Show Up, page 1
Show Up
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Her Pregnant Rival
Seraph's Burlesque Club
Show Up (Coming Soon)
Show Off (Coming Soon)
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Also By Renee Dahlia
Show Up (Seraph's Burlesque Club, #1)
About the author
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Author Notes
All Books by Renée Dahlia
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Also By Renee Dahlia
Show Up
Renée Dahlia
A fake date ... a real secret
An invitation to her ex's wedding is the icing on a crappy cake for burlesque dancer Yolande. Her ex ghosted her just as they were about to take the stage for their neo-burlesque act. Yolande’s friends at Seraph's Burlesque Club persuade her that attending will show her ex that she's moved on. She just needs a date.
Shy bartender Reiko has a secret, or two. She can't risk anyone discovering that her life as a penniless PhD student and bartender is a sham. And even though she's been in love with Yolande since forever, when Yolande needs a plus-one to save face at her ex’s wedding, Reiko knows any fantasy of romance is just that - fantasy. Yolande will never notice the way Reiko looks at her.
When the drama of the wedding reveals a spark of attraction between them, Reiko will have to risk her fake identity for the hope of real love.
- found family
- fake dating
- friends to lovers
- only one bed
About the author
Renée Dahlia is an unabashed romance reader who loves feisty women and strong, clever men. Her books reflect this, with a side note of awkward humour. Renée has a science degree in physics. When not distracted by the characters fighting for attention in her brain, she works in the horse-racing industry doing data analysis and writing magazine articles. When she isn’t reading or writing, Renée spends her time with her partner and four children, usually watching them play cricket.
For everyone with multiple careers who don’t really know what they want to do with their life. It’s okay not to know.
Foreword
Welcome to SHOW UP, the first book in the Seraph’s Burlesque Club series.
This series consists of three lesbian romances is set in a burlesque club in London. If you love to read about a found family with queer people who thrive, this series has that and more. This book is friends to lovers with a high heat level, fake dating, only one bed, and a fun heist.
Please note that this book is set in a post-COVID London where everyone is vaccinated. There will be some references to the pandemic. There are also references to a character’s mother dying in a car crash prior to the book, and a minor discussion of racism.
If you are keen to keep up to date on new releases and, more importantly, sales, I recommend you sign up to my newsletter, or follow me on social media.
Social Media Links
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I hope you enjoy reading this book!
Renée
Chapter 1
“Can you grab some more beers from the store room before Yolande and Helen go on?”
Reiko nodded in response to Steph’s question and walked away from the noise of a busy Seraph’s Burlesque Club, down the hallway towards the cold store room out the back of the bar. Londoners had embraced being allowed to go back to the pub with a vengeance. If people had ever doubted Londoners’ love for a drink with friends, there was no doubt now. The club scene thrived, and most people weren’t fussed about having to show their digital vaccination card before entering, because at least they could get out of their bloody homes.
Yolande and Helen were one of the most popular acts, with many regulars who would need refreshments after their set. Their modern neo-burlesque style with Helen in top hat and tails while Yolande wore frilly summer frocks quickly became an act of bondage as they revealed the leather corsets and steam-punk chains underneath. Crowds loved them. Each layer of their dance had wide appeal, especially with the groups of young men who fetishized lesbians. Ahh well, burlesque was all about the tease and those young men spent a good amount of money every evening. Reiko, like all the staff here, was adept at ignoring that nonsense. And while they were the worst part of the crowd, there were many others who genuinely loved watching two women kiss; people like Reiko who could only be free to be herself here at Seraph’s. Was it really freedom if she kept secrets wherever she went? Her family didn’t know about this part of her life and her friends had no clue who her family was, and her PhD supervisor knew nothing about her at all.
Reiko picked up the box of expensive craft beer bottles from the cold store and made her way along the narrow corridor past the dancer’s dressing rooms back to the bar. A wail rang out from one of the dressing rooms, and she paused to listen. If she had to bet, she’d guess the hysterical sobs came from Yolande, although that made zero sense because she’d bounced in here happy to be back on stage with Helen.
Yolande being upset was so out of character that Reiko almost dropped the case of beer she carried. Reiko loved Yolande’s enthusiasm for life. During the hardest parts of the lockdown, Yolande’s joie de vivre had kept them all from the pits of despair over the plight of the world. She placed the beer on the floor and leaned against the wall, ready to help.
“You can’t let her bad choice ruin your act.” The calm voice from Seraph’s owner, Beth, belied her words. Whose bad choice? Helen’s?
“But she’s gone. Forever. I loved her.” Yolande sobbed, each word cutting at Reiko’s heart. Helen had quit dancing? Reiko gasped—not just quit dancing—by the sound of Yolande’s anguish, Helen must be injured or even dead. Gone. That’s what Yolande said. Reiko wanted to rush in there and wrap Yolande up in a big hug, but she scoffed at herself. Yolande’s relationship wasn’t her business. Reiko was just the kitty, who picked up all the discarded costumes and did all the awful jobs no one else wanted. She was everyone’s shoulder to cry on, their friend when needed, and the quiet one who everyone ignored when they didn’t need her. Damn, she sounded bitter. A little unrequited admiration for Yolande shouldn’t unbalance her like that. She chose this job and she loved it here. She leaned down to pick up the beers and get back to work.
“Get on stage and prove her wrong. She left and you can do this without her.” Beth’s sharp tone cut through Yolande’s sob. It stopped Reiko mid-bend. How catastrophic of her to assume Helen was dead. She’d quit. Like Beth said, Helen had made a bad choice. What dreadful timing. Reiko wanted to say that she’d never liked Helen anyway, but it wasn’t true. Helen could be a pain in the arse at times, but she was usually nice to everyone. The reality was that Reiko had always been jealous of Helen. Helen, who got to kiss Yolande and go home with her after the show. Helen, who had amazing tits and a glamorous body. Serenity Busts was Helen’s stage name, and her Christmas special where she’d pole-danced to a remix featuring the famous Seinfeld Serenity Now joke had been one of their most popular online shows.
“Come on. Wash your face. Let’s do your makeup and then you can go out there and slay the crowd. Give them the show of your life, and afterwards, Reiko or Steph will make you a drink. You can cry later.” Beth’s no-nonsense approach must have worked because there were no more sobs. A guilty flush tracked over the back of Reiko’s neck. She shouldn’t have heard any of that; it was none of her business. She picked up the case of beer and hustled back to the bar.
“What took you so long?” Steph looked a bit stressed.
“Sorry.” Reiko opened the box and stacked the beers in the fridge behind the bar. When she stood up, she blinked. Crowds lined the bar. “Hi, who is next?” She smiled at the group of people lining the bar and got to work.
Hours later, Reiko’s feet ached, and she wanted to sit down and take off her practical shoes. She should book a massage, or a pedicure, or both for tomorrow to soothe her sore feet. Standing all evening wasn’t the best for her feet or her back. She heard the whisper of Mum’s voice asking why she did it when she didn’t have to, and she welcomed the slight ache in preference to her family’s expectations for her life.
“Well done, Reiko.” Steph held up her palm and Reiko gave her a half-hearted high five.
“It’s good to be busy.” It really was, and her sore feet were a good reminder that Seraph’s Burlesque Club might just survive. She needed this place as much as it needed her; this was her found family. E veryone made her feel welcome in a way that her family didn’t, and she’d never really felt like she belonged in her other work either. She shook off the usual annoyance at her PhD supervisor. Things were supposed to be better now that she was a doctoral student; she had more autonomy over her research. Yes, she’d picked a topic that wasn’t very fashionable or popular, but it mattered to her. It was trendy to be vegan, and yet many of the most popular influencers were hugely problematic. A couple of years ago, when the Black Lives Matter movement had peaked, it’d been easy to convince her supervisor that it would be worthwhile to investigate racism among the vegan movement, but now everyone wanted to pretend that racism had been solved and her research was suddenly deemed irrelevant. All of which meant it was more relevant than ever before. She sighed; being here at Seraph’s gave her a break from the stress of having to prove her topic worthy.
“Hey, we just pulled a record take tonight.” Beth bundled Steph into a hug. “You did a great job managing the bar. That’s our best taking since... before.” Everyone knew what the pause meant; before the pandemic had fucked everything. The whole world had some form of PTSD, Reiko was sure of it, and the ongoing nuances and impacts would keep social science and psychotherapy researchers busy for years.
“It was a team effort. Poor Reiko must have done a million trips to the store room tonight to keep the front bar stocked. And Jack’s show really held the crowd together after Yolande’s disaster.”
“Steph.” Reiko didn’t want to hear anyone talk negatively about Yolande after her show tonight. Yes, she’d missed a couple of cues and fumbled over her costume and bolted from stage at the end leaving their MC Charlie, The Gloved Gatsby, to cover up with some clever jokes. Yolande was nowhere to be seen, so Reiko slipped out while everyone was congratulating each other on a good night. She knocked gently on the dressing room door.
“Yeah?”
“Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Yolande’s sigh filled the air as Reiko pushed the door open.
“Are you okay?” Reiko knew the answer was no before she even asked the question, but there was no other way to begin.
Yolande blinked once, her dark brown eyes filled with the sheen of unspilled tears. “Not really.”
“I’m so sorry to hear about Helen.”
“Thanks.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Yolande frowned. “Yeah. Have you seen my blue lace agate crystal? I’ve searched everywhere.”
“No, sorry.”
“My show was a total disaster without it.”
“It wasn’t a total disaster.” Only a series of small hiccups, ones that were covered up by the really good team who worked the stage.
“Reiko. You’ve seen enough burlesque to know a disaster when you see one. Don’t try to smooth this over. I’ve lost my lover, my dance partner, and my lucky crystal tonight. I couldn’t cope if you lied to me as well.”
Reiko nodded slowly. “Obviously, it wasn’t your best performance, but I’m being honest when I say it wasn’t a disaster. Remember that time Sassy Pearl threw up on the pianist? That was a disaster.”
Yolande laughed, then pinched her lips together. “Oh my God. Poor girl. She got so drunk before her first performance and it all went wrong.”
“And you know what? Even that wasn’t a disaster. Charlie did a wonderful job in making the crowd empathise with her, the show went on, and the piano was eventually cleaned. We’re all here for you, Yolande.”
“Thank you.” Her shaky sigh filled the air. “That does help.”
“Anytime. Do you want to come and join the others for a drink? We’ve had a great night and Beth wants to celebrate.”
“No. I might head home.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Reiko thought Yolande shared a flat with Helen. “Friends don’t let friends hurt alone.”
Yolande jumped up and wrapped Reiko in a hug without any warning, so Reiko had no time to prepare herself for the sensory onslaught. Heat flushed across her skin, and she breathed out slowly to steady her heart. The hug meant nothing. Well, nothing like she wanted it to mean, anyway.
“Thanks for thinking of me. You are a good friend. Maybe one drink. Come on.” Yolande sprang away as fast as she’d hugged Reiko and if it wasn’t for the flash of emotion on her face, it would have been easy to assume that everything was as fine as Yolande obviously wanted it to be. Burlesque dancers were fantastic actors, and the way Yolande easily fell into her role as the life of the party annoyed Reiko. Annoyed? No, it really bugged her. She was worried for Yolande.
“Are you coming?” Yolande poked her head back inside the dressing room, and Reiko nodded.
“Yes, of course.” It took Reiko a while to recentre herself—especially after the hug—before she walked the short distance back to the bar. The crew at Seraph’s loved a good hug and it’d taken Reiko a while to get accustomed to it coming from a non-demonstrative family. Now she loved it, the quiet comfort of a body pressed against her without the confusion of desire. She could even hug Yolande like that if she had a moment to prepare herself. Everyone here was so loving and friendly, and she needed them more than anything else. The sounds of everyone’s conversation flowed around her like a warm blanket in winter, and she popped behind the bar to pour herself a glass of rosé.
“I can’t believe she just left like that.” Charlie had been the one to introduce Helen to Yolande. Charlie always believed the best in people, so it wasn’t a surprise that Charlie wouldn’t believe that Helen was capable of being selfish and hurtful. Reiko breathed in deep—it was a good way to live life, as if people were genuine—and given Charlie’s background, it had to be a deliberate choice.
Yolande shrugged. “I only know what you guys know. I arrived here tonight and Beth told me Helen had called to say she wasn’t going to dance anymore. She was sorry to leave Beth in the lurch but that was it.” The unsaid comment that Helen hadn’t had the guts to talk to Yolande directly could be read on everyone’s faces, from Jack’s wide eyes, Ace’s sneer, and Beth’s frown.
“She just ghosted you?” Charlie asked.
Reiko cleared her throat. “Technically it’s not ghosting if she called Beth.”
“Reiko. I don’t think technicalities are going to help right now.” Ace laughed, and Reiko tried not to cringe at the notion. She hadn’t meant to make a joke if it might hurt Yolande.
“Yeah. It’s a crappy thing to do either way.”
“I think we all agree on that.” Beth coughed. “I have some other news to share and it’s not great. I wanted to wait until after the show to share with everyone.”
Almost everyone groaned in a collective worried noise that echoed around the empty room. The phonics in there were designed for a crowd, not for a few mates standing at the bar chatting after a show.
“Get on with it then.” Yolande gulped down the rest of her drink and squared her shoulders. “You may as well tell everyone. It’ll stop me having to tell it over and over again.” There was more in the Helen situation? Reiko wanted to wrap Yolande up in a blanket and make it all go away.
“I figured that you’d want that. And this news, well, it’s going to need us all to stick together.”
“To Seraph’s. Our family.” Ace and Jack lifted their glasses up high. Reiko quietly refilled Yolande’s glass and smiled when Yolande gave her a little nod of thanks.
“Okay. News time. Helen didn’t just quit working for us. She’s given up burlesque forever because...” Beth rolled her fingers on the bar like a fake drum roll.
“Oh come on,” Yolande grumped.
“Helen is getting married and we are all invited to the wedding.” Beth announced this as if it wouldn’t completely devastate Yolande. Reiko rushed around the bar and wrapped her arms around Yolande’s waist. She rested her head between Yolande’s shoulder blades, but it didn’t last. Yolande pushed her away and bolted out of the room, leaving Reiko to stand there while her friends stared awkwardly at her. Now they all knew that she felt more for Yolande than friendship, and she’d been thoroughly rejected. She focused on trying to breathe.
“Helen can’t be serious?” Reiko had to say something to clear the awful silence. Everyone talked at once, with all manner of horror and speculation at Helen’s announcement.
