"True," Matt said, "but if we do it right, it is a radical new form of hard rock. Nobody's ever done anything like this before."
"I think people will like it," Nerdly said. "The real question is whether Crow and Doolittle will use their veto power on it. You know how they are about formulization."
"Yeah," Jake said with a frown. Crow and Doolittle were both of the opinion that every follow-up to a successful album should sound as much like the original as possible. "They might shoot it down."
"Well," said Matt, "let's start working it tomorrow and see what the final version sounds like. We'll put it on the demo and push as hard as we can to get it included. Hell, maybe we could push it off as a filler tune."
"Sounds like a plan," Jake said.
The five band members spent the next hour discussing the new tune and the various ways in which it should be played when they started working on the final version. They ignored everyone around them as they talked and at one point Matt even suggested that they all hop in their limos and take a ride out to the rehearsal warehouse and start working on it tonight. Only the fact that it was nearly a forty-minute ride kept them from actually doing this.
Eventually, to the relief of their dates, the music talk finally broke up just as midnight approached. The television was turned on to one of the New Year's Eve specials that had been recorded on the east coast three hours before. Jake settled into the couch in front of the television, Rachel sitting next to him, her legs crossed in a ladylike manner. He put his arm around her. Once again she stiffened a little but eventually snuggled into him.
"I'm sorry for the little interruption," he apologized. "When I heard that harmonica playing I was just struck by inspiration. I've found it best not to disregard such things when they come."
"That's okay," she said, sipping from a glass of white wine. "It was really kind of amazing watching you play that song. I've never seen anything like that before."
"As I said, the composition is one of the best parts of this job."
"I can see why," she said. "And I didn't understand most of what you guys were talking about just now — all that stuff about chords and keys and mixing and distortion levels — but it was pretty cool to listen anyway. It was like watching engineers figure out how to build a bridge, or doctors figuring out how to cure someone."
Jake didn't miss her reference to doctors. "Kind of like what your doctor is doing tonight?" he asked.
She frowned a little. "He's a nerd," she said. "I think I might've broke up with him a long time ago if my mom didn't like him so much. She says he's a very marriageable man."
"Because he's gonna be a doctor?"
"Yeah," she said. "She doesn't see much beyond that."
"And what does she think of me?" Jake asked. "Does she know you're out with me tonight?"
"She knows," Rachel said. "She likes you a lot, Jake. I'm sure you can tell that just from coming into the restaurant. She was a little worried about tonight though. She kept asking me just what our relationship was and what I was going to tell Paul."
"And what did you tell her?"
She smiled. "I told her to mind her own damn business."
On the television screen the clock had reached 11:59 PM. The crowd in Times Square began to count down the seconds. Jake, Rachel, and everyone else in the room dropped whatever they were doing and began to pay attention, waiting for the magic turn of the hour that would mark the new year.
Everyone in the room began to count down the last twenty seconds as the ball began to drop on the screen. When there was only two seconds to go Jake turned to Rachel, who was looking at him expectantly and a little nervously. He leaned forward and kissed her. Her lips were soft and alluring and a chill of lustful infatuation he hadn't felt since Mindy Snow went shooting through him. The kiss broke four seconds after the new year started. The next one started eight seconds after it. This time Jake pushed his tongue forward a little and she opened her mouth a bit, accepting the intrusion. This kiss made it well into midnight+1.
"Wow," Rachel said when it broke, her eyes shining, her face flushed.
"Happy New Year," Jake told her, rubbing his nose against hers.
"A time for new beginnings," she said. "For throwing out the old and letting in the new."
"That's what they say," Jake said. He kissed her again. This time she put her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her.
Pauline left shortly after midnight as she saw that all the couples (and, in the case of Matt, triples) began to come together in earnest. Jake took Rachel out onto the balcony again and they spent the better part of an hour just holding each other and kissing. Several times he put his hand on the back of her thigh, attempting to run it upward beneath her skirt. She pushed his hand away every time, putting it firmly back on her waist.
The party began to break up shortly after two o'clock in the morning. Matt, having already fucked both of his women in a variety of positions and using a variety of non-politically correct maneuvers, sent them home in a limo and went to bed. Nerdly took his woman back to his house with him, explaining the finer points of the limousine and luxury industry all the while. Darren and Coop both took their dates home with them, intending to carry on their festivities there. Jake and Rachel both climbed into the limo with Mario behind the wheel. Jake closed the privacy partition and pulled her against him.
"Would you like to come back to my place?" he asked her, stroking her bare shoulder with one finger.
"I can't," she said. "I'm not quite... ready for that yet. You understand, don't you?"
"Yeah," he said, kissing where his finger had just been caressing. "I understand."
The limo pulled out, heading for Pasadena. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" Rachel asked. "I mean, I know that you're used to women just... you know... doing everything with you whenever you want, but..."
"It's okay," he said. "I'm not mad at all. You have a boyfriend and this was supposed to be a platonic date. I shouldn't have even done what I did."
"No," she said, shaking her head sternly. "Don't say that. I liked kissing you, Jake. I like being with you. The first thing tomorrow I'm calling Paul and telling him it's over between us."
"You are?" Jake asked, not quite sure how he felt about that.
"It doesn't have anything to do with us kissing and... you know... stuff like that," she told him. "Even if you never asked me out again, I'd still do it."
"Why?" he asked.
"Paul is not for me," she said. "He's square, he's boring, and I don't really have any romantic feelings for him. I was dating him because my mother thought I should date a future doctor. Tonight I had fun and I saw how boring the dates I went on with Paul were by comparison. I realized that I was setting myself up for life as a trophy wife, just like my mom did with both of her husbands. I don't want that. I want to have fun."
"Well, I'm glad I could provide some fun for you," he said. "But are you sure you want to just dump the guy? I mean, you've been drinking and smoking weed. Maybe you're not really thinking clearly."
"I'm not really thinking clearly, but that's just now. This is something that's been coming for a while now. Tonight just made me see that my instincts were right. Paul and I are through, no matter what."
Jake nodded. They sat for another minute and then began kissing again. They kissed all the way back to her Pasadena apartment.
When they pulled up outside Jake asked if she wanted him to walk her up.
"I'll be all right," she said. "It's a safe neighborhood."
He kissed her again. "Is the restaurant closed tomorrow?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"We're gonna be jamming for most of the day tomorrow but maybe after we're done you'd like to go out with me?"
She smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."