Wildfire ~ George Harrison

Chapter 28: A knock too late

I knew what I needed to do. Now I only needed to make sure I did it. If I wanted to be with George, and I absolutely did, I needed to break things off with Henry. My parents would be incredibly disappointed and furious too, but I needed to do it. I knew Henry would understand, which he did, as soon as I called him.

He knew right away why I rang and agreed to meet up. He didn't sound angry, but somehow he also didn't seem happy for me. It was a surprise to me as he'd been the one to ask me about it in the first place. He had been the one who pushed me to go after George, didn't he?

We met up in a café in Soho on a Friday night after the Beatles' performance at the Ed Sullivan Show in the States. It struck me as odd that he didn't offer to meet for dinner in a restaurant, but rather suggested a café. It was especially strange since it was now dinner time. Why meet at dinner time, but not for dinner?

'Henry,' I smiled as soon as I came into hearing distance of him. We did the whole uncomfortable wait for the waitress to note down our drink orders while we sat there, without being able to properly greet each other. Couldn't she just lead me to my seat and then wait at a distance?

I expected Henry to start talking as soon as the waitress was gone, but he didn't. The uncomfortable silence continued, until I couldn't take it anymore. 'So, how have you been?' I asked him uncomfortably.

Anger flared up in his eyes, anger, I realised, that had been there all along. He had tried to keep it hidden, away from me, but now it was coming out. 'What the fuck, Charlotte!' he hissed.

I was shocked by his outburst. Over the phone I had noticed he'd been displeased, but I hadn't expected him to be this angry. 'What's going on?' I asked him, desperately trying to not get sucked into his foul mood. My life was finally picking up some sail and I did not want him spoil it.

'What's going on? What's going on?' he continued hissing. It was clear he was trying to keep his voice and volume under control and so far he was succeeding in not making a scene. However, I wasn't sure if he could keep that up. 'You tell me you're okay with this courtship, that there's nothing going on with this singing bloke of yours and then you give me this? What the fuck! You can't just do that, Charlotte!'

Now, I was prepared to do a whole lot, but I wasn't going to take this cursing. That was not fair to me. 'Excuse me, but weren't you the one that told me to do that?' I fired back at him, though my voice showed no sign of emotion whatsoever. I was proud of that I didn't show any weakness, nothing he could take advantage of.

'Yes, when I gave you the chance, not over a month later!' he threw back something that made me raise my eyebrows. Talk about being unfair! My goodness, how could he even say that?

I swallowed the countless curse words that were desperate to escape and kept my voice level. 'What would it matter anyways? Don't you have a girlfriend on the side?' Was this a fair thing to throw at him in a restaurant? Probably not, but he wasn't being fair here, either. I had an excuse.

He huffed. 'Had, not that it's anything to do with you.' He said it under his breath, maybe not entirely sure he wanted me to hear it.

Ah, so that was what this was really about. His girlfriend broke up with him and he thought I would be his back-up. Now that was insulting. From the very beginning of our messed-up courtship, we had been clear that neither of us were the other person's back-up. That was not what it was about. We were each other's cover for our parents, that was all. Fuck him for turning that around.

'Oh screw you, Henry,' I cursed. 'So now that your girl doesn't want you anymore, you think to fall back on me? Screw that!'

This clearly took him off guard and he seemed to think for a bit. I wasn't done however. 'That wasn't the deal, was it? We'd only do this it helped the both of us. Well, I'm no longer interested in a weird scheme with you.' I knew I was using Aggie's words, the exact ones I had judged weeks ago, against Henry, but frankly, I didn't care one bit.