keep it professional - r. taylor

2

~February 1973~

For the most part, my life was going pretty well. Paul and I were getting along pretty well, and we were working together in a great duo. John was extremely proud of the two of us, which was the best news I could've gotten.

Kathleen and Robert had sadly broken up, which meant no more free drinks at the pub. It also meant that Kathleen was going through a difficult rebound process. This consisted of her going to any bar in town, finding a guy, heading back to his place, and figuring out a way to get home. Most of the time, that consisted of her calling me quietly so that she wouldn't wake up her one-night stand, and asking for me to pick her up. For some unknown reason, I always seemed to pick her up, even if it was an inconvenience for me. Damn my constant need to be the best friend ever.

One day at work, I was reading through a contract with a potential venue for one of our new clients. "Oh my god Paul, get this. This venue wants to take 70% of ticket sales, and requires that the artist acquire their own green room."

"Makes sense. If they're desperately trying to book Johnathan, then they really must be scraping the bottom of the barrel."

"Hey!" I grabbed the pillow from my nearby chair and chucked it across the room at Paul. But I knew, and agreed, with what he was saying. Recently, it seemed like EMI Records couldn't find a new client that really dazzled us, and potential fans. "It's not nice to talk about clients like that."

"You're just mad because you've got a crush on the guy."

He wasn't wrong, and I thought I would give myself away based on the blushing feelings I felt in my cheek. "I do not!"

"You totally do. Besides, I wouldn't be going down that path..." He moved a piece of his newspaper down so that I could see his eyes. He began to raise his eyebrows and looked at me with a smirk.

"Wait, do you mean..."

"Yup. Last week at my place!" he said in a triumphant voice.

"Ew Paul! You seriously couldn't keep your hands off him for me?"

"It wasn't even my fault! He's the one who led me on."

"Why does it always seem to be the good ones?"

Before the two of us could continue on, joking on about each one of our clients, there was a light knock at the door. Paul motioned for whoever it was to come in, which turned out to be John's assistant Margaret. "Mr. Reid wants to see you in his office. Both of you."

Paul and I both looked at each other, slight fear in our eyes. I know we joked around a lot, but I never thought it was bad enough for John to fire us. On our walk over to his office, I leaned over to Paul and asked, "What do you think the big man wants?"

"I don't know, but I know that he only sends Margaret when it's serious news." I took a deep breath before opening the door to Reid's office. Once we walked in, John turned around in his chair with a smile on his face. Maybe he took pleasure in our misery.

"Paul! Elizabeth! Come sit down!" I took my seat and scooted in closer to the table so that he couldn't see my leg bouncing up and down. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I called the both of you in here."

"If you're going to fire us sir..." I blurted out, "then could you save all the 'you were a great addition to the team' crap?"

John began laughing and turning to Paul to see if he felt the same way. "I'm not going to fire you. Either of you. I actually called you in here because I need the two of you for a special project. Now, I'm sure you've noticed that we've been kind of slow with business. I know things are going great with Elton, but I want to do more. So, I want you two to go scout out some new talent for us."