“Uh ... well, I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, I’m kind of new to this whole relationship thing. And you’re a rich rock star who can get any woman he wants, right?”
“Not any woman,” he said. “Just most of them.”
Her expression darkened.
“Just kidding, hon,” he said with a smile. He stood up and walked over to the dresser. He opened a drawer and pulled a small, black felt box out. He carried it back over to her. “I bought you a present the last time I was in Portland. I was going to give it to you right before you got on the plane, but I think I’ll go ahead and do it now.”
She eyed the box carefully. It was obviously a jewelry box of some sort. “What is it?” she asked carefully.
Again, he picked up on her thoughts. “Uh, it’s not an engagement ring,” he told her. “I wouldn’t presume to move that quickly in this thing, for a multitude of reasons. But it is something I think you’ll like, something I put some thought into.”
“Okay,” she said.
He opened the box and showed her what was inside. It was a pendant attached to a 14-karat gold chain. The pendant was a G-clef in 24-karat gold, surrounded by a silver heart studded with a half a carat worth of polished diamonds. It wasn’t the most expensive piece of jewelry Jake had ever bought for a woman, but it certainly wasn’t the cheapest either. It had set him back nearly four thousand dollars—enough to earn him a stern telephone lecture from Jill once the charge reached her.
“Oh my God, Jake,” Laura whispered as she looked at it. “It’s ... it’s beautiful.”
“And it’s for you,” he told her, pulling it out of the box and letting it dangle. “Can I put it on you?”
“Jake ... this looks really expensive.”
He shrugged. “I’m a rich rock star, remember? Now, are you going to let me put it on you? Because just having me leave it dangling here is going to get awkward in a minute.”
She looked up at him and smiled, remembering that those were very similar to the first words he had ever spoken to her, back when they’d first been introduced. The mood between them had been a bit different then. “Yes,” she said. “Please put it on me.”
He unclasped the tiny fastener with his fingernails and then leaned forward to put the chain around her slender neck. He then fumbled for a minute, trying to fasten it back together. At last, he accomplished his goal and took his hands away, letting it hang free. “You know the meaning of the G-clef, of course,” he told her. “It’s symbolic of our relationship as musicians, of what brought the two of us together.”
“I love it,” she said, lifting the pendant up so she could look at it.
“You’ll also notice there’s a heart there,” he said softly.
She looked up at him. “Yes,” she said. “I did notice that.”
“The heart is the symbol of love,” Jake said. “I didn’t choose that symbolism randomly, or on impulse.”
A nibble of the lip. “What ... what are you saying, Jake?”
“I’m saying that I love you, Laura,” he told her. He then said it again. “I love you.”
She looked at his face carefully, her green eyes looking for deceit there. There was none to be found. “You’re ... you’re serious?” she asked. “You’re not just fucking with me?”
“I’m not just fucking with you,” he assured her. “Although I was hoping to do that later.”
His joke went right over her head—either that or it wasn’t really that funny. She continued to stare at him while her face blushed bright red. A tear formed in her left eye and ran down her cheek.
“Are you okay, Laura?” he asked, wondering if maybe he shouldn’t have told her that after all. It was true, he was in love with the petite red haired saxophonist, had been so for some time now, but ... was she in love with him? Had he just committed a romantic faux pas? Was she going to say something like, That’s very nice, Jake, but maybe you’ve been taking this relationship too seriously? I was just with you because you’re good at eating my pussy out.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “I’m okay. I’m very okay. In fact ... I feel like I’m about to explode with emotion here.”
“In ... a good way?” he asked carefully.
She smiled, a genuine, heart warming Laura smile. “Yes, in a good way,” she said. “Nobody has ever told me that before—not in the romantic sense anyway. I’m afraid I’m a little flustered.”
He nodded, touching the side of her face. “You’re blushing like a red traffic light,” he told her.
“I can feel it,” she said. “Will you say it again, Jake?”
“I love you, Laura,” he told her. “I am experiencing romantic bonding with you on the biochemical level causing a state similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
Her mouth gaped. “Huh?”
He chuckled. “Sorry, I lapsed into Nerdly speak there for a second. Maybe I’m a little flustered too. But I am love in with you.”
She took his hand in hers, her thumb caressing the back of his hand. “And I’m in love with you too, Jake,” she told him.
“Really?” he asked.
She nodded. “Really,” she said. “You’re all I think about these days. I just want to be with you all the time, and not just for ... you know ... the naked stuff ... although I really do like the naked stuff. Look at me, I’m still flustered.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, I ... I love you.” She shook her head. “Wow. I’ve never said that to anyone either.”
Jake smiled. “I think you did a really good job of saying it,” he told her.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said, taking her in his arms. They held each other tightly for a moment and then they kissed, a soft, romantic kiss.
When it broke, Laura looked in his eyes. “Do you want to do some naked stuff now?”
“Always,” he assured her. “But before we do, I want to tell you the point of why I just professed my love to you.”
“There’s a point?”
“There’s a point,” he said. “I wanted to reassure you that when you go home tomorrow, I’m still going to be with you, in spirit and in soul if not in actuality. I am not going to find another woman while you’re gone. I’m not going to forget about you. This is not the end of our time together unless you want it to be.”
“I don’t want it to end,” she said.
“Neither do I,” he said.
They kissed again, this time with a little more passion. When it finally broke, both of them were breathing a little heavily.
“That’s it,” Laura said. “It’s naked time.”
“Agreed,” Jake said.
She paused in the unzipping of her pants. “I’m going to keep the necklace on while we fuck,” she said. “Is that okay?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “but remember, we’re in love now. We don’t fuck anymore. We make love.”
She looked at him for a moment and then shook her head. “No,” she said. “I think we should still fuck. I like to fuck.”
Jake grinned. “Fair enough,” he told her and then began removing his own clothes. “Let’s fuck.”
They fucked, and it was very good, because they fucked like two people who knew they were in love.
The Citation business jet took off from North Bend Municipal and landed a little less than an hour later at Heritage Muni to drop off the parental Archers and the parental Kingsleys. Twenty minutes later, it was back in the air, where it flew for another seventy-three minutes before landing at Van Nuys—its home base. There, Ted, Phil, Greg, Pauline and Laura disembarked. A few hugs were exchanged—again, Laura thought it was very surreal to be hugging Greg Oldfellow just like he was a normal person—and then they went their separate ways, heading for their respective homes.
In the case of Phil and Laura, it was the same home. They called a cab and split the cost of it. The cabbie dropped them off twenty-five minutes later and they dragged all of their luggage up the stairs, piece by piece.