"Is he abusive?" Johnny asked.
"Well... I wouldn't exactly use that word," she said, indicating with her face that she was withholding something. "I mean, he can be downright ugly at times, especially when he's been drinking, but he doesn't hit or anything like that."
"Well that a relief," Johnny said.
"It's the whole bad-boy image that attracts us girls to people like Jake," she said. "You know your mother wouldn't approve of him so its kind of a rebellion of sorts. Eventually, however, you realize that maybe your mother was right after all."
The audience laughed. So did Johnny.
"Truthfully though," Mindy went on, "I don't regret my little experiment with Jake. I'll always remember him with fondness even though he scared me sometimes, you know? I wish nothing but the best for him and I hope he gets the problems he has with drugs and alcohol under control before its too late. I mean, we all saw what happened to him in New York, right? He has to realize that he's heading for nowhere good and in a hurry at that."
The rest of the interview only took ten minutes. The subject of Jake was dropped in favor of the subject of Mindy's up and coming auditions and her hope to soon appear in a major feature film.
The next morning the headlines in the entertainment sections read MINDY CITES JAKE'S DRUG ADDICTION AND ABUSIVENESS AS REASON FOR BREAK-UP.
Two weeks later Mindy was in the news once again. It was announced by newspapers and entertainment shows across the land that she had been given the lead in a new movie called Handle With Caution, which was about an abused wife trying to pull herself out of a violent relationship. Mindy was quoted as saying that she was perfect for this particular role since she had intimate experience with such a topic. A week after that it was announced that Mindy and John Carlisle — a twenty-eight year old actor who had been nominated for an Oscar the year before for his role as tough street cop — had been seen in each other's company on multiple occasions. By the end of the month both actors had confirmed to the press that they were romantically involved.
On May 2, as Intemperance was halfway through the second leg of their tour, The Thrill of Doing Business — the album — went gold. At the same time The Thrill of Doing Business — the single — peaked at number eight on the top forty chart and began to work its way back down. Crossing the Line was the next single to be released for sale. It quickly began selling off the shelves as radio stations throughout the country began playing it six to ten times a day.
On May 4, the convoy rolled into Detroit and set up for three consecutive shows. The capacity of the arena here was almost twenty-two thousand and boasted some of the best acoustics in the country. In addition, Detroit fans were reputed to be among the most enthusiastic in the nation. For this reason, Detroit was often chosen as a favored place to record live shows for later release as live albums. Bog Seger had recorded his famous live album here, as had Journey, Peter Frampton, and even Kiss (although hopefully the reader will not hold that against the motor city). National Records, anticipating such a live album by their new hit band Intemperance, decided to follow suit and capture the live tracks from all three days. Extra sound equipment was brought in for high-quality recording. Video crews were hired and their equipment was strewn about the auditorium.
As the time approached for them to hit the stage for the first recorded show, the tension level among the five band members was considerably higher than normal. At fifteen minutes to stage time, while they were sitting in the dressing room, twirling guitar picks and drumsticks, drinking from Gatorade and smoking cigarettes, Darren suddenly upped the tension by pulling out a joint and lighting it up.
Everyone stared at this in complete disbelief as he took a huge hit of the greenbud they were supplied with for after-show festivities and held it in, a defiant look on his face. Matt was the first to react. He jumped up from his chair, dropping his guitar pick and his cigarette, took three steps across the room, and slapped the joint out of Darren's hand.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, dickweed?" Matt demanded. "Cough that fuckin' hit out!"
Darren refused to cough it out so Matt stepped behind him and did a Heimlich maneuver on him, which forced him to exhale, and quite forcefully at that. Pungent smoke was propelled across the room at more or less the speed of sound.
"Motherfucker!" Darren yelled, spinning around quickly. He pushed Matt roughly, shoving him back down into a seat. "Don't you ever put your fuckin' hands on me again!"
Matt was up in flash, his hand forming into a fist. He cocked back and drove a solid right towards Darren's face. Jake got there before it could hit. He caught it neatly in his right hand, the sound of the slap echoing throughout the room. He then pushed himself between his colleagues, preventing them from further violence.
"Sit the fuck down!" Jake shouted. "Both of you! Right now!"
It took a moment of angry looks cast back and forth, but both did as he commanded. Jake then turned to Darren, his eyes glaring at him.
"Okay," he said, trying to stay calm. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm getting stoned," Darren said stubbornly. "What the fuck does it look like I'm doing?"
"You got a lot of fuckin' nerve sparking that shit up right in front of me!" Matt yelled from behind. "Where the fuck do you get off..."
He stopped as Jake held up his hand.
"Explain yourself, Darren," Jake said. "You know we have a rule about getting high in any capacity before we hit the stage. So why are you all of a sudden defying that rule by busting out a fucking joint fifteen minutes before we go on?"
"That's your fucking rule," Darren said. "Yours and Matt's. And I'm tired of living by it. I play better when I'm stoned, man. Don't you fuckin' know that?"
"Didn't you trip over your own goddamn guitar cord when you were stoned?" Matt spat.
"I wasn't stoned then," Darren said. "If I was, I never would've done that!"
Another shouting match developed over this subject, with Coop and Bill getting involved too. It went on for the better part of a minute before Jake yelled at everyone to shut the fuck up. Reluctantly, everyone did.
"Why you tripped over your cord is immaterial right now," Jake said. "Whether or not you play better while stoned is immaterial as well. The fact is, we have a rule about using drugs or alcohol before performing. This rule has been in effect ever since you joined this band, since before I joined the band as a matter of fact. We've had issues with you on this before. You are not allowed to smoke weed before we hit the stage. Period. End of discussion."
"No," Darren said. "That ain't the end of the fuckin' discussion. I want to get stoned before I go on and I'm going to get stoned before I go on. That's the end of the fuckin' discussion!" He started heading for the joint, which was lying on the floor about five feet away.
"Asshole!" Matt yelled. "I'll kick your stoned-out ass out of this fuckin' band if you pick up that joint."
Darren didn't hesitate for a second. He picked up the joint and faced Matt. "You ain't my boss anymore, Matt," he said. "You been pretending like you are all this time, but you ain't. You can't fire me. Greg told me that a couple days ago. As far as the record company is concerned, we're all equals here, we're all their fuckin' employees! And since my boss don't mind if I smoke out, I'm smoking out and you can't stop me!"
Greg — no doubt alerted by the security staff that trouble was brewing — appeared as if by magic, strolling through the door to the dressing room. "Is there a problem here?" he asked.