Chapter Text
There weren't many expectations of what would happen that day and that was why Dominique's mind had no specific thoughts as she climbed the elevator. Even if she woke up early and prepared herself in advance for the long subway ride from her apartment to the office of producer Richard Branson in central London, she would rather buy a coffee on the way to work as she had her drink on the way there helping her to focus and prepare for the tasks that were yet to come.
Knowing she was near her floor, she took her last sip of coffee, emptied the plastic cup, discarding it as she left the elevator in the nearest dump. She was glad to see her desk waiting for her. It could be something very common, but for her, it was a great achievement to have gotten this job and to perform her duties there. She had left everything organized, being competent as ever, the papers and documents she was still organizing on the day before were waiting for her to continue cataloging them. That was what she would concentrate on doing, until something new for her to come up.
She sat down and started working, reading and separating files, answering the phone occasionally, scheduling appointments for people who wanted to talk to Branson. So far, nothing more, it was then that the phone rang and it was he who was speaking.
"Something has happened, Mr. Branson?" she answered, already going ahead for a possible problem.
"Nothing, just something I need to get right with you personally, so come to my office immediately, Miss. Beyrand" Branson asked polite, but he was serious.
Dominique soon got up and thought quickly about the situation, decided not to take great care of it, maybe it was just a little more complicated work she would have to do, but nothing impossible. As the years taught her, she didn't have to worry with anticipation, not knowing what she was dealing with first.
"May I help sir?" she offered helpfully, as soon as she found her boss in the office.
"Well, we're negotiating a show in Hyde Park, with the band Queen," Richard went on to explain, "have you heard of it?
"Not very well, yo be honest," Dominique replied, remembering seeing glimpses of them on TV, but didn't know them that well.
"Yeah, I don't think that's a big problem," Branson mused with a hand on his chin, "I just need you to arrange each individual contract for me to refer to the band's manager today, arrived by fax, take a look."
"Okay, I get it," she smiled, realizing that it was not at all complicated at all "any further recommendations, sir?"
"Well, keep your stance as usual when dealing with artists and it'll be all right," Branson said confidently, trusting his assistant.
"Thank you, Mr. Branson" Dominique smiled pleased with the compliments and then left her boss to do what he had requested.
Looking at the fax machine, she noticed the papers that had just arrived. Then she read one by one carefully, making notes about them. Just reading the names of the members of the band, she could form a certain image of how they were in her head.
"Frederick Mercury", there was a little side note, with "Freddie" in parentheses. She then deduced that he might prefer his nickname. The second name was "John Richard Deacon", then "Brian Harold May", also bearing in the document the name of his wife, Christine. By the way, he was the only married of the four members, only needed to check the last file to confirm this.
Then she read the name "Roger Meddows Taylor", also single. He had a strangely curious second name, as if it was from a traditional family. Maybe he was like that too, or maybe not, Dominique was only conjectured. Perhaps the four were somewhat irreverent for being part of a rock band, but perhaps not so much, since one of them was married. Just because of these speculations, Dominique felt the need to meet Queen more, just to be sure who she was dealing with.
Her shift finally ended at 5:00 pm, and bidding farewell to her boss, promising to see him the next day, Dominique left the office and began her long journey to home. That had been her home for the past eight years, since she had left France for college in London, and even with excellent grades and a degree in International Relations, Dominique ended up getting the job of Branson's personal assistant. It wasn't such a bad thing to have a job completely out of her training area, not that it was totally out because she had to deal with different people all the time. However, what made her enjoy the work was being able to work a little with music, it was one of her passions, and listening to different artists created a varied taste for music. That was also why she decided to do something on the way home.
Thanks to her tastes as well as her work, she knew which was the best record store between the office and her apartment. She stopped in a "Latest Hits," which seemed decent enough for Dominique. She looked the store's records and, to her surprise, soon found what she wanted.
The disc had a black cover, the title "Queen II" highlighted in white, but what caught her attention were the four slightly spooky faces. It was the first time she had seen more clearly the clients she would meet the next day. Fun as always, her mind played around trying to guess who was who, she felt a strong hunch that Freddie could only be the one with his hands folded across his chest.
"Um ... sir?" Dominique turned to the attendant "do you know if there are any other Queen albums? If this is the two, I imagine you have the one."
She completed with a mischievous smile, which made the boy cheer to get up from his comfortable seat and look for what she had requested. It wasn't long before Dominique had the three Queen albums in her hands. She paid for them and took them home. Her rest from the long day's work was to lie down on her little sofa, which fit her perfectly, and focus on the band's songs.
At first, Dominique thought those lyrics didn't make much sense, but they were interesting and the four boys were quite talented. In certain passages where her ears caught high pitched voices, she wondered if there was any girl in the band. In the end, she ended up becoming more fond of the simpler songs like "Modern Times Rock'n Roll" and "Tenement Funster" for having more understandable themes. Overall, Queen had made a good impression on Dominique just because of their songs, she still had to know what they were like in person.