“I’m not interested in taking Jake’s money,” she said. “I love him. I really do. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like being rich. It’s nice to go out and buy whatever I want and not have to worry about whether or not I’ll be able to pay the rent, or my electricity bill, or my car payment, but I would’ve married Jake even if he’d been poor.”
“You think so?” Neesh asked. It was obvious that she found this very hard to believe.
“I know so,” Laura insisted.
Neesh smiled at her. “That’s what makes you so damn cute, Teach,” she said. “That wholesome, Pollyanna thing you got going. It’s charming as hell.”
Laura felt herself flush a little. “Are you saying you wouldn’t have gotten involved with G if he wasn’t rich?”
“No way in hell,” Neesh said without hesitation. “Don’t get me wrong now, I really do love the man. I love his personality, I love how he treats me, and I wouldn’t have gotten involved with just any old rich guy who showed interest just because he was rich, but G wouldn’t have had a shot in hell at even getting a kiss-off from me if he hadn’t been G.”
Laura nodded thoughtfully. “At least you’re honest about it.”
“To thy own self be true,” she quoted.
“I suppose,” Laura said.
“And how about you?” Neesh asked. “Are you being true to yourself?”
“What do you mean?” she asked carefully.
“I’ve seen you checking out my boobs ever since we got in the car,” she said. “Are you telling yourself you don’t want me?”
“No,” Laura said quietly. “I’m not telling myself that at all.”
“I kept my promise,” Neesh said. “And I intend to keep keeping it. Are you planning to do any begging, Teach?”
“I’m not,” Laura said.
“You sure?” Neesh prompted. “It wouldn’t even have to be serious begging, because I been looking at them boobs of yours all day too.”
Laura shook her head. “Sorry, Neesh. It’s not going to happen.”
“A pity,” Neesh said with a sigh. “Well, how about we start making our way back to the car then? I guess we should go see how those men of ours are doing.”
“Sounds good,” Laura said.
They walked slowly and companionly back to the car for the drive back to Compton.
Jake, G, and the boys managed to get a lot accomplished while Neesh and Laura were gone. They worked their way from playing out the melody on piano and clean electric without distortion, to having Ricky lay down the basic melody for G’s verses while the drummers and the bass players kept the beat and the time. The key modulations for the changeovers between verse and chorus were still a little rough and, quite plainly, needed a lot of work in order to sound smooth. Jake’s choruses, however, were coming along better than anything. The two hip-hop drummers and the two hip-hop bass players found they rather enjoyed the hard rock beat that was required to accompany Jake’s distorted electric guitar and strong, melodic tenor voice.
“I’ll make heavy metal musicians out of you four yet,” Jake told them at one point, after a particularly fine representation of the form.
“Shit, that’ll be the fuckin’ day,” James chuckled.
It was close to four-thirty in the afternoon when the computer buzzed and flashed, indicating that someone had entered the main gate with the code. Gordon stepped away from his microphone and checked the video display, seeing that it was his car coming in.
“The bitches be back,” he told Jake, without bothering to wait for the buzz of the intercom so he could open the front door. Neesh had a key card that would let her in.
“Cool,” Jake said, making an adjustment to the tone on his Les Paul. “Let’s see what they think of it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Gordon said.
The door opened and the ladies came in, Laura carrying a couple of shopping bags in addition to her purse.
“Uh oh,” G said as he saw this. “It looks like they been spendin’ some money, Jake.”
“And probably not at Walmart,” Jake said with a chuckle.
“Definitely not at Walmart,” Neesh agreed. “How’s it going in here?”
“We’re making some headway,” Gordon replied. “Wanna see how we’re doing?”
“Sure,” Laura said.
“All right, homies,” G said. “Let’s run through what we got.”
Naturally, now that they had their first audience, they screwed up the beginning and had to start over. But once they got rolling, they all seemed to give it their best and, perhaps because of the small audience, it was their best rendition yet.
Ricky spun his turntables in E major, putting out the verse melody while the bass players and the drummers kept time. Gordon sang his verses in classic rap style, belting them out in harmony with the beat. And then came the switchover to G major. Again, it was slightly rough as the rhythm section was still getting used to it, but Gordon’s voice carried off the change in key long enough for Jake to kick in with his distorted electric and lay down the rock and roll riff. The drummers and the bass players began to pound out the beat in rock and roll rhythm now, all of them grinning and nodding their heads as they got into it. Jake sang out the chorus, belting it out much more powerfully and angrily than he’d done in the acoustic version.
They played all the way to the bridge and then stopped before mounting it. They still were pretty weak on that part and they all knew it. There was no sense disillusioning their audience.
“Well?” Gordon asked the ladies once all the instruments were silenced.
“That’s impressive,” Neesh said, clapping her hands. “I think people are going to love it.”
Laura, the musician (and the one who was really only fond of jazz) was a bit more critical, but she was kind about it.
“I like the overall feel of the piece,” she said. “It needs a lot more work though. Very rough on the modulation from E major to G major and back.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “We’re going to need to work to smooth those changeovers out. But not bad for the first go around, huh?”
She smiled at her husband. “Not bad at all,” she agreed.
The band decided to call it a day. They would be meeting again three days from now for another session. In the meantime, G and the band had nine other tunes they were currently working on. They wanted to be in the recording studio in Oakland by the end of February.
“Anyone up for a few drinks?” asked Gordon.
The band were all up for this, and Jake wasn’t opposed to it, but Laura asked him if he minded if they just headed home.
“Uh ... sure,” he said a little regretfully. “Sorry, guys. Boss lady wants to go home.”
“I’m a little tired too,” Neesh said to Gordon. “Do you mind terribly?”
Gordon simply shrugged. “Naw, baby. I got to get up early in the morning anyway.”
And so, the rest of the band packed up and headed for a local watering hole while G, Neesh, Jake and Laura climbed into their cars for the trip home.
“Did you have a good time?” Jake asked Laura as they headed for the freeway.
“We had a blast,” she told him. “She’s really fun to hang out with.” She gave him a look he recognized well. “Listen, do you mind if I suck your dick while we drive?”
“Uh ... no, go for it,” Jake told her. “I’ve never had a blowjob in Compton before.”
She undid her seatbelt and leaned over him, undoing his belt and unsnapping his jeans. As she fished his already stiffening manhood out, she looked up at him. “And when we get home,” she said, “I want you to eat my pussy out.”
“I can do that,” Jake agreed.
“And then fuck me,” she added.