Chapter 2: Keep Your Hands to Yourself

The Aeolian Hall, London, Ontario

8:07pm, Friday, October 5, 1979

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! London!” I cried out at the thunderous standing ovation from a packed out crowd of four-hundred and twenty-two at The Aeolian Hall after we finished our opening song, Crazy Train. We were told before we went on stage that the Hall’s management decided to remove the chairs, and their normal assigned seating arrangement from the main floor on Thursday in order to allow another forty people into their hall for our show.

“We are Mike and the Time Bandettes, and we’re dang happy to say we’re from London and the surrounding area!” Sammy excitedly said and then she slapped me on the back as she added, “Obviously, this guy here is the ‘Mike’ part of our group!”

“And we’re the Time Bandettes!” Lynette, Eda and Brick said as they, along with Sammy waved to the crowd.

“Just in case you’re holding onto this false assumption, I’m just one of five in this band ... and to prove it, Miss Sammy Labatt, our redheaded rock goddess is going to sing, I Hate Myself for Lovin’ You. She wrote this, along with a former band member, but still a part-time saxophone player, Jennifer Rathje. Hope you enjoy it!”

We were all sweating up a storm on the stage under the Hall’s hot stage lights by the time we finished our fifth song, Life in the Fast Lane. It was also nice to play with the lighting people at Aeolian. They knew how to use spotlights to bring out the full character of our singing and playing.

“We played Life in the Fast Lane at our first impromptu, mini-performance at our school, Medway High last Valentine’s Day,” Lynette said from behind her keyboards. “I think we’ve gotten a little better at playing it since then!” Her last comment got another loud, positive response from the mostly high school and college age crowd.

“I wrote this next song for our first paid gig at Glencoe High School,” I said as I switched from my double-necked guitar to my favorite axe, Silverburst.

“Go Golden Gaels!” a group of Glencoe students yelled at my mention of their school.

“Sorry, Gaels... ‘bout that major beat down earlier today on the football field!” Sammy chuckled as she high-fived Brick, who burst out laughing at Sammy’s retort.

“We’re all friends in here, aren’t we?” I shouted as ran my pick over my Silverburst’s strings. “So I’d like to dedicate this song to the Golden Gaels in the crowd. It’s called, Swamp River Days.”

The Glencoe students, along with some others who had heard us play it before went crazy as I picked out the opening guitar riff. When the others joined in, I winked at Lava-Lips and then said to the crowd, “This song also goes out to a special friend of ours,” and I nodded at Stephanie, who was standing at the front of the stage just off to our right.

(Note: John Fogerty wrote Swamp River Days and is from his Blue Moon Swamp album in 1997. There is a great live version of it on his Premonition CD/DVD, also from 1997.)

After we jammed that southern rock introduction for thirty-five seconds, I sang:

“Two-lane ... shinin’ in the July dust.
Heat risin’ off the road,
Out in front of my truck.
Pulled my pick-up over the hill,
Down the slide gravel, through the cat-tails.
Give me those swamp river days again.

Old memories out in the crick.
Playin’ hooky with a hobo stick.
Old memories startin’ to fade,
Take me away! ... Alright!“

Sammy and I jammed for nearly a minute after that short third verse. Brick moved over to us about half through our jam-session, and created a nice little guitar sandwich with me as the ‘good-stuff’ in the middle. Right after the two beauties moved back to their spots at the front corners of the stage, I stepped towards Stephanie and mouthed to her, “You’ll like this.”

Because I knew she was looking forward to tonight with Lynette and me, I reworked the lyrics of this last verse just for her. I then sang:

“Cody River playin’ on the radio.
Takes me back to a girl I still do know.
Sweet Stephanie, do you think about me?
Tonight’s as good as it ever will be.
Give me those swamp river days again.
Give me those swamp river days again.“

(Note: Reworded lyrics are in bold, above.)

Stephanie just about died when I sang those changes to her. Her friends from Glencoe darn near killed her with pats on the back, hugs and shaking her shoulders. When we finished that song, my little Strawberry girl from Glencoe was almost the color of one of those juicy ripe berries, as well as the color of her sleeveless, angora sweater.

When Sammy announced that our next song was called, These Dreams, the guys in the crowd who had heard and seen it before went ballistic. Then as Brick, in her midriff bearing, aqua colored tube-top and skin-tight black leather pants moved to her microphone to sing, the remaining guys in the crowd joined them in going bonkers.

At the end of that song, Sammy and I swapped out our electric guitars for our acoustic instruments. I snagged my Sweet Baby James 6-string, while Sammy put Jennifer’s 12-string, Blueberry Fierro guitar over her auburn mane of wavy hair.

The crowd was still buzzing from Brick’s performance, so I chuckled to them and my bandmates, “I think we may need to change the playlist order ... I’m not sure I want to sing after our youngest band member, Miss Lisa Masciotro.” My off-handed compliment of Brick’s performance just ratcheted up the crowd’s intensity level to near maximum.

I chuckled when Lava-Lips, with her Tom Rush ‘Naked Lady’ solid wood Dreadnought 6-string acoustic guitar around her neck, came over to me and said to the crowd, “You’re stuck with singing after Brick, so just play your Sweet Baby James guitar so we can get on with... Two-Steps Behind!”

“Who in their right mind would argue with such a beautiful and talented musician ... and girlfriend?” I said as Lynette gave me a kiss on my right cheek. I returned her kiss and then looked at Sammy to see if she was ready to play her highly technical 12-string acoustic part. With a smile, Sammy nodded at Lynette and me, and the three of us were off with the first of our back-to-back acoustic-oriented songs; with Sammy’s, Love Will Keep Us Alive on deck.

“You liked those songs, did you?” I asked the crowd after those two acoustic songs, especially the superb sounds of Sammy and the girls’ harmonies on Love - Alive. With a bunch of yells and whistle calls, they let us know they did like them.

“You’re not going to upset if we turn this thing completely on its head, are you?” Brick asked as Lynette, Sammy and I took off our acoustic guitars. Lynette moved back behind her Yamaha keyboards, while I put on my Silverburst guitar. After a brief roar, Brick added, “We think you’ll like this next Southern style... loooovvveeee song! It’s called, Keep Your Hands ... to Yourself!” As she prolonged that song title, Brick playfully slapped her own right hand as it ‘faux-grabbed’ her aqua covered ‘DDs’.

(Note: Dan Baird, the lead singer of the Georgia Satellites wrote Keep Your Hands to Yourself in 1986. It was on their debut group-titled album, and reached number two on the Billboard Hot100 in February of 1987.)

Once I had my capo in the right spot on the neck of my guitar, I immediately started in on the soft intro to this southern rock song. After four beats, E thumped her bass drum, and after another four, Brick joined in with her bass guitar. With four more beats, Lynette joined our combined simple intro before Sammy, in her best Texas-Honky-Tonk accent, sang:

“I got a little change in my pocket going ging-a-ling-a-ling.
Gonna call you on the telephone, baby, give you a ring.
But each time we talk, I say the same old thing,
Always, ‘No huggee, no kissee until I get a wedding ring!’
My honey, my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf.
I say, ‘Don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.’“

As we practiced, I played a short twenty-five second guitar solo after that first verse, with Lynette playing a spritely piano backing sound. Just as I was finishing up my solo, I moved to Sammy and whispered, “I’m gonna get Brick during the third verse, play along, ‘kay.” With a few seconds before the second verse started, Sammy smiled at me and gave me a little wink. She then sang:

“He said, ‘Ooh, baby, baby, baby, why you wanna treat me this way?’
You know he’s still my loverboy, he still feels the same way.
That’s when I told him a story, ‘bout free milk and a cow.
And said, ‘No huggee, no kissee until I get a wedding vow!’
My honey, my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf.
I said, ‘Don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself!’”

Lynette jammed out on her Yamaha piano as I picked on a few strings to match her wonderful keyboard solo. When I turned to look back at E on her three foot elevated drum platform, I saw that she had stood up behind her DW drums. E was using her right foot on the bass drum pedal as she rocked the rest of her pink-to-yellow fade drums and cymbals while standing. I then stepped by Sammy and whispered, “Changing my plans to E. Take a look.”

Sammy turned and clapped her free hand into her hand-held microphone when she saw Eda going to town in a standing position. Before the third verse started, Sammy nodded to Brick and we simply smiled as she was grooving on her Rickenbacker bass with her eyes closed. At the end of Lynette’s thirty second piano solo, Sammy sang:

“You see, he wanted me real bad, and I was about to give in.
Then he started talking about true love, he started talking about sin.
He said, ‘Honey, I’ll stay with you for the rest of my life.’“

Right as Sammy started in with this third verse, I moved and stepped on the first level of the elevated platform between Lava-Lips’ keyboards and E’s drum kit. When Sammy sang, ‘He said,... ‘, I moved to the upper level alongside Eda’s body as she continued to batter the skins and cymbals while standing up. I leaned into E and whispered, ‘That is stupid crazy, girl.’ Eda smiled and didn’t miss a beat after my complement.

Sammy continued to sing and just before the last line in this verse, I stepped behind Eda and put my arms around her drumming torso and pretended to run my hands over her black ‘Rush’ tee shirt covered ‘B-cup’ bosoms.

“But I said, ‘No huggee, no kissee until you make me a wife-ah!’
My honey, my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf.”
I said, ‘Don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself!‘“

The crowd went nuts as they saw me faux-run my hands over Eda’s breasts. Sammy did a great job of improvising as she sang an additional, “I said, ‘Keep your damn hands to yourself, Cuda!“ which got an even bigger round of yells and hollers from the appreciative crowd.

I hustled away from E’s drums to the front of the stage to play my second, slightly more aggressive guitar solo alongside Brick’s driving bass playing. As we practiced, Sammy sang the second and third verses again with Lynette’s second more edgy piano solo between those verses. After that repeated third verse, I stepped on the reverb pedal to get a major growling sound from Silverburst and tore into a concluding thirty-second guitar riff.

At the end of my solo and our band’s playing, Sammy cried, “I said, “Don’t hand me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself!”

We all flipped out when Eda raised her hands above her head and simply dropped her drum sticks as Sammy sang, ‘and keep your hands to yourself.’ Our brunette drummer did a little ‘spirit-fingers’ type motion as she stared down at me with a smile on her face as the crowd exploded in yells and applause.

Eda took a moment to catch her breathe before she sat back down on her throne to snag her drum sticks from the elevated platform. She then waved again at the audience for their continued applause and yells.

After Eda pounded out the opening licks of Life is a Lemon, and the girls sang, “I-I-I-I-I-I-I want my money back!“ the Glencoe and Medway students in the crowd yelled, ‘No call! No call! No call!’ in reference to our performance at Glencoe with their vice-principal, Mr. Gregson.

This was a real fun song to play and sing, and we loved that it had super audience participation as they yelled out, “It’s defective!“ in response to each of Sammy or Lynette’s list of questions prior to my replied answers.

Right before the Sammy and Lynette sang the final question, “What about the future?” I told the crowd, “This one is all you!” and they didn’t disappoint by screaming, “It’s defective!“ and followed by, “You can shove it up you’re ASSSS!“

Before Eda pounded out the opening beats of Life’s Been Good, Sammy said to the audience, “I hope you’re having a great time, here tonight!”

A large burst of yells gave us their response. Sammy then added, “I hope you’ll let us take a little break and, uh, we’ll be back shortly to bring this lovely, high-beamed hall to its knees!”

As Lynette played her piano introduction, I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:03pm. We were right on track to wrap up this first set in our hour-and-ten to fifteen minute timeframe. I really loved jamming with Sammy and Brick on this classic Joe Walsh song. All five of us waved at the audience before we put our guitars on their stands and hustled through the back stage curtains.

As we walked out the side hallway to the audience area, we were mobbed by our friends from Medway, and by Stephanie and her friends from Glencoe. “Holy smokes - moly, guys!” Elizabeth and Kalena both shouted as Stephanie gave me and Lynette a big hug.

Stephanie then gave me a kiss on the cheek and sultrily whispered, “You are sooo going to get lucky tonight for singing that to me.”

“Like that was ever in any doubt, Strawberry!” I chuckled back to her and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

It took a couple of minutes for us to make our way to the separated bar area at the front of the hall to get a few cold pops and water. A lot of high school and college students came up to us to either hug or shake our hands, while telling us how much they enjoyed our performance. We weren’t surprised that our drinks were on the house as Ms. McIntyre had them ready for us.

As we stood at the end of the bar in that separate room for the concert area, Ms. McIntyre and Mr. Gordon Jeffery, the Hall’s owner, chatted with us about our performance and what we’d like to do as a band. Mr. Jeffery then floored up by asking, “Would you like your five-thousand dollar check now or is it okay for me to hold it ‘till Sunday?”

“Five thousand?” I said with a confused look on my face.

“We thought we’d get forty-five hundred, tops!” Brick then excitedly added.

“When I talked with your dad, Sammy,” Ms. McIntyre, the Hall’s manager replied with a smile, “we didn’t expect to have two ... four-hundred plus crowds for your shows.”

“So-ah, I wanted to reward you for having the number two and number three largest crowds in our Aeolian Hall’s history,” Mr. Jeffery said as he patted Brick’s and Eda’s hands on the bar’s countertop.

“Ohh! Wow!” Brick excitedly said with her large green eyes nearly bugging from her grinning face.

“Are you more excited about the extra money or...” Mr. Jeffery asked.

“Two of the three largest audiences, ever! That’s huge!“ Lynette interjected with excitement dripping from her words.

“Only Gordon Lightfoot packed in a larger crowd than what is here, tonight ... by about ten people, if I recall,” Ms. McIntyre replied as if she read my mind regarding who the top drawing artist or group had been.

“Coming in behind, Gord Lightfoot ... Good God! Almighty! That’s just too much to process!” Sammy exclaimed as she slapped her hands on the bar’s countertop.

“I can die right now, and be completely happy about coming in second to Gordon Lightfoot!” I replied with a huge grin on my face.

“Don’t die just yet, Mike ... you’ve got another set, and another sold out show to do,” Mr. Jeffery chuckled and held up his glass of wine for a mini-salute. The five of us, plus Mr. Jeffery and Ms. McIntyre clinked our glasses together, before Ms. McIntyre said, “Here’s to figuratively bringing the old Aeolian beams down!”

“Before you head back out there, I’ve one more thing to ask you,” Mr. Jeffery said as he put five water bottles on the countertop for us to take with us to the stage area. “Would you like our sound man to make a professional quality demo recording of your second set’s performance, tonight? I really think if you had one, you’d be able to send it to a few recording companies. I think you’re that good of a rock band, and you only need to get your songs out there to get a recording contract.”

“You’d do that for us?” I asked as I gave Lynette a hug.

“You think we’re that good?” Eda replied right after my question.

“Yes, to both of those questions,” Mr. Jeffery replied with a smile on his sixty-ish year-old face. “I’m not losing any money by paying that extra five-hundred dollars or by using our sound system to create a top quality recording. You kids are wonderful ... you’re well-mannered, which is refreshing to see, and ... you absolutely take no prisoners up on the stage!”

“Speaking of the stage, we really need to get back to it,” Sammy said as she picked up her water bottle from the countertop.

“We really appreciate you doing this for us,” Lynette replied as she slipped off her barstool.

“Yes, and thanks for the recording, and yes to Sunday for that check, Mr. Jeffery,” I added as we made our way from the bar area to the main hall area.

The main highlight from our second set was Eda’s lead vocal and Brick’s harmonizing performance on, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. Sammy did a great job of buttering up the crowd by introducing our blushing drummer with, “We have a rule for the Bandettes that we can’t hide behind a huge drum kit when singing lead on a song. So would you please give it up for Miss E ... Eda Masciotro, and welcome her to the front of the stage for her... virgin lead vocal performance on our cover of Elton John’s Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me!”

“Don’t forget Cuda,” Brick said to Sammy with a smile.

“Oh yeah! ... moving back to play drums on this song, our lone wolf, Mike Nevins!” Sammy exclaimed.

The buzzing in the crowd died down quickly as Lynette’s unique piano introduction to Elton’s rock ballad captured their undivided attention. Sammy did a masterful job playing lead on her new seafoam green Fender guitar. Brick moved gracefully alongside her sister at the front of the stage. As in our practices, she made her Rickenbacker bass guitar bounce off her right hip during Sammy’s take no prisoner guitar solo.

Brick and Sammy wouldn’t let Eda run back to her drum kit when she finished with her lead vocal duties. Both girls made our blushing drummer take a couple of bows from the front before I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her waist and held her drum sticks up for her to reclaim.

Eda figuratively took center stage once again during the back end of our angry rock instrumental performance of YYZ. She flat-slap wore out her DW drum set on a two-minute-thirty-five second drum solo as the four of us grabbed a water break.

As Sammy and I stood off to the side of the stage listening and watching E’s graceful, octopus-like arm motions, she whispered in my ear, “Do you think Lynette and Stephanie would be super upset if, uh, I happened to invite myself to your little get-together, tonight?”

“You wanna join us?” I incredulously whispered back as I stared in the petite redhead’s blue eyes.

“What person wouldn’t want to join your hot little threesome? Besides, I could really use ... a little release, if you know what I mean.”

I did know that Sammy hadn’t been with anyone since she invited Lava-Lips and me up to her bedroom, right before school started back in September. As Eda’ solo neared its end, I whispered, “Do you want me to ask them, or do you want to just ride over there with me and surprise those two beauties with your presence?”

Sammy chuckled and I knew what her answer was without needing her to whispered reply, “Let’s surprise them, ‘kay?”

“Love to,” I replied with a smile on my face as we moved back out to the front of the stage to join Eda with our hard driving conclusion to YYZ.

At the end of that instrumental performance, I said to the crowd, “Nothing wrong with giving our voices a break is there?” which drew a rousing response.

We ended our second set with Brick channeling her best Elvis persona on Don’ Be Cruel. I followed my birthday buddiette with lead vocals on Hotel California, Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through and Best of Both Worlds. After thanking the audience for their wonderful show of support, we waved and walked behind the rear stage’s curtains.

The crowd yelled and screamed, “We want more! We want more!” which caused us to shake our heads at the obviously high level of excitement. The audience roared even louder when Eda poked her head out, and then waved at them with her drum sticks. Brick and I hustled to the front of the stage and put on our guitars as Sammy and Lynette moved to the Lynette’s Yamaha keyboard system in preparation of playing Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell.

I absolutely loved playing this song because it was very technical and demanding, switching in and out of things with my foot-pedals to get the required sounds for this normal, two person guitar performance. As I played the hellish motorcycle guitar riff using a glass ‘pinkie slider’ on my Silverburst’s strings, I saw Mr. Jeffery standing in the lighted hallway at the rear of the concert hall. He was doing a wicked ‘air-guitar’, matching my real guitar riffs. Brick was smoking hot as she strutted around with her bass guitar, and did a few high leg kicks at the front of the stage when our cover got crazy hot.

The audience loved our eleven minute and fifteen second Meatloaf classic. As they yelled and screamed their appreciation, I saw Lynette move out from behind her keyboards, along with Sammy, and slip her keytar strap over her mass of sweaty blonde hair. After she and Sammy joined Brick and me at the front of the stage, Lynette looked at me and whispered in my ear, “You want to introduce this song or should I?”

“I’ll do it during your intro melody, Lava,” I whispered back as I wiped my forehead with the towel that was hanging on Sammy’s mic-stand.

I then looked to see if Sammy was set with her new Fender guitar. After she gave me a nod, I said as Lynette started in on her keytar, “Let’s have a little fun with this last song. It’s a song I wrote about some of my... alien friends.”

I saw both Sammy and Brick shaking their heads with huge grins on their faces as they recognized the truth behind my statement, even though no one in the audience did.

With a silly grin on my face, I said, “Our last song of the night is called, Love Walks In. Hope you enjoy it!”

I slipped my Silverburst around to my back and moved to give each of my bandmates a shoulder squeeze during their wonderful introductory music to this song. As I sang this song, the four girls did a masterful job with their instruments and backing vocals.

I only pulled around Silverburst for a killer thirty-second guitar riff between the second and third verses, and shared a wicked guitar duel with Sammy right before Eda ended our performance with a killer drum roll and multiple cymbal crashes.

“Thanks everyone!” Sammy exclaimed and waved to the very appreciative crowd.

“I don’t know about the others up here, but this is the most fun I’ve ever had playing. You guys were fricking awesome, tonight!” I shouted through my wireless microphone.

“Yes sirree! This was a blast!” Brick said at her microphone stand.

“Good night! We hope to see you again, real soon!” Lynette said through Sammy’s microphone as her silky, black sleeveless blouse clung to her sweaty chest.

After a large majority of the crowd had left, Ms. McIntyre carried a small pail of ice cold pops and waters out to us as we started to break down our equipment. “If you kids want to store your guitars, keyboards and equipment in the store room behind the curtains to the right, I’ll make sure it’s locked and secure. No sense moving your gear out to your trailer, only to bring it back for Sunday’s show, is there?”

“Thanks, Ms. McIntyre, but I think we’re gonna load this stuff up. We may try and fool around with a few things, tomorrow,” Sammy replied as she had a couple guitar cases in her hands for the trip down to our trailer.

After we had all our instruments and sound gear packed in the trailer, we said good night to the lighting and sound guys, as well as to Ms. McIntyre and Mr. Jeffery before heading out the rear door onto Rectory Street.

In the parking lot across from the Aeolian, I said to Lynette and Stephanie, “I’m gonna follow Sammy back to her house and help her put the trailer up. I won’t be long, though.”

“I don’t need any help, Cuda,” Sammy falsely said picking up on how I was going to get her over to Lynette’s house without the two blondes learning of our wonderful change in our evening’s plans.

“I’d feel better knowing you got home safely with that loaded trailer, Sammy,” I reiterated with a wink.

“Kalena, were those directions to my place good?” Eda asked our friend, who had agreed to help Eda with her physics project on Saturday morning.

“Oh yeah, E. They were real good directions. Look for me around ten-ish, ‘kay?” Kalena replied as she walked hand-in-hand with Jason.

“Ten is great, Kalena. I really appreciate you helping me. I just don’t have the hang of magnets, polarity and some other factors involving magnetics,” Eda said as she got to her older brother’s car.

“No worries. I’ve got a few things I’ll bring with me, which should help both your project and your understanding of that nifty topic.”

“Only you, Toxic, would address anything to do with physics as ‘nifty’!” Elizabeth chuckled.

“Isn’t that a little like ‘the pot calling the kettle black‘, Little Miss Smarty Pants!” I replied to our brunette brainiac.

“I may have a good grasp of physics and other stuff, but you’ll never hear the word nifty, neat or cool escape my lips regarding physics like our science wizardess regularly does.”

“I can’t help it, I love science, almost as much as I love gymnastics and my violin,” Kalena replied with a huge smile under her wild mass of teased blonde hair.

“Well, we’re gonna run,” Lynette said as she gave me a kiss and then took Stephanie’s hand to lead her to her Chevy Nova. “I’ll see you in a few, Cuda, and you guys, tomorrow, Sunday or Monday,” she added as she waved at the others in the band and Medway crowd. Before she got too far from me, Lynette turned and chuckled, “Drive smart in your ‘Purple-B-Cuda-Machine’, Cuda!”

“I will, Lava-Lips,” I replied and blew her a kiss. I then turned to my friends and said, “See y’all later,” as I walked over to my purple and black ‘71 Barracuda.

“I’ll wait for you to get out on the road, Sammy, and then I’ll follow you to your place, ‘kay?” I said before I dropped down into the bucket seat.

“I hope me and my Bronco won’t lose you and your ‘Cuda, Cuda!” Sammy chortled.

“I’ll do my best to keep up with you!”

Mike’s ‘71 Barracuda

11:05pm, Friday October 5, 1979

We were about half way to Lynette’s house when Sammy asked, “So what are the plans for tonight, now that it’s three-on-one, Cuda?”

I chuckled at her question and then replied, “You’re kidding, right. You think I have a plan for you, all three of you girls?”

“You always have a plan of some sort, Mike, my old man,” Sammy chortled as she slapped her hand on my right thigh.

“I did for Lava-Lips and Strawberry ... but I’m not going to complain about you coming along and, uh, possibly messing with it,” I replied as I turned onto River Road from Highway 2.

“I’m messing something up for you? You should have told me and I would have bowed out, Cuda.”

“Whatever plans I had were supplanted by the opportunity to be with three ... count ‘um one, two, three, smokin’ hot girls!” I stated as I flipped my fingers up to emphasize those numbers.

“You’re killing me, Cuda!” Sammy said with a few pats on my thigh. She then turned in her passenger bucket seat and curled her left leg under her right ass cheek. I raised an eyebrow at her, so she simply asked, “Just what were your plans, if you don’t mind giving away trade secrets?”

“Good choice of words, Sammy ... my plans actually did involve trade secrets, so, uh...”

“I won’t tell anyone about what you had planned, Cuda.”