Sticks | Page 5

to sleep again. Sometime around dawn she told him she was cold and he brought her a blanket. She curled up inside his arm, building an elaborate nest out of the pillows and covers.
They made love again in the morning. She whispered his name in his ear. Later they showered again and he made her coffee and toast.
Stan offered her one of his T-shirts but she shook her head and dressed in yesterday's clothes. Time seemed to pick up speed as she dressed. She looked at the clock and said, "Christ, it's almost noon. Gregg is going to be waiting on us."
*
He stood in a circle with the other singers, blending his voice on an African chant that Keven had played them from a tape. He knew the gossip had started the minute he and Keven came in together. Rosen was curt and irritable and everybody seemed to be watching Stan out of the corners of their eyes.
Stan couldn't have cared less.
When the backing tracks were down, Keven disappeared into the vocal booth. Jackson packed up his horn and sat down next to Stan. "Got to make a thing over at Sunset. You working this evening?"
"I don't know yet."
"Yeah," he said. "Be cool."
Rosen put the playback over the speakers. The song was about break-ups and betrayals:
...broke down all my fences
And left me here alone
Picking up sticks...
As she stretched out the last word the percussion came up in the mix, drowning her in jungle rhythm. The weight of the drums was a perfect balance for the shallow sentiment. Together they sounded to Stan like number one with a bullet.
She nailed the vocal on the third try. When she came out of the booth she walked up to him and said, "Hey."
"Hey yourself. It's going to be a monster, you know. It's really great."
"You think so? Really?"
"Really," he said. She brushed his cheek with her hand.
"Listen," he said.
"No. I can't. I've got a dinner date with Warner's tonight. Gregg's dubbing down a cassette and we're going to play it for them. So I'm tied up until late."
"Okay," he said.
She started to walk away and then came back.
"Do you sleep with your door locked?"
*
He managed to fall asleep. It was an effort of will that surprised even him. When he heard the door open it was three a.m. The door closed again and he heard a slightly drunken laugh and a gentle bumping of furniture. He saw a darker shadow in the doorway of the bedroom. There was a rustle of clothing. It seemed to Stan to be the single most erotic moment of his life.
She pulled back the covers and slid on top of him. Her skin was soft and cool and rich with perfume. When she kissed him he tasted expensive alcohol on her breath.
"How were the Warner Brothers?" he whispered.
"They loved me. I'm going to be a star."
"You're already a star."
"Shhhhhh," she said.
*
He opened his eyes in the morning and saw her fully dressed. "I've got to go," she said. It was only nine o'clock. "I'll call you."
It was only later that he realized that the session was over. He'd never been to her place, he didn't even have a phone number where he could call her.
*
It was like he'd never had empty time to fill before. He spent most of the afternoon on the concrete stoop in front of his apartment, listening to Buddy Holly on his boombox. A mist had blown in from the Pacific and not burned off. His hands were nervous and spun his drumsticks through his fingers, over and over.
She called late that night. He should have been asleep but wasn't. There was a lot of traffic noise in the background and he had trouble hearing her. "I'll be by tomorrow night," she said. "We can go to a movie or something."
"Keven..."
"I have to go. See you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," Stan said.
*
She was sitting on the stoop when he came home from a session the next afternoon. She was wrapped in her shawl and the clouds overhead all seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere.
She let him kiss her, but her lips were awkward. "I can't make tonight," she said.
"Okay."
"Something came up. We'll try it another night, okay?"
"Sure," Stan said. "Why don't you give me your number?"
She stood up, took his hands as if to keep him from touching her. "I'll call you." She stopped at the gate. "I'm crazy, you know." She wouldn't look at him.
"I don't care."
"I'll call you," she said again, and ran across the street to her bright red sports car. Stan held up one hand as she drove away but she didn't seem to see him.
*
After two days he started to look for her. Darryl reluctantly gave him Gregg Rosen's unlisted number. Stan asked Rosen for Keven's phone number