Freddie And The Fahrenheits

Fabulous, Dazzling, Electric

Monday 20th September 1976

The weekend had been quite a strange one. For a start, the band started to get noticed quite a bit when they were out and about. It wasn't much, they still got called out far more for their past projects, but there was definitely a noticeable difference.

"Look, there's Elton John!" They'd say. "He's in a band with Freddie Mercury and David Bowie now!"

Secondly, Miami had managed to bag the group some more gigs in places around the country, which was great, though that would mean the next few months would be very travel heavy. The third thing however was not so great. The third thing was that Freddie's love life was hanging in the balance.

When he tried calling Terry after they got home on Friday, there was no answer. He tried four more times, but there was still no luck. On Saturday, he tried calling seven times, but there was still no answer. And on Sunday, though not to sound desperate, he tried calling nine times! Guess what - still no response. Freddie had been well and truly ghosted.

As you can imagine, on Monday, Freddie was feeling pretty low. He felt inadequate, like he wasn't good enough for Terry. David and Elton tried to help, but even the tightest hugs and the longest Saturday Night Fever binge fests couldn't make Freddie feel completely good about himself.

So when Miami knocked on the door later that afternoon, Elton and David hoped it was for a good reason.

"Where's Freddie?" The manager asked when he noticed that the frontman was missing.

"Desperately calling Tezza for...is it the fifteenth...? Yeah, for the fifteenth time today." Elton said. "Poor thing, it's been really getting him down."

"Let me go...hold on, Tezza?" Miami asked.

"Yep, I've been resorting to calling him Tezza cause it's just easier." Elton said. "That and the fact he doesn't deserve to be called Terry."

"What a burn." David said, not really that interested. "Do go on, Miami."

"Let me go and speak to him." Miami said. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

So he went upstairs to go find Freddie while David and Elton waited downstairs. They'd noticed that he was holding a copy of Rolling Stone, and soon realised why he'd come to see them.

Meanwhile, Freddie was calling Terry for what was now the seventeenth time that day and he was getting increasingly frustrated. Miami saw him prepare to dial the number for the eighteenth time and spoke up.

"Stop calling him, Freddie." He said. "He's not going to answer you."

"How do you know?" Freddie sighed. "You're not psychic."

"That's true." Miami said. "But I do know a thing or two about love, Fred."

Freddie huffed and put the phone down on the receiver. He looked at Miami for a moment before turning away and quickly flicking a tear from his eye.

"Elton and David have told me how hard all this has been on you, and if I'm honest I can tell. That night on the way home, even with Elton's snoring going on next to me, I heard you and David talking." Miami said, coming closer. "You don't deserve him, Fred. I think he's just having you on and he's going to hurt you sooner or later."

"But I love him so, so much." Freddie sniffled. "Nobody has ever loved me like that before and I don't want to loose him."

"I know you don't." The manager said. "But remember, we all love you. Me, Elton, David. We all do."

"I know, I know." Freddie chuckled. "My god, I'm being such a silly old tart, aren't I?"

"No, Fred." Miami said with a laugh. "If you were, we'd all know about it."