Page 35 of Marley
“Ask that silly cow. She let him go storming off.” Len stated.
Jimmie pulled away from me and turned around. “He’s a grown fucking man. He doesn’t need my permission to go anywhere. How the fuck was I supposed to know to keep him here?” She shouted back at Len.
“You weren’t. Don’t talk to her like that, Len. None of this is her fault.”
Len tended to lash out at every one when he was stressed. Jimmie was usually the calm one, but she’d just gotten off a flight from London, so I didn’t think she’d be feeling too chill.
Len looked from me to her, then around the room. “I’m sorry, come here.” He stepped towards her. “I’m so sorry, babe. I shouldn’t have shouted at you like that, and I’m sorry I was late picking you up.” I stood there and watched as my brother wrapped his girl in his arms as she cried, at least until they started kissing. That was when I decided it was time to go.
“I’ll go and look for him. I doubt he’s gone far.” Again, I spoke to no one in particular.
“Don’t leave the hotel, Marls. We’ve got a car coming at three to take us to the venue. I’m not having you go on the missing list too.”
Without another word, I left them to make up.
I didn’t need to leave the hotel. I found Maca sitting on a stool at the hotel bar. He had a tumbler full of whiskey, or bourbon, in his hand.
“I’ll have a Jack and coke, please mate.” I tell the barman as I sit down next to him.
“You doing all right?” I asked.
“Whatd’you reckon?” Maca replied.
“To be totally honest, I’ve no fucking idea what’s going on in that head of yours these days, Mac. I thought you were getting over things. I thought you were moving on, but apparently, the only thing that’s done that is your dick. Your head and your heart seem to still be stuck firmly in Georgia territory.”
“The same, please,” he told the barman as he put my drink down.
“We’ve got a car coming to pick us up at three for rehearsals.” I felt like Lennon now, getting on his case, but fuck, if he carried on his drinking, on top of the night and the morning he’d had, he wouldn’t be fit to fart, let alone perform for an hour and a half.
He turned his brown eyes on me and I just knew he was about to give me shit, so I was shocked when he said, “If I was just to turn up now, just turn up and make her listen, what d’ya reckon she’d do? Would she listen? Does she evencarewhat this is doing to me?”
“Mate, whatever you’re going through, she’s feeling it too, but you’ve gotta remember...” I trailed off, trying to think of how to word it. “Not only is she missing you and the rest of us, even being a part of this, but she also feels betrayed, and I’m so sorry about that. I really am sorry that this has all been caused by my stupid, selfish actions, but from what I’m hearing, she’s getting on with her life and like I keep telling you, it’s time for you to do the same.” My heart was pounding in my chest as I waited for his reaction. My stomach twisted in knots at the guilt that I felt, but I couldn’t change things. If I could’ve, I would’ve in a heartbeat.
He gave a small laugh. “Ya know, I swing from hating her, and I mean really, really hating her, to loving her so much that I can barely breathe at the thought of living the rest of my life without her.” He knocked back the contents of his glass and gestured to the barman for yet another. I say nothing. I’m his mate, not his manager. He’d get enough shit from Lennon later so he didn’t need it from me.
“I wanna walk away right now, Marls. I wanna walk away from all this and just go to your sister and make her listen to me.” He looked me square in the face. “If I thought there was the slightest chance that she’d listen, I would be on the next plane home.”
I wanted to tell him no fucking way, he can’t. I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have a chance ... that she wouldn’t listen to him and that she sure as shit wasn’t ready to forgive him. But I didn’t. I said nothing. It was my interfering that caused it all in the first place. As much as I loved my band and the life that I was leading, I’d sacrifice it all to make the two people I loved most in the world happy again.
“Go then. If you feel that’s what you need to do, then go.”
At that moment, Jimmie appeared at the bar and moved herself to stand in between us.
“Boys, how are we?” she asked.
“Jim,” we both acknowledged her.
“Who’s gonna buy me a drink?”
Maca nodded in the barman’s direction and Jim ordered a Diet Coke. We were all silent for a few seconds before Maca asked her, “So, how’s everyone back home?”
“They’re good ... everyone’s good.”
Maca twisted his whole body around on his bar stool so that he was facing Jimmie.
“How’s Gia, Jim? How’s she doing, and no bullshitting me.”
Jim tucks her long brown hair behind her ears. “She’s doing great. She’s just finishing up for the summer at college and she’s working hard at the shop with Bernie when she’s not studying or at the gym.”
