"I've never seen a house like this before, Jake," Rachel told him. "It's like something out of a fairy tale."
"Yeah, it'll do for a starter home," Jake replied. He turned to Diane. "They want nine hundred grand for this place?"
Rachel let out a little gasp as she heard the price. Diane and Jake both ignored her.
"That is the list price," Diane said. "I am inclined to believe, however, that if you were to offer eight-fifty and a quick escrow they would probably accept."
"Hmm," he said, considering. "I like the house. Why don't you put in that bid for eight-fifty and the quickest possible escrow, all dependent on a satisfactory appraisal, of course."
"Of course," she said. "I'm sure it's no problem for you, Mr. Kingsley, but have you secured financing yet?"
"Not yet," Jake said. "But my accountant and my lawyer both tell me that with my income and my bank balance if I put twenty percent down the banks will be falling all over themselves to write a loan for me."
"I'm sure they speak the truth," Diane said, a smile on her face. She was already tasting the $8500 commission on the sale.
"However," Jake said, a hint of warning in his voice, "there is one thing I should mention."
"What's that?" Diane asked.
"I really hate it when people try to take advantage of me," he said. "I will be having real estate experts and lawyers going over every detail of any agreement. If anyone tries to screw me, even in a small way, I will void this deal immediately and I will never again do business with whomever tried to do the screwing."
"I assure you," Diane said, a little taken aback, "that I only deal on the up and up and I make sure my clients do the same."
"Then we should have no problems," Jake said, smiling. "You start writing up the bid when you get back to your office and let me know how the owners respond. You know how to get hold of me."
Jake led Rachel on a quick tour of the back yard, showing her the rose garden near the back (the bushes were all dormant and clipped down to almost nothing this time of year) and the patio attractions. After, they went back into the house and exited through the front door. They said their goodbyes and nice-to-meet-you's to Diane and walked back over to Rachel's Cabriolet.
"Are you sure you don't want to drive?" she asked, offering him the keys.
"Quite sure," he said, taking them and opening the driver's door for her. "No heterosexual male should ever be seen driving a Cabriolet under any circumstances."
"Where does it say that?" she asked with a giggle as she sat down behind the wheel.
"It doesn't say it anywhere," Jake told her. "It's instinctive heterosexual knowledge, imparted by the Creator from birth."
He came around and sat in the passenger seat of the small car. She started the engine and dropped it into gear, back toward Los Feliz Boulevard.
"Are you really going to buy that house?" she asked him.
"I really think I am," he confirmed.
"And you're going to put down twenty percent? That's like a hundred and seventy thousand dollars."
He shrugged. "I can either put it down on a house or I can give it to the IRS next year."
"That's just amazing," she said, her eyes shining almost hungrily. "That's more money than I've made my entire life."
Jake shrugged again, not wanting to talk about his finances. Such conversations made him uncomfortable. "How about some music?" he asked to change to the subject. He reached for the stereo in the dash. "Do you have a tape in this thing?"
"Uh... well... yes," she said, blushing a little, "but I don't think you'll really like it."
"You'd be surprised what I like," he said, pushing the play button. "Let's hear what you got."
It turned out to be La Diferencia's last album that was stuck in there. The final minute of Lovers In Love — the biggest hit from that album and the song that had been nominated for a Grammy this year — was playing.
"You can change it if you want," Rachel said. "There are some more tapes in the glove box there."
"This is fine," Jake told her. "I didn't know you liked La Diferencia."
"I thought it might bother you if I told you," she said shyly.
"Bother me? Why would you think that?"
"Well... you got in that fight with them that one time at the Grammy awards so I figured you hated them."
"That was Matt's gig," Jake said. "I just got caught in the crossfire. I actually think Celia Valdez has a beautiful voice and is an extraordinary acoustic guitarist. She was a very charming lady as well."
"Really?" Rachel asked. "What was she like?"
"She's tall, almost like an Amazon. She's very pretty and well spoken. She has a good sense of humor and a thick accent. She was able to hold a conversation and even give me back some of the shit I was giving her. She also put Matt quite nicely in his place, something that not many people are able to do."
"Wow," Rachel said. "Sometimes it's just hard for me to believe that I'm really going out with a famous person, you know? And here you are talking about talking to Celia Valdez, one of my favorite singers of all time, and I know you're not making it up. I mean... you've like really done that."
"I've really done that," he confirmed. "It wasn't a big deal. She's just a normal person like I am."
Rachel laughed. "You're not a normal person, Jake," she said. "Normal people don't plop down a hundred and seventy thousand dollars on a house."
"Yeah," Jake said, uncomfortable again. "I suppose."
Lovers In Love faded away and the next track started. It was a song Jake had never heard before as he'd only listened to the La Diferencia tunes that were played on the radio. It caught his attention immediately because it started with a fast, Latin-based acoustic guitar session that was fingerpicked out into a rich, melodious intro. It settled into a rhythm that was half strumming, half fingerpicking as the drums kicked in and set up a slow, military-like backbeat.
"Hey," said Jake, reaching to the volume knob and turning it up a few notches. "This isn't bad. She really can play the guitar."
"I've only heard this song a few times," Rachel said. "I usually listen to the ones they play on the radio and fast forward past this one. It's got a weird name. Something Mexican or something and they never say the title in the song."
The song continued and Celia began to sing, her soft contralto accompanying the instruments and speaking of men marching off to a battle, of muskets and gunpowder, of friends falling and others leaving them where they lie to continue on. It was a riveting piece that was completely unlike any other La Diferencia song he'd heard. He began to wonder about this.
"Do you have the cassette cover in here somewhere?" he asked.
"In the glove box there," she said. "You really like this song?"
"Strange but true," he replied. "It has a depth to it that's missing in most of their other tunes." He opened the glove box and dug around through an untidy collection of loose cassette tapes and empty and full cassette covers. He finally found the La Diferencia cover near the bottom of the pile. He opened it and pulled out the insert, turning it over to where the tracks were listed and credited. He looked at the track listed after Lovers In Love. Carabobo was the name of the tune. Rachel was right. They hadn't said that word a single time in either the verses or the chorus. He looked beneath the title and saw that words and lyrics were credited to Celia Valdez, one of only two tunes on the entire album she had written. The rest were credited to a variety of male names, none of whom were band members.