"He is genuinely sorry for hitting you, Jake," Celia said. "If you see him I'm sure he'll apologize to you."
"I'm over it," Jake said. "Like I said, it wasn't the first time I've been punched because of Matt's mouth and it won't be the last." He looked at Eduardo and held out his hand. "It's nice to see you again too," he said. "No hard feelings from last time?"
Eduardo nodded slowly. "No hard feelings," he said, shaking Jake's hand. "Although I cannot say the same for your friend the guitar player. It would probably be best if he and I didn't come within thirty feet of each other. He and Miguel as well, for that matter."
"I can't guarantee that," Jake said, "but I'll certainly mention it the next time I run into him." He turned to Rachel and put his hand on her back, gently bringing her forward. "Celia, Eduardo, this is Rachel Madison. I'm sure you've read that the two of us our dating. She really wanted to meet you guys. It seems she's quite the La Diferencia fan."
"Nice to meet you, Rachel," Celia said, putting out her hand and shaking with her. "It's nice to hear you appreciate our music."
"I love it," Rachel said, her eyes wide. "I have all of your albums. I listen to them in my car all the time."
Eduardo shook with her next. "That's a very lovely dress you have on by the way," he said. "Senor Versace should be proud."
"Thank you," Rachel said, smiling.
"Rachel has the major hots for you, Eduardo," Jake told him. "Particularly when you sport the goatee."
"Jake!" Rachel cried, blushing furiously. "You didn't have to tell him that!"
The three musicians chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Rachel," Celia told her. "Eduardo is hot. If he weren't my brother I'd be all over him."
"And if you weren't Jake's girlfriend I'd be chasing you all over the ballroom," Eduardo said. "You're one of the sexiest women here."
Her blush increased and she became more than a little tongue-tied. After a few minutes, however, she got over the affliction and entered into a giggling conversation with Eduardo about life in Venezuela and his early days in the band.
"I think he's going to steal my girlfriend," Jake said jokingly to Celia.
"Well, you know what they say about us Latin types," She responded.
"No, the only Latin word I learned from you was cabron, remember? I do try to use it in conversation as often as possible."
"It is a very versatile word," she confirmed, "although it's not generally used in polite company."
"I'm not often in polite company," Jake said, making her laugh.
"So what do you think our chances are this year?" Celia asked. "The competition is not all that stiff. Our single Lovers In Love sold more copies than any other single this year and your album Balance Of Power sold more than any other album. You're still at number one on the charts, in fact."
"Well, we both know that sales figures are not what gets someone a Grammy," Jake said. "If that were true we'd both have several of them."
"Yes, it does all seem to be at the whim of the recording industry, doesn't it?" she asked.
"It's all rigged," Jake said. "I figured that out long before I was ever a professional musician. I did have opportunity to listen to some of the deep cuts on your albums though."
"Oh?"
"Yes," he said. "Rachel had them in her car and I borrowed them. I didn't know that you were a songwriter as well as a singer and guitarist."
"I have to fight to get any of my songs recorded," she said. "They throw them to me as bones to keep me happy and then use them for filler on the albums."
"That's too bad," he said. "The first one I heard was Carabobo. Your guitar work on that one is amazing. And the lyrics are deep and moving. I can't imagine why they didn't want to release that as a single."
"I barely got that one on the album at all," she said. "They said the lyrics were too dark, that the subject was not part of the La Diferencia formula."
"They do always seem to think they know what's right," Jake said. "If I were producing your records I would be encouraging you to write more. Exactly what war are you talking about in the song anyway? Is it something Venezuelan?"
She seemed pleased that he knew the song was about war. "It's about the Battle of Carabobo," she said. "It was during our War of Independence from Spain in the early 1800s. The Battle of Carabobo was the turning point, when our army destroyed the Spanish land forces and insured that we win the war and be free. We celebrate the day of the battle — June 24 — as a national holiday."
"It's a very deep song," Jake said. "They really should give you guys a little more artistic license over your material."
"Like they give you?" she asked. "I heard you were able to renegotiate your contract with National Records and gain a lot of musical freedom, as well as a lot more money. Is that true?"
"I can't even tell you 'no comment' on that one," he whispered to her. She took the comment for what he'd intended — an affirmation.
"I'd love to be able to do nothing but our songs," she said. "Some of the stuff they have us recording for the next album is... well..."
"Not good?" he asked.
"It's not that it's not good," she said. "It's just that I think it's starting to get kind of stale. It all sounds like the same songs we've already done. The rhythms are all the same two-chord melodies with lots of synthesizers and not enough guitar work. It's a formula that's worked so far — obviously — but our fans are growing up now and becoming more musically sophisticated. Music itself is undergoing a transformation too. I really want to mature with the genre and I have dozens of ideas for new songs but our A&R guy doesn't want to even hear them. I only got one song on the album we're recording now. The rest are from the songwriting team. "
"We work in a sleazy and blind industry," Jake said. "They'll gladly kill the goose that lays the golden egg and then tell themselves that the goose was going to die of natural causes anyway. All they look to is the next quarter and how many albums we'll sell using whatever formula worked for the first album. They have a hard time going beyond that."
"So what's the solution?" she asked. "Keep going down the chute until they're not interested in you anymore and then show up for a reunion tour in twenty years?"
"If that's the road you want to travel, yes," Jake said. "Myself, I believe in getting control of my own musical destiny by any means possible. I don't want to be a where-are-they-now segment on MTV in twenty years. I want people to still know my name twenty years from now."
Celia nodded, her green eyes appraising him as she thought over this little bit of wisdom. "Well put," she said.
The 29th annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24th, a Tuesday night. Intemperance was up for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Album Of The Year, and Best Recording By A Duo Or Group. La Diferencia was up for these four awards as well. Neither band was awarded a single Grammy. Neither band was terribly surprised or disappointed by their failure.
After the ceremony was over Rachel went back to Jake's condo and they had sex for the first time. She undressed from her outfit in his bathroom and entered the bedroom completely naked. Jake relished his first look at her petite body. Her curves were in all the right places, her breasts were riding high and firm upon her chest, and her pubic area was framed by a neatly trimmed nest of blonde, curly hair only half a shade darker than the hair on her head.
She seemed a bit nervous as she came to his bed but this nervousness faded and was replaced by excitement as she put her naked body against his and they began to kiss the passionate exchanges of lovers. He kissed her everywhere, working his way down to her breasts and suckling her for the better part of ten minutes. From there, he went lower, down across her hips to her legs. He kissed her inner thighs and began to move upward again, licking and nibbling at the increasingly soft flesh.