Every time you make a move

Flashback Filler-5th September

1977

BBBRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!

"That bloody clock!" Freddie grunted, squinting in the morning sunlight. "Why are you still setting it when you've nothing on?!"

"Sorry, it's a bedtime mechanism at this point!" Monica defended, reaching over to her bedside table to switch it off.

She heard him utter something under his breath about being able to do without further distractions.

"Are you... plugging out the telephone?" She rolled onto her side, watching as he reached down and wound the chord away .

"Well, do you know what day it is today?"

"Mmm, my day off?" she sat up, squinting in the sunlight.

"My birthday!" He pouted, laying back down. "I don't want to be disturbed on my birthday."

"Do you think I'd forget that? I'm only messing," She smiled and stretched a little, "I ought to get you the birthday mail first seeing as you won't be taking telephone calls."

"People will think it's occupied, that's the point... If anyone comes knocking, tell them from me to fuck off" he rubbed his eyes, then watched her pull her nightgown over her head.

"What if they're somebody you know?" She fixed the straps.

He shrugged as he stared up at the ceiling, and repeated, "Tell them to fuck off."

She shook her head as she clambered onto the mattress and tucked the covers back up around him, "31 years old, who would ever think it? ...And what if there's fan mail?" She asked wearily, for since that German music magazine interviewed Freddie not long before, the occasional fan who had discovered 12 Stafford Terrace popped over, the more respectful ones leaving gifts.

He grinned back, "Since its my birthday we can make a few exceptions"

She smoothed his wispy black bangs away from his face affectionately, "If you need help forging signatures I can step in"

He watched her get up and exit the bedroom, "Go easy! It's your day off, apparently that's more important than my birthday!"

"Let it go, would you?!" Rolling her eyes at their playful argument, she rushed down the stairs where there was a pile of envelopes and parcels alike waiting on the doormat.

She checked the addresses to be sure that there was nothing disposable.

She just hoped that her gift to him would be worth it as she anxiously made her way up the stairs. She was too busy to find him something lavish like the rest of his friends. The day before a Nijinsky coffee table book that Mary posted in advance with a personal message scribbled inside had arrived, but Monica barely had the time to even go downtown looking for something to upstage that thoughtful gift; it was back-to-school season and Christina wanted her in practically all day every day now that her cafe would be congested with uniformed teenagers and mothers doing the school shopping.

After all Freddie had done for her, the gesture was still very much important to fulfil. So, on her day off, Monica took time to flick through her newly developed photos, and using her watercolour kit she decided to fix him something quick and personal, with an "I love you" scribbled in the corner.

It was from the heart, and as embarrassing as it seemed that was all she had to go on.

"Oh, I don't like the look of that brown packaging" he noticed he small parcels in her arms.

She dumped them onto his lap, then fixed the pillows up behind him so that he could sit up and read comfortably, "Do you need me to set up a small bonfire out back for any used underwear from teenage girls with high libidos like myself?"