She-Rox: A Rock & Roll Novel (31 page)

There was a collective gasp from the band. None of the girls were expecting such a blow. Now that Vince was gone and Rachelle had taken over for the band, it really was business.

Seeing the shocked looks on their faces, she quietly advised, “Now you know how important this brunch is.” Gathering her things together, and, rolling up the blue print, she finalized, “You’ve all got time to make your decisions. There’s no rush. Impress Lanni at this brunch, look beautiful and when the showcase comes up, bring it.”

“When is the showcase?” Gretchen asked, shell shocked.

“July seventeenth at nine p.m., here—good luck,” she answered and picking up her bag she said “Goodbye.”

When the heavy, soundproof door clicked behind her, Raven whispered to the others, “We’ve got to get serious.”

As the four girls eyed each other, Eddie asked, “Have you guys been practicing your parts?”

They jumped off the couch, pulled out the music charts, and began to work as Eddie stepped out into the hallway to phone Slade. When he answered, she dove in, “What are the chances that Aiden can spend some time with my drummer?”

“What, no ‘hello,’ no ‘I miss you,’ no ‘let’s go for a ride in the country and watch the flowers bloom?’”

“I’m serious, Slade, and it’s the dead of summer. The flowers have long since bloomed, and as you probably know our showcase has been moved up. I thought I had two months. I’ve got
two weeks
and Ginger could really use some help, so whaddaya say?”

“You need Aiden? He’s yours. I’ll let him know.”

Slade was worried as well. Todd had called telling him that if the Katz were less than spectacular, the band “Dame de Mentia” were to be put on the bill. Slade didn’t like Dame de Mentia. They were a band full of drunken sloppy players.

“Excellent,” Eddie said. “I need him here at the jam shed tomorrow night around six o’clock.”

Getting back inside the band room, she saw Ginger up on her drum throne running through the fills for “Sultana Reign.” It was a demanding song and Ginger had to be a human metronome or the whole thing would fall apart.

Eddie approached the drum kit. “I’ve got Aiden Locke coming tomorrow at six o’ clock to help you out. Are you cool with that?”

“Here, tomorrow, me and Aiden?” Ginger asked. Seeing Eddie nod her head in the affirmative, she flushed, “
He’s cute.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed, “but he’s coming here to work on your drumming. You know,
work
? As in we got two weeks?” Not certain if she understood what was really at stake, Eddie pushed, “Ginger, you are without question the most beautiful drummer I have ever laid eyes on – the hottest female holding a pair of sticks, but I need you to start playing like a man.”

“Oh, you mean like this?” Sitting up and tilting her upper body closer to the kit, she brought her sticks down, snapping the head of the snare, and kicked her bass with the conviction that Eddie had been wanting.

As she ended with a mind-bending fill, Eddie begged, “Where the—how . . .
you gotta be kiddin’ me
, Ginger.”

“She’s got a whole other gear,” Gretchen piped.

“
Ginger,”
Eddie wailed, “
Why have you been hiding that?”

In a small voice, Ginger explained, “Like you said, it looks manly.”

“No it doesn’t . . . it looks HOT!”

“Guys don’t like it when girls act like them. It’s a turn off.”

“I’d date you,”
Eddie flushed. “Guys don’t like it when you dress in wingtip shoes and have facial hair. Ginger, if you drum like that in your silver cat suit and a pair of stilettos, you’ll have your pick of men and drum endorsements to boot, I promise!”

Ginger wrinkled her nose, not wanting to give up her comfort zone, real or imagined.

“Tell you what—you drum
just like that
when Aiden gets here and ask him if he finds it unattractive?”

“I’m not asking him that.
He’ll think I’m whack and walk right out of here.”

“Ginger, you play like that and you’ll walk out of here
on his arm
.”

The showcase loomed like a tropical storm on the horizon picking up speed with each passing day and as they prepared to leave for the evening, Eddie saw something she had never seen before—a fine mist of sweat on their brows. “That felt good,” she said.

“We gotta nail this,” Raven warned, not trusting the energy that had filled the room from practice.

“If these songs actually get us a recording contract,” Gretchen vowed, “I’ll do something really crazy . . . like hear another one of Pastor Beene’s nutty sermons. My mother would love that.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” Eddie warned.

The heavy door opened and all eyes turned to see Kai.

“Wonder boy is here,” Raven teased.

“Good, I’m starving. See you guys later,” Eddie picked up her guitar bag and walked out.

Watching the door shut, Raven asked, “So, there’s nothing going on between her and Slade? I thought there might be with that birthday party, but she certainly seems to like this guy.”

Ginger mused, “I was curious about that too, but then I realized that if Slade wanted Eddie, he’d be with her. Besides, with all the eyes she’s got for this guy, it’s obvious she’s not into Slade.”

“How could anybody not be into Slade?” debated Gretchen. “He’s the real deal.”

“Maybe he’s not to Eddie,” Raven speculated. “We are talking about Eddie here. Obviously, she’s into brainiacs. Granted, Slade’s a rock god, but he’s no genius.”

“Genius schmenius,” quipped Gretchen, “I’ll take Slade over some backwoods doctor any day.”

“San Francisco isn’t exactly
backwoods.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world live there.”

“Still, I can’t see Slade gettin’ his swagger on with Eddie. Slade demands action and that girl is sexually dead.”

Kai and Eddie pulled into Canter’s Deli on Fairfax and found it busy. They got a booth and perused the menu. Eddie knew she had to tell Kai about the party on the Fourth.

She looked up from her menu and sensed a smile on his lips. “Kai?”

“Hey, how’s the pastrami here?”

“Kai—”

“Yeah, what?” he asked. Her expression meant bad news. He exhaled, “Just tell me so we can get it over with.”

“I have to go to a brunch for the president of Moonshine from noon till three on the Fourth, but I have the entire rest of the day and all night after that.”

“Noon till three, well, that kills Disneyland. Is that it?”

“Not exactly, on Thursday and Friday at five o’clock I’ve got to take two dance lessons. Astral seems to think that if we take a crash course in belly dancing and pole dancing, we will magically become larger than life,” she sarcastically delivered, “giving us stage presence.”

“
Pole dancing . . .
now that I’d like to see -- you wrapping your legs around it, hanging upside down . . . hmm,” he mused, the picture taking shape.

The waitress took their order and handing back the menu, Eddie baited “One of us is confessing our black and cheap desires.”

“Never call yourself cheap, babe.” He saw the worry on her face. “What else is going on?”

“I need T.J.”

The Kat House had become a dead zone with everybody gone so T.J. opted to stay at the hotel, hang out by the pool, order lunch, and charge it to her brother’s account. It was also closer to Rodeo Drive, and Kai had the Escalade.

“We both know T.J. is yours, but that’s not it.”

“The agency gave me a clothing allowance for this brunch and I’ve got to go looking like a goddess.”

“Is that all you’re worried about?”

“If Lanni Fauste doesn’t like us or our music—”

“Eddie, he’s going to love you.”

“If he doesn’t,” she said evenly, “we have to move out of the house.”

“Oh.”

“I can always find another place to live. That’s no big deal. But I’ve been trying to get more hours at EMI and there isn’t enough work right now. Classical CD’s aren’t exactly flying off the shelves.”

“Okay,” cheered the waitress. “Two hot pastramis on rye. Can I get cha anything else?” she asked, setting down the plates.

“This is good,” answered Kai. “Thanks.”

Eddie stared at her sandwich.

“We’re not leaving here ‘til you eat that whole thing,” ordered Kai. “You’re getting too thin, and if you don’t eat, you’ll get sick, and if you get sick, this Lanni really won’t want you.”

After taking a few quiet moments to sink his teeth into the pastrami, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, “You know, Eddie, it’s all right if you come back to San Francisco.”

Eddie stayed mute, working on her sandwich.

“You could start another band there and cash in on that scholarship to the Conservatory—get a real music degree. It would make life for you a lot easier.”

“Yeah, it would. But I need to be here. My band is here. The contacts I’ve been pursuing are here. My life is here.”

“I’m not.”

Eddie calmly, but pointedly said, “No, you’re not. You’re in school and are so engulfed with your very noble pursuit of becoming a doctor that I rate very little communication. I would be in town simply out of convenience for you, that is, whenever you found a spare ten minutes.”

“It wouldn’t be like that,” Kai said, still feeling the determination of a “changed man.”

When they arrived back at the Kat House, Kai opened Eddie’s car door and stepping down to the pavement, he said, “Don’t go inside yet. Your life with those tramps . . . it can wait.” His hand slid down to once again intertwine fingers with her. It was an act he found simple, yet so provocative. “Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested. “I’m not in the mood for band chatter. I just want some peace.”

“There’s a trail behind the house,” Eddie suggested, pulling him behind her like a Radio Flyer.

Strolling through the foliage, Kai looked up to the reticent stars and said, “You know . . . I’m sorry how odd things have gotten between us. I blame myself—expecting our disconnected lives to somehow instinctively develop.”

Hearing the words, “I’m sorry” and “I blame” sent a chill up Eddie’s spine.

“I also blame myself for carelessly imagining you’d be content with the small bit of time I was willing to give up. I’ve been stupid, but more than stupid, I’ve been blind.”