Chapter 29: Extra Credit

Standing in the shower, letting the cool water sluice over her body, Julianna braced her hands on the wall and shook her head. What the hell did she just do? She had never been shy about her body, but had never really been a brazen person, either. Laughing to herself as she recalled the look on Jon’s face when she winked at him, she thought, this will certainly make our working relationship interesting.

Turning off the water and stepping from the shower, she heard her version of the finale coming from the kitchen. She groaned. Quickly braiding her hair, she left the bathroom to get dressed.

Clad in a leotard and jogging shorts, she followed the sound of her voice to the kitchen. “Rich, you’ve got to stop listening to that. It’s nothing – not even worth it.” She stopped short as she reached the kitchen threshold. All four of them were sitting around her kitchen table, listening to her recording. Jon, reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, had the sheet music he had sent her spread on the table, and he was making notations.

“You call him Rich?” Dave asked, arching an eyebrow.

“What? Oh, yeah,” Julianna mumbled. “It’s his name after all.” She hurried to turn off the music, and braced herself on the counter, taking a deep breath. Time to eat crow. She turned, saying, “Guys, I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to hear that.” She shot daggers at Richie, who was smiling like the cat who swallowed the canary. “This is just me messing around with your music last night. I won’t let it influence my work with you, I promise.”

Jon just looked at her. “You did that all of that by yourself? In one night?”

Julianna blushed. “Well, it did take a few hours to do.”

Tico laughed. “Jon, hire her man. Seriously.” He looked at Julianna. “It took us days to get something together that Mr. Picky over there liked, even after he had all written out for us. Even though your version is missing a drum line and bass, you did something amazing in a couple of hours.”

Julianna looked at Jon, surprise on her face. “Y-you like it? You aren’t angry?”

“I’m angry, but with myself, not with you. Your interpretation here,” he motioned for her to join him at the table, where he pointed at a series of measures that Julianna had taken some liberties with. “That’s perfect. I wasn’t completely happy with what we had done, but this, this is fantastic. And here,” he shuffled through the pages to find some of his other notes. “This that you did here with the sax? It worked. We’re going to have to get someone to play sax on the track.”

Richie smiled. “We can get Gianni. He’d flip.”

Jon, in work-mode, flapped a hand at him. “Whatever. Julianna,” he looked at her. “We’re going to have to give you an arrangement credit on this one, too. We’re going to use some of your ideas.”

Julianna sat down hard on one of the chairs. “Holy Hell,” she said. “You can’t be serious,” she said to Jon.

Richie came to stand behind Julianna, and put his hands on her shoulders. She covered his left with her right, and turned to look into his eyes. “He’s not serious, is he?” she asked.

“As serious as a heart attack, babe. Jon doesn’t mess around with work. Look at him.” Julianna did. Jon didn’t seem to notice any of them. He was in his own world, making notations and corrections on the music in front of him. “He never says anything he doesn’t mean – especially when it comes to business.” He squeezed her shoulders.

“You’re running with the big boys now, Jules,” Dave said, smiling.

She looked askance at Dave. “Did you just call me Jules?” He nodded. “Only my brothers call me by that silly nickname,” she said, snickering. “Are you my brothers now?”

“See?” Dave looked around at his friends. “She gets it.” He turned his attention back to Julianna. “The way I figure it, you’re with Rich now, which makes you our sister by default. So, we get to use your nickname.”

Tico pulled up a chair close to Julianna. “So, tell us, Jules, how does Brother Rich do in the sack?

Caught off guard, Julianna’s eyes went wide, and she started to laugh. She laughed long and hard, and her laughter was infectious. Even Jon couldn’t resist a chuckle, though he had no idea why he was laughing. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

Julianna caught her breath. “Teek here,” she looked at him, “I get to use your nicknames, too, brother dear, wants to know how Rich measures up in the sack.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, and a mischievous twinkle replaced them. “Why don’t you give them your opinion, Jon. Tell ‘em what you saw this morning.”

Jon’s complexion paled. “Jesus, Julianna.”

“What, is it a secret?” Julianna demanded. “The three of you were skulking around outside my bedroom windows; you’re all a bunch of stalkers. What did you expect to see?”

“You heard us?” Dave laughed.

“Yep,” Julianna confirmed. “You are not a quiet bunch of men. Anyway, after Davey and Teek scurried away, and Jon stayed behind, well, Rich and I thought we’d put on a little show.” She looked up adoringly into Richie’s eyes, and then turned back to Jon. “And I guess you got quite an eyeful, huh?”

“Not really,” Jon answered, grinning. “All the good bits were either covered by Sambora’s hands or your sheets.” He winked. “By the way, what’s with the ‘Rich’ thing? Usually, nobody calls him that but us.”

Julianna stood to loop an arm around Richie’s waist. “’Richie’ is his rock star name. When he’s here with me, he’s not in rock star mode. He’s just a regular guy who happened to spend the night,” she winked at Tico, “and also happened to give me a night I’ll never forget. And Tico, for the record, he does quite well in the sack, and in the kitchen as well.” She gave Richie a loud, smacking kiss on the lips. “Any other questions?” she demanded.

Tico laughed and shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m good.”

Dave looked at her. “I actually do have another question. Is it true that you can really kick the shit out of a 300 pound guy?”

Julianna laughed. “Only if he’s standing still in my studio. I haven’t tried sparring, but I understand it’s tougher than most people think. Now, who’s hungry? It’s nearly lunchtime, and I haven’t eaten since last night.” She started to bustle around the kitchen, pulling food from the fridge and pantry.

Richie, seeing what she was doing, asked, “Where’re the pans?” Julianna pointed to a cupboard, and Richie pulled out a huge skillet. “Will this work?”

“Yep,” Julianna replied. She plopped a basket of peppers and onions onto the table, along with a cutting boards and knives. “We need sous-chefs. Someone dice the onions, someone cut the peppers. Someone else get coffee going – I need the caffeine.”

“Jesus,” Jon said. “She’s just as bad as Rich in the kitchen. This is definitely meant to be.”