I Learnt To Love In Liverpool | George Harrison ✅

♥ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐲-𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 ♥

One Week Later

I was on the floor with Julian, running one of his toy cars around the floor as he crawled after it, occasionally getting up and toddling and lasting no more than four or five steps before he fell onto the floor.

"Careful, Jules!" I exclaimed as he grabbed at the settee to steady himself. He turned himself around with a lot of difficulty and then fixed his gaze on me. I opened my arms, dropping the toy onto the floor as I said, "that's it, good boy! Come over here!"

He did. And as he landed in my arms, he babbled, "mummy! Mummy!"

I teared up. I cried. Julian just put his chubby little arms around me and continued to spout his first word... and it had been for me.

It was at that moment that I realised.

I was his mother.

I couldn't believe that Julian's first word had been 'mummy', and that it had been to me. I made a mental note to tell John next time he called, which I was sure would be soon - it had been over a week since I had spoken to him last.

At that moment, the phone rang. I stood up, keeping Julian in my arms. I walked to the phone by the settee and sat down, holding Julian tightly as I answered, "hello?"

"Hey, Em!" Paul exclaimed, "how are you an' the little ones?"

"Hey, Paulie!" I replied excitedly, running my fingers through Jules' soft brown hair as he laid his head against my chest. "We're good - Jules said his first word today, actually, but don't tell John because I want to do that myself -"

"That's great!" He replied, "what was it?"

"Mummy." I answered. "It was perfect, I wish someone else could have seen it."

I heard Paul talking to somebody else who was in the room with him, and then he said to me, "Em, I'm sorry but I have to go. Eppy's booked another interview -"

"Oh," I said, a little sad because he was the first person that I had spoken to in four days, "no, um problem... talk later?"

Paul hummed in reply, "I'll call you when we get to the next hotel. Bye."

And then he was gone, and it was just Julian and me, and the baby.

* * * * *

I had played With The Beatles so much that it now crackled, and usually skipped over most of Ringo's Boys. Whenever I put it on, the baby inside of me moved around and kicked and hiccuped, and I loved to feel it - him, I imagined - moving, so I played it again... and again and again.

The phone rang and I answered it, "hello?"

"Hey, Em." It was George. I smiled.

"Hi, George!" I exclaimed excitedly, then silently chiding myself for being so loud since Julian was in bed and generally a light sleeper. "How's America?"

"It's gear." He told me, "everythin' we ever thought it would be."

"I'm glad." I told him honestly, remembering the nights when George and I would lie in bed in each other's arms and ponder on the future - the one that we had thought we would share - and where we would be. We had spent hours talking about America, and I was secretly a little bit jealous that he was finally getting to live out the fantasy which we had both had.

"And -"

I squirmed in horror and surprise at the sound of a woman moaning loudly in the background, and a man's shouts of pleasure. George was quiet for a few seconds before he very quickly said, "Em, I need to go, I -"

"George..." I said with tears in my eyes, my heart heavy. "Is that girl..."

"Em, it doesn't -"

"George." I said sharply, shocking him into silence and interrupting what he had been saying, "is that girl... w-with John?" George was silent. "She is, isn't she?" He continued to be silent. "That's why he hasn't called, I... Oh my God, I -"

"Em, -"

"George, you don't have to confirm or deny it. I won't put you into that position... but could you pass a message onto John for me?" He hummed in reply, and I could tell from the monotone tune that he gave me that he was listening, "find another fucking house, because this one belongs to me and the children that he has just abandoned."

And then I hung up. And then I cried.