Thank God It's Christmas

Chapter 6- Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy

I showed up at Freddie's house at exactly 6:30 on Christmas Eve evening. While walking down Logan Place, I noticed a few paparazzi with huge cameras and a man standing at the front of Fred's gate. He stopped me in my tracks.

"Who are you? Do you have an invitation?" he asked.

"Miss Ella Burke. I'm here for Mr. Mercury's party." I drew a piece of fancy paper, the invitation I'd been given, out of my coat pocket.

"Thank you," he replied, then let me in.

When I entered the house, I was welcomed by Freddie, who took my coat and hung it up in a closet. My eyes darted about the foyer, full of strangers and Christmas decorations, including a tree.

"Glad you could come, dear," Freddie said, reaching for my hand.

"I wouldn't miss one of your parties for the world," I responded, lost in Fred's big, dark, brown eyes for some seconds.

"Come on, Ella. Meet some of the guests. You've already met Jim and Mary, haven't you?"

"Um, yes!" It took me a few moments to get out of my trance. "Hello, Mr. Hutton." I waved at Jim on the other side of the room.

"The boys are here too, of course." Freddie grabbed my waist and pulled me in the direction of Roger, Brian, and John, who were seated on a huge sofa.

"Ella! You look so beautiful!" Roger's jaw dropped open. "I love your dress."

"Thank you." I was wearing a long-sleeved, knee-length black velvet dress. "You're not in a suit, Roggie. What happened?"

"I didn't want to overdress." He was dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, as were Deaky and Bri. Freddie was wearing a suit.

"Well, today's Christmas Eve, and here we are. Almost at the end of the year 1986," I said with a smile.

"Time passes too quickly," stated John. "If it were my choice, I'd just want everything to slow down."

"Same," added Brian. "Seems like yesterday I was just a boy."

"Forget the past, loves!" exclaimed Freddie. "It's Christmas Eve, can't we enjoy the now?"

I nodded. "Sure. First you've got to introduce me to some of the people here. I'm too shy to do it myself."

"Psh, just go at it, El," said Roger.

Still, Freddie made it his goal to make sure that everyone in the house knew almost everything about me. There must have been about three dozen people there, and admittedly, I grew tired of all the introductions.

"This is Ella Burke. You may remember her father, Jonathan? Yeah, he did the lighting effects for some of our shows. Ella's his only daughter. She's studying to be a doctor at Oxford University. Smart girl, huh?" Freddie must have given the same introduction tens of times.

When I was done meeting everybody, I decided to stay close to the Queen members, whom I knew well, but Freddie was busy entertaining the needs of guests. After an hour of socialization, it was time for supper.

I was seated towards the middle of one of Freddie's two extremely long dining tables, in between Brian May and one of the other guests, Susan, a 30-something-year-old photographer from Wales. The dinner was sautéed prawns and clams, French salad, roasted potatoes and onions, poppy seed rolls, and chicken noodle soup. For dessert, there was a chocolate mousse and vanilla ice cream. By the end of it, I was stuffed.

More chatting followed the dinner, during which a stereo suddenly turned on and music started playing. I stood there confused, until Roger put his hand on my shoulder.

"Would you like to dance, Miss?" he asked. I nodded.

The first song was a quick, lively piece of classical music, to which Roger and I twirled around. I didn't really know much about dancing; then again, neither did he. After that came a more mellow, jazzy type of song. I turned my head to look around. Thankfully, others were dancing too, so all the focus wouldn't be on us.

"Sorry I suck at dancing," I said, embarrassed.

"No, you don't. Have you danced before?"

"I took ballet for one year when I was six and hated it."

He laughed, wrapping his arms around my hips and slowly stepping in time to the music as I did the same.

After dancing with Roger, other men at the party asked me to dance. Politely, I danced with whoever asked me. Honestly, I enjoyed my two dances with Roger more than the dances that followed, no offense to Brian, John, Freddie, or the others. It felt special, even if Rog wasn't the best dancer.

The music stopped, and Freddie called the guests to the dining room again for drinks. I think that maybe John Deacon had a little too much beer, because he was acting extremely giggly from that point on. I didn't want to over-drink, so I just had one glass of champagne and one of red wine.

As we were all laughing and drinking, I checked the clock, which read 10:24. Wow, Deaky's right. Time passes quickly. I stood pensively by my self when Roger came up to me.

"You can't seem to avoid me," I said flatly.

"Of course not." He took a sip of champagne.

"Is that a good thing?"

"Of course." Then he set down his glass on a table and pulled my body against his, then kissed me. In front of Freddie and Brian. I wasn't even upset. "Merry Christmas, Ella."

The cab drove me home that night at about midnight. My thoughts were scattered, but I was incredibly happy.