“Yeah,” he said, continuing to strum it out. “It’s been running around in my head the past few days. When that happens, I have to strum it out, write it down, come up with something to go with it.”
“It’s got a pretty sound to it,” she said. “I’m not sure it would sound good as a distortion riff though.”
“Me either,” he said. “When I come up with some lyrics and put it together it will have to stay acoustic.”
“Hey,” Laura said with a smile. “Ziggy likes it too. She just started kicking me.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” Laura said, delighted, as always when Ziggy responded to music. “She’s keeping time. Keep playing it.”
Jake kept playing the rhythm. One two three FOUR, one two three FOUR, striking the strings a little harder, increasing the volume so Ziggy could hear it better.
“Look at this,” Laura said, pulling the bottom of her shirt up to reveal her swollen belly. “She’s keeping time.”
Jake saw that she was right. On the fourth chord of each repetition Ziggy was giving a kick in time with it, a little bulge pushing out just above and to the right of Laura’s belly button. He continued to run through the melody and she kicked every time on each fourth chord. There was no way to claim that she was not responding to the music.
“That’s wild,” Jake said, a big smile on his face as he continued to play, a strong tug of love for his unborn child sounding in his heart. “She’s keeping cadence.”
“Yep,” Laura said, feeling much the same. “That’s exactly what she’s doing.”
Jake strummed out three more reps, watched three more outward bulges as Ziggy kept cadence. And then his fingers came to a sudden halt and his mouth dropped open.
“Why’d you stop?” Laura asked.
Jake looked at his wife. “Cadence,” he said softly. “Cadence.”
She looked back at him, at first not picking up what he was laying down. But then she understood and smiled back at him. “Cadence,” she said with a laugh. “Oh my God. It’s perfect!”
Chapter 20: Working It All Out
Posted: 01.08.2023, 04:34:11
Malibu, California
October 10, 1997
It had been a long, busy Friday for Jake, Laura, and Celia. The workups for both Celia and Matt had come to an end the day before and it was now time to move the entire operation up to Coos Bay to begin the recording process. The bulk of the day had been spent packing up audio equipment into the moving truck that would take it north to Blake Studios. Packed in with KVA’s equipment was Matt’s equipment and instruments as well—though at least Matt and his band had done their own packing. In the morning, everyone from both bands would be Oregon bound, though most of the crew was going by ground transport and it would take them a few days. The Nerdlys, who wanted to start getting things together at the studio, had already left the day before and would be arriving the next morning. Jake, Laura, Celia, Matt, and Jim, Matt’s paramedic, would be flying up there in Jake’s plane, leaving Whiteman at 11:00 AM. It would be the first time that Laura met Matt in her life. It would also be only the third face-to-face encounter between Matt and Celia since the infamous Grammy Awards ceremony of 1985, the night that the guitarist had gotten into a fight with Miguel, La Diferencia’s bass player and Jake had gotten a black eye from Celia’s brother, Eduardo, who had been trying to punch Matt but missed. It promised to be an interesting trip. Jake was not particularly looking forward to it. Neither was Celia. But it would have been insulting to ask Matt to drive all the way to Oregon when he was one of the primary performers being recorded.
After seeing the equipment safely on its way and turning Celia’s keys and Mercedes over to Coop (he, Charlie, and Eric would be driving it up to Oregon together—a strange combo of their own), the three of them had piled into Jake’s truck and driven back to her Malibu mansion together. They arrived just after sunset and Celia ordered Chinese food to be delivered. While they waited the food to arrive, they all took showers individually to cleanse the grime and sweat of their daily labors from their skin. All dressed in night clothes—Laura a shiny pair of silky green maternity pajamas, Celia a long t-shirt with nothing on underneath, and Jake a pair of sweat shorts and a Harley-Davidson t-shirt. They ate their Chinese food and then cleaned up the mess. And then it was time for bed. Jake and Celia had been eagerly anticipating the usual Friday night threesome all day. The problem was that Laura, swollen, uncomfortable, and cranky in her thirty-fourth week of pregnancy, was not in the mood. This led to a dilemma.
“It’s okay,” Laura insisted to her two lovers. “I am honestly and sincerely telling you two this: Go in the bedroom and fuck each other. I don’t mind.”
“We can’t do it without you there,” Jake insisted. “That is the rule and I think we should stick by it.”
“So ... you want me to just sit in the room and watch you two fuck?” Laura asked. She shrugged dispassionately. “Okay. I can do that if you want.”
“No,” Celia put in. “You have to participate as well. If you were just watching us it would be even more awkward than if we were doing it by ourselves.”
“I have a baby constantly pushing stomach acid up into my throat,” Laura told them. “That same baby has also caused a hemorrhoid in my butthole from the pressure she is putting on my butthole blood circulation. When I lay down, it gets hard to breathe because she is pushing on my diaphragm as well. I’m sorry, guys. I love you both dearly and I enjoy all the sweaty, stinky things we do when we get naked together, but I’m just not feeling up to it tonight.”
They sighed in unison. “All right,” Jake said, resigned. “I guess we’ll just wait for another day.”
“Maybe tomorrow night,” Celia said. “Our first night in the Coos Bay house. That might put you in the mood, Teach.”
“Of course, we’ll have to sneak around and be quiet,” Jake added. “The Nerdlys will be there. They left yesterday, remember? They should already be there when we fly in.”
“And the rest of the band will be there on Monday,” Celia put in. “We’ll have to be even sneakier and quieter once they all move in.”
Laura glared at them. “This is what it’s come down to? A guilt trip?”
“Is it working?” Jake asked hopefully.
She sighed. “You two are insisting that you’re not going to fuck if I’m not involved?” she asked. “Seriously? Even though I’m giving you explicit permission to do it?”
“It wouldn’t be right, Teach,” Celia said. “We have an agreement.”
“It’s all for one or none for all,” Jake said. “You and I can get it on by ourselves, but you and C can’t and me and C can’t. That’s the rule.”
Laura rolled her eyes. “Okay,” she said. “Celia, if I took off my pajama top and let you suck on my boobs while he fucks you, is that an acceptable level of participation?”
Celia and Jake looked at each other and then nodded quickly. They were both, after all, very horny at the moment. “Yeah, that works for me,” Celia said.
“That is clear and unmistakable participation,” Jake added.
“All right,” Laura said, standing up. “Let’s do it then.”
“Hell to the yeah,” Jake said with a smile. He held up a palm to Celia, who slapped him with a high five. “Let’s get to it.”
They got to it. They went to the bedroom and Laura pulled off her pajama top and tossed it on the floor. She laid down on the bed on her back, her head propped up on pillows. Jake and Celia undressed completely. They both spent a few minutes sucking on Laura’s breasts and, of course, this had the predictable effect on her. After Jake went around behind Celia and entered her from the rear, Laura pushed on Celia’s head, urging her further downward.
“You know,” she said, a little breathless now, “I wouldn’t mind if you ate my pussy out just a little bit.”