Page 38 of Dance for Me
“Hi!” Stella squeaks from the far side of the room, sitting comfortably on the end of Sadie’s loveseat like she’s done this a hundred times before.
Has she?
Stella is almost unrecognizable without her signature kiss curls and glossed pink lip. Instead, she is sporting a slicked back ponytail, an oversized yellow sweatshirt, no makeup that I can see and flawless skin that I could murder her for.
I’m just staring at her, watching the bright smile droop lower and lower on her face until she abandons my stare entirely and alternates her gaze between me and Sadie, unsure of the safest place to look.
Honey, it’s not at me.
“If you want alone time I can leave, I didn’t mean to intrude…” stammers Stella, who is immediately cut off by a shockingly stern Sadie.
“Absolutely not.”
At this I whip around, I was sure that when I heard theabsolutely, it would be in agreement that this was some kind of overlap in planning and Stella should be taking her leave forthe evening. Sadie is pinning me with a cold stare, pointing at the spot next to Stella on the loveseat, far too close to one another for my liking, and based on the color rising high on Stella’s cheekbones, she also isn’t keen on being that up close and personal.
“Sadie…it might be best if we talk about things alone,” I say, widening my eyes in emphasis so she can catch my drift.
“Enough of this. Harper, I love you, but I need to talk to someone who isn’t my sister, Grant, or my sponsor. Remember we talked about this whole making new friends thing? I wasn’t kidding. Now sit down, stop scowling, and make a new friend.”
And with that, my ass finds the seat.
She’s not wrong. I knew she had other people in her life besides me. I just didn’t realize one of those people was also one of my employees, and I don’t really know how to navigate this. How much does she know about what's been going on? Is she even trustworthy? From everything Wade told me today, at least one person at the club has already betrayed me. What if this blonde little phony is part of the bigger scheme, and she’s been using my sister all along?
I can feel my anger rising the longer I sit here simmering in the worst-case scenarios.
“Fine, then tell me Sadie, how much have you shared with your littlefriend,” I say, emphasizing the word friend as I lean back in the chair deciding if I'm going to be tortured with socializing, I might as well do my best to be comfortable. My instincts have never screamed at me to be wary of Stella, but I've been wrong before. I remember the day she started atCirque. Sadie came back from a business trip with a singer in tow and a contract already signed. I remember having a list of questions to ask her, all of which were either dismissed by Sadie as not necessary or forgotten the moment the first note of a slowed down rendition ofUnholyplayed. Her first few months went by in a blur, she mostly kept to herself, always a little quiet,reserved even. She always took the seat furthest from the group in meetings, seeming to like that safety in distance. But recently, she's seemed lighter, happier every time she steps on stage. She’s always sang with heart, but now she sings with soul and passion she didn’t let out before. Sadie tends to have that effect on people, turning a storm cloud into a rain dance.
If she was getting information out of my sister to fuck me over, then of course she would be happy. I can't help the thoughts that surface, though she's given me no reason to question her, no reason to doubt her loyalty toCirque,or to my sister. She's done nothing to earn my vitriol and suspicion, and yet she has it all the same.
Her hand flexes and relaxes a few times against her thigh, before she pulls her purse from the floor up to her lap as she answers for Sadie. She digs through the purse as she speaks, trying to keep her hands busy, but she doesn’t look nervous now, she looksdetermined.
“I know everything. I know about the drugs being in the bottom of the crates. That you, Sadie and Wade are the only ones that know about it right now since you don’t know who on the staff may have been involved. Sadie told me all the transactions and invoice orders have your name on them, so everything appears to have been signed off by you for this unscheduled and obviously unplanned order.” She pulls out a small tube of chapstick and begins to apply it as she continues. “Sadie told me about it after the first day you found the stash in the crates, and I have beenhereevery day with her since. I know you don’t trust easily, and no, Sadie didn’t need to tell me that. It’s obvious. So if you want to look through my phone, tablet, bank statements, and anything else you can think of…you’re welcome to it. I am here for Sadie, I do notneedyour permission to support her and be her friend, but it would be nice to have all the same,” Stella reaches back into the bag and pulls out her phone, her key fob for work and what appears to be anapartment key and tablet. She holds them out to me, an offering and olive branch, wrapped up in a blonde bombshell.
Fine, she doesn’t suck.
I shake my head at her offer. “If Sadie trusts you…then I can try to,” she nods her head and then puts her belongings back into the purse and lowers it back onto the floor, taking a big breath. A few seconds too soon, blondie. “Plus, fucking me over is one thing. But if you hurt Sadie, I’ll just kill you.”
Out of the corner of my eye I can see Sadie throw her hands up, muttering something about this being why she can’t have nice things. Stella on the other hand, hasn’t broken eye contact, just simply nods in understanding.
Then she looks up at Sadie briefly and smiles, looking back to me and nods again and I realize it for what it is. More than an understanding. She won’t be the one to hurt my sister, but she would be happy to join me in handing out punishment to anyone guilty of it.
I nod back once.
“Sadie, calm down and come back. Everything is good. I’m making friends, see. Though I don’t know why you felt the need to include the Colton problem in with the rest of the info,” which somehow feels more embarrassing than being framed as a drug dealer.
“Oh that wasn’t Sadie, that’s just being a human with eyes,” Stella snorts into her water. Sadie comes back over to where we sit and flops into the couch to our left, kicking her legs up to prop her feet onto the other end.
I roll my eyes, keeping my lips pressed tight in the hopes I can plead the fifth.
“I still don’t see what the problem is. And don’t bother with thehe’s my employeespeech again.” She waves a hand towards Stella. “Clearly everyone already thinks you two are together and doesn’t have issues with it, so that isn’t really a valid excuse anymore.”
“First of all, it was never anexcuse. It was a very real concern. As a man, he would be praised for bagging the boss and as a woman, I would be dragged through the mud for having a relationship with my assistant, even if everything was above board. It wouldn’t matter. I would be a walking cliché.” Not only would I be risking the respect of the rest of the team atCirque, but the real danger is outside of the club, lurking beyond the gilded gates separating the tented entrance and reality.
I can see Sadie’s mouth open, ready to fight on one or two of my points, so I don’t pause long enough to give her an opening.
“It doesn’t matter, he thinks this is what he wants, but he doesn’t really understand what he would be getting himself involved with,” I can feel the insecurity at the end of the sentence, a new inflection that I don’t care for.
Anyone that I’ve ever been with since openingCirquehas only ever been for simple, casual, meaningless fun. Nothing of substance. No one to care about how my image would shape their perception from others, or what whispered rumor they would have to deal with day in and day out. They never mattered enough to wonder what shadows would follow them home at night and what nightmares would wake them because of who they came home to. It changes you, becoming a walking weapon and constant target.
