Baby Don't Break My Heart

As he walked towards the stage, Randall "RT" Taylor smiled and gave himself a pat on the back.

Just a few months before, his record label told him he was committing career suicide with his concept album, "Real Rock & Roll." The 26-year-old Grammy-winning R & B singer came up with the idea of an album imagining how 1950s music would sound unconstrained by a sexually repressed culture--and being made by African-American artists if segregation had never existed. The executives thought he had lost his mind, and would lose his fanbase too.

Yet the gamble paid off--"Real Rock & Roll" became a massive hit, his fourth consecutive #1 album worldwide, and a recipient of rave reviews even from critics who hated his earlier work. The suits didn't know shit, he thought to himself.

Randall promoted "Real Rock & Roll" with a series of videos mocking the segregated culture of 1950s America--showing neighbors freaking out as he moved into a wealthy neighborhood, moviegoers being stunned by seeing him as the lead in a major Hollywood motion picture, fellow bus riders being disgusted by his refusal to move to the back. He was careful to make sure the videos weren't considered "militant"--the theme was always to emphasize the stupidity of segregation, and to subtly note how much easier things would be for everyone if racial lines had never been drawn.

Tonight would be the first televised live performance of the album's newest single, "Baby Don't Break My Heart." Randall wanted to make fun of another notorious example of 1950s racial paranoia--the 1957 incident where Frankie Lymon began dancing with a white woman while singing on Alan Freed's live TV show, "The Big Beat," causing viewers in the Deep South to go ballistic, and ultimately causing Freed's show to get canceled. Randall had obtained the footage of the original incident, and had hired Maddison Warner, a 22-year-old model from Australia's Gold Coast, to play his dance partner. They spent two weeks rehearsing the dance routine, and Randall was impressed by Maddison's skill and flexibility.

Randall was introduced and made his way towards the microphone. He wore a bright blue jacket, a black tie, black pants and old-school two-tone shoes. He pulled out a comb to fix his hair--he had even styled it in the conk pompadour style popular among African-American men in the 1950s--and began singing to the swoons of the women in the audience.

"Oh, baby, you know I love you /

But you don't cut your man no slack /

You just won't let me see that pink /

And I don't mean a Cadillac /

Oh, baby /

Baby don't break my heart..."

Randall flashed a brief smile, and continued.

"Oh, baby, you know I need you /

But you don't treat your man fair /

I wanna take a walk through your back door /

But you won't let me in there /

Oh, baby /

Baby don't break my heart..."

Randall began snapping his fingers and swaying at the start of the saxophone solo, which was Maddison's cue to come out and join him. She was dressed in a white sweater, a black poodle skirt and black saddle shoes with white bobby socks; her long strawberry-blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. Randall and Maddison began dancing in an intentionally uncool and "square" style before Randall picked her up and flipped her head-over-heels before she landed perfectly and they began dancing again. They had rehearsed this sequence so many times before, but as he picked her up and flipped her, he realized she had no panties on. The brief glimpse of her bare, shaved pussy stunned him, and he hoped the television cameras didn't capture any of it.

As they resumed dancing, he shot her a "what-the-fuck" look, and she smiled before quickly lifting up her poodle skirt to give him another glimpse. Now Randall was getting nervous. He had tried to be as professional as possible around Maddison, but he couldn't deny that he found her very attractive. Her smile emphasized her gorgeous dimples, and during rehearsals he thought of how lucky her boyfriend or girlfriend must be to kiss them at night. Her complexion was flawlessly smooth and almost silvery-white, and he thought it was uniquely beautiful. He had tried to keep these feelings to himself, and now she was flashing him on national television.

The saxophone solo was coming to an end, and Maddison gave Randall an unrehearsed kiss on the cheek before dancing to the back. He could feel his erection starting, and he hoped that he'd be able to make it to the end of the song without flustering a line.

"Oh, baby, you know I want you /

And I know you should have the best /

Let me get you a big necklace of pearls /

And put it all on your chest /

Oh, baby /

Baby don't break my heart /

Oh baby /

Baby don't break my heart."

The crowd roared, and Randall muttered a brief "thank you" before sprinting backstage. After a few minutes, he found Maddison wrapping up a conversation on her phone.

"Hey, what the fuck was with that?"

"What?" she smiled. "You didn't like it?"

"Well, uh..." He didn't know what to say.

"Just wanted to see how you'd react."

"You know, that wasn't cool. What if the cameras caught you?"

"Oh, they knew. They weren't gonna shoot it."

"You told the camera guys you were gonna do that?"

"Yeah!"

Randall shook his head.

"I know it was a turn-on. I could tell."

"Oh, no."

"I just wanted to see how you'd react to a little surprise. You're so precise with everything. Just wanted to throw you a curveball, that's all."

"Well, no more surprises, OK?"

"Well, I do have another one."

Randall groaned.

"My name's not really Maddison."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You remember I told you my mum and dad love music from the '50s?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, they actually named me Margaret Susan Warner."

"Wait a minute...your name's Peggy Sue?!"

"Yeah! I don't tell everyone, just really important people."

"Thanks."

She smiled. "Sorry if I upset you with what I did."

"It's OK."

She reached over to give him a hug before quickly stepping back.

"Wow, it really was a turn-on, eh?"

He said nothing. All he could think about was being naked with her, pounding her beautiful pussy with as much passion as his body could muster, and whispering in her ear how much he loved Peggy Sue...