“I noticed you aren’t wearing your watch,” I changed the subject.
“I don’t need it when I am around you.” She smiled sweetly at me and ran long fingers through the back part of her pony tail. It almost looked like she was nervous, but Beth was never nervous.
We stepped into the parking lot, and I aimed my feet to the distant corner where I had parked. The lot was full of cars, but everyone was watching the game and there was no one around us. I wondered if this was a bad idea, but I probably outweighed the girl by at least fifty pounds, so it wasn’t like she could rape me.
“Oh, I painted something for you. Can I give it to you at Aimee’s party?”
“Ummm, yeah. But is it like... a painting?” I held my hands out wide, “I might not have anywhere to keep it.”
“Yeah, I didn’t realize you were leaving. Hmmmmm...” She pressed a finger to her chin. “Well, if you are keeping your car with us until you get back, I can just hold on to the painting. You will love it. I am eager to show it to you.” She smiled, and I almost forgot how much she had pissed me off in the gym.
“Okay. This is my car.” I clicked on my keys to unlock the doors.
“Great seeing you again,” she said, and then she stood aside so I could open my door. I tried not to look at her when I got in, but my eyes always had a mind of their own when I was around her.
“Yeah. I’ll see you later Beth,” I said as I sat in my car.
“At Aimee’s birthday?”
“Yep. Seen you then.”
“Wonderful,” she smiled and then backed away so I could close my door. I fired up the engine, threw the car into reverse, and tried not to look at the girl as I backed out of the slot.
She had moved to stand behind the car parked next to my spot, and she gave me a sincere smile while she waved. I raised my fingers from the steering wheel to wave back, and then I drove past her.
I tried not to look in my rearview mirror as I left the lot, but I did, and the beautiful girl stood there looking lost behind me.
Chapter 8
“Damn. You weren’t kidding about this house,” Roger let out a long whistle. The long driveway to the Godwin estate was packed with at least a hundred cars, and there were three valets handling the vehicles at the front of the mansion by the fountain.
I’d arrived on time for the party, and told them I was in the band, so the valets had directed me off to the side where I parked next to Roger’s Volkswagen hatchback. The bass player looked to have just gotten here, and he was taking his instrument and monitor amp out of the trunk hatch. He wore a nice looking blue, button-down, long-sleeve shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. The bassist’s hair was tied back in a pony tail, and it looked like he had recently cut it a few inches shorter so that it only fell past his shoulders.
“It is really impressive inside.” A Porsche pulled up next to us, and I waved to Brent before he cut off the engine.
“What’s up guys?” My friend was dressed like more of a rock star than Roger and me. He wore leather wrist cuffs, a polo shirt with tribal designs on it, and ascetically pleasing faded grey jeans.
“Just got here,” I popped the hatch of my car and reached for my guitar and pedal board.
“Hey Eric, can I talk to you a second?” Brent smiled at me and then winked at Roger.
“Yeah sure,” I said, and I felt my stomach clench. Was he going to talk to me about Aimee? Had he noticed her pressing up against me at the volleyball game?
“I’m gonna head in. Meet at the stage. You sure they are renting a PA system? This little guy can fill a room but not the backyard.” He pointed at his small amp.
“They said they would have something, and they hired a sound guy for it too. I didn’t even bring an amp,” I shrugged.
“Alright, see ya in there.” Roger nodded to Brent and then walked toward the front door with his gear.
“What’s up?” I turned to Brent.
“Check this. I got you something.” He reached to the trunk of his car and popped it open with a dramatic gesture.
“I thought you looked really awesome with it at the show.” It was a guitar case with the G&L logo on the outside.
“Woah. Wait; are you giving me a guitar?”
“Dad was totally cool with it. No one ever plays it; they probably think the color is too bold. I fucking love the orange sparkle though, and I’d love to see you rock it on stage.” I reached into the small trunk and popped open the latches. Sure enough, it was the orange sparkly G&L guitar that I had played at Brent’s house. It was the ASAT model, and the body was designed very similar to the mustard-colored Fender Telecaster that I played. The black pick up guard matched the ebony fingerboard, and the orange sparkly paint on the body matched the headstock.
“Damn dude,” my mouth was open, and my brain felt numb, “this thing is like a couple of grand at least. Are you sure?”
“Yeah dude. As long as you promise to play it on tour.” He punched me lightly on the shoulder.
“I will, man. Thanks. This is a crazy gift. I was actually thinking about getting a new guitar. Mine is pretty plain.” I nodded to my tweed hard-shell case where my trusty Fender was. It was a great instrument, but it looked like millions of other mustard-yellow Telecasters that had been made. The G&L played just as well, maybe better, and it had way more of a rock-and-roll style.
“This is anything but plain,” Brent laughed. “To play an axe this gaudy you’ve got to be a real bad ass, I’m talking Steve Vai awesome. Good thing you are a fucking beast on the guitar.
“Haha, I don’t think I’m Steve Vai awesome, but thanks man.”
“I had a tech go through it with a fine-tooth comb. Everything is all set up, and it has new strings. It should play like a dream.”
“Damn dude,” I felt myself choke up a bit, and I blinked away some tears. “It already played really good. Thanks again.”
“No problem man. Let’s just hug it out before this gets all weird.” He laughed, and I returned his embrace.
“Leave your old axe in the car; I’ll take this one in for you.”
“Sounds good.” I grabbed my pedal board and then closed the trunk. It was a warm day for December, in the mid-seventies, but I knew it would get colder at night. I would have normally brought my guitar inside so that it wouldn’t be exposed to the temperature change, but it wouldn’t be that cold tonight, and we were going to have a guitar tech on the tour bus with us that could work on setting up all of our gear.
“So you are leaving in three days?” he asked while we walked toward the front door of the mansion.
“Yeah, day after Christmas.”
“I forgot to buy tickets to your show in Joshua Tree, or wait, it is Pioneer Town right? I’ll get them tomorrow. Sam and I will drive out and see you guys.”
“Thanks dude. I really owe you a bunch. You introduced me to this band and now my life has totally changed.” I smiled at Brent and recalled that he hadn’t seemed to have liked me when we first met.
“No worries, buddy; it was just luck that’s all. You are the guy that can play guitar.”
“Eric!” I heard a girl shout from the front of the mansion, and I saw Beth running toward us.
“Hey Beth,” I braced myself for the girl to slam into me, but she skidded to a stop before we collided. She was wearing a red plaid dress with sleeves that came to her forearms. The dress was tied in the middle by a thick, black leather belt. The hem of the dress came up to her mid-thigh, and she wore black high socks that came up past her knees. It left a few inches of beautifully perfect skin between the two pieces of clothing, and I felt my eyes drawn there like they were magnets. She was wearing low-heel black leather shoes that looked like something Japanese girls would wear to school. Each of the shoes had a buckle on them that matched her belt.
“Hi handsome,” she kissed the air and then turned to Brent. “Hello Brent.”
“Oh, hi Beth,” Brent raised his free hand to the back of his neck and scratched it. It was more
than apparent that the girl made him nervous.
She made everyone nervous.
“Happy Aimee’s birthday,” she said.
“Happy Aimee’s birthday,” we both laughed.
“Can you show us where the band is going to be?” I asked her.
“Sure, I was waiting for you to arrive so I could show you. Follow me.” She turned and began to walk past the fountain. Brent and I followed her, and I tried to keep my eyes away from her tight little ass, the spot where her knee socks ended, or her perfect legs. I failed miserable and was grateful when we finally entered the house and I could occupy my eyes with the paintings that hung on the wall.
There were a few people milling around the foyer of Beth’s house, middle-aged men and women in clothes that looked all sorts of expensive. They all wore smiles on their faces and greeted Beth warmly. She didn’t bother to introduce Brent or me to any of them, but they also smiled at us.
“They think I’m in the band. I really need to learn how to play guitar better so I can join.”
“Have you been practicing?”
“On and off for the last couple of years,” Brent sighed. “I get bored with the repetition. How do you manage it?”
“I kind of just turn my brain off when I need,” I laughed. “Might not be a good thing.”
“Sometimes you need to let your soul do the work. The brain just gets in the way,” Beth said over her shoulder. She was leading us past the kitchen area and toward the back yard. There were more people in the hallways, and the rooms that we passed, but most of them looked to be older employees of Beth’s father’s company.
We finally reached the backyard where the majority of the party goers were. What had once been a long area of perfectly manicured grass was now dotted with white and purple pop-up tents, tables, and chairs. It looks like my estimation of attendees by the car count was way off. There must have been a few hundred people milling about in yard. I saw at least six uniformed serving staff dancing between the tables. They carried trays filled with small bites of food, drinks, and iced desserts.
Beth pointed to the side of the property, and I saw a small stage set up with half a dozen six tall speakers facing toward the crowd. We made our way though the light crowd, and I saw Roger speaking with a guy by the sound board.
“Eric this is Blake. Blake, Eric is our lead guitarist.”
“Nice to meetcha brooh,” the man looked to be in his early thirties and had thick-rimmed circle glasses. I shook his hand and glanced at the complicated switch board he was navigating.
“You were right; I didn’t need to bring an amp. Blake’s got everything we need.”
“Hey guys!” Nicole pranced into our little circle with Trey carrying drum stands right behind her. They must have arrived a few minutes after us. We did the introductions with Blake, and then I introduced the band to Beth.
“Is it your birthday today?” Nicole asked.
“No, it is my sister’s, but it is always a day to celebrate when I get to see Eric.” Beth was standing next to me, and she hugged my arm. “I am a little jealous that you all are going to be spending the next year with him. I wish I could be on the tour bus.”
“Careful what you wish for. It’s going to be a cramped bus, and we’ll all probably hate each other at the end of the trip,” Roger laughed, and the rest of the band smiled.
“Beth is going to Italy this summer for school. Then she’ll be going to Japan.” I tried to peel the girl off of my arm, but she was like a spider monkey that wouldn’t let go of the tree branch.
“Oh cool! I spent a year in Italy when I first graduated high school,” Nicole said. “What cities are you going to visit?”
“My school is in Florence. I’ll visit Rome and Tuscany.”
“Do you speak Italian?” Nicole asked.
“Si,” Aimee said, and then she started speaking the language. I could only pick out one of five or six words from my high school Spanish lessons, but Nicole seemed to be fluent, and the two girls were soon chatting away in the romantic language.
“Can you guys help me with the set?” Trey asked. Blake, Roger, Brent, and I nodded, and we followed the drummer back through the house and to his truck. Between the five of us, we managed to get all the set in one trip and went to work putting it all together on the stage. Beth and Nicole continued to chat in Italian during the time we worked.
“Ugh, guess girls are exempt from working on drum sets?” Brent smirked at us.
“Nothing to do with being a girl, everything to do with being the lead singer,” Trey said, and the rest of us laughed. “But we are pretty much done.” Trey screwed on the last cymbal and then started to move the pieces around a few inches so that they were positioned correctly in front of his stool.
“Hello handsome,” I heard Aimee’s voice behind me. I turned and saw the birthday girl standing with her arms locked through Katherine’s.
Both women looked absolutely stunning. Katherine was wearing a long, flowing olive-green dress that looked like something a Greek goddess would wear. The front was cut low to show her small cleavage, and she wore an array of thin gold necklaces of various lengths that accented the bare skin there. Her hair was loose, but she had moved it to fall mostly over the front of her left shoulder. The green dress had slits half way down both of her toned legs, and her feet were encased with white and gold gladiator-looking sandals. There were also three golden, bangle-like bracelets on each of her wrists, and they had cool Antiquity-looking designs on the wider ones. The gold jewelry and green dress brought out the color in her eyes.
Aimee wore a tight, single-piece dress that hugged every inch of her perfect body like a second skin. It was one of those dresses that were a solid white satin fabric covered with a tight mesh pattern of color. In Aimee’s case, the mesh pattern had dark purple-colored roses entwined with burgundy vines. The dark shades of purple and red were back lit by the sun on the white satin, and the girl’s body seemed to glow with a muted darkness. She had a single necklace with a single amethyst stone that was at least the size of my thumbnail. She also wore purple-gemmed earrings to match, with a sparkly diamond tennis bracelet on her right arm. Her shoes where purple velvet, and the high heels were the wedge style that was really popular right now. Aimee’s dark mane of hair was braided up halfway with a few matching purple flowers woven between the locks. The rest of her hair fell behind her shoulders and added further to the dark sexiness of the dress.
“Dang, you both look amazing.” I noticed that Brent, Trey, Roger, and Blake had turned their attention from the drum set to gape at the super hot women.
“Ahh thanks, boy toy.” Katherine stepped toward me, and I returned her light kiss. “You are looking pretty sexy yourself.”
“Happy Birthday, Aimee.” I took a step toward the girl and gave her perfect body a hug around the shoulders. She kissed me on the cheek before we parted.
“Thank you, Eric. Did you get anything to drink or eat yet?”
“We just finished setting up the drum set. Have you met the band yet?” I introduced Aimee to the rest of the crew. They all wished her a happy birthday and thanked her for the generous pay for playing today.
“Is Jack here yet?” I asked the dark-haired beauty once everyone had made their introductions. Beth was still chatting intently with Nicole, and the rest of the group was listening to Brent speak about Katherine’s last volleyball game.
“Yeah, I think he is talking to Patrick and Daya. They might be by the pool.”
“Alright, I’ll have to try to find him.”
“Did you bring me a present?” Aimee smirked and winked at me.
“I’ve got a card.” I reached into my shirt pocket and pulled it out.
“Thanks!” She snatched it from me. “I’m hoping you can give me something else later tonight.” Aimee leaned in close, and she licked across her top teeth and lip.
“Ahhh,” I looked around and realized that the two of us had been forgotten by everyone else around us. T
hen I spied Aimee’s dad out of the corner of my eye. “I should say hi to your dad.”
“Oh yeah, let me take you,” she said and grabbed my hand. Aimee pulled on the arm, and I followed her the fifty yards to where her father stood talking with a group of four men wearing expensive golf-looking attire.
“Hey Eric, nice to see you again,” John shook my hand and then gave Aimee an adorable hug.
“Nice to see you as well,” I smiled at the handsome man. He was wearing jeans, brown leather shoes, and a purple polo shirt.
“This is Eric, he is the guitar play of the band playing today, and he is a friend of my daughters.” He introduced me to the four men he was speaking with. They were a mixture of sales directors and vice presidents. I tried to remember their names, but they were quickly forgotten.
“I’m going to find a friend of mine. Nice meeting you all.” I nodded to John and the four other men and then smiled at Aimee.
“You should mingle with the guests, I’ll look for Jack.” It was a lame way to get rid of her, but I couldn’t figure out another way to get her away from me.
“It is my birthday. If I want to spend it with you, then I will. Want a drink?” she motioned for a waitress, and the woman walked over with a tray of mimosas.
“Yeah sure,” I grabbed the offered glass from Aimee, and we walked toward the pool. Patrick was really easy to spot since the guy was so tall and ripped. Once I saw him, it was easy to spot the dark-skinned Daya and Jack.
“Hey guys,” I said when I walked up to them.
“There is the fucking rock star!” Patrick had a glass of what looked like water with lemon in it, and he wrapped a meaty arm around my shoulders. “Sorry I haven’t had a chance to call you about the band stuff. Dad told me you were taking a leave of absence last week, and I’ve been crazy busy with finals.” Patrick was wearing khaki pants and a green polo shirt.
“It’s no problem. I’m really sorry I had to quit the company.”
“Don’t be, buddy. Dad loves you, and if you ever want to come back, he’ll totally have ya. Said you are ‘one of his best people and will do great at whatever he chooses to do with his life.’“ Patrick put on a deeper tonality to his voice and actually sounded exactly like his father. “He’s actually at the party today.” Patrick nodded over to another section of the property, and I saw his dad conversing with a few other people.
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