Dance For Me (Strip in the City, Book 2)

43 • Hot Loss

Tan

Sweet hell.

I closed my dressing room door and flattened my back against it, barely able to breathe. Barely able to move.

There was only one reason why my parents were at Blanche's Boudoir. They were looking for me.

All of a sudden, the seventeen missed calls and the demand that I meet them in person at the hospital made sense. My aunties had done their research on Dominick DuBois and discovered that his grandmother owned this club. All it took was putting two and two together to find out Dominick was Romeo. A dancer.

And that I was staring as his Juliet.

What the hell was I going to do? What was I going to say? I couldn't lie my way out of this one.

"Tanu! Where are you!"

My mother's voice was louder now, and I could hear my father's angry muttering through the thin walls. Then one of them pounded on the door, and I nearly jumped out of my skimpy little dress.

My breath came in short, shallow pants while the room spun.

God, I'd really fucked up. I'd been avoiding them for so long, hiding all my faults and failures, that confronting them now felt overwhelming.

"Open up!" my father shouted. "We know you're in there!"

This was how I died. Of embarrassment. Right here in this dressing room. Only, when I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for my impending doom, nothing came.

They banged on the door again, and I bit my lip to keep from crying.

I knew I had to face them, whether it was right now, tomorrow morning, or next week. They were my parents. I didn't want to cut them out of my life. I loved them with my whole heart. I just wanted them to love me for who I was and not for who I could be.

Maybe this was my chance to explain that to them.

Lifting my chin, I forced myself to open the door and came face to face with my mother and father.

As soon as she saw me, my mom covered her mouth with a shaking hand. My father stared at me in disbelief through his rimless glasses. The disappointment was plain on their faces.

It reminded me so sharply of how Celeste looked at me inside her office that I nearly lost my nerve. But somehow, I held on, thinking of Dominick.

"Do you know where you are?" Mom asked, lowering her hand and stepping inside the dressing room.

My dad followed. "Of course she does. This is why she's been avoiding us."

I barely held back my tears when I replied, "Yes. I know where I am. And yes. This is one of the reasons why I've been too busy to answer your calls."

"But why would you do this? A strip club? Tanushree! You are so much better than this! We didn't raise you to be a," she dropped her voice to a whisper, "a stripper."

I could tell how disappointed they were, but instead of letting that disappointment break me and folding like a house of cards, I stepped into it. Explaining to them how it had shaped my entire life.

"I know," I said, rolling my shoulders back and standing tall even though my voice wobbled. "You raised me to become a doctor and marry a nice South Asian boy you approved of. And every move I've made away from that future has been looked at with disappointment."

"Tanushree!" my mom replied. And the way she'd said my name let me know how truly shocked she was to hear me talking to her like this. "When have we ever said you needed to marry a South Asian boy or become a doctor?"