Be my Starr (Ringo Starr)

Chapter 23 part 1: Surprise

After the tour around New York, they decided to dine at a nice restaurant close to the hotel. Due to the Beatles raging popularity, the dinner was kept as lowkey as it possibly could. They sat out of view from everyone else and had the staff swear their secrecy to the whole thing.

"This is heavenly." George expressed as he took another bite out of his burger.

"You oughta slow down, you don't wanna be winded on stage tomorrow." John mocked, taking a smaller bite out of his steak.

"The wine could be better," Barbara mumbled and proceeded to down the glass.

"Barbs..." Susan sighed.

"To be fair, she's not wrong," Paul added and looked ahead at Linda who was sat opposite him next to Susan, once again separated from the rest. "You not drinking Luv?" He asked, noticing the glass of water beside her plate of salad.

"It's Linda." She corrected. "And no, I don't drink."

"That's a lie." Barbara laughed abruptly. "What about New Years?"

"That was a special occasion." Linda gave Barbara a passive-aggressive smile.

"Well, today's a special occasion so drink." John chimed.

Everyone was staring at Linda with cheeky grins, all of them waiting for her to take a sip of wine. Even Susan had a go on look on her face.

"Drink drink." John started chanting which encouraged everyone else to chant too.

Linda sighed and took Paul's glass, quickly taking quite an impressive swig for someone who didn't drink. She let out a breath of disgust and passed Paul his drink back.

"Happy now?" The others cheered, a sign that they were definitely happy and all took a swig of their drinks.

As the room calmed back down and everyone got chatting again, Paul turned to Linda. "I thought you said you didn't drink?" He grinned.

"I already talked about that," Linda answered.

"What's your favourite? Judging by how you choked on the wine, I'm guessing you're more of a Brandy person." He said wittily. "Am I right?"

"No, in fact, I'm actually more of a vodka person myself." Paul nodded his head in pleasant surprise.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you." He flirted.

"I'm telling you now," Barbara said and pointed over at Linda. "She's more of an animal than I am. Ain't she Susie?"

"I'm not saying anything." Susan laughed, putting her mouth in her glass.

"Trust me, she goes harder than anyone else when she wants to." Barbara turned to Linda. "Linds we need you to show us how it's done."

"You really don't."

"Please." Her friend pleaded.

"Maybe later..." Linda said with a small grin on her face. Linda was a complete academic but that didn't mean she didn't have fun either. At the end of the day, she lived through her experiences and enjoyed a drink just like everyone else.

After the dinner, they decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel for maybe one more drink before bed. After all, the Beatles were making their Ed Sullivan debut tomorrow.

They all made their way to the room that the Beatles were staying in since it was much bigger. When John opened the door with Barbara close behind, they were met with a surprising sight.

"Oh..." John couldn't believe it and turned to Ringo to see his reaction.

Sat with Eppy on the sofa was Maureen, Ringo's girlfriend. Susan didn't recognise the girl or know the girl but from the boys' expression, it didn't look like it was a good thing.

"Ritchie?" Maureen's lips curled into a sweet smile.

Susan froze. Ritchie? Now, it was all making sense. This had to be Ringo's girlfriend. Apart from this girl, Susan had been the only one to call him by that. Susan stepped back, unable to control herself properly.

"Susan!" Barbara shouted and ran after Susan as she ran down the hallway to her room.

Linda sighed and started walking after the two. "Wait," Paul interjected, making her stop and turn around.

"What?" Paul couldn't remember what he was going to say, or if he was going to say anything. He didn't even know why he stopped her like that.

"Nothin." He said after a moment getting a displeased look from the girl as she turned away.

Ringo finally looked back at Maureen after staring down the empty hallway for a minute straight and took a breath.

"Well then..." John said, not knowing what was going to happen next.

~~~

Linda walked into their room to find Susan sobbing in Barbara's arms.

"I knew this would, I knew it." Susan cried.

"It's alright." Barbara soothed, rubbing her back in a motherly way.

"This should never have happened." She wept.

"Stop it, I'm not having you talk like that just because some girl showed up out of nowhere." Susan pulled away and shook her head, laughing painfully.

"She's not just some girl. That's his girlfriend!" Barbara's mouth dropped and her eyes flicked over at Linda who had the exact same expression.

"Serious?" Susan put her hand over her mouth, the tears running down like two waterfalls.

The phone then started ringing, sending chills down Susan's spine.

"Don't answer it." Susan quickly spat as Linda went to pick it up.

"Why?" Susan sniffed and took a deep breath, wiping the tears off of her face.

"I will." She finally said more clearly. "It's probably my mum anyway." She shrugged and walked over to the phone.

Linda nodded and walked over to Barbara who had starting taking her things out of her bag.

Susan took one last glance at the girls to make sure they weren't listening and answered the phone.

"Hello?" She sniffed.

"Is this Susan Wright?" A voice asked.

"It is."

"Well well, Susan." Mr Anderson said in the most mischievous tone Susan had ever heard. "We have much to discuss..."