Winners and Losers by Linda Sole

more she was feeling confident.
    â€˜I am having fun,’ she told Connor as their third dance ended. ‘I ought to go back to my friends for a while, but I should like to dance with you again later, if that is all right?’
    â€˜Why not?’ he asked. ‘Would you mind if I brought a friend over to join you? He can dance if he wants – and I’ll ask your friends to dance too, if you like?’
    â€˜You’re really good,’ Sarah said. ‘I think that would be nice – if you wouldn’t mind?’
    â€˜Wouldn’t say if I did,’ Connor told her. He was about to walk away when one of the band members came to the microphone.
    â€˜We have a request for anyone who fancies singing on stage with us. We’ve been told that Connor Searles sometimes comes up and does a turn. Are you out there, Mr Searles?’
    A ripple of applause went round the club and a few voices called out for Connor to go up. He hesitated for a moment, then looked apologetically at Sarah.
    â€˜I’d better go. I shan’t be long.’
    â€˜Oh . . .’
    Connor realized as he walked to the stage that she didn’t even know his name. They had been laughing and enjoying themselves but hadn’t bothered to exchange names.
    He was greeted on stage by more clapping and some cheering. Connor grinned because he knew he could sing, equally as well as the lead singer in this band.
    â€˜Hi, Connor. I’m Terry,’ the band member said. ‘Do you know “Rock It For Me”?’
    â€˜Yeah, it was an Ella Fitzgerald song,’ Connor said, feeling pleased because it was a song he knew by heart. ‘I’ve done that one before at the club.’
    â€˜So I was told,’ Terry said. ‘All right – here we go, folks. “Rock It For Me” with your own heart throb Connor Searles and the Bad Boys.’
    Connor stepped up to the microphone confidently. He wished that Terry had suggested something more romantic so that he could sing directly to Sarah, but this was a good song and he knew the words and music by heart. He had a good ear and once he’d heard something a couple of times he could belt it out with the best of them.
    Sarah and her friends had come down to the front, near the stage. Some of the crowd started dancing when the music began, but about twenty girls stood and just watched as Connor sang.
    Connor put everything into his performance because he knew Sarah was watching. He’d considered it a bit of a laugh when he’d performed on stage here before, but this time he let himself go, even gyrating his hips as he’d seen a rhythm and blues singer do at the pictures once. He wondered if Sarah had any idea what the words meant. Rocking and rolling was a term for music but it was also a sly way of saying ‘have sex with me’. A lot of the songs in the blues and black music in America were to do with sex, though most people didn’t realize what the words meant. Sarah wouldn’t because she was too innocent. She wouldn’t realize that when he sang ‘rock it for me, baby’, he was saying ‘let me make love to you’.
    A storm of approval broke when he finished. The applause was prolonged and he had to do a repeat before the audience would let him go, but then he left the stage even though there were calls for another number. He walked over to where Sarah was standing with one of her friends. The one she’d called Phyllis was dancing.
    â€˜Could I get you two ladies a glass of orange?’
    â€˜Not for me,’ Ann said. ‘But thanks all the same. You were wonderful.’
    â€˜I wouldn’t mind a lemonade,’ Sarah said. ‘I thought you were brilliant. You should be a singer, Connor. You would be famous.’
    â€˜I’m not that good,’ he said and grinned. ‘Besides, I couldn’t do that for a living. I have a job. I’ll get us some