“I’m going to the studio!”I grabbed my wrap sweater and duffel bag and bound down the marble stairs.
“The studio?” Max walked from the living room to the foyer, his hands on his hips. “Why are you going across town to dance when you have a state-of-the-art studio here?” His stern, gray eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “I spent a lot of money on that, Daisy.”
I steeled myself, straightening my spine. “I know. It’s... cold in there.”
“So turn the heat up.” He laughed. “You think we can’t afford heat?”
I continued down the stairs, brushing past him. “Not cold as in temperature. Cold as in impersonal. It has no life in it. I’ve got to go. Tuth is waiting for me.”
“I really wish you hadn’t hired her.”
“Them,” I corrected him for the umpteenth time on Tuth’s pronouns.
“Whatever,theyare obnoxious. If I’d been the one to interview them, and they came in telling me their name was Tooth, spelled like Ruth, I would have thrown them out.”
Ignoring him, I reached for the door handle. “I’ll be home in a few hours. I’m feeling like a long session.” I shut the door before he could protest further.
Tuth was leaning against their car, waiting with their arms crossed.
“Nice haircut,” I said as they walked to the driver’s side, and I slid into the passenger’s. They ran their hand through their extremely short, chestnut-colored hair. Last time I’d seen them, it was much longer.
“Thanks. Gender affirming care is self-care.” They laughed and turned the car on. We started away, leaving the line of mansions behind in favor of the city. I leaned back, turning on the heated seat, and exhaled.
“Max give you trouble again?”
I looked over at my bodyguard-turned-friend. “When isn’t he?”
“Does your fiancé pay my salary?” They slid their dark sunglasses down to the tip of their nose and looked pointedly at me. I sat up and scoffed.
“Ha! Hardly. Max would rather have me locked away than pay for security. Your paycheck comes directly from my inheritance. Why?”
“Good. Because he can’t fire me for saying he’s a fucking tool. His dick cannot be good enough to stick around. Get your own mansion by the lake and leave his ass.”
I looked out the window. I bit my tongue, not wanting to confess I had no idea if his dick was good or not. If Tuth knew we’d been dating for two years and still hadn’thad sex, they’d lose their mind. I didn’t need that right now.
“Are you going to confront him about Skye?”
I closed my eyes.
“How do you propose I do that, Tuth?”
“Easy. ‘Hey, fuckface, I saw you balls deep in my creepy copycat stalker, and if you don’t give me five million dollars, I’m leaving.’ Then you get the money and leave, anyway.”
“Five million?” I smirked.
“I mean, who couldn’t use five million dollars?” Tuth shrugged. “But if you do confront him, I want to be there. I need to see the look on his face when he knows how fucking embarrassing it is to fuck his girlfriend’s shitty doppelgänger.”
Skye was a fellow dancer in my company. I never gave her much thought until one day, after I had gotten a new haircut and color, she did the same. She had complimented me and asked where I had it done, and then went to the stylist and asked her to do the exact same.
After the hair came other small changes. She changed her color contacts from hazel to the same dark brown as my natural color. My warm-up songs became hers, and she began buying clothes that looked identical to mine. The other dancers were constantly whispering about us, asking if I was okay with her behavior, or if there was a specific moment in time that caused her to start this... odd mimicry, but I’d yet to address it. Instead, I used it as the catalyst to finally hire a bodyguard. Between my fans and Skye, I no longer felt safe in the city alone.
I lifted my hand and stared at the large diamond on my finger. Much like the man who’d given it to me, it was obnoxious and in your face. I would have chosen something more demure, simple. While I’d been born into wealth myself, I didn’t particularly feel as if I needed it.
If only people could understand that.
When we turned onto the road where the studio was, a handful of people with cameras were waiting by the front door. My mood soured even further.
“Take me through the back,” I muttered.
