Chapter Text
Shape of You
Prologue
Glasgow, Scotland, UK
She adjusted her crop top on her flat torso and tapped the pen on the desk.
She hated that. If only Lilith had moved her gynie visit like Adam had told her to… but no, of course. She always did what she wanted, and now, Marie was at work in the afternoon as well. As if the eight hours she worked every night – and that night as well – weren’t enough.
“Adam?” she turned, looking for her boss, who was currently nowhere to be seen. Nice, just nice.
He appeared a second later, giving her a smile, which put on display his white teeth and lit up his blue eyes.
“We just have one more girl, then you can leave,” he nodded, sliding on a stool next to her when the door opened, and a girl stepped inside the bar.
If she had to judge from her appearance, Marie wouldn’t even have lost the time of actually interviewing her.
The last person interviewing for the job was an average, small girl, with a bob of brunette straight hair, big eyes and pearly white skin. She was wearing a plain pair of jeans and an oversized t-shirt of a horrible color, some shade of brown, and a pair of black ankle boots.
“Hi!” she greeted, entering it and smiling. She had a pretty smile, that, Marie could tell, and gorgeous, innocent eyes. Too innocent on someone who wasn’t a maiden from 1800 English countryside. But how can you show up wearing that to a variety bar where you are supposed to sing, dance and actually do lap dances?
“Hi,” Adam nodded. “You are?”
“Zelda Spellman.”
“Sit down, Zelda, please. I am Adam Masters and she’s Marie LaFleur, our personnel manager.”
The girl, Zelda, nodded and smiled, murmuring another “Hi.”
“Would you like to tell us something about yourself?”
Zelda nodded: “Yes, well, I am a student at Glasgow Uni, and I was looking for a job to help me with my university loan,” she smiled.
“Nice!” Adam exclaimed. “What do you study?”
“Languages and cultures,” Zelda replies. “I can dance, I took pole dance classes for a few years and I can sing.”
“That’s great,” Adam nodded. “Well, I run this place with my best friend, Lilith Morningstar, who is not here, today. We do a lunch service like any other restaurant, then we have our night show. The shifts are on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays mostly, if you apply as a performer, that’s it. You’d be required to dance, and doing some pole dancing, and serve drinks as well.”
“That sounds nice,” Zelda nodded, but Marie cut in: “And you are required to… let’s say wear something slightly different? I mean, we’re not escorts or anything, but we have to… entertain. Some of us wear customized items like a peculiar color for the corset, am I explaining myself?”
Zelda looked at her with a quite annoyed look, a air of superiority on her pretty face. “This is pretty sexist of you, you know that?”. And before Marie could reply: “Yes, but I can – I mean, I can look… different. And my hair is not even this color, it’s red, actually, and this is the result of a bad dye work or whatever.”
“There is no need to justify yourself,” Adam nodded. “And not to be sexist or anything, but I think you’re a pretty girl, and you’ll look even better with your hair up, your corset or what you like. But you can talk to Marie or Lilith about this.”
The more the interview went on, the more convinced Marie was that it actually was a waste of time. When Adam asked her to try and show them something, Marie discovered that she hadn’t being talking bullshit: a great dancer, amazing with the pole, and her voice was a freaking masterpiece. Except, she needed a second, someone who she could rely on for first voice. If she was honest, Zelda appeared to be even more talented than herself, who wasn’t that great at singing, but she was a good dancer, and she was skinny and pretty. Zelda was… too average. Too water and soap, so to speak. Big eyes, freckles? She possessed zero sex appeal. And sexism be damned - that was plain truth.
“Well, we can try tomorrow night, what do you say, Zelda? You can just wear something nice and trying serving drinks, getting used to the bar and what the other girls do. You’ll tell us when you’re ready to perform. What do you say?”
Zelda smiled: “Perfect! So I’ll see you tonight!”
As soon as she was out, Marie groaned. “Adam, I am sorry, but that girl is not what we need right now. Have you seen her?”
“What?” Lilith asked from the door, getting inside and taking off her leather jacket. “I hope you didn’t hire the mild brunette I just saw outside.”
“He did,” Marie groaned.
The following day, Zelda went to work with her hair up, still no make-up and a short skirt. Marie had to realize that of course she was not the type of girl they usually went for, but she had legs to die for, and toward the end of the night Marie found out that her doe eyes made her horny.
They were getting ready to leave, the locker room was almost empty, and she approached her.
“Listen, Zelda…”
“Yes?” she asked her, looking at her intently with her big eyes.
“You are good with the drinks and all, but I – I just don’t get why you insist on the water and soap next-door girl. You have great legs and I think you’re pretty, but that is not enough here.”
Zelda turned over and took her by her forearms, smashing her against the lockers. As close as she could, she breathed: “Believe me, Marie. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A week later, Zelda went to work, and her brunette bob had magically disappeared. She was still sporting a bob, but it was strawberry blonde. She wasn’t wearing old tees and plain jeans, but leggings and a crop top.
“Hello.”
“Zelda!” Adam exclaimed. “You look good!”
“Very good,” Marie nodded. “I barely recognized you.”
“I lost a bet with my sister, so she forced me to come to the interview looking… like that. But the bet’s finally over,” she smiled at Adam. “I would love to dance, tonight! I mean, if Marie can spare me some space.”
Marie nodded: “I would gladly do so.”
“I’m very excited about this,” Adam nodded. “Lilith will be too! When she gets here, at least.”
Lilith was busy that much, those days, Zelda had never had the chance to have a conversation with the woman.
Marie looked tentatively at Adam: “You know, I don’t feel very well, if you’re okay with it she can try and take over as first dancer?” she looked at Zelda: “Do you mind? I would love to see what you can do.”
“I don’t mind at all,” Zelda smirked. Was she flirting? “I would love to do some pole dance for a starter,” she grinned. “I just need to get some stuff because I wasn’t prepared to do it tonight.”
Adam smiled at her, his sweet, reassuring smile. “No problem, you go and get what you need. We can cover for you.”
As she ran to the lockets room to gather her bag, Zelda quickly wondered if Lilith was going to be there, that night.
Lilith Morningstar loved her bar.
She lived for that bar, especially on Sunday nights. At six thirty sharp, the lights would go down and Super Trouper, the ABBA song after which Adam and she had named the pub, would start playing, Marie would sing and their dancers would start moving around, spreading colors in the room.
That night, however, Lilith was terrified, to say the least.
Big, sweet, innocent doe green eyes weren’t exactly the kind of girls she chose for her bar. Except, that time Adam had done the interviews, and in his opinion the brunette – which name Lilith didn’t remember to save her life – was perfect.
She highly doubted it.
The worst thing was how, that night, she had made it to the bar around five, and Adam had informed her with a great smile that Zelda would take over for Marie as first dancer.
Immediately, Lilith realized two things: the first was how suicidal that idea was going to be. The second, was that, considering she was a few years over thirty, she must be starting to lose her memory. How could she had missed the girl’s name? Zelda was the name of Fitzgerald’s beloved wife, and she had been obsessed with that literary figure and with their love story since she had read Tender is the night at the age of twelve, to the point of having the world’s most famous dedication – Once again, to Zelda – framed on the wall behind her bed.
Except the shy brunette couldn’t hold a candle to the real Zelda Fitzgerald.
At six twenty-five, Lilith decided that she wasn’t going to witness the bankrupt of her bar sober, so she opened an expensive bottle of champagne and hopped on one of the stools. When the music started, she was panicking. Then, the panic disappeared, and the surprise came.
The first thing she heard was her voice, and in all her years in the business, she had never heard a voice like that. It was – amazing. Perfect. With character and passion, she possessed every note.
Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me
But I won’t feel blue
Like I always do
‘Cause somewhere in the crowd there’s you.
She moved to look at her, and the soapy brunette didn’t exist anymore. In the middle of the stage, the sexiest, prettiest redhead Lilith had ever seen owned the show. Her body, perfect and curvy, moved on vinyl heels as she was barefoot; her long legs were clad in a pair of fishnets, and when she moved, the brunette could see her full, high, perfect ass. Her torso was clad in a dark, rich green corset, her hair up in an elegant bun, her eyes covered by a silver, small carnival mask.
She danced in a way that could not be described if not as perfectly, and the audience was simply crazy about her. Lilith could tell: every pair of eyes in the room was focused on Zelda. No one was chatting, or checking their smartphone. Zelda owned the place, the song, the attention.
I was sick and tired of everything
When I called you last night from Glasgow
All I do is eat and sing and sleep
Wishing every show was the last show.
When she reached the chorus, she danced her way to the pole in the middle of the stage.
Oh God.
Not only she could dance, and sing, she was even a great pole dancer, and she was very able in balancing her breath: she sang when she was still or doing simple moves, she did the hardest when she had to stop singing. Anyway, when she reached the highest point of the song, she was hanging high from the pole, holding herself with an arm and a leg.
Tonight the
Super Trouper lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling having fun
Feeling like a number one.
A goddess. A bloody goddess.
Two things were pretty clear.
One thing: Adam was much better at doing interviews than she was.
Two: that girl was her own personal Midas hand.