Dilemma

18

Turns out Help became another hit, both the movie and the whole album. I also went on tour after I had just released my debut album with my new group "The Mamas and The Papas" and it was actually better received than my debut solo album. It turned out that we stayed six months in the charts with "California Dreaming", which I co-wrote with John Philipps, my bandmate.  I also starred in the James bond film, "Thunderball", this actually kick-started my career. All of the sudden I was asked to be the cover of various magazines. Although I was really busy, I thought it was cute that George would write me letters, every single day telling me what he had done that day and how much he missed me. Actually the highlight of most of my tour days was waiting for the mailman to bring me George's letters. 

What I considered hilarious was that everybody thought I was cheating with Sean Connery or that I had broken up with George to be with him. I was on every newspapers headlines, "The Beatle breaks up with the Bond girl", "Did Sean Connery steal The Mama's heart?", it just went on and on. But they were all silly false rumors, I don't think anyone truly believed them anyways. 

On one of my free days, I decided to meet some old friends, Marianne and Therese. Marianne was also getting attention because she was dating Jagger, it was funny because she was one of my childhood friends. Therese was a fashion designer, very talented I must say. We met up at a small cafe downtown to catch up. 

"You won't believe it! Remember Anita, from the club?" Marianne seemed eager to tell me something.

"Yeah, wasn't she dating Brian at one point?" I took a sip from my teacup. Therese giggled and began to bite her nails.

"Why?" I didn't know what to expect.

"Well.." Marianne continued. "Ugh, she's dating you ex!" Therese grew impatient and she spit it all out. I almost choked on the tea and coughed a few times. "What?" I couldn't believe my ears.

"Anita is dating Keith!" Marianne confirmed what I had heard. To be honest I wasn't jealous, as I was extremely happy with George. I thought of George as my future husband and father of my kids already. What I couldn't believe was the fact that Anita had the balls of getting with her ex's friend and bandmate. Had Keith been checking up on Anita while I was with him? That would be terribly embarrassing!

Suddenly I felt two hands covering my eyes. "Guess who!" I immediately recognized his voice. It was none other than Mr. Harrison. 

"Oh, you've caught me by surprise Keith!" I pulled his hands down. He kept one up to ruffle the top of my hair and grabbed a chair from another table and sat down in front of me. I wanted George to be with me.

"How have you been?!" I tried to interrupt the awkwardness in the air. "Good, good! I mean I don't have to ask you, because you've been everywhere!" Keith lit up a cigar. Anita joined us out of the blue and sat on top of Keith's lap. "Guess dating a Beatle came in handy!" She snarkly commented. I rolled my eyes at which Keith laughed. Anita kissed him on the lips in response. I must admit, I wasn't a big fan of her sassy attitude. Did she really think that I didn't work hard to get here? I didn't have to rely on George for anything but for love and emotional support if that's what she meant. I was getting pretty irritated, but I tried calming myself for the sake of Keith. I gave Anita the fakest smile ever and lit a cigar myself. I still didn't understand why Keith did not tell her how much effort I had put into my own career, but I wasn't gonna start an argument.

"So, when did you guys become a thing?" I asked, actually interested. "Common tell her!" Anita pushed Keith's shoulder playfully. 

"Around september?" Keith furrowed his eyebrows. "December silly!" Anita smiled and slapped his chest. 

I gave Keith a look, he seemed to understand it. He started to realize how ridiculous this all was. 

"Sorry I'm late!" George appeared out of thin air and kissed my cheek.

"What are you doing here?" My boiling blood soon cooled down. I was so happy to see him.

"Therese asked me to come join us!" George admitted and rubbed the apple of my cheek. I blushed and smiled shyly. 

Therese winked at me, she knew exactly how much I had missed George. George sat down next to me, crossed his legs and placed his arm around my shoulder. I didn't want my first encounter with George after such a long departure to be within this uncomfortable atmosphere. 

"Well, I think we better be going! I haven't seen this buscuit in a long time!" I held Goerge's smooth, thin hand and got him to stand back up.

"Wait!" Marianne got up and whispered, "Keith brought Anita to make you jealous. He wants you back. I swear I heard him talking to Mick," 

I tried to act cool as if what she had whispered was no big deal and replied out loud with, "I missed you too! I'll see you soon, ok?" This way nobody suspected anything. 

"It was nice seeing you guys!" I waved everybody goodbye.  After walking a few minutes away from them, I jumped at George.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you!" He picked me up and I kissed his lips. "I love you!" I continued embracing him tightly. 

"Alice, I want you to meet my parents as soon as possible! I want to marry the heck out of you as soon as I can!" He said while kissing me all over the face. My heart melted! I squeezed him even harder and replied, "Let's have kids soon too!" We both giggled. He put me down and we both continued to strolled down the street.

"George! George!"

"Alice! George!"

Paparazzi followed us. "Fudge, we've got to get going!" George and I ran as fast as we could.