Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Volume 1

Chapter 19.3: 1967, Georgina

"Sugar in the mornin', sugar in the evenin', sugar at supper time," I sang wiggling my shoulders up and down in a trademark Marilyn Monroe move, hiking up the skirt of my dress just a little bit.

"Just be my little sugar, and love me all the time," Paulie danced next to me, staring out into the audience and smiling like a school girl in love.

My wiggling intensified and my smile widened, "Now sugar time, is any time, cause you're so near, and you're so dear, so don't you roam, just be my honeycomb-"

"Honeycomb!" Paulie echoed into the mic.

"And live in a heaven of love," I sang proudly, extending my arms seductively to the audience and swaying my body like slow ocean waves.

"Sugar in the mornin', sugar in the evenin', sugar at supper time, just be my little sugar," we belted the last word together, jumping towards each other and hugging while looking out at the audiences' faces, our own faces as adorable as we could make them. Whoops and hollers came up from the crowd, excited by our sweet embrace.

"And love me," I sang sweetly to Paulie. He beamed at me.

"Love me," he echoed giving me a fake lustful look.

"All the time," we finished together.

"KISS HER!" someone from the audience yelled. We burst into laughter and everyone laughed with us as the song finished on the piano cheerfully.

Like growing green grass, dollar bills started appearing in the audience as men crowded the stage when they got up from their tables, looking up at us hopefully. Most of them were polite, as they were regulars. I knelt down and looked at them sweetly, like Marilyn Monroe would. "Thank you, darling, thank you, honey, thank you, dearest," I chirped to them as I took their money, stuffing it in my tight dress' top. Paulie was doing the same at the opposite end of the stage, dressed like a lady sailor for some of visiting Navy guys. Most of them were crowded around him in their uniforms, complimenting him and he was batting his long false eyelashes at them and giving them his "oh I'm just a little girl, oh I don't know how to respond, thank you kindly you big man" routine.

As we walked off stage the piano man started to play a light tune that I could vaguely recognize, and I made a bee-line for Frankie sitting in his usual booth towards the back. Paulie made a similar bee-line for Avi who was nursing a rather large beer across the room.

"The McGuire Sisters, huh?" Frankie asked, looking so excited he was like a little kid.

"Are you my little sugar?" I squeaked at him like Marilyn. He wiggled his long pianist's finger at me and I made to bite it. He burst into a fit of giggles. I giggled with him. "Don't you like that kind of music? The McGuire Sisters, the Chordettes, all that?" I asked.

He laughed and I could not stop smiling. It seemed like I would be smiling like a clown forever. "Yeah," he said, nuzzling his nose into mine like an Eskimo, "my mom used to play that music around the house all the time when I was growing up. It was her favorite. I think I heard she was in a small time group like that when she met my dad. She never stopped, I guess. Now I know all the words to every song."

"Did she like Connie Francis, too?" I asked, everything making sense, his love of those pop tunes from the wedding reception a week ago.

"Oh, she loved Connie Francis," he said, his face like sunshine.

"What's your favorite Connie Francis song?" I asked, an idea popping into my head like bubble gum.

"'I Will Wait For You'," he giggled, not at all ashamed to admit it. That is what I loved about him.