Intemperance Volume 2 Standing On TopChapter 6A
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Palm Springs, California
November 11, 1988
5:24 PM
"Wow," Helen said as the limousine came to a stop in the circular driveway at 210 Jacinto View Drive. She was looking out the window at the huge house that towered above them. Even though the sun had just gone down, bringing an inky twilight to the desert city, she could see enough to be quite impressed.
"That is a big motherfuckin' domicile," Jake agreed, managing to combine a Nerdlyism with a Mattism and successfully pull it off.
The house in question was three stories tall and spread out over the better part of an acre of land. It stood out from its neighbors by virtue of the fact that it was considerably larger — not that the other houses were small — and it was of modern architecture instead of the classic Spanish or Southwestern architecture that was the norm in this neighborhood.
"It has to be close to ten thousand square feet," Helen said as the limo driver came around to her door to open it.
"Actually," Jake said, "it's ninety-two hundred square feet, not including the detached garage."
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"Greg is one of those guys who likes to give you the specs on everything he owns."
"Oh," she said. "I see."
Her door opened and she stepped out onto the stamped concrete of the drive. Jake stepped out right behind her, carrying a canvas shopping bag he'd kept separate from the rest of their baggage. Both were dressed nicely. Helen was wearing a black, sleeveless cocktail dress that showed off her bare back and a generous amount of her ample cleavage. Dark nylons covered her athletic legs and a pair of three hundred dollar heels adorned her feet. Jake was wearing a pair gray slacks, a white dress shirt, and a gray dinner jacket.
The driver closed the door and turned to them. "I hope you enjoyed the ride," he said to Jake. "After you make entry to Mr. Oldfellow's residence I will coordinate with the household help in order to deliver your luggage and your golf clubs to their proper places."
"Thanks, Tim," Jake said, calling him by the name he'd introduced himself as back at the airport. He pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of his jacket pocket and handed it to him.
"And thank you, Mr. Kingsley," Tim said, making the bill disappear without even looking at it.
Jake and Helen walked up a small path and mounted the polished marble steps that led to the front door. The house belonged to Greg Oldfellow, Celia Valdez's fiancé. He had purchased the property thirteen months before for $1.2 million and had torn down the thirty-year-old house that occupied it. He had then spent another $1.8 million building the structure they now stood before. Construction was completed four weeks ago and Greg — who only planned to winter here — had moved in the week before. He had not yet held his official housewarming party but had invited Jake and "that girl you've been seeing" over for a weekend stay to check out the house and to play some golf at the country club it overlooked.
"I'm a little nervous about this, Jake," she whispered to him. "I mean, I'm about to meet Greg Oldfellow and Celia Valdez. This is kind of a new experience for me."
"They're just ordinary people," Jake said.
"Really?"
"No, not really," he said. "They're mega-rich superstars with egos even bigger than this house and they like to belittle anyone who doesn't have as much money as they do."
She looked at him, aghast.
"Just kidding," he said with a chuckle. "They're actually pretty down to earth people for celebrities, especially Celia. That's why I associate with them."
"You're an ass," she said, slapping at his shoulder. She did seem to feel better, however.
Jake rang the bell and an instant later the nine foot double doors swung open revealing a tall, middle-aged man dressed in a traditional butler's uniform. He bowed politely to them.
"Mr. Kingsley," he said. "Ms. Brody. Welcome to Oldfellow Manor. Mr. Oldfellow and Ms. Valdez are expecting you." He held his hand toward the entryway, inviting them to come in.
"Thank you," Jake said, allowing Helen to step inside first. He followed behind her. The entryway featured marble flooring and had several pieces of modern art hung on the wall. They followed the butler into a large, open area. Hallways led off in several directions and two spiral staircases led upward to a second floor overlook.
"Nice pad," Helen said with a whistle, her eyes taking in everything at once.
The butler led them through a set of oak doors into an entertainment room that was at least sixty feet by fifty. Here, the flooring was of meticulously polished hardwood. Modern leather furniture was arranged near a large screen television. A bar took up one portion of the room and a glittering chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling. Soft, classical music played from hidden speakers. Celia and Greg were sitting at the bar, both sipping from a drink.
"Mr. Kingsley and Ms. Brody have arrived, sir," the butler said formally.
Greg and Celia both stood. Greg was dressed in a pair of tan slacks and a navy blue dinner jacket with a tie. Celia wore a maroon cocktail dress that was considerably less revealing then Helen's but did manage to cling quite alluringly to her curvy figure.
"Thank you, Jim," Greg said to the butler. "Could you see to their luggage, please? I'm sure the driver is anxious to get back to other duties."
"Of course, sir," Jim the butler said. He gave another little bow and then disappeared through the door through which they'd entered.
Greg and Celia walked over to them, both smiling.
"Jake," Greg greeted, holding out his hand for a shake. "It's nice to see you again. How the hell have you been?"
"Livin' the dream," Jake said, shaking with him.
Celia came up next and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for coming out," she said. "I think we're going to have a great weekend."
"Me too," Jake agreed. He turned to Helen. "Greg, Celia, this is Helen Brody. I'm sure you've read all about her in your local celebrity news columns."
"Those rags," Celia said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling for a moment. "I hope you aren't letting all that publicity get to you, Helen."
"I try to just take things a day at a time," Helen said.
"That's the way to do it," Greg said, holding out his hand and shaking with Helen. "It's very nice to meet you."
"Thank you," Helen said. "It's nice to meet you as well."
Celia, who was a hugger, didn't just settle for a handshake. She put her arms around Helen and pulled her against her. Helen seemed a little surprised by the affection but quickly warmed to it, returning the hug.
"You've got yourself quite a handful with Jake here," Celia told her. "You know that, don't you?"
"That's something else I have to take one day at a time," she said.
Celia and Greg both laughed.
"I'm sorry we're late," Jake said. They were supposed to have arrived at five o'clock. "The flight took longer than expected."
"What's up with that?" Greg asked. "I thought when you flew your own plane you didn't have to worry about flight delays."
"Yeah," said Celia. "What happened, Helen? Was he absent the day you were teaching about how to calculate your ETA?"
"Oh, I calculated my ETA down to the minute," Jake said. "I came into Palm Springs airspace right on schedule at 4:16 PM. What I didn't know was that every Tom, Dick, and Harry would also be flying into the airport at exactly the same time. We had to circle in the landing pattern for almost twenty minutes while nine other planes landed in front of us."
"Hell, I could've told you that," Greg said. "Everyone knows not to try to fly into Palm Springs on a Friday afternoon."
"You could've told me that," Jake said, "but you didn't."
"You should've told the tower who you were," Greg said. "I bet if you would have let them know you were Jake Kingsley they would've bumped you up in the list. What's the point of being famous if you can't take advantage of it once in a while?"
Jake could tell that Helen was appalled by the suggestion that air traffic control could be influenced by one's status. "I guess it didn't occur to me," he said with a shrug. "Anyway, we're here. And I brought some wine for dinner. I didn't know what we were having so I brought a Napa Valley Merlot and a French Sauvignon Blanc. If we're having white meat, you might want to get the Blanc on some ice pretty soon."
"Carmen is preparing duck breast with a fig and port sauce," Greg said. "The Blanc will go perfect with that. Let's give you two a tour of the house. When we go through the kitchen you can drop it off with her."
"Sounds like a plan," Jake said. He reached into his bag. "I also brought these for you, Celia." He pulled out a CD copy and a VHS tape of In Action.
"Your live album," she said, taking it and looking at the cover. "I heard it was almost ready for release."
"You get it a week before anyone else," Jake said. "They've released a few copies to the radio stations but it won't be in stores until the eighteenth."
"I can't wait to watch the tape," she said. "I've never caught you guys in concert. I hear it's something to see."
"I'm not as fond of the video as I am of the album," Jake said. "The video lacks continuity. It's a hodgepodge of concerts instead of one continuous one. Some of the clips have Darren on the bass and some have Charlie. And in almost every song, we're wearing different clothes." He shrugged. "It's not bad though, and it did a decent job of capturing the basic essence of our shows."
"Any backstage shots?" Greg asked hopefully, earning him a playful punch on the shoulder by Celia.
"Some," Jake said with a chuckle. "But not the kind you're hoping for."
"Damn," Greg said.
They toured the house, Greg leading them through every nook and cranny of it. It took the better part of forty minutes to see everything and it was as opulent and decedent as Jake had suspected it would be. The kitchen was huge, large enough to provide meals for a medium sized hotel and with a pantry that could store enough food to survive for six months after a nuclear holocaust. There was a ballroom complete with discotheque lighting and a professional sound system. There was a movie room that resembled a small theater, complete with raised seating and a Dolby equipped projection system. There were five secondary bedrooms that each had their own bathrooms and Jacuzzi tubs. There were two master suites, each equipped with fireplaces, hot tubs, waterfalls, and views of the fifth fairway of the Mojave Springs Country Club. Since Celia would someday take up residence here, there was a library set up with all of her music collection and all of her musical instruments. The walls here were soundproofed so she could compose in solitude. Outside, was a huge swimming pool and hot tub combo. To run the house, Greg had hired three permanent servants. There was Tim the butler, Carmen the cook, and Vanna, the maid (a sensually attractive blonde of about twenty-two who wore a traditional maid's outfit). In addition to these three, there was Randolph, the forty-two year old retired Chicago police officer, who served as Greg's bodyguard and security specialist. He had his own office and bedroom in the mansion where he monitored the take from the sixteen cameras that covered virtually every square inch of the property (Randolph had been the one to push the button that admitted the limo through the wrought iron gates and onto the grounds).
"It's impressive," Jake said when the tour was finally complete. "I think I could live here if I had to."
"I've never seen anything like it," said Helen, whose lower middle-class upbringing had left her numbly awed by the display of wealth she found herself in the midst of.
"It'll do for a winter home," Greg said off-handedly, as if he was barely managing to tolerate it. "What I'm really looking forward to is building my summer home in Bar Harbor. I've started looking into the acquisition of property there but I haven't found anything that suits my needs just yet."
"Be diligent," Jake advised. "I'm sure the right piece of land will just jump out and grab you at some point."
"My thoughts exactly," Greg said, completely missing Jake's gentle sarcasm.
Celia caught it, though. She chuckled a little and shook her head in amusement.
Greg checked his watch — it was a top-of-the-line Rolex — and said, "We've got another twenty minutes until dinner. Anyone up for a pre-dinner cocktail?"
"Now you're talkin'," Jake replied.
They returned to the entertainment room and sat down on the leather couches, Jake and Helen on one, Greg and Celia on the other. Jim, the butler, appeared as if by magic and asked for their drink orders. Jake asked for a rum and coke. Helen requested a whiskey sour. Celia and Greg both requested "the usual".
"Very good," Jim said, heading to the bar where he began mixing.
"So, Jake," said Celia. "I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but you haven't told me what you thought of our new album yet."
Jake inwardly winced. He had hoped that this wouldn't come up. La Diferencia's latest album, Caress Of Warmth, had been released two weeks before. Sales had so far been dismal and the album's first single, a record company written tune called Kiss Me Goodbye, was not doing very well either. Radio stations were not giving the song much airplay and it had not even debuted on the Hot 100 list yet, something that every other La Diferencia single had done within two days of release. Celia had given Jake an advanced copy of the album about a month ago, handing it over with the disclaimer that she wasn't really proud of the contents.
"Well," Jake said, "I listened to the album a few times."
"And?" she asked.
"Well... what can I say?" he asked. "I try to be honest in all things relating to music. I didn't much care for it."
She nodded as if she'd been expecting this. "I didn't much care for it either," she admitted. "And it seems like the public feels the same way. We haven't even sold sixty thousand copies yet."
"I listened to it too," Helen said. "Your voice sounds as pretty as it always has."
"Thank you," Celia said, patting her leg. "My voice just couldn't carry this one though. Like I told Jake a few times before, our fans have grown up but our music hasn't."
"That's part of your problem," Jake said. "The biggest part is that your record company exerts too much control over your music. Those songs they wrote for you..." He shook his head in consternation. "They're just... I won't go so far as to use the word 'horrible', but they're pretty bad. It's almost like they're doing a parody of the earlier stuff they wrote for you that was successful."
Celia nodded again. "I was ashamed to sing most of them," she admitted. "Kiss Me Goodbye? Awful lyricism. Some of the campiest lines I've ever been given. Caress Of Warmth is almost as bad."
"I did like the lyrics of the three songs that were yours," Jake said. "You sang two of those to me that night we had our little jam session, remember?"
She giggled. "I remember some of that night," she said.
"Jam session?" Helen said, raising her eyebrows a tad.
"It was the night before the Grammy awards back in February," Celia told her. "Jake and I were both out on tour and they were flying us in to make an appearance at the ceremony. We ran into each other at DFW and I told Jake they were putting me up in some cheap hotel. He invited me to stay the night at his place instead. Elsa made us dinner and then we spent about three hours getting drunk and singing our unrecorded material to each other." She looked at Jake fondly. "God, I was so hungover at the awards the next day."
"Me too," Jake said. "I was afraid I was gonna throw up on the red carpet when I got out of the limo."
"You never told me about that, Jake," Helen said, her eyes probing a little into his.
Jake shrugged. "It never came up," he said.
"It's very fortunate that word of where Celia was that night never leaked out," said Greg, who was obviously not all that amused by the story either. "Can you imagine the stories that would've been circulating in those gossip rags?"
"We were careful," Jake said. "I got her over to my place like she was a spy slipping into an iron curtain country."
"You do have a very devious mind when you want to," Helen said.
"It's part of the siege mentality that goes with being a celebrity," Celia said. "I'm sure you're starting to get a taste of it, aren't you, Helen?"
"Yeah," she said. "Every time I go to work or out shopping there's some photographer or reporter trailing after me. It does get kind of old."
"The public has a right to know," Greg said bitterly. "That's their favorite line. I had too much to drink once out at a club and ended up throwing up in the parking lot. The next week there were pictures of me barfing in the American Watcher."
"At least they never caught you naked on a boat with Mindy Snow," Jake said.
"I saw those pictures," Celia said. "You guys weren't naked. You were wearing matching swim suits that looked like black lines."
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South Island of New Zealand January 24, 1989 10:24 AM, local time The rented Cessna 172 leveled off at thirteen thousand feet above mean sea level, just five hundred feet below the maximum operational ceiling of the aircraft. Jake was a little nervous. He had never flown this high before and he didn't like the sluggish way the plane responded to the controls in this thin air. "You're doing just fine," Helen told him. She was sitting in the seat next to him, handling all of the...
Jake did not stand, did not rise to the bait. "I've told you this before, Matt," he said mildly, "and I'll tell you again. This isn't high school. You don't win just because you can kick my ass. I will tell you that if you lay a hand on me in anger, you and I will never play music together again." "Gentlemen!" Crow said, now truly alarmed. "We must stop this! We must..." "Shut your ass, Crow," Matt told him without even glancing in his direction. He continued to glare at Jake...
December 17, 1984 Los Angeles, California It was Monday morning and Steve Crow was going over the music sales reports from the previous week. He was dismayed to see that La Diferencia's debut album The Difference had moved into the number two spot on album sales, selling only six hundred fewer copies than The Thrill Of Doing Business, which was holding at number one for the eighteenth consecutive week. At this rate it was entirely possible that The Difference would take over the number one...
The back of the stretch limousine was filled with a thick, pungent could of marijuana smoke, a cloud so dense the passengers could barely see from one end to the other. All five members of Intemperance were back there as well as Janice Boxer, their publicity manager, and Steve Crow, the man identified as the producer of The Thrill Of Doing Business album and all the songs featured on it. There were two fat joints going around, the band members smoking them with enthusiasm, the two management...
The twenty-seventh annual Grammy awards took place on February 26, 1985. Intemperance once again hot-boxed the limousine with marijuana smoke as they made the trip and were stoned out of their minds as they walked up the red carpet and entered the building. In all there were three nominations associated with Intemperance. The band itself and Crow, the producer, were both nominated for Record Of The Year for Crossing The Line. Jake was nominated for Song Of The Year for writing Crossing The...
Jake's stage outfit consisted of tight red leather pants and a black, loose-fitting shirt that came down slightly below his waist and covered about half of his arms. For shoes he was given patent leather, ankle-length boots that had been polished to a high shine. The moment he got dressed he began to sweat. He knew it would only get worse out beneath the heat of the stage lighting. "Fabulous," crooned Reginald Feeney, the wardrobe manager. "It accents that nice ass of yours but hides the...
National Records Building July 2, 1989 The meeting with Crow was scheduled for eleven o'clock that morning since that was the best time to catch Matt and Coop both awake and in a relatively sober state of being. Jake, who was not looking forward to the subject of the meeting in any way, shape, or form, nevertheless showed up forty-five minutes early. He had a few items that fell under the umbrella of "personal business" to take care of while he was in the building. Since he was Jake...
Later, Jake, his mother, and Nerdly's mother took their places at the front of the room to perform the wedding song Jake had written for his friend. Jake picked up the battered acoustic guitar he used when composing. His mother removed the $18,000 Nicolas Lupot violin she played onstage with the Heritage Philharmonic from its case and put some rosin on her bow. Nerdly's mom sat down at a baby grand piano she'd arranged to have trucked here from her house. As he had done with Celia's...
Jake and Helen did continue to socialize with each other outside of the classroom. He took her out to dinner on a few occasions, to a Los Angeles Dodgers game one Friday night, and to a party at Matt's house. Everywhere they showed up, the media soon followed, dying to get a glimpse of Jake and Helen in some sort of compromising position. The public was fascinated with Helen for some reason Jake could not even begin to put his finger on. Not even Matt's newfound relationship with the famous...
"You know something, Nerdly," Matt said. "All kidding aside, I have to tell you, that bitch of yours is all right. She's a good sport." "Uh... thanks," Nerdly said. "I like her a lot. She's got a good ear for music." "How's her titties?" Matt asked. "It's hard to tell with those baggy clothes she always wears. She got a premo rack, or what?" "The specification of Sharon's breasts are not your concern," Nerdly said. "Oh come on, Nerdly," Coop said. "Give it up. Was...
"Got another one of those?" Celia asked him, taking up position on the rail next to him. She, like everyone else at the rehearsal, was dressed informally. She had on a pair of khaki shorts and a white sleeveless blouse. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail. "I think I can spare one," he said, pulling out his pack. He shook one out for her and then lit his lighter so she could ignite it. She drew deeply on it and then exhaled, sending a plume of smoke out over the beach where it was...
January 29, 1983 Texarkana, Texas The deputy was about as stereotypical of a Texas lawman as he could be. He was tall, white, had a gut that protruded over his belt, and he wore an actual Smokey the Bear hat upon his head. He had black leather gloves upon his hands. His light blue uniform featured an American flag on the shoulder and a five-pointed star pinned above the left pocket. His southern accent was so thick as to be nearly unintelligible. "Ya'll better eat up your chow now," he...
Los Angeles, California September 18, 1987 10:30 AM Jake sat shirtless in one of the chairs adjacent to the wet bar out on his patio. Sitting on the bar next to him was an ashtray that contained half a dozen cigarette butts and half of a joint he'd lit earlier. There was also a potent rum and coke sitting there — his third of the day even though it was only 10:30 in the morning. Sitting next to the drink was a notebook and a pen he was using to transcribe lyrics from his head onto paper....
Buying land, even in one's own country, was not simply a matter of walking into a real estate office, writing a check, signing a few documents, and then walking back out again with ownership papers in hand. When such a purchase was being made in a foreign country, things became even more complex. Though to Jill, Jake seemed to be acting on foolish impulse, in reality he planned to proceed very carefully. The first things Jake wanted done were to make sure of all the legalities involved in...
Santa Monica Municipal Airport November 24, 1989 Celia Valdez stood on the tarmac of the airport, looking at Jake's twin-engine plane nervously. Jake had just finished the exterior pre-flight inspection of the aircraft. He had checked the control surfaces, the tires, the brakes, the fuel sumps, the propellers, the antennas, the lights, and had visually verified that his two tanks were actually full of fuel (true, he had watched the fuel truck pump both tanks full just thirty minutes before,...
Austin, Texas June 7, 1984 They moved about the stage, their motions pulsing, frantic, as they closed out Almost Too Easy. As the last beats were hit in a carefully timed crescendo, Jake, Matt, and Darren moved backwards, entering the safety perimeter that would keep them untouched by the coming explosion. By now they were well practiced in this maneuver and there had been no mishaps. The last beat was hit, the last strings strummed, and the two canisters detonated, sending a boom and a...
Heritage, California January 2, 1985 It was well past 9:00 PM and Pauline was sitting behind her desk on the sixteenth floor of the Markley Building. The ultra-modern, thirty-two story building was the tallest, most exclusive high rise in Heritage. Situated directly adjacent to the Sacramento River, its westward facing offices featured spectacular views of the waterfront. Pauline didn't have one of these offices. In fact, she had no view at all. Her office featured no windows and was less...
The movie premier that Jake and Matt had been pretty much ordered to attend (their contract stated they were required to make themselves available for public appearances as arranged by the record company — this was without compensation, of course, with only travel being paid for) was for a film called Thinner Than Water. Neither Jake nor Matt knew anything about it other than it starred Mindy Snow and Veronica Julius, two of the hottest young female actors on the movie scene today, though two...
They met with Steve Crow. He was a young, hip-talking man in a loud but fashionable suit. He had long platinum blonde hair styled in punk rock fashion. He wore sunglasses even though he was indoors. He was intelligent and articulate and he sat and went over each of the previously rejected tracks with them, rating each on its relative merits. "The only one you're absolutely forbidden to record is Its In The Book," he told them. "Which is one of our best songs ever," Matt said...
February 24, 1984 Los Angeles, California "God I hate these fucking leather pants," Matt barked as they emerged from the makeshift dressing room and made their way towards the back-stage area of the rehearsal warehouse. "That ain't no shit," Jake agreed, pulling at his for the twentieth time to keep it from constricting his testicles. "I forgot how hot and uncomfortable these get-ups are." This grumbling was met by more grumbling from the rest of the band. Coop complained about the...
They put in their normal jam sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, with none of the core members speaking of the conspiracy they were hatching to Darren or to Coop. Not that it was likely to matter if they did. The drummer and the bassist were both so strung out on what Matt, Jake, and Bill were increasingly coming to suspect was heroin that it was chore enough just to keep them focused on their musical tasks. On Wednesday, Coop actually fell asleep a few times — nodded off you might say —...
Jake, Matt, and Bill all received multiple phone calls over the next two days. They received them from Doolittle, from Crow, from Shaver, even from William Casting, CEO of National Records — the big guy himself. These phone calls were all in the same vein — demands to submit recordable music by the deadline, threats of what would happen if they didn't, promises that National would not cave on this issue no matter what, that they would sacrifice the millions they stood to make even if they...
Two days later, Jake was sitting in his living room, sipping a rum and coke and flipping through a collection of apartment brochures that had been sent to him. Manny was already gone, his fate unknown to Jake and uncared about. Jake himself had thirty days to find new lodging. He now had $79,780 in his bank account, his share of the $500,000 advance minus Pauline's twenty percent and the amount he'd spent on groceries for himself and the monthly insurance payment for his Corvette. On...
July 8, 1983 Los Angeles, California "Jake, where are you going?" Manny asked as Jake picked up his key ring and headed for the front door. It was 9:25 AM and Manny had just finished cleaning up the mess made from the light breakfast he'd served. "Out," Jake said simply. "But you didn't call a limo," Manny said. "Just taking a little walk, Manny," Jake told him. "Don't worry about it." "But, Jake, you can't just..." "Don't worry about making lunch," Jake said as he...
It was eleven o'clock the next morning when Mindy dropped Jake off in the usual place. As was the usual routine, they did not kiss or hug or show any sort of affection toward each other. They simply smiled, said their goodbyes, and parted company. Jake was limping as he made his way back to his building. He was tired, having gotten less than two hours of broken sleep the night before. He and Mindy had spent the entire night naked in her bedroom, lustfully boffing each other's brains out....
Jake was actually quite concerned that Mindy would do just as he'd suggested and call an end to the relationship in the name of imagery. He knew, based on phone calls the two of them had shared, that Georgette was pressuring her to stay as far away from Jake as possible and to start repairing the damage the photos had inflicted. "She's trying to set me up with Joseph Clark," Mindy told him during one such conversation. "Can you believe that?" "Joseph Clark?" Jake asked, lying in bed...
Jake stopped the Corvette before the closed gate that guarded access to Mindy's property. There was a mailbox, a newspaper delivery box, and a small intercom box that could be used to communicate with the inside of the house. Jake pushed the intercom button, holding it down for several seconds. He hoped he was wrong about what he was thinking — he hoped that sincerely and with all his heart — but he rather suspected that he wasn't. No matter how hard his brain tried to twist and distort...
Afterward, as they lay naked on their backs, staring up at the ceiling, smoking their cigarettes, she turned to him. "I really am going to make it up to you," she said. He grunted in response, feeling his usual post-coital guilt at giving into her emotional blackmail. She gently kissed his ear. "Jake," she said, "I know I've been unfair to you. I've been parading you around like a toy, exposing you to all kinds of things and people you don't want to be exposed to. I've ruined your...
That night, after eating the dinner Manny had prepared for him — something with an unpronounceable French name that was made out of chicken breast and rich white wine gravy — Jake walked into the office of his new place. There, beside the computer desk and the filing cabinet was a black case that had been moved from his apartment in Heritage to his apartment in Hollywood to a storage house during his first tour to his first condo after it to another storage house during the second tour and...
Los Angeles, California November 19, 1984 Jake's Corvette moved slowly down Hollywood Boulevard, caught in the thick Monday afternoon traffic. Jake was behind the wheel, feeling the usual frustration that came with driving a high performance vehicle he could rarely get out of second gear. Bill sat next to him, his thick glasses perched firmly upon his face, his hand playing with his crewcut, trying to determine if it was time to get another haircut or not. They had just finished a jam...
DAY AND KNIGHT VOLUME III Chapter # 1 by Lewis Chappelle Note: this is a very long, multi-volume, story beginning with ?Day and Knight Volume I? published in early March 2007. A LOOK BACK and A LOOK FORWARD? In volume I of this story, two dancers were introduced; Patti Day who was white and Susan Knight who was black. The girls were professional dance partners in point of fact, but were as different as their last names. They were now the featured act at Clairet?s Musical Review...
Well back at the end of volume 3 we had all come back in from our play time in the barn and playing in the rain naked. Grandma had gone to the kitchen to get Supper ready, We went to the kitchen and sat at the table, I asked can we set the table in the dining room for you Grandma? She said yes that would be a big help. So we proceeded to do just that. It was Friday and Tony's mom was coming to pick him up in the morning. He said I don't want to go, but his mom insisted because they were...
Thanks. Copyright 2010 Sidney dropped her head on her desk. It was Thursday morning. She looked down at her hands and groaned. “God, I hate my life.” Sidney was naked, and held a fluid-covered vibrator in one hand and was wiping the other with a paper towel. “I hate my life,” she repeated, trying to convince herself otherwise. She sat up and closed the window where she had been viewing some porn while masturbating. It was her favorite type, but she was getting tired of watching...