keep it professional - r. taylor

29

~June 1985~

Stepping off the lift, I was met with a bustle of bodies filling the office. Based on how filled the room was, I assumed that I had accidentally spent too much time deciding what kind of bagel I wanted from the nearby café.

I said good morning to all the staff, making my way to my back office. It was a much better upgrade from the old one I had. It was purely for me, filled with fake plants, posters on the walls, and records scattered everywhere. I always told each client that it was a great honor to get put up on the wall, seeing as I only gave the opportunity to a select few.

Oliver made his usual round into my office, holding two cups of coffee in his hands. "Oh Oliver, I actually already had some coffee this morning."

"It's no big deal. I'll just have two today."

"Is that really such a good idea? Remember what happened last time?"

"I only stayed up that late because I didn't have any food in my system at the time. However, this morning, I enjoyed a nice scrambled eggs on toast."

"How fancy."

"That's the only acceptable way to live my life." He took a seat in the chair across from my desk, sipping on his coffee. "How did the date go? Tell me everything." He began wiggling his eyebrows at me, clearly wanting all the details. Including the explicit ones.

"It was... fine. I don't know. He was a really sweet guy, and seemed like he would be fun to go out with. But, it just didn't work out. We had a good time together, but I couldn't see myself getting serious with him."

"Who said anything about being serious?"

"Me! I tried casual hooking-up a long time ago, and it did not end well. After breaking up with some guy, I spent most of the rest of my week curled up in a blanket on my couch, eating ice cream out of the tub."

"Okay Elizabeth, this is a serious question. When was the last time you were in a relationship?"

"Uh... a year or two ago."

"Are you serious?!"

"What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?! Elizabeth... come on!"

"I don't see what's so wrong with that."

"So you're telling me that it's been years since you've been with a guy?"

"Now thinking about it, yeah, that's true." Oliver's eyes widened even farther, confusing me even more. "What?! I mean, I've always been more of a serious relationship kind of girl. It took me forever to get back out there after my break-up with... a serious boyfriend. And then I found Noah, and we were together for a long time."

"Why'd you end things?"

"He decided that he didn't like living in the UK as much as he thought he would. He wanted to move back to Ireland, and I told him I couldn't go with him. So, we broke up."

"That doesn't seem so bad now that you say it." Oliver stood up, taking both cups with him. He stopped himself in front of the door frame, turning back to face me. "Oh! By the way, you got a phone call while you were out. It was from Freddie Mercury. Apparently, he wants to see if you had made your decision yet?"

Oh god. I had completely forgotten about that. I had already pretty much made up my mind, but was yet to tell the band. I wanted to do it over the phone, not wanting to watch their faces when I told them that I couldn't take on another group at the moment.

"Um, ignore any other phone calls from him, or anyone else from Queen. I'll call them when I get the chance."

"Ugh, I love this job! Casually getting jobs from celebrities on the daily."