“I don’t think Katherine is really interested in a relationship with me.” I drank the rest of the sake.
“Huh? She told you that?” Aimee had a weird smile on her face.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Just strange. Why did she tell you she didn’t want a relationship with you? Sounds kinda weird. She was all hot and heavy into you after we first met you at Jack’s apartment.”
“I don’t really want to talk about it. She gave me her reasons, and I was fine with it. We are friends.”
“Ahh, okay.” Aimee moved her chopsticks over a roll and searched for the perfect slice. “Just wondering if she is playing with you.”
“What do you mean?” I had thought that Aimee and Katherine had a weird relationship, but I’d only guessed it from comments that Aimee made.
“She does that with guys sometimes. Pretends that she can’t date them. She wants to see if they are going to chase her. Kinda weird, but that is her game.”
“Ahhh okay. I’m not getting that from her. It’s okay, really.” I almost thought about telling Aimee that no one was better at playing games than she was.
“So, do you like her?”
“Doesn’t really matter. Let’s talk about something else.” We’d finished off the set of rolls, and I realized I was still hungry. “Want more?” I pointed with my chopsticks, and the crazy hot girl nodded.
I motioned over for the sushi chef, and we ordered a few more rolls, then I felt my pants vibrate where my phone was kept in my pocket.
“I’m going to go to the rest room really quick.” Aimee winked at me and got out of her chair. I watched her walk away out of the corner of my eye and saw nearly every man in the restaurant turn their head to watch her.
Who is the hottie you are eating dinner with? :-O
The message was from Kelly, and I wondered if she had somehow been able to hack my phone. Then I realized that she was probably in the restaurant, and I turned around in my chair. Sure enough, the tall blonde girl was sitting a few tables behind me. She waved at me frantically with both arms, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“Hey Kelly,” I walked over to her, and she stood from the table to give me a hug.
“Hey sexy. You remember Ryan and Lisa?” She gestured across the table to her brother.
“Yeah, great to see you again.” They both stood from the table to greet me. I gave Lisa a hug and Ryan a firm handshake.
“My body isn’t even cold, and he’s already moved on,” Kelly pouted to Ryan and Lisa.
“What do you mean?” Ryan asked with confusion on his handsome face.
“He’s already dating someone else!” Kelly’s eyes turned up like she was going to cry.
“Whoa, wait, not quite like that.” I raised my hands and felt panic flood my stomach with the sake.
“Oh jeeze. I’m just fucking with you, Eric.” Kelly let out a loud laugh and poked me in the stomach. “I know, I’m leaving. It’s okay. She’s fucking hot. Oh, here she comes. Introduce me, but don’t make it fucking weird okay?” Kelly poked me in the stomach again, and I saw Aimee turn from our seat at the bar, see me, and then take a few confused steps over.
“Aimee, this is Kelly,” I pointed to the blonde woman awkwardly.
“Hi! Oh my, you are so pretty! Nice to meet you.” Kelly hugged Aimee, and the dark-haired girl hugged the taller volleyball player back with a trace of confusion on her face.
“I’m glad I finally got to meet you.” Kelly smiled widely at Aimee. “Oh shit, this is my brother Ryan and his wife Lisa.” Kelly gestured to her brother and the pretty girl that sat across from her. They both stood again and gave Aimee a handshake. Ryan’s eyes were a bit wide, and I could tell he was doing his best not to check out the beautiful brown-haired girl.
“Nice to meet you all,” Aimee said with a careful smile.
“No, it is really nice to meet you. Eric has said so many good things about you.” Kelly’s smile grew bigger, and it looked really sincere.
“He did?” Aimee looked at me, and her eyes matched the smile on her lips.
“Yeah. We are totally interrupting your dinner. You guys should get back to it.” Kelly reached out and hugged Aimee again. This time, the shorter girl actually seemed to welcome the hug. “So good meeting you! I hope we can hang out sometime.” The two women parted, and Kelly waved to us before she sat down with her brother- and sister-in-law. Aimee and I took the few steps back to our seats at the bar and sat down just as the next order of rolls arrived.
“Weren’t you dating a girl named Kelly?” Aimee asked when we sat.
“Yeah, that was her,” I said.
“Oh. Soooo... What happened?” Aimee seemed really confused, and I didn’t blame her.
“It just didn’t work out.” I shrugged and smiled at the beautiful woman. “We are still friends though.”
“Oh. Well, I guess I should be jealous or something, since she is really pretty. But, she is also really cool.” Aimee shrugged and took a bite of her roll.
“Yeah,” I agreed, and then I glanced back over my shoulder at Kelly. She was making wide movement with her arms like a flying bird. I couldn’t hear what she said, but Ryan and Lisa were clutching their stomachs because they were laughing so hard.
Kelly was really cool.
Chapter 5
“I’m in. What do we need to do next?” They were the first words out of my mouth when I walked into rehearsal Monday night.
“Wooohooo!” Roger and Trey were in the process of setting up their gear, and they both gave an excited shout. Roger actually jumped in the air, but Trey was behind his set and just raised his fist with a smile on his face.
“Yaaaaaay!” Nicole almost tackled me with a running-jump-hug, and her pretty lips peppered my forehead and nose.
“Whoa!” I laughed and had to drop my guitar and pedal board cases before I could peel the cute blonde rocker girl from my chest. By the time I got her off of me, Roger was giving me a hug and Trey was slapping me on my back.
“Dang, this is a nice reception. I should have said yes earlier.” I felt my cheeks turn red, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“We really like you, dude, and this is making our whole lives a lot easier,” Roger explained, while Trey and Nicole nodded.
“It is a great opportunity. I was worried about what I’d done so far in my life, but I can put everything on hold for a bit. I really love playing with you guys.”
“Yeah, we think this is going to work out beautifully,” Nicole agreed.
“What do we have to do now?” I asked.
“There is some legal contract stuff. What are things looking like for you tomorrow?” Roger asked.
“School and then work. Oh shit, I’m going to have to give notice.” I laughed and smacked my head. “I can probably get out of work. They love me there, and the work isn’t something that has a deadline. I just help the sales guys out.”
“Okay, I’ll call the recording company tomorrow morning and say we found a guitarist and need to fill out the contract. Are you cool in the afternoon?” Roger asked.
“Yep,” I said and then thought of a question. “Should I bring a lawyer?”
“Probably wouldn’t hurt. If you can get one that fast,” Nicole said.
“Cool. Where will we be meeting?”
“Hollywood, I’ll confirm everything tomorrow and text you the address.”
“Okay great. Shall we get started?”
“Yeah! We’re still setting up,” Trey nodded back to his set.
“I’ll order the pizza. I got here a little early. Maybe I was a little excited about hearing your answer.” Nicole winked at me and then fished her flip phone out of her jeans pocket.
“Alright, let me try to text my lawyer and get set up.” I put my guitar and the pedal board case by the practice amp and got my own phone out of my jeans.
“You have a lawyer?” Roger’s voice actually sounded a bit concerned.
“Haha, not really. My
best friend’s parents are both lawyers. I’m going to ask them if they can come. I think they do contract law, but it could be something else. Any lawyer is better than no lawyer right?” They laughed.
“Hey guys, I have something else to ask you when Nicole gets off the phone,” I said, and they nodded.
Thinking about expensive lawyers made me think of Aimee and Beth. I’d managed to get Aimee to leave my apartment Saturday night without much of an ordeal. She’d asked to come in after dinner, and it had taken me more than ten minutes to convince her that I wasn’t going to do anything until she’d broken up with Jack. Then we’d had a conversation about me leaving again. I’d explained that it was probably better off if we didn’t get involved, since I’d be leaving, anyway.
It shamed me a bit to admit to myself that she’d almost won me over. The girl was a smooth talker, amazingly beautiful, and she actually swung around the conversation and had me almost convinced that we should spend the next month before I left really having fun with each other; and that fun should start tonight.
Fortunately, Jack texted her asking about her birthday party, and if she thought it would be a good idea for us to play. It had changed our conversation topic, and the girl rushed home to ask her parents. Of course, they had said yes and offered a stupid amount of money to ensure that we would show up at Aimee’s house.
“What’s up?” Nicole had just hung up the phone with the pizza place and walked onto the stage by me.
“One sec.” I finished texting Jack that I’d accepted the band’s offer and asked if either of his parents could help me sign the contract in Hollywood tomorrow afternoon.
“Okay, sorry.” I closed my phone, and the three of them gave me their attention.
“I have a really good friend that also happens to be really rich. Her parents own Godwin Pharmaceuticals.”
“Yeah, I’d say that is rich. You said ‘her’? Is this another one of your stupidly smoking hot girlfriends?” Roger rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Maybe.” I gave a short laugh. “Anyways, her birthday is the week before Christmas. I know we are all going to be busy packing and shit, but they would like to pay us to play at the party. It is in a super-sweet mansion at the top of Beverly Hills.”
“Dang. Super rich, huh?” Nicole nodded with a smirk on her face. “How much they want to pay?”
“Twenty grand.” Their mouths dropped as much as mine did when I read Aimee’s text.
“Holy shit. For real?” Trey asked.
“Yeah.” I smiled.
“Fucking shit. That’s five grand for a few hours of work.” Roger did the simple math aloud to compound the awesomeness of the offer.
“We can hang out there all day too. The house is really nice. They have a game room, a music room, and their backyard looks over all the LA Basin.”
“Fuck, I’m totally in. I can mess up my packing schedule to make five thousand dollars,” Nicole said. “We’ve gotten a good advance from the recoding company, but I’m not going to feel rich until my bank account is reading seven figures.” We all laughed, and I grabbed my phone again.
“So you are cool with me texting her back that we’ll do it?”
“I am,” Roger said.
“Yep,” said Trey.
“Fuck yeah!” Nicole jumped up and down. “Damn, two good pieces of news today from Eric. This has got to be the start of something beautiful.”
“Yeah, I think it is.” I smiled at the pretty blonde girl and then started to set up my guitar.
Chapter 6
“Dude!” Brent’s voice sang from my phone speaker.
“Dude!” I sang back.
“My dad just told me that Jump! Kick! has a new guitarist. Some bad-ass fucking rocker named Eric Weiss. I fucking know that guy!” He laughed, and I joined him.
“This wouldn’t be happening without you, buddy. I am very thankful to you for everything.”
“Naw man, I just thought you’d like the band. Everything else was serendipity. Where you at right now? Sounds like you are in the car.”
“I’m sitting on the 405 in an ass ton of traffic trying to get home from signing the contract,” I sighed. The drive up the hill was normally terrible at rush hour, but there must have been some sort of four-lane closing accident. The freeway was moving slower than a parking lot.
“You on the LA side or the SFV side?”
“LA.”
“Can you turn around? Let’s grab dinner and celebrate!”
“Yeah, I think I can get off here.” I was almost at the Moraga Drive exit, and I angled my Subaru across two tight lanes in an effort to get there. A few people honked at me for cutting into the lanes, and I raised my hand in apology.
“Where do you want to go?” Brent asked.
“This is your idea, party planner.” I laughed and then managed to squeeze over the last lane into the exit.
“Okay. Let’s do Spago’s. It is Monday night, so we should be able to get a table.
“Spago’s? The name sounds familiar.” I was trying to focus on the traffic and balancing my phone on my leg while it was on speaker mode. I should have bought one of those cool sci-fi looking ear pieces.
“It is Wolfgang Puck’s place. It is on Canon Drive, so take Wilshire east past Santa Monica Boulevard. It is a few streets after Rodeo.”
“Shit man, sounds expensive.”
“Don’t worry, buddy. Dinner is on me. I’ll call Sam; do you want to bring Katherine?”
“That would be cool, but I can’t really call her. I’m trying to drive thought this crazy traffic.”
“No worries, I’ll call her.”
“Okay cool. Ummm, how is the dress code for this place? I’m wearing khakis and a polo shirt.” I’d wanted to look somewhat professional at the meeting with Jump! Kick!’s recording company.
“That’s fine. It is California cuisine. We’ll probably see a couple of movie stars there, and they will probably be wearing flip flops.”
“Okay cool.”
“I’ll call the girls. See you there in like fifteen. Bye!” Brent hung up the phone, and I went back to paying attention to the street signs.
The drive did take me fifteen minutes, but I found the restaurant without a problem and even got a parking spot a few dozen yards from the door. It was metered parking, but I have a glove box full of quarters, and each one gave me fifteen minutes. I didn’t know how long it was going to take, but my phone said it was only half-past five so I put in enough change to give me three hours.
I hadn’t seen Brent’s black Porsche out front, so I was a little surprised to see him sitting in the lobby waiting for me.
“Hey dude!” he jumped up from the leather seat and gave me a big hug. My friend was wearing a dark-green, button-front, collared shirt, khakis, and leather dress shoes. It wasn’t his usual rock star type of attire, and I wondered if he had dressed up a bit for the dinner.
“Good news is that we can get a table no problem.” He gestured to the wide dining room, and I counted about forty tables. Only two of them were occupied. “Bad news is that the girls are going to be about thirty minutes. But we can have a few appetizers and drinks before they get here.” There was a beautiful, tall redhead at the back of the lobby, and Brent gave her the thumbs up sign with both of his hands. She smiled back at the both of us, grabbed four menus, and then motioned for us to follow her.
“You got ahold of Katherine?” I asked when the sexy redhead sat us at a booth in the far corner.
“Yeah. She just got back from practice. Said she needed to shower and then she’d come. Sam will probably be here before.”
“Did you take a cab here?” I asked.
“Yeah, I figured we could get drunk if we wanted. I don’t have class tomorrow until the afternoon. How about you?”
“Classes in the morning, but I’m not really feeling like school is very important anymore.” I smiled and couldn’t contain a giddy laugh.
“I hear ya. This is totally awesome. Fuck
, man, congrats again.” He held his hand out across the table, and I shook it.
“Dad said that you brought some bad ass lawyer with you to sign the paperwork?” Brent smiled at me and then flipped open his menu.
“Yeah. Jack’s mom came.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Yeah, I remember him saying his parents were lawyer types.”
“They do contract law, so it was helpful. They hadn’t done anything in the music industry before, but his mom only had a few things she wanted to change around with the contract the band gave me.” Jack’s mom had been a bit more of a bull in the room than I was letting on. She’d argued against eight of the more ambiguous terms of the contract. The band’s lawyer hadn’t wanted to agree to them, but Nicole, Trey, and Roger were also in the room, and they ended up agreeing with Jack’s mom. Or, at least they didn’t want to see any delay to the signing. I didn’t know if those clauses would have come back to kick my ass, but I was glad that I had Jack’s mom there and that she took such good care of me.
“I’ll have a vodka tonic. Eric?” A waiter had asked us if we wanted anything else to drink, I hadn’t noticed him earlier because I’d been wrapped up thinking about all the help Jack’s parents had given me over the years.
“I’ll have the same.” I feared that the waiter would ask to see my ID, but he didn’t.
“Oh and let’s order some appetizers. How about the caviar, and the goat cheese?” Brent asked me and I nodded.
“Soooo... Have you told Katherine yet?” Brent asked. There must have been something in my face because his eyes went wide and he waved his hands frantically. “I mean, shit. Are you guys together? Sorry, I kind of assumed from the party at Jack’s house and the little shindig at my place that you guys were together. Or are you dating the Asian girl? Kim? Was that her name?”
“Yeah. Kim is her name. I don’t think Katherine and I are dating. We want different things out of life. I like spending time with her though. I actually went on a date with Kim on Friday, it went really well. I haven’t told either of them about the band stuff.”
“What do you mean different things out of life?” Brent leaned his head to the side like a confused puppy. “I don’t want to pry, but it seemed like you two were pretty good together.”
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