Words Of Love - Chapter Nine
Title: Words Of Love
Pairing: George Harrison/Annette Grant (Original character)
Rated: PG (Subject to change)
Summary: Romance blossoms between George Harrison and Annette Grant of The Debutantes, a member of a black girl group from New York (Loosely based on The Ronettes), during The Beatles Christmas Show.
Notes: The story begins at the end of December in 1963. This is a follow up to The Nearest To My Heart, but told with the focus on George and Annette's romance.
Disclaimer: I make no profit from this story. It's a work of fiction.
Previous Chapters
Chapter Nine - Your Move
George ran a comb through his fringe, staring at his reflection in the vanity mirror of The Beatles dressing room. He removed several fan letters stuck between the frame and the mirror to get a better look at himself.
John walked up behind George. "Going to see your bird?" He cloying asked, trying to annoy him.
He nodded, ignoring his friend's excessively sweet tone, and turned around with the comb in his hand. "You coming?" He asked, looking over at Paul seated on the sofa across the room. His mate was slouched down, legs crossed at the ankle, whistling as he played around on his unplugged Hofner bass. He shook his head, continuing to fiddle with the violin shaped guitar. George turned to face the mirror. John tapped his shoulder. "What?" He continued to comb his hair.
John held out his hand and began to sing. "Lend me your comb. It's time to go home. I got to go past. My hair is a mess."
George laughed, picking up where his friend left off. "Your mammie will scold. Your pappie will shout. Unless we come in. The way we went out."
He smirked, tousling the back of his mate's tidy hair. George ducked, a frown appearing on his face, and took several steps away from him. John laughed, walking over to Paul and joined him on the sofa. He briefly watched George combing the back of his messy hair. "It wasn't a night to remember?" John tauntingly asked, raising his eyebrow, referencing Paul's date with Charlie last night.
George wasn't interested in sticking around to watch this play out. He tuned out his mates terse exchange of words, but the tension in the dressing room could be felt. He finished combing his hair, taking one last look at himself in the mirror and headed for the door.
John winked, his words directed at Paul. "We've got a couple of girls to see." He followed George out of their dressing room.
(----)
Annette enjoyed George's company before the beginning of a show. Getting to spend time with him meant a great deal to her. "Tomorrow we have an appearance at Dobell's record shop. We've never done one."
"Will you be performing?" He curiously asked, wanting to attend, but he knew it was a unpredictable situation to walk into. It wouldn't be as easy as sneaking into a darkened theater after the movie started, and leaving before it ended. He reasoned there'd be plenty of people around, fans wanting their albums signed, press, and those that just happened to there to buy records. George didn't have an exaggerated sense of himself to believe that everyone there would be fans of The Beatles, but he had enough experience with being identified to know it was a possibility he'd be spotted. He wanted to show his support, but he didn't want to take the focus off of Annette and her friends.
She nodded. "Just the single. Welcome To the Ball. Howard said it's moving up the charts again because of the Christmas shows."
George smiled, happy for the trio's success. "Planning on knocking us out of the charts?" He playfully asked.
She laughed, shaking her head. "I don't know about that." She modestly replied.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I do." He encouragingly stated, wanting her to enjoy this moment of chart success.
"What song of your group first made it into the charts?"
"Love Me Do. I think it got to number 17. It was exciting to watch it go up. Will you sign a copy of your album for me?" He asked, more interested in talking about The Debutantes, than discussing The Beatles achievements.
She tilted her head, pretending to think about it. "Yes, but only if you buy a copy."
George laughed. "All right, I'll buy a copy of your record."
"Would you be able to see me after the signing?"
"We've got this recording session scheduled at EMI House. All of us have to be there. We're recording open ended answers for disc jockeys in the US to play. It'll be like we're there speaking to the jockeys when they play it on the air. We could meet afterwards and go wherever you want. Can we see each other tonight?"
She nodded, a flirtatious smile on her face. "If you didn't ask I was going to."
(----)
"I think the second day of recording went better than the first one." Annette called out, setting up the Monopoly board on the coffee table.
"That's good." George replied, walking into the front room with two bottles of pop and placed them onto the coffee table. "You seemed more comfortable." He pointed out, walking back into the kitchen, and looked through the cupboards. Finding a bag of Walkers crisps, he opened them up, and grabbed a cereal bowl. He poured the crisps into the bowl, leaving the rest in the bag and brought the snack into the front room.
"I was -- I think we all were." She set up the community chest and chance cards onto the game board. "What do you want to be?" She picked up a bottle of pop, and took a few sips from it. He picked the race car token. She choose the iron.
"Playing Monopoly?" Ringo walked into the front room. He wanted to join in, but wouldn't unless he was asked.
"We haven't started. Do you want to play?" She asked.
Ringo shook his head. "I wouldn't want to propose."
She smiled, a amused expression on her face. "I don't think I should accept a proposal this early into the year, but don't let that stop you from proposing." She playfully remarked. "You wouldn't be imposing." The expression on Annette's face and her words were friendly.
He looked over at George, a brief moment shared between the two young men. They didn't have to use his words, Ringo knew he was welcome to join them. He settled down on the carpeted floor and grabbed the horse and rider piece. "Whose going to be the banker?"
"Me." George answered, looking over at Annette. "Unless, you want to be in charge of the bank."
"I don't like being the banker." She didn't want to be charge of handing out the money, property, houses, hotels and deeds that belonged to the bank.
George grinned, playfully rubbing his hands together in an exaggerated manner. After counting their starting money he handed it out. They took turns rolling the dice. Ringo rolled the highest number and went first, and the order of gameplay continued clockwise.
Well versed in the rules of the game and didn't allow for any departure from the rules. George was a monopoly tycoon. The orange properties were money makers since they seemed to be landed on the most and he would try to buy those first. He was also focused on trying to buy as many properties as possible in the beginning of the game. It just made sense to him. The more property you owned, the greater your chances were to collect rent, and the more rent you collected the more money you had at your disposal.
Annette was also playing the game smart, mindful to buy unowned properties in every color group that only George had bought property. A move the would prevent him from monopolizing a color group. They were both keeping track of how much cash the other one had. Annette and George were enjoying themselves, but they were both serious players.
Ringo on the other hand was only a casual player in this game. If he landed on a property that he could afford he'd buy it, and if he had enough money to buy a green house or a red hotel to put on it he would. It wasn't the best way to win the game, but he didn't care about winning. George would wait to build on his properties until he completed buying a color group, but Annette's sharp game playing was making him reconsider what usually worked for him.
"You aren't making this easy on me." George good-naturedly remarked, handing over the card to Marlborough Street to her.
"It wouldn't be any fun if it were easy." She smiled, setting the deed card with her other ones.
George laughed. "For me or you?"
"For me." She dryly answered, a hint of a smile on her face.
"For her all right." Ringo spoke up, taking a long drag off of his cigarette. He was running low on funds, a few more rolls of the dice and he'd be out of this game. Resting his elbows on the coffee table, he leaned forward to Annette sitting on the other side. "Think you could loan me a few pounds Miss Monopoly?"
"That would land us both in jail." She cleverly replied.
Ringo sat back, taking another drag off of his cigarette. "I could do the time."
"I can't," She winked, exaggeratedly slipping a pink pound note across the coffee table.
"None of that." George lightheartedly spoke up, placing his hand over hers.
Ringo smiled around the cigarette between his lips. "It's just a five pound note, mate." He broadly grinned, pulling the cigarette from his mouth.
"To the clink with the both you." George replied with mock indignation, shaking his fist at them.
Ringo looked over at Annette, eyes growing comically wide. "That jig is up." He mock whispered, pressing his wrist together. "Take us away."
She laughed. "Or just him."
Ringo stood up, hearing the sound of the phone. "No armor amongst thieves?"
Annette laughed. "Armor, no and not honor either." She brightly replied.
"Hello?" He spoke into the receiver.
The game momentarily at a standstill, George grabbed the empty bag of crisps, and the empty cereal bowl he'd put them into. "If you're hungry I could make a few jam butties." He offered, standing up.
She shook her head. "I wouldn't mind another Coke." She grabbed the empty pop bottles, stood up and followed him into the kitchen.
"How'd you become such a Monopoly expert?" He placed the cereal bowl into the sink, and tossed the crisps bag into the bin.
"My dad." She handed him the empty bottles. "What about you?"
George tossed them into the bin, and they made a loud clatter. "When you're locked up in hotel rooms there isn't much to do. We play board games, cards, listen to records, anything to pass the time." He explained, leaning against the counter.
Ringo walked into the kitchen. "That was Paul on the phone. He wants to meet at the Saddle Room Club."
"I've got a game to win." He good-naturedly replied.
She lightly hit George's arm and he laughed. "Don't be so sure about that."
"I'll tell Paul your busy trying to build an empire." Ringo smiled, stepping out of the kitchen.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I guess it's just you and me for the rest of the evening." George lopsidedly grinned.
The Monopoly board had been left untouched. Neither George or Annette having any interest in returning to it. They were taken with each other, languidly kissing on the sofa in the front room. His arm was wrapped around her waist. Her hand gently caressing his back. It could only go so far before kissing would become something else and they both knew it. George pulled back, staring into her eyes, wanting to go further, but he didn't want to push her into anything.
She smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of his face. Annette understood that look. She wanted to do more than kiss, but she knew that when you reached a certain point, that stopping made you appear to be a tease. She appreciated that George hadn't ever made her feel disappointed with just kissing. If circumstances were different, and she wasn't set to leave that going past a certain point wouldn't have been such a dilemma for her. Annette would've been with him and not regretted it. She didn't know how to say it. "I like you, George. A lot."
He nodded, knowing that their evening together had come to an end. "I like you too, Nette." He softly stated, no annoyance to be heard in his tone.
(----)
Annette was quiet, slipping into the dark hotel room she shared with her friends. Both of them were asleep. She moved around the room, finding it difficult to do so without any lights on. She stepped into the bathroom, turning on the light and shut the door. She began to undress, only wearing her bra and skirt when there was a soft knock at the bathroom door. She slowly opened it. Charlie was on the other side. "Did I make too much noise coming in?" She apologetically stated.
Charlie shook her head, leaning against the door frame. She'd always been a light sleeper and a night owl. "Did you have a good time?"
She nodded, a bashful smile appeared on her face. "Yes."
"That good of a time?" She playfully asked.
Annette quietly laughed. "We played Monopoly with Ringo."
She smiled. "You two are wild." She teasingly replied.
"He did leave and it was just the two of us."
Charlie stepped into the bathroom and shut the door. Wanda was a heavy sleeper, but she knew if their friend heard what Annette had to share that she might have some well meaning but judgmental words for her. "What happened then? Only what you wanted?" She questioned, showing concern for the younger woman.
"Yes -- well, what we both wanted. George is sweet." She softly answered. "He doesn't make me feel that I have to do more."
"That's good." She smiled, genuinely happy for her friend. Annette was a nice person and Charlie wanted a guy for her friend that treated her right. George appeared to be that guy.
"If we weren't leaving," She paused, having trouble admitting that she wanted to do more.
"You would've gone further?" She reached out, gently slipping her hand onto her friend's arm.
Annette nodded. "He's just -- I like him. A lot." She confessed.
"He feels the same about you."
"How can you tell?"
"In his eyes. The way he looks at you, it's all there."
Chapter Nine - Your Move
Chapter Ten - A Future Proposal
Jackie DeShannon talks about playing Monopoly with George Harrison
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