It was a lazy afternoon. Freddie didn’t want to rehearse long that morning on account of the arrival of a very special guest. She was scheduled to arrive at around 4:30 and currently, it was nearly 3:30. Brian and Chrissie had ridden into town to visit the farmer’s market and look over the fresh produce. John was taking a nap upstairs, Veronica and Norma were in the pool and I was with Vivienne down in the barn. As or Freddie and Roger? Well, Freddie had an activity planned for the afternoon.

“Oh Roooooog, darling? Come in here. Come and help me bake a pie!” Freddie called from the kitchen happily

 “Rog isn’t here right now.” Roger called back to him from the family room. He was hypnotized by the hum of the ceiling fan and lost in the book he was reading. The air circulating around the room was comforting and Roger was on the verge of dozing off.

 “Come in here, Roger! I’m getting out pie things!” Freddie said beginning to make a commotion in the kitchen. “Come and arrange these flowers on the table! Veronica picked them earlier today!”

 “No.” Roger said, his delayed, sleepy reaction.

 “Roger! Come on! Come and help me bake this pie! I have a recipe and everything!” Freddie begged him.

 “Get Veronica or Lydia to help you.” Roger said.

 "They aren’t here!” Freddie countered in his sing-song voice.

 “Get John.” Roger said, rolling over on the couch.

 “John is taking a nap upstairs! Get in here!” Freddie said shutting some cabinet doors. There was no reply. “Roooog!” Freddie yelled again.

 “No.” Roger called to Freddie after a moment of silence. Freddie let an armload of something clang to the counter in a most frustrated clash and came storming into the family room, the thuds of his footsteps coming quickly

 “Roger Taylor! Get your scrawny arse off that couch right now and get the hell up and help me bake a pie, Dammit!! My girlfriend is going to be here in less than an hour and I want to have a pie ready for her!” Freddie took Roger’s book and launched it toward the wall, grabbing Roger’s arm and tugging on him.

 “What the hell, Fred!? I didn’t have a bookmark in that! Let go of me!” Freddie had effectively pulled Roger into the floor.  “ Okay, okay! I’m up! I’m standin’ up.” Roger scooped himself off the floor and Freddie let go of his arm. He put his hands on his hips and glared at Roger for a moment.

 “Oh this is going to be so fun! I’ve never made a pie before!” Freddie said excitedly as he spun around and headed back to the kitchen. “Mary’s going to love this so much!” Roger reluctantly trailed Freddie. Since Freddie had no idea what he would need for a pie, the kitchen counter was covered in crap that he had pulled out of the cabinets.

 "Fred! Why the hell you got all this stuff out? I don’t know what the hell this is but you don’t need it for a pie…do you?” Roger asked holding up a meat tenderizer.

 “This is why we have a recipe, darling!” Freddie smiled and presented the recipe to Roger. “

 “Can I at least smoke while I do this?” Roger asked rather uninterested. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head. The kitchen window was open and the birds chirped in the apple tree near the house.

 “Of course you can, dear.” Freddie answered him as Roger then reached into his back pocket for a pack of cigarettes. “Now, Roger. About the recipe. Tell me what the first step is!” Freddie rubbed his hands together and prepared to reach for something anxiously. Roger had lit his cigarette and took a puff. He looked at the recipe. 

 “Step one. Go to the store. Step two. Buy a fuckin’ pie.” Roger said dryly. Freddie glared at him and crossed his arms. 

 “Rog, I don’t appreciate the sour attitude! When was the last time you and I got to spend some lovely time together!? Hmm? Now get that disillusioned, sleepy look of your face and peel these apples!” Freddie sat a rather large bowl of apples in front of Roger. “Since you won’t arrange these flowers I need to do that also! Mary will simply love these flowers!” However, instead of peeling apples, Roger was pouring a shot of whiskey.

 “Do you want a shot of whiskey?” he asked Freddie.

 “Just one, love. I can’t be all sloppy when Mary arrives!” he said. Roger poured Freddie a shot of whiskey. “Stop stalling Roger! You have a job to do!” Freddie insisted.

 “Hold on!” Roger held on to his cigarette and swallowed the shot of whiskey. He slid the other shot glass down the counter toward Freddie.

 “Hmmm. Do you think this table needs a tablecloth?” Freddie pondered.

 “No.” Roger answered him quickly, looking over at Freddie’s shot glass he had just poured. He swallowed it as well before Freddie could return. He searched around in the nearby drawers for a knife and reluctantly began peeling an apple while balancing his cigarette between his lips. Freddie was pleased with himself after having arranged the flowers. He spun around to see how Roger was doing.

 “Rog! You gotta’ be more careful than that! Look! It looks like you chewed the peeling off this apple! Now, cut them up after you peel them!” Freddie insisted.

 “What!? How!?” He mumbled, still holding on to his cigarette.

“In little pieces, stupid! Come on Roger! You act like you’ve never seen an apple before!” Freddie scolded him. Roger huffed and continued working.

 Vivienne and I walked through the big horse barn, it’s dirt floor well worn from hooves and equipment. It was well lit and the ceiling quite high. Each of the stalls was very clean and there were bridles, saddles, blankets, brushes…all the necessary things I was accustomed to seeing hung everywhere. Naturally, no barn was complete without a few barn cats running around. The smell of hay horse feed and animals filled my senses. The large barn doors were slid open and various barn tools and a temperature gauge hung near the doorway. Ten horses were out in the fields grazing and nine more remained here in the barn. One of the farm hands was in the process of bathing one of the horses before letting her run. The sight of these ten horses in this barn was very exhilarating to me.

 “This is Delilah. She’s pregnant now and so she’s a bit unpredictable. She’s normally a very affectionate horse. She’s two.” Vivienne explained as I gazed in the stall at a beautiful Arabian nestled in the corner. I smiled.

 “Oh she’s lovely. How many Arabians do you have?” I asked.

 “We have three, the father is in the field. I’ll show him to you later.

 “I dearly love Arabians. They’re so spirited and intelligent. Beautiful horses.” I gazed at the pregnant mare in a bit of a trance. Vivienne smiled at me.

 “Of course, we have six thoroughbreds. Nothing like the thoroughbreds you’re used to workin’ with but nonetheless, we have some.  This one is double helix. He’s probably the fastest we own.” Vivienne explained to me. I pushed a small stool over and stood on it.

 “Hello Helix. Hi there, boy.” I stocked his nose as he cooed at me. He had soft yet eager eyes. I ran my hand over his neck as far as I could reach. “He’s built nicely. He’s got strong hindquarters and a slim body. “Here sweet boy, you want a sugar cube. Yes, yes you do.” I talked to him as I reached into my pocket to get him a sugar cube. Vivienne was starin’ at me.

 “I want to see you ride Helix. I think you could really test his potential as a race horse. Of course, he has a wild streak and he shows it. Sometimes he needs to be put in his place, but he’s a truly beautiful horse. How many horses are at your estate, Lydia?” Vivienne asked me with twinkling eyes.

 “I don’t know maybe…fifty? Sixty?” I really thought Vivienne was going to tackle me at that moment.

 “This is the horse I ride most. This is Bellegique, my Friesian, but we call him Belle. He doesn’t trust me as much as I’d like even I’m on him a lot.” Vivienne explained. I shook my head.

 “How old is he?” I asked.

 “He’s four.” I shook my head. “I’ll take a look at him. If he doesn’t trust you and you say you’re on him frequently, there’s a reason. Who’s the pretty girl out there getting a bath?” I asked. Vivienne laughed.

 “That’s one of our jumpers, Bambalina.”

 “Irish sport horse. I don’t see too many of them, at least not where I grew up.” I explained.

 “We have two, the other is her brother. Come on, let’s go outside! I’ll point out the horses in the field.” Vivienne glowed and grabbed my arm.

 “Roger! God! I’m gonna’ kill you! This…this is…what the hell did you do!?” Freddie was less than thrilled.

 “I did exactly what you told me to do! I threw some flour on the stupid cutting thing and I rolled out the dough! Then, it stuck all the hell over the place and now I don’t know how to fix it! Shit, Fred! It’s on my hands! It’s all over this board! It’s everywhere except in that damn pie thing! This was the stupidest idea you’ve ever had! Can’t you just give Mary a kiss, open a bottle of wine, have a cigarette and then fuck her mindlessly on three hundred count Egyptian cotton sheets like any normal person!?” Freddie crossed his arms and furrowed his brow at Roger.

 “Rog, I am a very romantic person. I enjoy giving the woman in my life home baked pastries. You…on the other hand give the woman in your life an orgasm.”

 “What the hell is your point?” Roger asked, doing his best to get the clingy dough off his fingers. Freddie thought a moment.

 “Ooooooh you’re right! You’re exactly right! This pie is a disaster! Mary is going to hate it so much! I should have gone into this with your approach! One can’t go wrong with alcohol and safe sex! I mean, no wonder Lydia’s so pleasant all the time!” Freddie confessed into his hands.

 “What the hell are you two doing?” a sleepy John asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. It was obvious he hadn’t been up long, judging by the look on his face and the fact that he hadn’t even bothered putting a shirt on after having woken from his nap.

 “Makin’ a mess!” Roger told him. John shook his head.

 “Hold on.” John walked through the kitchen and into the sunroom, opening up the door. “Veronica!? Ver…Veronica, can you hear me?” he yelled at her. She looked over toward the house. “Can you come in here? Freddie and Roger tried to bake a pie! It doesn’t look like a pie at all!” Veronica threw her hand in the air to signify that she would come inside and fix this.

 “Oh my god! Mary is going to be here in a half hour!” Freddie noticed, looking up at the clock.

 “You know what? I’m washin’ my hands and I’m gonna’ pour another shot of whiskey. I’m done, Fred!” Roger said, irritated with Freddie to no end and covered in sticky dough up to his knuckles.

 By 4:15. Brian, Chrissie and Greg had returned from the farmer’s market. He and Chrissie unloaded all of the groceries they had picked up. Myself and Vivienne had come in from the barn and I was quite dusty. I had left my riding boots outside and immediately got into the shower. At exactly 4:37, a car had pulled up the long driveway and stopped in front of the house. Freddie went bursting though the door, running to the driver’s side.

 “Mary! Mary you’re here!” Freddie gushed and ran over to her the moment she got out of the car, swooping her off the ground. Mary laughed and threw her arms around him.

 “Oh, Freddie! I’m here! Hello, darling. She kissed him as her brownish blonde hair fell around her face.

 “I don’t understand why we’ve never met her until now.” Veronica said to me.

 “I don’t either. It’s hard tellin’ really.” I answered her. Mary pulled one suitcase from the back seat of the car and followed Freddie to the door. Veronica and myself were watching them as they climbed the three stairs to the house. Freddie opened the door for her. She had the most pleasant of smiles on her face and Freddie was so very radiant. I hadn’t seen him with that look on his face.

 “Mary! This…is Veronica and Lydia! Girls…this is my Mary!” Freddie shoved Mary toward us, that big grin over his face.

 “Hi there! Oh, I’m so excited to be here! I hate I couldn’t be here when you all arrived.

 “Nice to meet you, Mary.” I extended my hand her. “My apologies for my wet hair, I just got out of the shower.”

 “Oh, that’s quite alright.” Mary said.

“Come! Come! Come! Mary! Come and meet Brian and Chrissie and…well, everyone else!” Freddie grabbed Mary’s arm and tugged her away.

 “Oh! Look! Oh my! Look at this pie!" Mary called from the kitchen. "And what beautiful flowers! Freddie, did you do this!?" Mary was so excited.

"I made the crust!" Roger said, throwing his arms around Freddie. Veronica and I followed them into the kitchen. 

"I had some help, but yes. Yes, I made you a pie!" mary threw her arms around Freddie again.

" 'Ey...Lyd...which would you rather have from me? A pie of a bottle of wine?" Roger asked. I looked at him funny.

"Rog, you know me better than that...I'll take the wine anytime." 

"See! See! I told you!" Roger mumbled at Freddie, slapping him in the back.

"And Mary, this is Roger." Freddie introduced her.