The Night Before

Chapter 22

5 September 1966

PAUL'S POV

Today Jane and I were having a day to ourselves. She made us reservations for lunch then we're coming back to mine for the rest of the afternoon. John was off filming this moving he was staring in, so we all had a few days off.

Soon I arrived at hers as she quickly came out of the house and climbed into the car. "Hi babe." She smiled.

"Hello love. How's your day doing?" I asked, glancing over at her as I drove to the restaurant.

"Good. I'm glad that we're spending some time together, we've both been been so busy."

"We have. It's nice to have a few days off."

Soon we arrived at the restaurant, ordered lunch and talked for a while.

"Since Alfie's all finished I think I'm going to take a bit of a break for a few months. Maybe coming up we could go on a vacation? Where would you want to go?"

"Yeah, mhm. That's great love." I said as I absentmindedly played with my food.

"I was thinking Venice. We haven't been there for a while."

I just nodded and kept moving my food around my plate.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, me too. Sounds fab."

She then sat her napkin on the table and went to stand up. "I think I'm ready to go."

"Oh alright love, that was a nice lunch."

After paying the bill, we went back to mine and laid on the couch. As I situated myself I felt something in the cushions. I dug my hand in there to find one of Madelynn's toys.

Jane looked over at me and down at the you. "What's that, love?"

"It's one of Mady's toys. Oh this was one of her favourites, she'd always love when we'd play with this one." I said as I looked down at it, thinking back. 

I'm not sure how much time passed, but I just kept thinking about her. She loved when we'd play peek-a-boo, when we'd play with this toy, how she'd fall asleep so quickly as I sang to her.

"Paul love."

"Paul.."

"Paul!" Jane yelled.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to her. "Yeah, love?"

"You zoned out while I was talking to you again. You've been doing that all day."

"What? No, I'm fine. I've been listening."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Where did I say we should go on vacation then?"

"Wait, we're going on vacation?"

She just shot me this glare and shook her head. "I can't do this."

"Wait, you can't do what?" I asked.

"Us. I don't understand you. You beg me to take you back because you couldn't handle the way your life was. And now you constantly go on about the baby."

"What? No, I don't do that."

"You do. You talk about the baby and about her. You called me Addie during sex once!" She yelled as she stood up and walked to the other side of the living room.

I looked away. Have I really done that? Do I talk about them that much?

"I don't think I can do this." She said with her back to me.

I got up and walked over to her. "Jane..please.."

"I love you Paul, I do." She turned to me. "I just can't handle feeling like I'm not what you want.."

I took her hand in mine and kissed it. "I'm sorry if I've made you feel this way.. I can change, I promise I can."

She pulled away and went over to grab her purse. "I'm sorry Paul, this is over. It's clear that you want her over me. I won't be played any longer." And with that she left.

I fell back on the couch and let out a sigh. "Why are you such a bloody screw-up?"

I sat there thinking for some time about what just happened. I called her Addie before? Maybe I'm missing she and Mady more than I thought, but they've moved now and I have no clue where they went. That's when I remembered that I had gotten her new phone number when I was at Ringo's the one day—he doesn't know that I took it.

After finding the piece of paper I wrote it on I went over to the phone and dialed.

"Hello?" She said on the other line.

"Adaline?"

"Yes, who's this?"

I took a second, letting out a sigh before I replied. "It's Paul, love."

There was then a silence for about a minute before I spoke up.

"Addie..?"

"Why are you calling me? How did you get my number?"

"Love, please. Can we just talk?"

"You want to talk? Why? I've left you alone like you wanted. What else did I do wrong?" She practically yelled over the phone.

"What? No no. Love, you're fine. You didn't do anything. I just wanted to see how you were."

"First off, don't call me love. You lost that privilege. Second, I highly doubt that you really care."

"Addie, come on.. Can't you let it go?" Did I really just say that? Smooth McCartney, real smooth.

"Are you kidding me? You expect me to not be mad about that? I don't know why you really called me and I suggest that you don't call here again." With that she hung up on me. I laid back on the couch and shook my head. What has my life come to?

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Author's Note:
I cannot apologise enough for taking so long to update. My father is battling cancer and within the last week we found out that his treatments aren't working and we don't have that much time left. With that I've been overwhelmed and have not had a lot of time to write, so I apologise for how bad this chapter is. I'm going to try to get back on top of things to update more often. Thank you again for reading!