He chuckled. “I try to stay away from the hard stuff when I have to fly later in the day. It’s one of those FAA things, you know.”
“Oh ... yeah,” she said. “I guess that makes sense.”
“But far be it from me to rain on someone else’s parade,” he said. “Go ahead and fire up. You don’t have to fly a plane, right?”
She nodded. “No, I guess I don’t.” She looked at the waitress. “Hit me.”
The waitress smiled in approval. “One bloody Mary, coming up,” she said. “And you, sir?”
“Coffee,” he said. “And keep it coming.”
They perused the menus in silence, with Jake settling on the southwest scramble. When the waitress came back with their drinks, Laura ordered a simple plate with two scrambled eggs, sausage, and whole wheat toast.
“Kind of boring,” Jake chastised.
She simply shrugged and then tried a tentative drink of her bloody Mary. Her eyes lit up a bit as she rolled the flavor around in her mouth. “Hey,” she said, “this is pretty good.”
“Yeah?” Jake asked, a little jealous.
“It’s got a nice, spicy bite to it,” she said, and then took another, larger drink. “You can hardly taste the booze at all.”
“You’re making me drool,” he said sourly.
Another tiny hint of a smile. “Sorry,” she said.
Silence reigned again, becoming almost awkward, until Laura got about half of the potent bloody Mary in her empty stomach. And then, clearly feeling the effects, she started to speak again, at first just making a few remarks about the instrument they were going to search out, and then moving into more personal matters.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she said, her green eyes looking at Jake’s face over her glass.
“What’s that?”
“The cocaine from the butt crack thing. Did you ... you know ... actually do that?”
He gave an embarrassed smile. “What do you think?”
She considered. “Well ... it’s pretty depraved,” she said. “Exactly the sort of thing I would’ve thought you would do based on your reputation. You have quite the reputation, you know.”
“Oh, I know all right,” he assured her. “Let’s see. I’m a Satanist, that’s the most common one. I’m a drug addict, that’s a close second. I beat my girlfriends regularly. I once threw a girl off of a boat after raping her because she wanted to break up with me. I’m a serial cheater when I do have a relationship. Have I covered all the high points?”
“They’ve been saying you’re bisexual now,” she added. “That because you’ve slept with so many women, you’ve gotten bored with it and are giving guys a try.”
“Really?” he said with a chuckle. “I haven’t heard that one.”
“Why do you think Phil was so excited to make your acquaintance?” she asked. “He was really hoping that one would be true.”
“Alas, it is not,” Jake said. “I haven’t quite gotten that bored with the female sex yet.”
“He’s still holding out hope for it though,” she said with a giggle. It was nice to hear the sound come out of her mouth. “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question.”
“About the butt crack?”
“About the butt crack,” she said. “I’ve gotten to know you well enough that I have a hard time believing some of that other stuff. For instance, I know you’re not a Satanist and I know you’re not a drug addict. As for beating your girlfriends ... well ... I’m not the most sophisticated judge of men, I’ll be the first to admit, but I just can’t picture that either. You’re too even tempered. You always seem to stop and think before you do something.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah ... I’ve gotten into plenty of trouble in my time because I didn’t stop and think about something, although that was back during my heavy drinking days, and there was usually alcohol involved when I made a particularly poor decision.”
“Like what?” she asked, taking another sip of her drink.
“Where do I begin?” he asked with another chuckle. “Hooking up with that redheaded groupie in Cabo San Lucas while I was dating someone ... that was a bad decision. Getting involved with Mindy Snow for the second time ... while she was married ... that was a bad decision, and one that I just kept repeating.”
“You were involved with her a second time?” Laura asked, eyes wide.
“Guilty,” he said. “We met by chance in Fiji, and...”
“Fiji?” Laura asked incredulously. “How do you meet someone by chance in Fiji?”
“It was quite the coincidence,” he said. “She was there filming Tropical Dreams, that flick about World War II and the romance between a nurse and a wounded soldier. I was coming back from a visit to New Zealand and had a layover that I turned into a day on the beach. We were both staying in the luxury hotel on the beach.” He shrugged. “It was almost inevitable that we would run into each other once the coincidence of both of us being there at the same time was fulfilled. Anyway, that was a mistake, fueled by alcohol. We kept the relationship on the downlow since she was married to Scott Adams Winslow at the time.” He shook his head. “What a pompous asshole that guy was. I mean, Greg is pompous, but he’s almost charming in how he carries it off. Winslow was just a prick. Really thought he was superior to everyone. That’s part of what made it easy to justify boning his wife, really. Well, that and Mindy was...” He blushed a little. “Oh ... never mind. You don’t need to hear about this.”
“Actually,” she said, “this is pretty fascinating to hear about. Mindy Snow is one of my favorite actresses. I grew up watching The Slow Lane and I’ve seen every movie she’s been in since. She was what?”
“She was really good in bed,” Jake told her. “The best I’ve ever experienced, truth be told.”
“Really?” Laura said, wide eyed. “That’s remarkable considering how many women you’ve been with—I mean, unless that’s just a story as well.”
“Let’s just say that I’ve had my fair share of experience with the opposite sex.” And maybe ten or fifteen other guys’ shares as well, he did not add.
“So ... we’re talking more than ... like, thirty girls you’ve slept with in your life?”
He nibbled his lip a little. “Uh ... yeah,” he said. “We’ll go with that number.” Thirty? That’s her idea of a lot of sex? He had fucked more women than that on the first leg of the first Intemperance tour.
“And with all that, Mindy Snow was the best?”
“Hands down,” Jake assured her. “She had an appetite for sex that knew no boundaries. She was aggressive about pursuing it and quite skillful in execution. Though I regret the relationship with her—both of them, since she was using me both times—I don’t regret the things we did together.”
Laura’s face suddenly lit up with understanding. “Your song Nothing’s Different Now,” she said. “That’s about Mindy Snow, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “On the nosey,” he told her.
“I was wondering who you were singing it about,” she said. “Wow, this is really interesting stuff, Jake.”
“Yes, my tales of failed relationships are fascinating, aren’t they?”
“And the other song you sing,” she said. “Hit the Highway. Is that about her as well?”
“No,” he said. “That’s about Helen, my latest failed relationship.”
“She was the flight instructor? The one they accused you of paying off and sleeping with so you could get your license?”
“The one and only,” he said with a sigh. Thinking about Helen was still painful—a wound that had closed but had not completely healed.
“And none of that was true either, right? I mean, I watched you in the cockpit today and you certainly don’t seem to be someone who cheated his way through flight school.”
“It’s pretty much impossible to cheat your way through flight school,” Jake assured her. “For one, you have to ride with an FAA guy to get your license. For another thing, I wouldn’t have cheated even if I could. When matters concern my own life, I take them very seriously.”