Shelter In Your Love (Beatles Fan Fiction)

21. You'll Never Leave Me

'And how are you planning on doing that?' I ask, doubtfully.

She gives me a withering look but I shake my head at her.

'Well,' she says, wriggling around in the bed, lying flat on her back now. 'For one thing, I am done with men and boyfriends. I'm never having another boyfriend again. They just want to possess you. That's what it all comes down to, isn't it? No man is ever going to do that to me again. No man is going to own me.'

I frown. 'How is that...'

'It's a start,' Minnie says, sounding tired.

'So, you're what? Going to become a nun or something?' I ask, trying to make her laugh.

She smiles wanly. 'I said I wasn't having any more boyfriends. I didn't say I'd lost my mind.'

'And,' I ask slowly. 'What about John?'

She fixes me with a steely stare. 'What about him? He's married, Hannah,' she says bluntly. 'I think that's something of a non-starter, don't you?'

'I mean... are you planning on seeing him again? Only I didn't realise you were going to see him yesterday but...'

I feel a little guilty about John. I was thinking all sorts of awful things about him, thinking he was attacking Howard, and now I realise he was protecting Minnie. I don't want to ask what he was doing in our hotel suite. I can pretty much guess. I don't need a confirmation.

'No,' Minnie says quietly. 'I've told him I can't. We've got the shows, then we're going back to New York.'

I nod slightly. 'You don't want to... see him again?' I ask hesitantly.

Minnie pauses before she answers. 'Of course I want to see him, Han. But I can't, can I? He's married now. I can't get mixed up with him.'

I pull my legs up and fold them underneath me so I'm sitting cross legged on the bed. 'George told me that John had been wanting to come and find you for ages. That he wanted to see you in New York but couldn't, and then as soon as they got to Miami the first thing he did was to come and find you.'

Minnie sits up, pulling the pillow out from behind her.

'He obviously still has feelings for you, Min.'

She laughs at that. 'Yeah, I can tell by the way he married another woman, and then brought her on tour with him.'

'I don't... I don't understand why he did that. You've been staying in touch all these years...'

'Why he brought her or why he got married?'

'Both, really, but why did he get married? Just when all this with the Beatles is happening too? It's not that I'm saying he... shouldn't have, but I would have thought settling down with someone could have waited a little while.'

Minnie sighs shortly. 'She got herself up the duff, didn't she? So he was trapped. Had to marry the cow. What else could he do?' The words she uses are unnecessarily harsh, unnecessarily blunt. She says it like this to make out she doesn't care, she isn't hurt by it.

'They had a baby?'

She gives a short nod. 'A boy. Julian. He'll be one in April. Keep that to yourself, Hannah.'

I nod looking down at my hands folded in my lap. I feel so sad for Minnie. She always used to make out she wasn't serious about John. I didn't quite believe it at the time, but now I know that wasn't the truth. I think he likes her too. They have something between them. I don't understand where it came from but it's there. It's private, and Minnie's so guarded about it. It doesn't seem fair that things can't work out for her with him. Last night, when we were talking she said some things but she was still holding back.