A Piece of My Heart

Part 38: Don't Try So Hard

They awoke to a soft knocking on the door.  "Freddie, Freddie, you up?" Phoebe quietly asked.

Freddie bounded out of bed and stepped into the hall. "What's up Pheeb?"

"Karen and Rosalie called looking for Cynthia, they just heard about a Michael Ranier"

"Okay, Pheeb, let me wake her up, keep them on the phone."  Freddie walked over to Cynthia's side of the bed and gently shook her. "Honey, wake up."

"Nuh uh, five more minutes Daddy" Cyn murmured. As she said that her eyes flashed opened realizing what she had said. Freddie was all over her like white on rice.

Again, another light tapping at the bedroom door, "Freddie, did you forget about Karen and Rosalie still waiting on the phone?" Pheeb said.

"Sigh, I forgot, be right there, come on Cyn, up and at it." Freddie mumbled. He got up and pulled the covers from her as she finally got up.

"Now, my love, what's so urgent?" Cynthia asked , heading to the bathroom. Heddie, brushing her teeth looked at Freddie leaning against the door frame and smiling at her.

"No matter what time of day, my love, you are so beautiful" Freddie whispered. "Come on, throw on a robe, we have Karen and Rosalie  waiting far too long for you."

Cynthia flew down the stairs to Freddie's office and sat at his desk and picked up the phone. "Hi guys, what's up?"

Karen and Rosalie

Hi  Cyn, listen, we got a call from Scott. He had to return home because his father suffered a heart attack and he wanted to be with his mother and sister. He went into the office to check on mail and a few other things when he was approached by George Henson in the men's room. You know George, he's department head of advertising.

Let me talk now Ro, Cyn, it's Karen. In the men's room George told him quietly that Michael was pressuring the board for a take-over. He wants the company to go public and he's strong arming everyone. He's telling everyone that he has a strong backer with loads of money and everyone will be compensated handsomely.

Cyn, you have to go to New York and check it out.  Rosalie, Ryan and I can take care of everything here. It's all finished, just a few touches that's left and we can do it. You outlined everything for us so there will not be a problem. I know Rod will help and certainly Freddie will lend a hand if needed.

"I'll call you guys back in a bit. I need to speak with Freddie." Cynthia told them.

"Freddie, I have to return to New York, there is a major problem with my business." Cyn said.

"I'll come with you" Freddie said.

"No, you can't, you have rehearsing and writing, you must stay on this side of the pond" Cynthia saying that as she walked over to Freddie, putting her arms about him and kissing him ever so tenderly.

"Well then" as he playfully slapped her behind, "go up and get dressed, we will have to speak with Sir Peter before you meet with Ranier."

Terry droved them the short drive to The New Scotland Yard to meet with Sir Peter. The two of them were ushered into the commissioner's office. 

"You two seem to be getting more information about your case than we are" Sir Peter said with a chuckle.

"I just received a call from one of my crew that Michael is pushing for a takeover and strong arming everyone with the promise of a lot of money. I need to fly home" Cyn said.

"Cynthia, this is a grand opportunity for us.  We need someone at your company now and you would be the perfect...eh...uh...spy"

"This is just where we need to be.  Freddie, you and Cynthia need to breakup so she has to fly home and Freddie should somehow gravitate towards Paul again.  This is working out greatly to our advantage. You two have to orchestrate it and you had better come to a meeting of the minds, you must be on the same page. Work it out and let me know when it's done" Sir Peter said. They all stood and shook hands and Freddie and Cynthia left Scotland Yard.

This was all becoming very surreal to Cynthia. Was she in a fifties movie? Scotland Yard? Spies? She didn't know whether to laugh or cry, or she knew was that she and Freddie had to break up and she felt destroyed, heartbroken. 

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Freddie and Cynthia arrived at Richard Branson's Heaven at 9PM. It was mainly a gay club  frequented by many straights and there were certain days that the club was "straight" only.  This  was not one of those nights, it was a gay night with some straights.

They sat at the bar and ordered some drinks as Cynthia took in the wild scene laid out before her. Her eyes wide as she watched the goings on.  There were dark corners, passage ways and discrete rooms peppered about. In all the hallways were huge buckets of Crisco and it took her awhile to figure it out. Freddie watching Cynthia seeing this became embarrassed and tried to occupy her with wild stories and pointing out various famous people- but her eyes still strayed to the Crisco buckets. She excused herself to go to the ladies room and Freddie was concerned about this. All kinds of things happened everywhere at Heaven. She walked in, found an empty stall and emptied her bladder listening to the goings on in the next stall.  The moans and groans and screeches she heard made her wanting to flee as fast as she could. She washed her hands quickly and went to find Freddie.  He was no longer sitting at the bar. Her eyes scanned the bar and found him on the dance floor with a girl and a guy draped all over him. He looked like he had way too much to drink but appeared to be having a grand old time. The man stood behind him and was grinding onto his backside as Freddie's hands disappeared into the girls pants. Cynthia couldn't believe she was seeing this.

Cynthia walked back to the bar with a heaviness in her legs, they couldn't propel her forward. It was hard for her to breath, she was utterly heartbroken and furious. She ordered a vodka tonic and sat there sipping as another girl  approached Freddie and his arms welcomed her as well. The more the merrier he shouted. The guy then decided to reach around and rub Freddie's bulge, so he was grinding and rubbing at the same time as Freddie's hands were in both girls pants.

Cyn had enough of this. She walked over to him and shouted, "Freddie, what the fuck is going on?"

Freddie looked at her and said, "Darling, come here, I've plenty for everybody and held his arms out. At this, Cynthia threw her drink in his face and shouted that she was going home. Freddie walked over to her laughing and said, "Cyn, you wanted to see what goes on in my nightly prowls, well darlin, you've seen it."

Cynthia stared at Freddie for a while and then with all her might, she slapped him in the face and yelled, "Goodbye Freddie, have a nice life....without me" and she left.  Freddie rubbed his face and thought, shit, she didn't have to hit me so hard.

Cynthia hailed a taxi and went back to Garden Lodge to gather her already packed clothes and was on the way to Heathrow. Wow, Freddie played his role beautifully, he really didn't try so hard. It seemed like second nature to him.

Freddie continued dancing while  rubbing his cheek from time to time. 

Was Cynthia on her way to the airport he mused. I never should have let her go back to the States alone, I should have gone with  her. What if  Michael Ranier will be physically dangerous to her? 

He walked back to the bar with the "groper" in tow. For the first time he felt repulsed by the attentions from the same sex. This feeling was foreign to him and couldn't quite understand it.  One-night stands were as familiar to him as his morning cup of Earl Gray; what had Cynthia done to him. She was all he could think of. He loved her wit, her beauty and above all her body. She was there for him in any way he chose, but she was also NO pushover-she gave as much as she received. It was like that from the beginning. He smiled to himself thinking of how they met at Harrods one afternoon and that incredible sexual encounter in the evening. He knew then she had sparked certain feelings that lay dormant and gradually worked its way to the surface. She had changed him and today at Heaven, it was obvious to him that she had. She hadn't left the country as yet, and he was missing her terribly.

Unbeknownst to Freddie, Paul Prenter was watching it all unfold from a distance behind a pillar, smiling.