wall of the room. “Maybe it’s the club. There aren’t really many people here, and the energy just isn’t working for me.”

“Of course it’s working. You have to give it a chance.” Jo perched herself at the edge of the couch, scooping up one of Bea’s hands as she did. “There are lots of people out there.”

“Doesn’t sound like many more have come in since we arrived.” Bea wasn’t the biggest fan of playing these games, but she also knew demanding any harder with Jo would get her exactly nowhere.

“Oh, there will be.” Jo smiled so wide that Bea was certain her head shook with the excitement.

“It’s Julianna’s. It doesn’t exactly pull a crowd.” Bea wrung her fingers together, twisting her hands in her lap. These games never made her feel good.

Jo looked down at her hands, teeth pressing down on her lower lip. There would definitely be lipstick on her pearly whites now.

“It’ll be a great show. I promise. And you never know who might show up. I’ve heard that agents of all levels frequent the smaller clubs looking for new talent.”

Bea closed her eyes. Jo was a truly terrible liar. In truth, that was one of her saving graces. Bea knew when she could trust Jo’s words and when there was a second layer of truth hiding beneath.

“Oh, Jo.” Bea gave up the act and pinned Jo with her eyes as she looked up. “What’ve you gotten us into this time?”

“What makes you think I’ve gotten us into anything?” Jo’s hand reached up to her ear, gently tugging on the lobe.

“That.” Bea smiled as she pointed at Jo’s hand.

“Damn it.” Jo pulled her hand away from her ear, glaring at it as though it were the enemy.

“So what did you do?” Bea asked as she stood and stepped up to the mirror. She had already checked herself and felt comfortable to step on stage. But she used the movement to bite back the frustrations that always rose in her head at how her looks compared to Jo’s.

As much as she told herself she was comfortable with the way she looked, she wasn’t.

And the deeper they got into the business, the worse the pressure to conform became.

“It’s not a bad thing.” Jo was right behind her. Her energy now had a nervous edge to it, which meant she was worried Bea was going to be angry.

Bea felt Jo’s breath on her bare neck and closed her eyes.

“What isn’t a bad thing?” She was resigned to whatever this new drama was.

“You know Siena Frazee?”

“The agent that represents Bunny and Piper?” Bea turned to stare at Jo, but not before she caught her own wide eyes in the reflection.

“The one and the same.” Jo grabbed both of Bea’s hands in her own and squeezed. “Well, she’s supposed to come here tonight and check us out. See if she wants to take us on as her new client.”

“What?” The word boomed out around the room and bounced back to Bea’s ears with a dissonance that made her wince.

“It’s a good thing,” Jo assured, though she still worried her lower lip. “She’s at least heard of us, which is amazing. It means we’re finally getting some traction, and if she likes us tonight, this could be it. This could be what we’ve been working for.”

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