In the water - Noel Gallagher

Chapter 5

"And then he left."

At first I didn't want to talk about it, but two long days had passed since that evening and I changed my mind. I was going crazy.

"Unbelievable" Mary said, Mark wasn't saying anything, but he looked speechless.

"I know... But what should I do?" It was messing with my mind.

Mark didn't hesitate and replied "Well... Noel is married, so he may have felt guilty about dancing with you, or maybe he just felt sick all of a sudden."

I sighed and put my head in my hands, "Gosh... So it's my fault?" I looked at them both, my eyes pleading them to say no.

"I'm such an idiot. I completely let myself go and I shouldn't have. Normally, I would never asked him to dance with me, but I had been drinking so much and I was having such a fun time... I didn't think about his wife. And I ruined the chance I had to maybe, ya know, see him again."

"Wow! Calm down! You talk too much Alice. Stop thinking. " I was completely surprised by Mary's answer. "Listen to me, he's the one who helped you at the pub, he's the one who stayed with you that evening, he's the one who asked you for your number, he's the one who asked you to go to the Cavern, and last but not least he's the one who got up from his chair and danced with you! And it was just a fucking dance ! Okay ??"

She was right. I needed to relax, to take my mind off it! I went for a walk outside. It wasn't so cold for the end of December. I went shopping and then I headed to a music store in the middle of town. When I thought back to my father's guitar, I had a lump forming in the middle of my stomach, I didn't want another guitar, but I wanted to play, it made me feel better and I missed it.

I was looking at a Gibson when I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned around.

"I knew it was you ..."

"Paul ?!" I was face to face with my Liverpool flirt, a tall redhead man with blue eyes. The kind of bad boy who doesn't smile or talk a lot. Paul and I were really close when I was studying here, we used to go out together.

"So you're back, without even telling me" I got a smile from him.

"It's a long story" I was about to say something but I felt my phone vibrate in my bag. I had a message from Noel.

"Turn around" My heart began to beat very quickly.

I turned around and he was there in front of the store, he opened the door and walked over to us, his eyes fixed on mine. I gave Paul a quick glance before Noel was right in front of us. Paul was on my right.

"Alice, good to see you," he gave me a warm smile that quickly faded when he looked at Paul.

"Noel, this is Paul an old friend"

"A friend, hm, a little more than that, right?" Paul seemed proud of his little joke, he smirked and winked at me. I wished he would have shut up. But he continued, "Mr. Gallagher, it's a pleasure," and extended his hand to Noel.

Noel had a cold, emotionless look on his face, he shook Paul's hand without saying anything. His eyes went back to me and the muscles in his face seemed to relaxed a bit. Then there was that awkward moment where no one spoke for a few seconds, and Noel finally continued with a sigh, "The gig I told you about will be tomorrow, shall I put you on the guest list?"

"Yeah, sure," I answered right away with a big smile on my face.

He was smiling, pleased with my answer. "I'm texting you the details, see you tomorrow." His hand rested on my forearm, he turned, giving Paul one last look. He said something to the man behind the counter and then left the store.

"What the hell was this? Where do you know him from?"

"It's a long story" I blushed.

"That's a lot of long stories" he asked me to go to the pub to have a chat, which I agreed to. When I got to the bar I told him about my life since I left Liverpool and why I was back here, he seemed sad, touched and also happy to see me again.

I didn't tell him about Noel. I couldn't get him out of my head.

Paul was telling me his stories, we had a lot to catch up on, my eyes were staring into his blue ones, but I only thought of Noel. His eyes, his hand on my arm, our dance, his laughter ...

And God knows I couldn't wait to see him on stage tomorrow, but would he have invited me if we hadn't bumped into each other today?