As I was thinking about these things, I looked up and saw the signal light blinking. I went over to the intercom and said, “Jim here. Who’s that knocking at my door?”
There was a chuckle over the intercom in response and I recognized June’s voice. “Twelve minutes, Jim!”
“Sorry, Baby,” I said, truly sorry that I hadn’t noticed how long the signal was flashing. “I was working on a difficult track.”
“Can I visit?” June asked.
I wanted to increase the pressure on June just slightly. “Alone?”
June’s response was delayed. I think she knew that I implied that she had ulterior motives, and the subject of those motives were Sherry, who she invited for the night.
“Um, yes. Of course.”
“Give me five minutes to finish this track up. The DND light will go off when I’m done.”
“Uh… sure. Thanks.”
I heard the intercom click off. I wondered if I was being unfair to June, who probably thought she was doing me a favor.
Of all my paramours, June and Lynette had no idea about the tickets. I wanted them both to remain that way because I didn’t know how they’d react to the tickets. In addition, I was pretty sure that June was never under the influence of the tickets, something that Kristen, Lynette, Camille, or Patty couldn’t say. This sort of made June special in my eyes.
That being said, however, June was still well aware about the danger that Sherry posed toward Kristen and me… and even Lynette. I expected June to have more allegiance to us than to so casually put Sherry in between us.
I put Charlie’s record and my tapes away. I had a lot of work to do on this particular song, and I was thinking of maybe getting a recording of it by my birthday. I already made up my mind that maudlin was out, remembering Lynette’s reaction to my recording of Sea of Love a week or so before. In addition, I wanted to put in a bit of humor to avoid any emotional overload that my recording might cause.
Thinking about a special recording also made me remember June using my equipment to record me when I admitted privately to her how much Lynette meant to me when I thought I had lost Lynette for good.
It was obvious that June wasn’t naive at all, and my actions regarding Sherry and her must have triggered some alarm in her head.
The moment I turned off the DND light, there was a soft knock at the door to the studio. I opened the door and invited June in.
“What’s up, Baby?” I asked.
June locked eyes with mine. “I was about to ask you the same question.”
“Oh?” I asked, feigning innocence.
After a few moments, June finally lowered her glaze. “You’re angry at me, aren’t you?”
“What gives you that idea?”
Again, June stared at me. After another few moments, she sighed. “I should have known at lunch, when you called me ‘Juicy.’”
I cocked my head at the lovely cheerleader. “I thought we had a relationship based on trust.”
Once again June lowered her eyes. “Sherry has become sort of a friend.”
“You can only have one friend in your life?”
June’s answer was a simple shake of her head.
“Do you think I’m angry at you, June?”
No answer.
I waited patiently for an answer, and repeated my question when it was clear that June wasn’t going to answer.
“I… I’m not sure. You aren’t happy.”
“Actually, I’m quite happy that Sherry is here.”
This surprised June considerably. “Huh?”
“Sherry became a friend to me a long time ago—even before you and I became friends.”
“I know…”
“I’m simply hurt that you asked Kristen and Lynette and didn’t bother asking me until Sherry was already with you with her overnight bag.”
June nodded and I turned around to sit on the bench for my keyboard setup.
June’s voice as quite soft as she said, “I’m sorry, Oogie. I didn’t consider your feelings.”
“Despite the fact that I don’t mind Sherry sleeping over—with you, not me!—you could have put me in a difficult situation if I didn’t want her here. Do you think I would say ‘no’ to her face? Was that what you were counting on?”
“I don’t know… No! That’s not true. It’s just that… I mean…”
I started playing the rundown of the song from Charlie’s album, working from memory. Despite the fact that I hadn’t played Charlie’s record, I didn’t think I was playing the rundown in the right key, so I stopped and played it a half stop down. That sounded closer, but without hearing the original song, all I could do is guess.
I idly wondered if I would be able to score this song for the jazz band instead of recording it myself. Unfortunately, it required a single vocalist and despite the fact that it was a great swing number, it was more of a feature song for a singer and a couple of musicians, not really a full band.
“Jim?”
“Huh?” I asked. I had gotten so engrossed in getting the rundown correct that I almost forgot June was with me. “I’m sorry.”
“I was saying… Lynette and Sherry are pretty close, but it seems like Kristen and you keep Sherry at arm’s distance. I know how she feels about you, but she assured me…”
The rundown was coming automatic to me. “June, at one time Sherry was probably the one person that could drive a wedge between Kristen and me. I have no intention of giving up Kristen despite how much I like Sherry.”
“But Sherry…”
“Let me finish, Baby,” I said softly. “As I said, she could have done so, but instead she helped Kristen and me get over a silly fight and Kris and I are much closer now thanks to Sherry. I think that when Sherry did that, she gave up trying to cause problems.”
“She says she is happy to be your friend.”
“I know that,” I said, stopping my playing now and softly pulling June to sit down next to me. June came along freely and we both shared the small padded bench. I pulled June even closer into a hug.
“I’m really sorry, Jim.”
“I know. For your information, Sherry was here yesterday afternoon. I figured that you’d try to get Sherry here today.”
This was a bit of a lie. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t want June to even suspect anything about the tickets. I could have told June the truth: that Sherry told me. However, if June checked with Sherry later, I knew that Sherry wouldn’t have any memory of telling me about June’s invitation. This would lead to complicated questions.
“I’ll be honest with you from now on, Oogie.”
“That’s all I want, Baby.”
“What’s that song you were playing? It sounds vaguely familiar.”
“Are you familiar with 1950s swing music?”
June’s response was a grimace. “I don’t think so. Archy might be.”
I laughed. “I was thinking of recording this myself, but I’d need a few more instruments. I’ve decided that it’s not really a good number for the jazz band, either.”
“Oh.”
I played the rundown again. I saw June’s head start to nod with the beat.
June finally remarked, “It’s got what Archy calls a heavy back beat.”
“It’s a vamp… it’s a technique borrowed from jazz where you play the same chord progression continuously.”
“I think I got it. You did something like that with that fisherman song.”
The two of us laughed. “Yeah. That was a vamp with different players taking solos until Merry came on and sang the words.”
I ran the chord progression to a minor key and then did a segue to a real jazz number called Satin Doll, made famous by Duke Ellington. This was a song I liked to play on the trumpet, but I was reasonably competent playing it on the piano.