Paul's POV
I glance around the room as cigarette smoke mixes with the air, and I wonder if Mads smokes, I don't think she does anyways. I dig out my pack of ciggies from inside of my blazer and I hold the open carton out to Mads and she kind of to my surprise takes one. Like the polite gentlemen I am I light it for her and then I light my own to take a puff from.
"Hey John, so what's the business meeting Brian wants us to be at after the taping?" I join the mess of conversations and I exhale the smoke through my mouth and I scratch my nose.
"I dunno, i think some uptight business blokes will be there to discuss all that rubbish Brian deals with. I have no idea why he would want us there." he replies with an annoyed tone and I raise my eyebrows to let them fall.
I sigh and take another drag from my cigarette and in walks Brian in his spiffy suit and his eyes run over us four lads and the two girls who also sit in the room.
"Hello boys." Brian greets us and we all reply with variations of 'hi' in reply.
"Uh Brian, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Madison. You two might have met before, but I'm not sure." I state as I try to remember if I've ever introduced the two, but I don't think I have.
They both exchange hellos and small smiles briefly before he gets down to business to tell us what the plan for the day is and we all listen obediently, but I couldn't help to notice John who looked bored out of his mind while Brian spoke, typical John. Brian finishes with his little speech to inform us about what we're expected of today and we all give nods of our heads to say we get what he's saying.
"Well I'm gonna go tune up, wanna come love?" I get up from the sofa and Mads takes my hand and we exit the room smelling of nicotine and we travel down the dimly lit hallway to find the stage.
"You're having a live audience, I assume?" Madison states and I let out the cigarette smoke through my nostrils and I let go of her hand to kneel down and open up my bass' case.
"Mmhmm." I reply and I get the old Hofner out and I find the cord to plug it into the amplifier and Madison sits at my feet while I check the tuning on the instrument.
"Do you like being a Beatle?" she randomly asks me and I look out at the completely empty area where two levels of seating are and regular lights sit on us.
"I suppose, why do you ask?" I reply and I take one last puff from the cigarette before finding a garbage can around the corner from the stage to toss the butt in.
"I dunno, I just wonder if you ever get tired of the screaming fans, the long hours, the recording, being bothered on the streets and signing autographs." she responds and I walk back over to her to remove my blazer that I set on the amp and I put the strap over my shoulder.
"Well it certainly gets tiresome, but it's also exhilarating in a way." I answer and I set my bass down to go and pick up my guitar to just waste the time with.
She nods her pretty little head and I play a G chord to check my tuning and then I rest my hands on the guitar to meet her warm eyes.
"You have a point though, because it isn't like ideal with the pressures of fame and being such an influence on the youth. But I enjoy making music and getting to share it with people and seeing their happy faces when I go out on stage." I comment and I see her smile at my words, and she nods too.
"And what about you, where do you fall in this whole career talk? Didn't you want to be something when you were little?" I ask her and she plays with a ring on her hand.
"Yeah, I wanted to be a ballerina." she answers in her soft voice.
"What happened?"
"Well I couldn't stand on my tippy toes and I never pursued it." she remarks and she tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear.
"What about university?"
"I never went, I could never figure out what I wanted to be. I know how dumb it sounds." she states.
"I don't think it's dumb, I never went to university." I comment.
"But you have musical talent, and you can write wonderful songs and play guitar like nobody else." she disagrees a bit.
"And you don't have talent? I've seen you in the kitchen and you seem so at home cooking and making the whole house smell fantastic. I can't even do something as simple as boiling pasta, when you can make cookies that aren't hard as a rock, and you make the best lasagna I've ever tasted. Don't underestimate yourself Madison, you have plenty of talent that a ton of people would love to have themselves." I try to reassure her and I recognize her bright smile at my sentence of encouraging words and I too smile.
"But being able to cook a meal and bake cookies is expected of women though. Even though times have changed for women i still feel like we're just supposed to do the cleaning around the house, get pregnant and do the cooking." she objects and I sigh and set my guitar down not even a foot away from me.
"What's with all of the 'buts'? You have to believe in yourself, darling." I tell her and her eyes raise to mine.
"And what if I don't believe in myself?"
"Well if it counts I'll always believe in you." I tell her and I place my finger under her chin to bring her face to mine and I kiss her on the lips for a short second.
"Where's that smile, huh?" I question as she still has that discouraged look on her lovely face and that smile soon reappears on those lips that I just kissed.
"There it is." I add on and I run my finger over her cheek for a second.
A moment of silence comes between us while we sit there cross legged across from each other and I take her hand in mine to admire and hold.
"How'd you know that you wanted to be a musician?"
"I guess it probably came from being so comfortable with music at such a early age because of my dad being a musician himself. It's always been a passion of mine and it was something I could resort to when things got rough and when I just wanted to get away from everything and everybody." I respond and she takes a few seconds to seemingly process the information and she returns to fiddling with her ring.
"Do you want a family one day?" she questions randomly and she brings her gaze back up to the level of mine.
"Yeah I'd love to have one, how about you?" I answer.
"Same here, I've always wanted to be a mum since I was little." she offers her answer and we both smile, and my smile is because of the thoughts of having my own children who look like me and who I can cuddle and play with.
A mostly comfortable silence overcomes us as I play with the the laces of my shoes and I slowly raise my eyes to see the lovely bird whom I can now call my girlfriend, biting her bottom lip while mindlessly twisting the gold ring around her finger. My how beautiful she is, and especially with the little amount of makeup she wears. I find her to be the most stunning girl when she hasn't any makeup on, she doesn't need any.
I pick up my guitar and make a chord with my right hand and I start to play around with a few chords and a picking pattern, even though it probably sounds horrible right now, it could always turn into something.
"Do you wanna play?" I suggest to her and I hold out the guitar to her and she shakes her head with a grin.
She stops with her ring and raises her knees to wrap her arms around them as she's in dark jeans and a long sleeved brown sweater, along with a chunky necklace.
"Why not?" I ask and I fold my hands over the guitar and she just laughs.
"Because I don't want John or any of them coming out here and hearing my bad guitar playing." she replies self consciously, but I get her to at least take the guitar from me to sit on her lap.
"They won't be mean to you or anything, we all were novices at one point." I try to make her feel better, but her fingers don't touch the strings.
"Are you sure? Because if they come out and make fun of me, then I am going to so disown you." she threatens and as much as she tries to come off as completely serious, I hear the hint of a smile in her voice.
"Yes, I'm positive. Now play me something." I tell her and she sighs and finally makes contact with the strings by forming a chord with her right hand.
She smiles with red cheeks as I look at her with a smile of my own and she gets the courage to strum a chord and I move closer to her, and I fear I'm only making her more nervous. She stops with the strumming and exhales a sigh.
"It's okay darling, just pretend that I'm not here." I suggest and she nods her brunette head up and down.
I push her hair over her shoulder to rest there so it won't get in the way of her eyes and soon enough her long fingers are dancing across the frets of the guitar while she strums along to some silent beat. I continue to smile proudly at watching her play, but she doesn't make any means to sing along to this unsung song, but she's still doing a great job. She messes up on a chord and sighs with a sad look and then sets the guitar quickly and looks to her lap.
"I'm done." she states and I bite my bottom lip.
"Why'd you stop, love? It was just a little mess up." I tell her, but she avoids my eyes and then I raise her chin with the help of my pointer finger and she immediately smiles.
"Yes. I felt embarrassed and I don't wanna mess up in front of you." she reveals.
"Why're so nervous in front of me?" I ask, but right when I asked her I knew why and my finger drops from her chin.
"Because you're a professional musician!" she answers and I don't see this conversation ending on a good note, so I stand from my spot on the floor to set my guitar over on its stand.
I walk back to her to hold out my hand which she takes and I help her up and we exit the stage.
"Where are we going?" she questions and I glance to my watch seeing that we have a few more minutes to spend together before I have to go rehearse.
We find a staircase going up to the upper level for seating and we take a seat next to each other and since she doesn't have her cigarette anymore i assume she tossed it in the trash like I did with mine. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and she rests her head on my shoulder and I tilt mine to rest on hers.
"You don't need to be nervous around me." I tell her as we stare out some window to our left that shows the bustling town outside.
"I know, but it doesn't change the fact that I get like that sometimes. But it's only when we're out in public, around the lads or playing guitar." she admits and I cock my head to look at her gentle face.
"Is there any way I can help with that?" I query.
"You can stop being so damn attractive." she answers and there appears her small smirk and I raise my eyebrows.
"Is that so, Ms. Sassy?" I joke and she giggles and I nuzzle my head against hers for a second.
"Yes." she states and I softly wipe my thumb under her eye as an eyelash of hers had fallen there and we form a strong eye contact.
We both lean in and since my hand still sits on her cheek I hold her cheek when our lips meet in a tender kiss, and as the corridor here is empty we don't hold back, but instead kiss a bit longer. I continue to kiss sweet Madison while her soft lips are making me go mad while my own are on hers, and I hate to withdraw, but I must as I hear Brian's voice calling for mine.
"Oh Paul, there you are. Come down to the stage now, we're going to begin a short rehearsal." he comes around the blind corner to find me there with my rosy cheeked girlfriend whom my arm is around and my hand rests on her knee.
"Alright. Thanks, Brian." I reply and he just gives me a simple nod before leaving his stance in front of the staircase and I look back to Madison.
Grins appear on our faces at the same time and I plant another kiss on her lips, just a short one this time and she kisses me back before I pull away.
"Would you be comfortable sitting in the seats with Mo while we rehearse?" I ask her as I look over her and I again notice her blushing cheeks.
"Yeah. How long do you think it'll take?" she questions and I think while I bite my lip.
"I dunno, probably until quarter to 1, and they'll let people come in to take their seats then, and then we go on at 1. What time do you reckon you'll need to leave for work?" I respond with a question of my own for her.
"Probably 1." she answers.
"That's probably best that you do then, because they'll want you having a ticket, and the crowds of people." I say to her and she understands what I have to say.
We get up from the stairs and travel through the hall hand in hand until we come upon the doors into the auditorium where we walk in to hear guitars warming up and John's witty voice that echoes of the walls.
"Mo's nice and friendly, so try to talk to her and strike up some conversation about some girl thing while you're bored listening to us. Try, kay?" I advise her to do with a smile and we stop a row before where Maureen sits and I peck her before my hand leaves hers and I go for the door leading to the stage. Lets hope I won't make some big fool of myself in front of my new girlfriend here, nerves man.
AN: Are you still liking this story or no?
