Love Me Till Wednesday (Sapphire Stars #1)

7

7

Pete sat down in the chair next to Lisa and looked around the room. He folded his arms. ‘We’re sitting at the back. There’s no way we’ve won.’

‘Nothing like putting a positive spin on things,‘ she said.

‘Oh, come on. Look at this enormous room. If we win, they’ll have time to cut to an entire commercial break while we’re squeezing our way through the great and the good of the music industry to get to that stage.’

He had a point. And what was she thinking, anyway? There was no way an upstart band from Birmingham were going to win anything for what had only been their second single. Getting shortlisted for Best Song had been exciting, but winning the award was highly unlikely.

‘This time last year, we were playing sleazy pubs, and now look at us in the swankiest hotel in London.’ Bass player Jonny leaned back in his seat and downed half his pint in one go.

‘I’d prefer to be in the pub right now.’ Their drummer, Tez, looked uncomfortable in his rented dinner jacket. ‘I haven’t worn a tie since school,’ he said, running his fingers around the tight shirt collar. ‘Where’s our award in the running order because as soon as it’s done, I’m taking this bloody pointless scrap of material off. ’

Lisa consulted the award ceremony brochure leaflet. ‘Last but one.’

‘Seriously? That’ll take forever.’

Dougie, their manager, lit up one of his enormous cigars. ‘Some bands would give their eye teeth to be sitting where you are now. And don’t forget it’s all thanks to me.’

‘And nothing to do with our songwriting skills,’ Lisa muttered under her breath.

Dougie glared and blew a large smoke ring in her direction.

They watched various famous groups and singers receive their awards until, nearly an hour later, the nominees for Best Song were read out.

Lisa squeezed Pete’s hand under the table, but he pulled it away. Perhaps he was as on edge as she was.

The host started speaking again. ‘And the winner is …’

Lisa closed her eyes and looked down at the tablecloth.

‘Love Me Till Wednesday.’

Shit! She didn’t hear the rest.

‘We won!’ Pete sounded as flabbergasted as she felt.

‘Time for a commercial break,’ Ed said, chuckling as he got out of his seat. ‘Come on, Lisa. I hope you know what to say.’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked as she followed the boys towards the stage.

Jonny shrugged. ‘You’re our lead singer. You’re going to have to do the acceptance speech.’

‘But I haven’t prepared anything.’ The butterflies in her stomach were flapping madly now.

The steps to the stage were getting nearer. What the hell was she going to say? Thank their fans, thank the jury, thank their producer, thank Dougie. No, she could never say thank you to him, not when she suspected he was embezzling their royalties. Anyway, no one wanted to listen to a lengthy acceptance speech .

She followed Pete up the steep steps. The podium was on a raised platform halfway across the enormous stage. Her legs felt as if they belonged to someone else. These bloody boots were cutting off the blood supply to her feet.

Nearly there. To avoid looking at the large audience, she focused on a piece of black cotton stuck to the back of Pete’s jacket as she followed him across the stage. Suddenly, the floor started to rush towards her. She put her hands out to stop her face crashing into it. She must have caught the toe of one of her boots on the edge of the raised area. There was a gasp from the audience. Pete turned around and looked down at her sprawled on the floor, an expression of horror on his face. It felt like hours passed before he and Ed helped her back to her feet.

‘Good of you to pay us a flying visit,’ the host joked. Lisa was mortified. Her big moment, and she’d ruined it in front of the audience here, not to mention the millions watching live at home. She was shaking so much that she nearly dropped the award. Pete quickly took it off her. ‘Are you ok?’ he whispered.

‘I’ll have to be,’ she said, clinging to the podium for dear life to stop herself fainting. She rushed out her thanks to everyone, including next door’s cat for keeping her company while she wrote the notes that became the lyrics to Love Me Till Wednesday. At least that got a laugh. The rest was cringeworthy. Her dad had promised to record it on their VHS machine at home, but there was no way she was going to watch this car crash back.

Somehow, they made it safely back to their table. Pete plonked the shiny silver award in the middle of the table. They all sat staring at it.

‘Now, what do we do?’ Tez asked, loosening his tie.

‘You can put that back on for a start,’ Dougie said. ‘I’m not having you look a mess in the photos.’