Different Circles

“In a way,” she said. She told of how she had come out to the hot tub one night and found Jake already in there. She joined him (“you don’t know how close I came to not getting in there with you,” she shared with a giggle) and that led to the musical challenge in which they listened to each other’s favorite music and tried to get into it. And then came the trip home to visit her ‘fiancé, Dr. Dave the dentist. She did not share that he was married, just that he was neglectful and unreliable and that he had bowed out of a plan to visit his timeshare and had left town on other business without even notifying her in advance. And if they had read or heard about the articles that came out after the gossip rags had broken the story about Laura and Dr. Dave, they prudently did not mention it.

“He sounds like a dick,” Chastity opined.

“Chase!” Sarah admonished. “Your language!”

“Sorry,” she said, seeming anything but.

“That’s actually a good word for Dave,” Laura told her. “That’s exactly what he was. And it was Jake who was able to open my eyes to that realization.” She then told about the need for a soprano saxophone that was only available in Portland, about the flight there to acquire one, and about the heart-to-heart talk they had on the flight back to Coos Bay. And then she told about them sharing their first kiss in the hot tub later that night. She left out the part about how that first kiss had come about because she had accidentally gotten a feel of the erection he had sprung from having her in close proximity. She also left out the part about how they had gone upstairs and gotten naked together and fucked for the first time a little more than twenty minutes later.

“And that was when we fell in love,” Laura finished up. “During the recording of South Island Blur.”

“That’s a beautiful story,” Sarah said, beaming.

“And he proposed to me in that very same hot tub three years later while we were watching the sunset,” she said.

Chastity and Sarah both nearly melted when they heard this.

“And you said yes right away?” Chastity asked.

“Uh ... yes, of course,” Laura said, fudging the truth a bit. In actuality, a little bit of discussion had to be done first—discussion about lesbian bartenders and female groupies out on tour—but it had been that same night, so that could be construed as ‘right away’.

At this point, Sarah declared that she needed to get dinner started. Jake and Laura both offered to help but she enlisted the two girls instead. Joey got them all another round of canned Budweiser and they resumed their places.

“Who do you think will be going this year, Jake?” Joey asked.

“Going?” Jake asked. “Going where?”

“To the Super Bowl,” he said. “I think this just might be the year that Green Bay goes all the way. They’re my team, you know and I’m here to tell you, it’s been a challenge the last twenty years, but Favre has been on fire this season. And the defense! I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about their defense.”

“Uh ... well ... the fact of the matter is, Joey, that I don’t really follow football that much.”

He looked at him suspiciously. “You don’t follow football?” he asked. “What are you, a communist or something?”

“No, not a communist,” he said. “I used to like the Oakland Raiders back when I was a kid. They were the closest pro team to Heritage, where I grew up. But ever since I got into music and made it my life, I just haven’t had the inclination to follow sports. I’ve just been too busy.”

“Hmm,” Joey said. “You don’t watch any sports then?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes I watch the Olympics when they’re on,” he said.

“And you’re not a faggot?” he asked.

Laura chuckled. “I can assure you, Joey, he is most definitely not gay.”

“I see,” Joey said. “Well, what about hunting and fishing? You do that?”

Jake shook his head. “Never been hunting in my life,” he said. “I went out deep sea fishing with Matt Tisdale a few times back in the Intemp days—that was kind of fun—and my dad has recently gotten into stream and lake fishing and wants to teach me how to do it, but again, there’s that issue of not having much time. This is actually the first real vacation Laura and I have had in quite some time.” And I’m spending a good chunk of it here, in a tiny little house with a man who just accused me of being a communist faggot.

“Have you ever even shot a gun before?” Joey asked next.

“I never have,” Jake admitted. “My dad was an ACLU lawyer and my mom was a symphony musician. We didn’t have guns in the house.”

“Never fired a gun before,” he said in wonder. “You’re not one of those anti-gun nuts though, are you?”