Show Me How You Burlesque- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

His heart pounded as the adrenaline was pumping through his veins. The exhilaration from his first performance was more than he could stand. With all those cheers he felt his ego swell with confidence.

'Guess I'm pretty sexy after all~' he thought with a laugh.

The curtains closed and he turned on his heel to go backstage to take a breather. But, first, there was something he had to get out of the way.

"Francis! Francis, where are you? I gotta talk to you!"

The owner laughed as he walked over. "Ohonhonhon, for a rookie you have done tres bien, oui? You should be very proud—"

"Who the hell told you to name me?"

"Well you never came up with a name for yourself, so I decided to help you out~"

"The hell kind of a name is 'Freddie Big Guns'?? That is so uncool! I wanted something like Captain Americano or Super Mega Inferno! Something macho and hot, you know?"

"Those ideas are stupid. I am sorry Alfred but I cannot allow someone with a name as…tasteless as those to dance on my stage. Besides, it seemed to me that everyone loved your stage name along with your performance."

"Well duh, of course they liked my performance! Just look at me!"

"Now now, no one likes a big head~…well, except for me~"

Alfred grimaced. "Ew dude, you are so gross…"

Francis laughed. "It is the French sense of humor, non? Now go and get changed, you can go home now."

"Sounds great! I'll see you later, Franny! Tell Toni and Gil I say bye too."

"Oui,  I will pass that along. Good night, Monsieur Big Guns." He left the stage with a laugh.

Alfred shook his head and went back to the spare room to get changed into his regular clothes.

20 minutes later and a complete transformation had occurred. The sexy dancer that seduced an entire audience was gone and in his place was the nerdy looking college student, Alfred F. Jones. He tied up his last knot on his well-worn converse and straightened out his red hoodie. With a growl of his stomach he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Oh yeah, gotta pick up some stuff from the store~!" he chirped happily as he grabbed his gym bag with his stage clothes and went out the back door of the burlesque club.

Alfred Jones, besides his job at Francis' establishment, was your regular university student. At 20 years old, he was already in his second year at UCLA studying to be a physical therapist. He was a man of simple pleasures; movies on a Friday night, playing video games on the weekends and the small joy of acing a test well studied for.  He was young, good looking and had a prospective future ahead of him. So why did he have to resort to working at a burlesque club to get money to pay for his rent? The answer couldn't be simpler. It was merely because he was bored. There was nothing that he could do in his everyday life that would let him express himself so by joining the cast of the local burlesque, Alfred found that he could really unwind and let himself be free. No one knew who he was, nor did they care to know as long as they got a good show. Heck, it wasn't every day that you got to go up on stage and start dancing provocatively in front of a group of strangers. But the anonymity was what Alfred loved about his secret life, above all else. And with tonight being his first official night as a dancer, it made him all the more ecstatic.

As he was walking out of the alley to meet the sidewalk, he ran into Julie and a few of the other girls from the cast.

"Hey, Alfred, sexy moves tonight, can't believe you got a standing 'O' on your first routine!"

Alfred grinned. "Thanks, Jules. It was hard to do following your performance."

The petite girl laughed and waved off the compliment."The girls and I were going to grab a few drinks before we head home. Want to join us? I'm sure you'll find a cute guy there who would be willing to buy you a couple of shots~" she said, knowing of his preference.

He shook his head with a laugh. "That's really tempting but I gotta say no. Studying and all that, you know? I have a test on Monday that I can't fail."

The girls groaned. "Aw, Freddie, that's no fun. But we don't want you to fail your test so we understand." Julie piped up. "We'll be seeing you, Freddie! Good luck on your test!"

Alfred waved at the girls with a wide smile and watched them turn the corner to go to the bar.

"Now what was I going to do…" His stomach growled. "Oh yeah, food~!"

--

The rain had cleared by the time Alfred was making his way to the store, wanting to stretch his legs by walking and not taking a cab just to go to the grocery store that was a few blocks away. With his duffle bag flung across his chest and his hands tucked into his pockets he entered the corner market. There was a 'ding ding' when he entered and flashed a smile at the cashier who was already looking pretty tired so late at night.

Alfred checked his cell phone; it was close to 2 AM.

Bummer…don't think I'll be getting any studying done tonight, Alfred thought.

He didn't bother in getting a basket; all he was planning on buying was some munchies for his day long study session tomorrow, toilet paper and a bag of cat treats.

"Gotta start watching what Liberty eats nowadays…girl's getting pudgier." Alfred mumbled to himself as he browsed through the aisles.

It didn't take long for him to find the toilet paper and go to another aisle to look for his favorite brand of powdered donuts that served as brain food. Even though they were fattening and sugary and sinfully good for the soul, Alfred was certain that there was something in those donuts that made him perform at his A-game for exams. Besides the powdered goodness he also got some tortilla chips with dip and a packet of coke to give him energy to last on the studying that went to the wee hours into the morning. With sustenance in hand, Alfred strolled into the pet aisle to get the treats for his cat. He wasn't surprised that he wasn't the only one in the store, let alone the aisle. People worked crazy hours in California, depending on their profession so they had to stock up on supplies whenever they could…even if it was 2 o'clock in the morning. What did surprise Alfred though, was the man that was in the aisle with him, staring intently at several bags of cat food. He looked normal enough, a brown trench coat and dress slacks underneath it. He was certain that he didn't know the man, but the hat that he was wearing, that was a different story.

The pinstriped fedora that was resting on a nest of messy blonde hair was what Alfred recognized. That was his hat from his performance earlier.

Oh yeah…I threw it into the crowd before the number finished. I tried aiming for that guy who was just staring at me…I wonder if that's him?

With a small smile playing on his lips, Alfred walked behind the man to see if he could get a better glimpse from the other side. But, as fate would have it, just as Alfred was walking behind him, the shorter man decided to back up and collided into him, knocking his groceries to the floor.

"Oh! I'm so terribly sorry, I didn't see you there!" the stranger with the fedora turned hastily and started apologizing, putting his basket on the floor so he could help Alfred. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Alfred chuckled and rubbed his stomach. "Nah man, it's alright. You just knocked the wind outta me, that's all." He took the man's offered hand and stood up, brushing off his jeans and fixing his glasses.

They both bent down to pick up Alfred's dropped goods and nearly bumped heads.

"Oh, I'm sorry—"

"Sorry, didn't mean to—"

Alfred smiled when he looked up to apologize and noticed the man was doing the same. Well, he would have been looking into the man's eyes if it wasn't for the hat that was blocking his vision.

"Isn't that hat a bit big for you? Makes it kinda dangerous for other people." He joked, noticing a slight flush in the man's cheeks.

"Err…yes, well, I suppose I should have to return it then." The man tilted the rim up, revealing his wide green eyes and a furrowed brow.

Alfred blinked and shifted back a little.

He's the guy! I'm positive, those brows cannot be replicated! He has pretty eyes though…and that accent…always had a thing for accents.

Alfred broke out of his inner monologue with a tease, "Return it? To the store, you mean? I don't think they'll let you do that."

"No, not to the store. I…um borrowed it. Yeah."

Alfred wouldn't have been able to buy that lie even if he didn't know that wasn't his hat.

"Oh, okay. Yeah, the rain makes it hard for us even with an umbrella." He picked up the food and stood up as the stranger did the same, handing Alfred his packet of toilet paper.

"Don't I know it. Makes me think I'm back in England with all this rain." He grabbed his basket and rested it in the crook of his arm, tilting the hat back against his crown even more so he could have a clear view.

Alfred saw this as his chance, "England, huh? So your accent is British?"

"English, actually." He looked back to try and figure out what kind of cat food to get.

Alfred stood to his side and reached out for the bag of cat treats that he was going to get. "So, deciding which one to get?"

He was answered with a hum of acknowledgement.

"Well, I recommend this one." He pulled out a yellow bag that said it had special vitamins and minerals in the kibble to help a cat's growth. "My cat is pretty old but she still loves this stuff, keeps her as youthful as ever."

The man nodded, convinced, and put the bag over his shoulder. "Thanks much, I really appreciate it after bumping into you."

Alfred waved it off.  "Nah, don't worry about it! We all gotta be nice to each other right?"

The Brit nodded with a small smile, "Yeah, we do."

Alfred grinned and offered his hand. "I'm Alfred, nice to meet you…?"

"Arthur." He replied as he shook Alfred's hand.

"Well, nice to meet you, Arthur. Are you going to go check out already?" he took his hand back to stabilize the food he had.

"Yeah, I was actually. You?"

Alfred nodded, "Yep. Let's go together so we can talk."

Both men walked to the line that only had two other customers in front of them so it didn't give them much time to converse with each other. Arthur was first to pay, so as he was checking out, Alfred still talked to him from behind, trying to keep the conversation going. Arthur responded accordingly, not used to chatting with strangers, especially at such queer hours but he thought nothing bad of Alfred except for the fact that he was very talkative. Some of the blabbering was tuned out because he still had the dance routine of 'Freddie Big Guns' playing in his mind, spanking himself and biting and his lower lip...teasing the Englishman to get closer to the stage…

"Hey, you gonna get your change, bub?" The cashier popped his gum in annoyance at Arthur's dazed look. "Always the weirdos…" he muttered under his breath as he started to ring Alfred up.

Arthur swiped the change from the counter into his pocket and cleared his throat. "Thank you for the talk, Alfred. I'll be heading off now." He fixed the hat on his head.

Alfred grinned, "No problem, it was a pleasure meeting you, Arthur! Don't forget—" he pointed to his head, "—dangerous. You best return that whoever you got it from so you won't cause any more accidents."

Arthur's cheeks reddened considerably, "Ah, right, will do then. Goodbye, Alfred." With a pivot, he pushed the door open and stepped out of the corner store and made his way back to his apartment.

Alfred couldn't stop smiling as he was paying and when he was heading back home himself.

He knew he was going to see Arthur again.

And he couldn't wait.