A Piece of My Heart

Part 25: Blinders Off... finally

They sat in the car holding hands. Freddie never felt more contented, he really found the love of his life and contemplated going forward, whatever that means. They pulled up to Xenon and as Cynthia was about to exit the car, Freddie held her back and said, "remember, no lifting, no exerting.

"Yes, daddy" Cyn said quietly with a smirk.

"Get back here you, you can't say that and walk away from me" Freddie said.

"Really, watch me" Cyn replied, as Freddie was about to slap her bottom, he thought twice about it thinking of her surgery and restrained himself while chuckling.

They entered Xenon and saw that nothing was happening. The workman were sitting around and watching the three men go at it while Rosalie and Karen tried to break it up.

"You little shit, we know it was you. Bastard, trying to break them up" Ryan yelled at Paul.

"You know nothing , you creep?" Paul said calmly.

Freddie wanted to remain hidden during this altercation, he wanted learn for himself what was going on. He had uneasy thoughts creeping into his mind about Paul. The band hated him, why?  What did they see that he did not? Freddie stood behind a column and watched. 

Cynthia ran up to them and shouted "What the hell is going on here?" Scott said that he found out that Paul was trying to keep you and Freddie apart.

"What are you  talking about, how can he do that?" Cynthia asked.

"Listen" Ryan said, "Two years ago Paul knew you were involved with Freddie. He found out from Rosalie the night that she got drunk and Rod Stewart carried her into the limo. Before that she sat with Paul at the bar and he was plying her with drinks asking all sorts of questions about you.  He knew you flew home to America, leaving us in London because of medical reasons. He also knew that you had fallen in love but Rosalie wouldn't give him the name. She only told him drunkenly, that he was a rock star and his initials were FM.  For two years, Paul  never told Freddie anything about that. He let his "friend, employer, bitch for two years about the one that got away. Puzzled, upset and angry.  Who does that?"

"Wait, wha..." Cynthia interrupted.

"No, please let him finish, there is so much more." Scott offered.

Ryan continued, "the night we flew in to London, while at the Ritz, I was waiting for Scott outside the men's room in the lobby when I saw you come out of the elevator and Freddie and Paul in the lobby. You turned your back looking at a shop window and Paul noticed YOU! Freddie also looked at you but couldn't see your face and Paul grabbed him by the arm an dragged him out of the lobby."

Freddie heard this, lit a cigarette and remembered that as it happened exactly. He wondered why Paul had badgered him to leave so quickly.

Paul stood there with his arms folded across his chest with a looked of amused boredom.

"There's more!" Ryan said. "Cyn, remember when we  were doing some work for ABC,  specifically for their new show The Colbys? That was the spin-off from Dynasty." They looked towards Cynthia and she nodded. "Well, Scott and I went to see Trouble In Paradise at the Theater Royale Strattford East to see Stephanie  Beachem. We all had lunch with her in LA while we were doing some publicity for The Colbys, remember? You were busy with Elton and Rosalie was busy with Rod and who knows what Karen was doing. So we went to see Stephanie and backstage she introduced us to Peter Straker."

Upon hearing Straker's name, Freddie became more interested on what Ryan was saying. Peter was a very close friend. 

"Well, we struck up a conversation with Peter and when he found out who we were and what we were doing here and Cynthia's involvement with Freddie he became very excited. He asked us if we were going to the surprise party that Paul was organizing for Freddie." Ryan said.