My first choice

it was YEARS since I wrote something about those two, but when I read that prompt it was an immediate association.

Lately I'm just updating the old stuff, but this is something brand new, I wrote it last week

My First Choice

Dominic Howard isn't answering his cell phone.
And so far nothing to worry about.
He is a talented drummer also engaged in collaborations with other groups besides the main one he belongs to.
An artist of his caliber must be perpetually busy, so it's normal if he is in the middle of an intense work session which prevents him from any other activity.
Too bad it's not that simple.
Dominic Howard is not answering the cell phone of Matthew Bellamy, the frontman, songwriter, guitarist and pianist of his main group.
He's not answering just and only to him.
And it's been going on for days.
Being busy has nothing to do with it.

And Matthew is about to make this bitter discovery.

"What do you mean you just talked to him?" he frowns while on the phone with Chris Wolstenholme, bassist and final member of the main group he belongs to.

Chris evidently has no problems answering him on the phone.

"I don't mean 'just' literally but I spoke to him, yeah, not more than half an hour ago." Chris clarifies.

"You mean with the phone ringing, Dominic seeing who's calling him on the display and ending the ringing by answering?"

"Yes, Matt, the standard process of a cell phone call, that has been going like this for over twenty years now." his friend rolls his eyes.

Five seconds later he hears only a click and then a dial tone.
Standard Matt procedure when he decides that Chris has nothing more of interest to say.
It has been going like this for more than thirty years.

Matthew makes yet another attempt to call that priority number for him and again the outcome does not satisfy him.

-Dominic blocked me. He's pissed off with me. I absolutely have to understand why.-

He gets up from the sofa where he was half-reclining, but to leave the living room and get to the entrance there is an obstacle: his wife who is strolling in the hall, trying to get their daughter to sleep in her arms.

"Honey, where are you going in such a hurry?" she questions him.

Matthew has to find a workaround and he has to do it quickly, but his mind is known to travel at hypersonic speed.

"Last-minute meeting to evaluate a potential featuring for 'Ghosts'..." he invents, even assuming an annoyed attitude.

"Another?" she frowns.

"Yes, this time in Russian, you will understand by yourself all the pitfalls it hides. A detailed and lengthy analysis of the pros and cons must be made to decide if it is a good market.. and then I have to evaluate the artist in question."

Matthew is fleshing out his excuse with so many details that he nearly believes it himself.

Elle is the one who doesn't believe a single word of it.

"A Russian featuring..." she repeats somewhat sceptically.

"You got it right, honey. I would gladly do without it, but work is work. Don't wait up for me." Matt recommends, before wearing his coat, scarf and hat.

He approaches his wife for a fleeting kiss and a light caress on the hair of a Lovella who is almost falling asleep, after which he goes out.

"Yeah, Matt, sure... a Russian featuring..." she mutters as she watches him get into the car from the window overlooking the driveway.

Elle knows very well where he is really going.