Spicy Sapphic Christmas

2. Bea

TWO

bea

Bea watched as Jo raced back and forth in the small space they were using as a changing room. There was barely room for their suitcases, let alone room enough for Jo to have this much energy. It wasn’t as though it was their first gig. In fact it wasn’t even their first gig at Julianna’s. The club was small and a little too heteronormative for Bea’s liking, but she’d agreed easily enough with coming back. Last time hadn’t been anything special, but they had walked away with a decent sum for the evening.

But now, watching Jo flatten down her shirt for the fourth time, alarm bells started to sound in Bea’s mind.

“Jo?” Bea asked. Something else was going on. Bea knew her sister like the back of her hand.

Jo didn’t stop her fussing. She didn’t even seem to hear her name repeated.

“Jo?” Bea tried again, a smile stretching over her face. She had no idea what had turned Jo into hyper-Jo before tonight’s performance, but she couldn’t help smiling. That had always been one of Jo’s gifts. She had this electric energy. It didn’t matter what mood people found her in, they couldn’t help but get swept up in that energy. And being her big sister had never made Bea immune to it.

“Jo.” Bea spoke a little louder, the word coming out crisp and sharp. She had to get Jo’s attention because she was going to pour out all that energy into this instead of the show.

Jo had leaned forward at the dresser, rolling back her lips to check her teeth for the tenth time. But her shoulders stiffened, her eyes darting away instantly when they met Bea’s in the mirror, and that was all it took to confirm to Bea that something else had happened. Something Bea didn’t know about yet. But she would find out. She always did.

Quickly going through her options of how to get this information out of Jo, Bea decided a soft, caring approach was going to work the best for tonight. Her stomach flipped. That look on Jo’s face rarely left her in a good mood. Usually it would cause at the least tension and frustration. At its worst, that look had caused the only fights they’d ever had in the business side of their life. The personal? Well, they were Irish twins, and fighting like cats and dogs was part of the rules.

Bea closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She had been looking forward to having some time off over Christmas, but that look. That look warned her that plans of taking it easy and putting her feet up might be on hold before they even began.

“What’s going on, JoJo?” Bea kept her tone as light as possible, but if Jo was really paying attention, she’d hear the underlying worry there.

“Ugh.” Jo turned around, her long blonde locks flying around her head, the snarl she would no doubt one day be famous for lifting the left side of her top lip. “I hate that name.”

Bea burst out laughing because what else was she going to do? She couldn’t exactly tell Jo that she might actually be able to use JoJo as a good marketing name. The words were on the tip of her tongue before she swallowed them back down.

But Bea also knew her sister very well, and the reaction wouldn’t distract Bea for long.

“What’s going on?” Bea asked again, putting her hands to the sides of her body, palms up, as she awaited an answer.

“What do you mean?” Jo’s snarl turned into a sweet wide-eyed look of innocence. A look that the handful of fans they had were already in love with. Jo was the traditional girl-next-door beauty. Her blonde hair glowed under the spotlights, and her delicate features made her look far more innocent than Bea knew she was capable of being. It also helped that she had a natural hourglass figure that she spent very little effort to maintain. She was the stunning one of the two, and Bea was the plump older sister who had a chip on her shoulder and business on her mind.

It always relieved Bea to be the sister so many people skimmed over. She didn’t mind her own slightly darker blonde hair, or the squarer cut to her jaw. It had never bothered her to look in the mirror and see herself looking back, though she had thought about whether or not they should look more alike to sell themselves better. But that could be a conversation for a different day.

“Jo?” Bea narrowed her eyes, her tone steady. She wasn’t going to let Jo get away with avoiding answering her again.

Jo batted her eyelids and shrugged as she stretched the smile wider before turning back to the mirror. Her eyes stayed conspicuously away from Bea’s.

Bea took a deep breath. “Okay.”

There were a few ways she could play this. Jo had been nagging her again about loosening up, about meeting women and maybe even trying that thing called S-E-X. Yes, Jo had specifically spelled it out as though Bea were a former nun and the word still offended her delicate ears.

Which was bullshit. Bea’d had sex before, many times. It just wasn’t something she typically shared the details of with her sister. Because that would be weird.

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.”

Bea stared at Jo, not squeezing back with her hands, not saying a word, and not blinking. Panic swelled in her chest, swirling around and moving into the pit of her belly and forming a vortex of bile. It was exactly what they’d wanted. But that didn’t mean Bea was ready for it. Slow steady steps to the top. That had always been her goal. She didn’t want to be a one-hit wonder and then die out quickly. She wanted a career that would last a lifetime.

“Bea?” Jo asked, a small tremble in her voice. “I promise. It’s going to be great. This is an amazing step forward.”

“Yeah, except you’ve only just told me.” Bea’s voice rushed out as she hurried to her suitcase and opened the lid. Beside hers, Jo’s suitcase lay open with clothes half hanging out and no organization to be seen. “I can’t go out there like this. I didn’t even bring any of our fancier outfits. How could you do this, Jo? We barely have Kick it in the Ass ready for a live performance, and yet it’s the third song in the set tonight.”

“What?” Jo tilted her head and furrowed her brows.

“Don’t you give me those puppy dog eyes. You knew I’d want to make sure tonight was perfect for this, and you haven’t given me nearly enough time to be prepared. We’re not ready for something like this.”

“You aren’t mad I convinced her to come?” Jo asked.

“Oh no.” Bea stopped searching through her clothes and looked up. “What did you tell Siena? Tell me you didn’t lie to the best agent in the business. The agent you know I want for us more than anyone else. Tell me you didn’t.”

The knock on the door gave Jo an easy out.

“They’re ready for you!” The voice called out before footsteps hurried away.

“This isn’t over,” Bea snapped, turning to Jo as she slapped her suitcase shut.

“It’s going to be fine. I promise.” Jo smiled with that hyperactive energy. Whatever chagrin had shown on her face as Bea ramped up for a lecture had disappeared in an instant.

Bea closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, she counted to ten before opening her eyes again and looking at Jo. Their eyes met, and while a fissure of anger lingered in Bea’s chest, she knew she would forgive Jo. She would correct whatever lie had gotten Siena here, even if it meant they wouldn’t be her client.

Because now she saw the energy that vibrated off of Jo for what it actually was. Jo was nervous and scared.

And now so was Bea.

But that no longer mattered. Despite her palms sweating and her heart racing in her chest, Jo was scared, and it was Bea’s job to make sure she wasn’t.

It had always been Bea’s job to protect her little sister. And she wouldn’t let her down tonight.

“You’re so lucky I love you. Even if I don’t like you very much right now,” Bea said but ended her words with a wink.

The wink was enough to shake whatever fear Jo felt as she squealed with happiness and wrapped her arms around Bea’s neck.

“But that love is conditional on you not squealing like that again and getting your ass out there before they cancel our set.”

Jo laughed and let Bea go.

Bea took several more deep breaths as she followed Jo from the room. Jo’s feet barely touched the ground. She bounced more than she walked as the excitement built the closer to the stage they got.

Bea’s own excitement was difficult to find, let alone pull to the surface.

She knew they were good. She knew they had worked their asses off to get this far, but they weren’t ready for Siena.

Bea wasn’t ready for this to be her make-or-break moment. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from racing down any more of the dark paths she knew her brain would take if she didn’t put a stop to it.

She was still angry at Jo, but she also understood why Jo did it.

If it were left up to Bea, she couldn’t honestly say she would ever feel ready for Siena. Bea wished she had the natural energy and confidence that poured out of Jo, but then again, who would be the one to reel them back?

At the steps to the stage, Jo turned back and looked at Bea.

Bea put on her best smile and gave Jo a thumbs up. The smile she received back was worth it. It would also be worth the tumultuous sensations in her stomach.

In the end, Bea should have known better than to let her panic and fear get the better of her, for even a moment. Because the moment she stepped on stage, the world disappeared and the music was all that mattered.

She forgot about Siena who might or might not actually show up. She forgot about her self-doubts and fears. She even forgot about the unknown lies Jo had told Siena to get her interested.

The only things that mattered were the moment, the music, and the people.

And her baby sister.

With that wicked, excited grin on her face.

That’s why they were here.

Together always.