The Nearest To My Heart -John Lennon Fan Fiction - Paul McCartney Fan Fiction - Beatles Fan Fiction

Chapter Twenty Five - Blue

"You weren't in the middle of anything?" Paul asked politely. 

Charlie leaned against the closed door of her hotel room, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you're here to talk about John --"

"I'm not." Paul gently grabbed her arms. "Don't do that." He pleaded softly. "You resemble a stuffy schoolmaster." He pointed out good-naturedly.

She held her arms firmly in place, refusing to be charmed. "What're you doing here?" Charlie knew that seeing Paul after last night was going to happen, but she didn't expect to see him until later on in the day at the Astoria. She felt vulnerable in his presence, and that was a feeling she disliked intensely. 

Paul still held onto her, steadfast in his belief that the moment they shared yesterday on stage was meaningful. He was disappointed by Charlie's response to his presence, but he didn't let on. "The Debutantes will perform with The Beatles tonight." He stated enthusiastically.

Charlie frowned. "Why would we do that? We do just fine on our own." She replied defensively.

He let go of her, taking a step back, feeling slighted by her words and genuinely surprised that she hadn't responded with excitement. It was the appropriate response in his opinion. Plenty of other acts would've been grateful for the offer, and taken it without question, but Charlie appeared to be offended. 

He slipped his hands into his overcoat and attempted to make sense of her reaction. A moment of silence settled between the two of them.

"I don't need your help." She stated defiantly, knowing that wasn't entirely true. Paul had been a great help. He'd been the only one to take an interest in her songwriting aside from Annette and Wanda. He'd given her a song that had a chance at becoming a hit for The Debutantes. He'd also get them into a proper recording studio for the tune to be produced by George Martin. She didn't want to need him, but he'd done a great deal for her, and she knew that she was being ungrateful.

"Brian was going to pull you from the last two shows. I stopped him from doing it." Paul stated plainly, not holding back with the truth or trying to make it sound better as was his way. "I told him that a better idea would be for The Beatles and The Debutantes to do a song together, get the crowd warmed up to your group." 

"I never asked for you to do that or anything else." She stated faltering, losing a bit of self-confidence at what Paul revealed to her.

"You didn't have to because I think you're good, Charlie. You're really good. You, Wanda, and Annette. You could be big, and I want to help." He shook his head. "Who knew helping someone could be so bloody difficult?" He asked exasperatedly.

Charlie's hands fell to her sides. She was embarrassed, not only because of the ungrateful way she acted with Paul's genuine attempts to help her but also because her group had been so close to being pulled from the show. She'd never been comfortable with apologizing, and Charlie knew she should. She found herself saying instead, "Don't you think that'd make it worse? If we were to perform together? They didn't enjoy seeing us on stage together." 

"I don't care about that." He stated honestly, revealing a naive side of himself.

"You should." She smiled, not finding the situation humorous, but his perception of how easy it would be to sway the audience. "They don't want to see us with you. It's fine when it's just the three of us up there, but the idea of us mixing together on stage or off," Charlie shook her head. 

He nodded, understanding the meaning of her words.

She continued. "We don't know what's going to happen this evening. It could be better it could be worse."