They filed the flight plan and walked back.
“What are your ratings?” Jake asked the engineer.
“IFR rated but not commercial,” he replied. “I’ve recently completed the multi-engine, turboprop, and pressurized flight modules. I’m still building up hours for the test flights. If I decide to purchase the plane, I should be done by the time escrow closes.”
“So, you do know how to fly a twin-engine turboprop then?” Jake asked.
“I do,” he said, “I’m just not supposed to do it with passengers aboard.”
“Hey, Jill and I aren’t really passengers, we’re business acquaintances. Why don’t you take the left seat?”
“You want me to fly the plane?” he asked, surprised.
“You can take off and bring us up to cruise flight,” Jake said. “I’ll guide you through the flight to Catalina and go over the autopilot with you. I’ll land us when we get there though. The airport is a little tricky.”
Jake was afraid that Jae would be a stickler for the rules, but he was not. He was delighted to jump in the left seat. Jill seemed a little nervous when she heard the plan of action, but she said nothing and climbed right in after them.
They had a good flight to Catalina. Jae took off and brought them up to seven thousand feet without any issues, exclaiming all the way about how fast the Chancellor climbed. Jake nodded, thinking that eighteen hundred feet a minute was awfully slow compared to the three thousand feet a minute the Avanti could climb, but everything was relative. He remembered his own days in the Cessna 172 which strained to even climb eight hundred feet per minute if there was more than just the pilot aboard.
Jake landed them on the elevated runway at Catalina and parked them near the restaurant on site. They had a nice dinner of steak and baked potatoes, all of them abstaining from alcohol. Jake felt a little like a third wheel during this portion of the day as Jill and Jae spent the entire meal talking to each other and ignoring him. They talked of where they had gone to college, how they had started their careers, and a little of their family background. They smiled at each other frequently and Jake could feel that chemistry flowing back and forth. They then climbed back into the plane for the flight back. Jake took off, thrilling Jae to the core with the exhilarating launch from the clifftop at Catalina, and then let the engineer fly them back across the sea to the pattern for Oceano. He was able to make a smooth touchdown directly on the centerline without any issues. Jake then took over and taxied back to the hangar.
“I’m going to buy this plane,” Jae said once they disembarked and pushed the aircraft back into storage. “I would like to start the official process on Monday morning.”
“Sounds good,” Jake said. “I’ll be back in Coos Bay on Monday though. You’ll be dealing primarily with Jill here.” He paused. “I hope that’s all right.”
“Oh ... yes, that is fine,” Jae said. “I’m looking forward to working with you on this, Jill.”
“Me too,” Jill said shyly.
“So...” Jake said as they walked back to the office for the final time, “are you staying here in the area tonight, Jill?”
“I have a hotel room in San Luis Obispo,” she said. “The ... uh ... same hotel where Jae is staying.”
“The Marriott,” Jae said enthusiastically. “Nice place.”
“Yes, it is,” Jake said with a smile. “But there’s no need for you to stay in a hotel, Jill. Laura and I would be delighted to have you stay with us for the night.”
“Uh...” Jill said slowly, her eyes casting to Jae for a moment and then back to Jake. “I ... uh ... already booked the room and paid for it.”
“A pity,” Jake said, his smile increasing a little. “Think of the money you could have saved.”
“Sometimes,” Jill said, “you just have to splurge a little.”
Jake chuckled. “Who are you?” he asked her. “And what have you done with Jill?”
“Excuse me?” she asked, confused.
“Never mind,” Jake said. “I trust you can guide Jae here safely to his room?”
“I think we’ll manage,” Jill said.
They parted ways a few moments later. Jake was happy that at least someone was going to be getting his weenie wet tonight. His own prospects were not looking so good.
Obie, Pauline, and Tabby were staying in Obie’s house in Coos Bay while Obie was working on his CD. Jake, Laura, Celia, and the Nerdlys had dinner with them on the following Friday night so they could have their regular business meeting. Obie made some homemade chili and then grilled up some bratwurst for the occasion. Jake, Obie, Celia, and Pauline all had various alcoholic beverages to go with their meal. The Nerdlys were not in the drinking mood so they had lemonade. Laura, naturally, abstained from alcohol as well. Jake himself would be on the teetotaler list in another seven days. That would be when they were within two weeks of Laura’s delivery date and he would need to be ready to fly them to SLO at a moment’s notice. The partners talked no business until after the meal was complete and the servants had taken the dishes away.
“All right,” Jake said, a glass of twenty-five-year-old scotch on the rocks before him, “I have good news to share.”
“I like good news,” Pauline said. “Let’s hear it.”
“I was able to meet with the suits over at Aristocrat last Friday before Laura’s OB appointment. We’re starting to see a significant upswell in CD sales for Brainwash II over the past three weeks.”
“How significant?” asked Pauline. She had been up here in Oregon for almost six weeks now and felt decidedly out of touch with what was going on.
“More than six hundred thousand since we started pushing for airplay and promotion of Glory,” Jake said. “And growing every week.” Glory was one of Marcie’s tunes, a moderate tempo feel-good piece expounding on how good it was to be alive in the world and in love. It had a catchy hook line and complex guitar work by Steph and Jim that was complimented by Marcie’s voice on the lyrics. Jake had always considered it the best tune on Brainwash II and had pushed for it to be second promoted on the theory that it would start to push CD sales. It was a theory that seemed to be correct so far.
“That is good news,” Pauline agreed. She had been worried about the initial sluggish sales of Brainwash II despite the popularity of the first promoted tune—Jim’s What’s in a Name?
“Indeed,” said Celia, who had a glass of scotch of her own. “The band should get respectable royalty checks next quarter. And they’ll only get bigger from there.”
“Yes, I think they’ll be happy,” Jake said. “The question is, do we want to start working on their next CD come the summer? Or do we want to give them another year off like we did with their debut?”
“I think we should get them back in studio in the summer,” Pauline said. “It seems obvious to me that this CD is not going to sell as well as the first. We’ll all make money off of it—Brainwash included—but we could have done better. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let them fade from consciousness for a whole year. We can record their efforts over the summer and release it whenever we feel the time is right.”
“I like the sound of that on the surface,” Jake said. “But remember, I’m developing new material and will be ready to start working it up once Project Tisdale and C’s new CD are done. It seems likely that I’ll be ready to hit the studio come early spring.”
“Well,” said Obie, “it seems like y’all are managing to work with two studios at the same time right now. I might be able to schedule the time for you if you think you can pull off a Brainwash III and a Jake Kingsley at the same time.”
“I don’t know that I can do that,” Jake said. “Right now, I’m not responsible for any recording except for some backup singing and maybe a few overdubs, so that lets me concentrate on being the producer for both projects. If I’m recording my own shit, however, I’m responsible for all the lead vocals, all of the primary guitar work, and some of the secondary guitar work in addition to the production. I cannot do that and simultaneously produce a Brainwash project. And—no offense, Nerdlys—I don’t think it’s a good idea to put out another Brainwash if I’m not able to produce with everything I have.”