Chapter Two
OCTOBER
Nico
The studio door cracked loudly against the wall as I shoved it open, the heels of my polished dance shoes clacking on the shitty laminate floor as I balled my hands into fists and let out a silent howl of frustration.
The last six weeks had been a steaming pile of bollocks and tonight was the final fucking straw. If the production team wanted to make a laughing stock out of me on national fucking television, then they had another thing coming. I was this close to quitting completely. Then what would they do?
Probably continue to be one of the most successful shows on British television.
As much as I wanted to believe otherwise, everyone was replaceable. Even me.
Tonight still fucking sucked, though.
It wasn’t just being given a bad partner.
It was the fact it’d happened for the second year running.
Last year had been vaguely salvageable because, despite her age, Angelica had been a fast learner, willing to work hard, and a bloody nice person.
She might not have been the best dancer, but at least she’d tried.
This year, though, I’d been stuck with a grumpy old politician who was famous for her terrible opinions and generally being a shit person.
I didn’t even know why the fuck she’d bothered to sign up, although maybe she was aiming to revive her ailing political career and find a job on daytime TV as the right-wing, upper-class twat who managed to get away with saying the most horrific bollocks because she sounded polite when she said it.
For weeks I’d been forced to listen to her grumble, bitch, and moan for seven hours every single fucking day. It was like the production team had been punishing me for some imagined slight.
Tonight it had finally come to an end, but not without a final slight from Jean about how she wished I’d tried harder but that she was glad she didn’t have to be around someone like me anymore.
It made me even less sorry that we’d been voted off. She could suck it for all I cared. In fact, I was grateful that the British public had decided not to keep torturing me by keeping her on as a joke.
But despite the fact my torture had come to an end, it didn’t mean I was happy.
The show had made me look like a complete twat, and if I wanted to have a dance career for the next thirty years, I needed people to think I wasn’t an incompetent arsehole.
Nobody was going to want to attend workshops or take lessons from someone who looked like they couldn’t even organise a piss-up in a brewery.
And that wasn’t taking into account what they’d forced me to endure on a personal level.
“Nico, there you are,” a voice said from the other end of the corridor as a door swung open and one of the runners appeared. Millie, I thought her name was. She was new this season and very enthusiastic. That would fade quickly once reality set in. “Katrina wants to speak to you.”
“Now?” I asked, straightening my jacket. Thank fuck I’d been eliminated before movie week because at least I hadn’t been forced to wear some fuckass costume again. Last year I’d been the fucking Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz and it had itched like mad.
Thank fuck I hadn’t been Shrek though. The green face paint alone would have been a nightmare.
“Yes, please. She’s in the production office.”
“Sure, yeah. I’m coming.”
It was impossible to know what Katrina wanted, but I wasn’t going to find out by standing around here.
If I was lucky, I’d get an apology for being stuck with Jean.
But more likely, Katrina would have something to say about my resting bitch face and my lack of enthusiasm for my partner while the cameras were rolling.
Because that was the thing about a live show, it was really hard to cover up when people didn’t like each other.
It wouldn’t be anything I hadn’t heard before, though, and I didn’t have any fucks left to give about the whole thing. If Katrina or one of the other producers had a problem with my behaviour, that was their fault. They’d paired me with her.
I followed Millie along various corridors and up a flight of stairs until we reached the right office. She knocked briefly, then stuck her head around the door. “I’ve got Nico for you.”
“Great, thanks,” Katrina said, her voice slightly muffled.
Millie stepped back and gestured for me to go in.
The office was small and cramped, not made any better by the fact there were four people inside it, not including me.
Katrina was the most senior, as the show’s executive producer.
Then there were Becky and Joe, the senior producer and creative director, and finally Elliot, who was something to do with talent welfare.
They were all looking at me with a variety of serious expressions, like I’d been caught on camera telling little kids that Santa wasn’t real.
I didn’t think I was getting my apology.
“Nico, there you are,” Katrina said, offering me the fakest of fakest smiles. “How’re you doing?”
“Fine,” I said, attempting to return some sort of smile.
As much as I hated to admit it, I did actually need this job.
I’d already counted on having the income and it would be a real pain in the arse if they cancelled my contract and refused to pay me for the rest of the series, even if I was down as being a studio dancer for the next eleven weeks.
“You didn’t look like you were having much fun out there today,” Becky said with a smile that was so sickening it almost made me shudder. “We’re all one big family here, remember? We all love each other.”
“Well, it’s a little hard to love someone who thinks you shouldn’t legally be allowed to get married and that there’s something mentally wrong with you because you’re gay,” I said sharply. Becky and Joe winced. So did Katrina, but she was better at hiding it.
“Ah, er, well, that is very unfortunate,” Joe said, now looking distinctly uncomfortable.
I assumed they’d just remembered that despite all the NDAs and legal paperwork, I could still find a solicitor who’d be very willing to make their lives difficult.
Employment protections were there for a reason, even if they wanted to pretend otherwise.
I hadn’t said anything because I doubted they’d do much beyond tell me to suck it up, but it was good to know for the future that stuff like this made them nervous. Not that I’d hold that over them, but it was always worth knowing this shit.
“You know, if you were concerned for your safety and well-being, you should have told us,” Elliot said with an expression that bordered on sincere. He believed what he was saying anyway. “We’re here to protect the well-being of all our professionals.”
“I am aware,” I said cooly. “Although I’m not sure what you could have done beyond replacing me.”
“We could have arranged something,” Katrina said, which I was pretty sure was code for they’d have encouraged Jean to drop out and cover it up as an injury. Although I doubted she’d have said yes. “Anyway, we’re not here to talk about that.”
Ah yes, time to move swiftly onwards before I looked too closely at something.
Everyone around her looked confused for a second and I smiled. By the looks of it, I’d been due for a bollocking and my casual bombshell had changed that.
“As you know, Tina just announced her pregnancy and we’re so thrilled for her,” Katrina continued.
“But while her doctor is happy for her to continue training with her partner, she has been told to get more rest, so she won’t be taking part in any more of the professional numbers for the rest of the series. ”
“That sounds sensible,” I said. “If it helps, I’ll fill in where I can.”
“Perfect. Tina was meant to be taking part in this year’s Christmas special, but obviously that’s no longer possible, and since you’ve already been eliminated, we think you’d be the perfect person to take her slot.”
“And there’d be a small bonus payment included too,” Becky added. “Just as a thank you for your help. Plus there’ll be an additional bonus should you win.”
“Okay, yeah. That’s fine.”
The way they were all still looking at me made suspicion flare in my gut.
They all seemed far too fucking cheerful and relieved for something as simple as asking me to do the Christmas show.
It was a one-off, nothing special. I’d done it before.
So why the fuck were they all so worked up about it?
There had to be something I was missing.
“What’s the catch?” I asked, folding my arms as I looked around at them.
“No catch,” Joe said. He was a fucking terrible liar.
“It’s nothing,” Katrina said. Then she sighed.
“Our celebrities have all been chosen, obviously, and we had matched them up. We don’t want to make too many changes, though, not at this late stage, and you’re one of our most skilled professionals, so we thought the best thing to do would just be to make a direct swap between you and Tina, which means you’ll have a male partner. ”
“Okay,” I said slowly, looking around at them. I still wasn’t seeing a catch. There’d been a number of same-sex couples on Come Dancing With Me in the last few years, so it wasn’t as if we were doing anything new.
I’d had a male partner four years ago when I’d been paired up with Pierre, a sweet TV chef, and that’d gone really fucking well since we’d won the whole fucking thing.
So what had them so jittery?
“I’m still not seeing a problem,” I added. “Is he someone who’s going to hate having a male partner? Because if so, I’m out. Or I want hazard pay, because I am not spending another four or five weeks dealing with someone who hates my guts unless I’m being paid really well.”
“No, we think he’ll be fine with it,” Becky added, offering me a smile that seemed like it was supposed to be encouraging. “In fact, you were actually on his wish list. Not that we take that into consideration, but his agent did mention he was a big fan of yours.”
“Again, still not seeing a problem. Can you spit it out so I can go home, please?”
“This person… man… well, he’s possibly one of the most famous people we’ve managed to get on the show, at least in terms of international fame. And he isn’t out as being LGBTQ+, at least not as far as I’m aware,” Katrina said.
“But he does have a significant fanbase, both individually and as part of his band, so we wanted to give you a heads-up because there will be a lot of online scrutiny. We are going to suggest extra security, and he has offered to hire a private studio in a secure building for you to use, but obviously we wanted to make you aware ahead of time. We’d suggest turning off any comments on your social media, adding extra precautions, etcetera.
We’re really not sure if his fans are going to be excited or very unhappy, but knowing fans, it’s likely to be a bit of both. ”
I was more intrigued than ever now.
Who the fuck was this guy? He had to be something special if he’d flustered Katrina and made the whole team look like they didn’t know whether to be thrilled or terrified.
“Who is it?” I asked. I wasn’t particularly bothered about weird fans, hate comments, and bad behaviour—I’d seen enough of that in the past and I’d learnt to ignore it. The extreme security did worry me a little, but it sounded like it was all in hand, so there wasn’t much I could do.
If I had concerns about them, I’d say so.
“It’s Toby Darling,” Katrina said.
I shrugged. “Never heard of him.”
“From Underground Dreaming,” Becky said with barely contained glee. “And I know you’ve heard of them!”
I had. Pierre and I had done a routine to one of their songs. But that didn’t mean I was impressed.
Given how famous he was, I was pretty sure he’d be nothing but a vacuous, stuck-up pretty boy of middling talent with a diva attitude to match.
“Yeah, I have,” I said. If I was lucky, this Toby guy wouldn’t completely suck and I’d get some new followers, and if not, I could kiss my dance school dreams goodbye because I’d be in hiding from toxic fans.
“Perfect,” Becky said as everyone smiled at me.
“We’ll send you an email with all the details of when training starts and the dates for your fitting and promo shoot, plus the Christmas show timelines.
Then we’ll liaise with Toby’s agent to sort your training schedule to fit around his work and your show commitments, since you’re still doing all the professional numbers. ”
“Sounds great,” I said, hoping none of them realised the fake smile on my face was more of a grimace.
I’d gone from out of the frying pan and into the fire, only this time I’d have an overdramatic pop star to deal with.
This was going to be such a fucking shitshow.