You Really Got A Hold On Me

Cry Baby Cry

Working at Betty's that day, shortly after seeing Paul, it was difficult to concentrate to say the least.

I told Betty all about it, about what Paul had said and how I felt. No-one had ever said "I love you" to me before, well apart from Dad and Abby but that didn't count. I could not have predicted how I would feel upon hearing Paul say those three words and I was in no way prepared but the warm feeling I was filled with was like no other.

To know that he felt the same way about me as I did him was better than any present I would get, it was like Christmas had come early this year. 

After that it seemed as though those three words had become a central addition to Paul's vocabulary as he told me he loved me each time we parted. Sometimes it would just be a quiet whisper in my ear after a kiss or other times, one occasion sticks in the mind, he wouldn't care who heard him. Said occasion being when he walked me home one evening after going round to his and when we had got to my front door he shouted down the street "I love you Michelle Leerick!" to which I attempted to shush him through my giggles and blushes of embarrassment. 

Now that it was the Christmas holidays, Abby and I were working almost every day and each day we would come home and put our wages together to see how much we had.

"We're almost there y'know" Abby said one evening. 

Working at Betty's was great, it didn't even feel like a real job. And after I finished Paul would come and pick me up and we would walk home with Abby, talking all the while about our days.

Paul had many a time begged me to tell him what I wanted for Christmas but I just told him that whatever he got would be great because it would be from him.

Abby was obviously keeping her present for John a secret and I hadn't been able to get it out of her yet which was unusual. 

Any spare money we had kept aside from the sum for Paul's present we had put together to buy George a new guitar strap as we noticed he needed another one.

And I had already sorted Dad and Abby's presents. I got Dad this book he had had his eye on a few months ago and Abby had been going on and on about a purple skirt she's seen in a shop window so that was them done and dusted. 

It wasn't long before the 22d had arrived, Christmas Eve Eve as Abby and I called it, and we had reserved this day for buying Paul's present. 

So after our shifts at Betty's and the pictures had ended we trekked down to the guitar shop and Abby told the guy that he'd better have the guitar we wanted.

He said he had kept it out back and brought it through. It was just as beautiful as I had remembered. A warm vintage sunburst for the body and it was shaped like those guitars I'd seen Chuck Berry use in photographs - it was perfect. 

We pulled out our wages and handed them to the guy.  I felt a pang of regret after handing over all the money I had worked so hard to earn but I told myself to stop being silly, it was for Paul and he deserved it.

So that was that and when we got back to mine I stood it up against the wall on my bed and stared at it with a sigh.

"He's gonna love it" Abby said, triumphantly - I still felt rather guilty for allowing her to give away her wages for Paul's present but she had insisted.

"I hope so" I sighed.

                                                                          *                      *                    *