Beauty and the Beatle II

Chapter XVI

"I love your hills and I love your dales, And I love your flocks a-bleating; but oh, on the heather to lie together, With both our hearts a-beating!"

—John Keats

──✧˖⁺‧₊˚✧˚₊‧⁺˖ ✧── 

While he took a shower, Michelle opened the window a little more, it hadn't stopped raining, "you had to try to keep me locked up with him, huh rain?" she thought, she decided to drink from the bottle as she looked at the street outside her window. After some minutes the bathroom door opened, John came out using only a grey robe, he hanged his clothes on the windows, with luck they'd be dry in the morning.

"You're going to have to go and ask for another robe, this is the only one here... unless you want me to take it off," he said pretending he was untying it .

She covered her eyes, "oh no! you keep it, I'll go in a minute to look for one," she answered, still her mind was absent, thinking on how angry she was that John had moved on, she went to sit on a blue settee on the other side of the room, taking the bottle with her she exclaimed her inner thoughts "I wish I could be for one day like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, in the film she pretends to be someone else, not a princess," she took another big drink of the wine, "imagine! to make my parent's conflict, the you and I conflict, disappear" she pointed at him and then at herself, "and any doubts I have about my life, go puff! Wouldn't that be grand?"

He cast her eye on her, after a mutual silence he decided to join her and sat beside her, "Michelle, I'm so bloody sorry," he took the bottle from her hands to drink and have the courage to tell her how wrong he had done her, "I fucked it up, I don't even know what came to my mind the moment I — I was the idiot okay?"

Michelle interrupted him, he took the wine from his hands, "you shouldn't be mixing whatever you're taking with wine," she turned to see him, "you're starting to appear agreeable to me and it's making me uncomfortable," she sneered.

"and still you're the only one who'd say that about me," he confessed in a quiet tone, that proved that he was being sincere. He wanted to avoid looking at her, but his eyes darted to her still damp soft cream chemise she was wearing, he decided to look to the floor.

She scoffed, "Phew, what about that Rose girl, and the German one, and that TV host of today? I'm pretty certain you are far more than agreeable to them," she was truly oblivious to the feelings he had for her that evening; he once in the past had thought her to be putting spells on him, but now that they had broken up, he'd had enough time to realise that the way she saw him, spoke to him and treated him, was in the most gentle manner; that he had thought it to be existent only in books and films. No matter how exasperated he'd felt by their disagreements, or how stubborn she was, there hadn't been one single time he'd found her unkind towards him. And yet, he understood that he hadn't quite reciprocated that to her.

His expression changed to a sad but sour one, "I guess there's nothing for my defense,"

She noticed how his mood had changed, with hesitation she placed her hand on her face, "don't worry I'll be fine, I'm a tough lass," she winked at him, "I didn't mean to be rude about those... women," she bit her lower lip and then went on, "It shouldn't matter now, it's just you were the first man that ---"

"could stand your presence," he said getting closer to her face, as she tried to look down,

A little smirk appeared on the right side of her mouth, "yes, and that made me fall in love," Michelle took her glasses off, she knew herself to be probably tipsy since she had no fear to confess to him, covering her face she exclaimed, "but then again you've written the most romantic songs that could compete with a poem by Keats, so maybe I'm just being ridiculous, there's nothing special,"