"It's a great song, Jake," Matt said after they'd worked at it for more than six hours, "but I just don't think it's gonna fly, not with all of us playing."
"Yeah," Jake said sourly. He had come to the same conclusion more than two hours before. "I think you're right."
"Any chance you can use those lyrics with a different rhythm?" asked Nerdly.
Jake and Matt were both shaking their heads before he even finished his question.
"You just can't do that, Nerdly," Jake told him. "They lyrics go with the rhythm. They'd sound shitty if I tried to slow it down any or speed it up and put it to a different riff."
"Yep," Matt agreed. "You can't compose the lyrics independent of the song. It just doesn't work that way."
Jake reluctantly agreed to shelve that song as well. They cut out a little early that day, too strained and too burned out to start working on anything new.
"That's a shame, man," Matt said as they assembled in the parking lot before going their separate ways for the evening. "I really love that fuckin' tune. Seriously, I do. It's got a kick-ass tempo to it and the lyrics are some of the best you've done. I just wish there was a way we could pull it off."
"Yeah," Jake sighed, feeling a tension headache in the back of his skull. "Me too."
He left the warehouse and drove immediately to the Brannigan Station Café, which was, as usual at this time of day, almost completely deserted. Both Jo Ann and Rachel lit up with smiles as he came in the door and gave him friendly hugs of greeting.
"You know the routine," Jo Ann told him. "Find yourself a seat."
"Corona with a lime?" Rachel asked.
"You know it," he said. "And a couple of Tylenol if you've got them."
"On the way," Rachel promised, disappearing into the kitchen.
Jake sat down in his usual booth near the back. Ever since that first visit he had been back four more times after the jam sessions to eat dinner and have a few beers before going home. Jo Ann always treated him with the sort of warmth due a family member and Rachel was downright flirtatious with him. When she wasn't being flirtatious, she was complaining about Paul, her fourth year med student boyfriend. Jake, for the most part, enjoyed the flirtation and returned it stroke for stroke. He didn't take it very seriously since she had a boyfriend but she was a very pretty girl and after months of extremely short term relationships in which he sometimes didn't even talk to the girl in question before fucking her it was nice to pretend he was a normal human being instead of a celebrity, that he was engaging in a normal flirtatious relationship with a normal girl.
"How was your Christmas?" Jake asked her after she took his order, brought him his first beer, and then sat down across from him in the booth.
"It was all right," she said with a shrug. "Mom and I went to visit my aunt and my grandma in San Diego. It was a long drive up and back."
"I made it in an hour and fifteen minutes last month when Matt and I went down there."
"Oh yeah?" she asked. "And how many times did you get pulled over for speeding?"
"Only once," he said. "The cop let me off in exchange for my autograph on his notepad."
She laughed. "How about you?" she asked. "How was your Christmas?"
"I didn't really have one," he said. "We worked straight through it. I didn't even realize it was Christmas until I came here after the session and you were closed."
"Wow," she said. "That's dedication."
He shrugged. "Or maybe it's obsession," he said. "We are having a good time though. Putting the music together was always one of the best parts of the job — right behind performing it before an audience."
"What about recording it?" she asked, her blue eyes shining. Rarely did they talk about his music.
"That bites ass," he said. "It's a long, tedious, boring, and incredibly repetitive process. By the time we're done I'm so sick of all the songs I could almost puke. Nerdly's about the only one who likes recording."
"I never would've thought that," she said.
"That Nerdly would like it or that it's boring?"
"That it's boring. I always thought it was kind of glamorous, you know?"
"It was for about the first week of the first album," he said. "After that... well..."
"It bites ass?"
"Exactly," he said, taking a sip of beer. "So what are you doing for New Year's Eve? Paul taking you to some cool party somewhere?"
She frowned quite severely. "He's not taking me anywhere," she said. "He's working in the hospital again."
"On New Year's Eve?" he asked. "Don't they give those guys a Christmas break?"
"From the classroom they do," she said. "They still have hospital rotations for them. He actually volunteered for New Year's Eve duty. He says it's one of the busiest nights of the year and he doesn't want to miss it."
"Oh well," Jake said, making an attempt to defend a fellow male. "Eventually this will all pay off, won't it? He'll finish school at the end of the year and you'll have more time together."
"Hardly," she said. "He'll start his residency right after school is over and I'll never see him after that. They make them work thirty-six hour shifts with only twelve off in between."
"That does cut down on the together time a bit, doesn't it?"
"I can always come over and watch him sleep, I suppose."
"Yeah, I suppose," Jake agreed. He took another drink. "Listen," he said, "I'm going over to Matt's place on New Year's Eve. He's throwing kind of a private party, just a few people we know having some drinks and maybe smoking a little weed. If you're just going to be sitting home alone anyway why don't you come with me?"
She looked stunned by his invitation, her face flushing, her eyes finding it hard to look at his face. "You want me to come to Matt's party?" she asked. "At his house?"
"If your boyfriend won't like it that's cool," Jake said. "I just thought maybe you'd like to get out for a night and hang out. It's no big deal if you can't. You won't hurt my feelings."
She seemed at a loss for words. "Uh... well... what about your date?" she finally blurted. "Wouldn't she get mad if you brought me with you?"
"I don't have a date," Jake told her. "I haven't been seeing anyone lately."
"Really?" she asked. "But you're Jake Kingsley."
"That's what they call me," he confirmed. "I've had a few dates and a few casual encounters but I haven't been seeing anyone since I was dating this female cop last year."
"You dated a cop?" she asked, wondering if he was making that up.
"It's a long story," he said. "And not a very happy one either. So what do you think? I'd hate to go to Matt's party stag. The other guys would make fun of me for it."
"Uh... well... sure," she said. "I'd love to come."
"Very good," he said. "And you can tell Paul it's all platonic."
"I don't think I'm going to tell him about this," she said with a giggle.
"To each their own," he said. "Write down your address for me before I leave and I'll pick you up about eight o'clock in the limo."
"The limo?" she asked, paling a bit. "You mean... a limo?"
"I don't like to drink and drive," Jake said. "Is that okay?"
"Of course... but... but... what should I wear?"
"Anything you want," Jake told her. "It's a very casual affair."
Chapter 2c
Pasadena, California
December 31, 1986
Rachel ended up wearing a black, thigh-length cocktail dress that clung to her body quite alluringly. Her toned legs were clad in dark nylons. She wore three-inch patent leather high heels on her feet. Her blonde hair — which was usually tied up in a ponytail at the restaurant — was styled and hanging down around her shoulders. Her face was carefully and expertly made up with just the right amount of blush, eye shadow, and bright red lipstick that glistened in the light.