by Chris Bostic
“I’m doing it to myself too, so don’t be a jerk.”
“I’m not. I’m just playing.” He nestled his nose into the crook of my neck. The strap of my dress twisted in his hand, and his lips tickled my skin as he kissed all along my collarbone. “Man, I want to play sooo bad.”
“Uh huh.” I let him kiss me until my toes startling tingling again. Then I pulled away abruptly. “That’s enough.”
“Fine.” Lee leaned back against the nearest barrel. “I just can’t keep my hands off you.”
“Or your lips…not that I’m complaining or anything.” I checked the time again. “I really gotta get back though.”
“Not yet.” Lee reached out and grabbed me by the wrist. He pulled me to his chest. I relented and laid a head on his shoulder.
He didn’t try anything, at least for a long while as we just breathed, so I didn’t have to push him away. In fact, he felt so right I just about fell asleep right there on my feet.
“Hope?” he said softly.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, and tried not to show my frustration at being pulled from the brink of sleep.
“I love you so much.”
“Huh.” I lifted my head. “That’s a first.” He looked confused. Possibly hurt too, so I quickly eased back on the sass. “I love you too. I just hadn’t heard that out of you before.”
“I’ve told you I love you.”
“Yeah but not the so much part.”
Lee smirked. “Guess I figured it was time to tell you that.”
“Probably a few months ago, but I’ll let it slide.”
“I barely knew you back then,” he protested.
“Yeah, but aren’t you just supposed to know?”
I typically felt the other way, but by the time we’d walked off the Bison Fork property to a waiting police car, I knew Lee would be a major part of my life. Or that could have been the really expensive booze playing games with my mind.
He hugged me for a while longer, then finally seemed willing to let me go—not that he’d kept me there against my wishes.
“Let me walk you back.”
“You might have to carry me,” I replied. “Wine makes me sleepy.”
“I guess a whole bottle can do that. Better make sure you get some water in you before the headache hits.”
Lee pushed all our food and dishes back inside the rick, and unfolded a checkered tablecloth to hide the evidence.
“Didn’t know you had that,” I noted.
“Yeah, kinda got in a hurry,” he murmured, and laid the tablecloth over the dishes. “I’ll stop by later and clean this mess up.”
“That’ll be a first. I didn’t think you even knew how to do the dishes.”
“Oh, c’mon. That’s total bullshit,” he objected.
“I know. I’m just messing with you.”
Lee took my hand and pulled me back to the middle. After a short pause at the center for another deep, cleansing breath of the angel’s share, he guided us out to the perimeter aisle.
“You been getting out of the office much?” he asked before we left the rack house.
“Besides this?” I said with a wink.
“Obviously. I need to know if you’ve been, uh…lurking around without me.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” I slugged him on the shoulder. “Not very sexy.”
“Yeah you are.” He kissed me on the top of the head. “So…do you get out?”
“I got to shoot some promo pics on the bottling line yesterday while they were running some of the new J. W. Forest.”
“Sounds like fun. Get to keep a bottle?”
“Hardly. And you know we can’t keep ‘em. We just work here.”
“Just checking,” he said. “Gotta make sure no one’s running off with the merchandise.”
“That’s a good mall cop. Well done.” I leaned back against the nearest rick and sighed contentedly. “Really well done,” I purred, thinking back to his beautifully planned luncheon getaway. “Really really well done.”
“Still wanting to, uhm…stay here for a while? I can help you with that.”
“You’ve done enough already.”
CHAPTER 3
“What have you been working on?” Lee asked as our feet crunched on the gravel path, headed back toward my office behind the gift shop.
“Besides more pictures I have kinda started on a marketing concept for the new release.”
“Interesting. The barrel proof of Old Fine Tyler, right?”
“I’m not supposed to confirm or deny anything about the new release.”
“But Bethany seems to know something about it,” Lee said, having not missed her earlier statement back at the office. “There’s something about her. She’s shadier than an old oak tree.”
“Uh huh.”
“So about the new product….”
I pinched my lips shut, then opened them long enough to say, “I can’t say. Corporate secrets and all.”
When Lee pouted so cutely, I said, “But I suppose I could make an exception for my actual friend in the corporate office.”
“Indeed. What’s a little gossip among friends?”
“Not allowed,” I replied. “I’ll bet we run a tighter ship in marketing than your security office.”
Lee laughed and stopped outside the back door. “Seeing how it’s just me and the night watch, we might have you beat on that one.”
“Anyway….” I leaned in close to whisper, “I’ve actually been working on my own concept for the release. It’s gonna blow Clarice away.”
“Better than my new Cab wine creation?”
I licked my lips at the thought of the wine he’d given me. “Maybe not as good of a product, but I know my campaign for the OFT barrel proof will be top notch.”
“So it is gonna be a barrel proof,” Lee said with a smile.
“Dammit.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You did get me to give up the secret.”
“I have my ways…which mostly just entails letting you talk.”
I slugged him on the shoulder. “You jerk.”
“I’m just sayin’…and you say too much.”
“We’ll see if I keep sharing things with you.” I gave him a gentle touch on the arm to let him know I was talking about a whole lot more than bourbon marketing.
“You will,” he said. “You can’t resist me.”
While that was true, I harrumphed to hide it. Lee just laughed as he opened the door and held it for me.
We wound down a back hallway and stopped right outside the door to my office space.
“Oh, shit. I almost forgot.” I slapped my forehead, suddenly panicked. “Clarice might be back already. We’re supposed to get to help on a store pick this afternoon. One of our big grocery chain clients.”
“I didn’t hear anything about that.” Lee scowled. “You think they’d tell security.”
“It’s through the Master Distiller’s office, or someone in sales…so they probably didn’t think it was a big deal for you.”
“Thanks for trying to salvage my bruised ego.”
“That’s what I’m here for. I’m the only one who gets to bruise you.”
“With your bony hips.”
“They are decidedly not bony.” I ran my hands down my side. “There’s nothing bony on me.”
“How about in you?” he said, and then blushed at his own words.
“Perhaps later,” I said, copying his favorite saying. That only made him turn two shades redder. It seemed like a fine time to continue the torture, so I pulled the door open and said, “Come on in and I’ll give you the formal introduction to Bethany.”
He put up a hand in protest.
I leaned in to whisper, “You’re the one who made me late. Now you can cook up an excuse too.”
“I guess that’s only fair.” Still, he lingered outside the doorway.
I took him by the wrist and dragged him inside behind me. Bethany looked up from bending over the copier, and nearly dro
pped the papers in her hand. An eyebrow raised so high it nearly flew off her head.
Suddenly self-conscious, I turned back to face Lee.
“So we’ll get some promo pics in Warehouse F tomorrow?” When he managed a weak nod, I said, “These were good today.”
I could have slugged him again for not helping, but I had known better all along. More importantly, I really needed to know why Bethany appeared so startled.
I stayed turned away from her and asked Lee, “Why’s she staring at me like that?”
“Maybe ‘cause you’re two hours late?”
Though certainly possible, it seemed like something more. I ran my hands down my dress and instantly discovered the problem.
The strap over my left shoulder had been twisted several times. As a result, my dress sat crooked across my chest, resulting in a sliver of exposed bra. The very bottom of the dress had been turned under on one side as well.
I pushed Lee back out into the hall.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“About what?”
As I adjusted my dress, I pulled down the front to straighten and showed him a healthy amount of cleavage and lace brassiere.
“Oh, damn.” He leaned back and kept staring at my display. “I seriously hadn’t noticed that.”
“I know or you wouldn’t have looked me in the eyes all day.”
I untwisted the shoulder strap, then worked on untucking the bottom of my dress. The red fabric boasted a darker brown stain along the side of my upper thigh where I’d been pressed up against the dirty old ricks.
“Damn, I’m a mess.”
“A hot mess.” Lee brushed at the rear of my dress, taking an extra second to cup and squeeze an ass cheek.
“That’s not what it means, but thanks for trying.” I shooed his hand away when I heard heels clicking on the hardwood.
We turned our heads to see a short brunette, with a blouse arguably tighter than my formfitting dress, turn the corner. She pounded on the keys on her cellphone like a teenager texting half the school at once.
Classic Clarice, I thought, sliding to the side so she wouldn’t bump into us mid-text.
My boss still dressed like she was in her mid-twenties like me, but her muffin top and age in general should have told her no.
“Oh, hey girl,” she chirped at me, finally looking up just in time. “Ready to go pick a barrel?”
She glanced over at Lee, taking an extra couple seconds to examine him. Like her eyes weren’t focusing, yet hyper focused on the way he filled out his snug polo.
“Clarice,” he acknowledged softly, and bowed his head.
“Are you escorting us today?” she asked him, and I thought I caught a whiff of alcohol on her breath. That wasn’t unexpected seeing how her lunches were hardly ever dry.
I assumed that meant she wouldn’t pick up on my wine-scented breath, but I made a mental note to turn away from her when I spoke, just in case.
Then again, it was what everyone did at Old Tyler. It seemed to me like pretty much everyone drank on the job, whether they should have or not.
“I’m sure the client won’t wind if you tag along,” Clarice told Lee, slurring her words ever so slightly.
I hadn’t even thought of that as an option. While Lee looked ready to jump at the chance, I figured I’d better nip that in the bud. I didn’t need Clarice the Cougar checking out my man all afternoon.
Then again, it would be funny.
“I think he’s gotta go check on his security system or something,” I said before he could accept the invitation. “Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, something like that,” he mumbled. “But maybe I could-”
“It’s at one or one-thirty?” I interrupted to ask Clarice. She just nodded. Typical.
I checked the time, and then assumed the appointment must have been set for one-thirty. If so, we had a while longer, but Lee didn’t need to know that.
“Better get ready,” I said. “We don’t want to be late.”
He hung around in the hallway, looking at me while Clarice looked at her phone. The seconds seemingly turned to minutes.
“So….” No one replied to my awkward lead in, and Lee showed no sign of leaving. “So…how about the, uh, weather?”
“Pretty hot,” Lee said, and threw in a bonus wink.
“And the big game?”
Lee broke out laughing. “What big game?”
“I dunno.” I side-eyed Clarice who remained deeply invested in her phone. I figured I might as well make him squirm so long as he was willing to stick around. “I heard something about a big fight or something in town tonight, like some kind of anniversary battle.”
“Is that right?”
“Like a little one-on-one action…maybe later tonight.” I wiped the back of my hand across my brow. “They better be hydrated. Probably gonna be a hot one.”
“Interesting,” he said. “I thought there might be a chance.”
“More than a chance,” I said with a grin. “This one’ll go to overtime for sure.”
“Well, I hope they’re well rested and ready.”
“It’ll be interesting to see who taps out first.”
“It won’t be me,” he said, and quickly corrected himself. “I mean whoever it is.”
I glanced at Clarice again, but she hadn’t noticed the slip. She did, however, look up and say, “Who’s fighting tonight?”
“Some MMA thing or UFC or something.”
“I didn’t know you were into that stuff.” She looked from me to Lee. “I could see that about you.”
“I don’t look tough to you?” I said with a fake laugh.
“Hope, I’m so happy I hired you,” Clarice replied. “You’re just the sweetest little thing.”
Lee laughed out loud at that. So much that he choked on his saliva.
“You okay, big fella?” I asked.
“I think so,” he said between gasps for air.
“You don’t think she’s sweet?” Clarice said, not understanding our relationship.
“Like fresh distillate,” Lee said. “Sweet, but hot to the tongue, and immature.” He looked at Clarice and turned on the charm. “An older woman’s like a well-aged whiskey. She’s smoother, more mellow.”
“More body too,” Clarice said with a laugh. “But I like that description. Can I borrow that?”
“Anytime.”
I glared at Lee, but it was all in good fun. Going back to working together for Alyssa, we’d had fun pretending to be the bigger, better brown-noser.
I readied myself to take the brown-nosing up a notch when Lee abruptly pulled out his phone. He frowned as he quickly flipped through a couple grainy images, and quickly excused himself.
“I better run, ladies. It’s been a pleasure.”
He hurried out the back door.
CHAPTER 4
“Wonder what that was all about?” Clarice asked as the door clanked shut behind Lee.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said, but had a feeling otherwise. Then again, it seemed like I always returned to those nagging feelings.
Ever since being held hostage during the Bison Fork robbery, I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder, turn my head at every loud sound, and clench up at fast movements—or pretty much anything and everything.
I pulled out my phone and fired off a quick text to Lee.
Everything ok?
He didn’t respond right away.
Clarice’s phone vibrated. She picked it up and hit the button.
“Yeah, Tim.” After a short pause, she said, “We can be over there in just a minute. Thanks.”
I looked at Clarice expectantly as she hung up.
“Let’s grab our stuff and get over to meet the clients,” she said. “They showed up early.”
I wondered for a second if that had something to do with Lee running off, like maybe he’d misinterpreted an image on his cameras or something.
I checked my
phone, but he still hadn’t replied.
“They’re already over in H,” Clarice was saying when I tuned back in. “We’ll go straight there to catch up.”
“I don’t need anything,” I said, and waited out in the hallway while she dropped off her purse.
Still without a reply from Lee, I debated sending another text. However, I typically wasn’t that needy of a person. He’d reply when he had a chance.
As time dragged along, I couldn’t keep the negative thoughts from seeping into my mind. That’s where I always seemed to go, especially the longer I stood around with nothing to distract me.
I muttered under my breath. I couldn’t wait. I had to send another message.
Is everything alright?
Still no reply.
I thought I shouldn’t have run him off earlier. It wouldn’t have hurt anything to have him along other than to listen to Clarice make her little comments.
Unfortunately for me, she would anyway.
Clarice popped back out of the office, flowery notepad in hand.
“We better hurry,” she said, though she’d been the one holding things up like normal.
“I’m ready,” I replied again, and took off behind her down the hallway.
“Tell me more about Lee,” she said after we’d walked out the same back door I’d used with him earlier.
I didn’t reply. Instead, I took a quick look around the property from the distillation building to a number of the rack houses.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though it was a bit hard to tell with the sun beating down from directly overhead. Not the greatest feeling with a wine headache starting to build.
About the only brainpower I could manage was to force myself to squint.
“I know you pretty much got him the job here,” Clarice continued despite my silence, “but I never heard the whole story.”
That was because I didn’t want her to know. Not that I pulled any strings or had any favors to cash in. There were none of those available to a brand-new Marketing Specialist like me. I’d been a new hire too, and I didn’t know the owners. Clarice had hired me, but they had hired Lee.
I just didn’t like sharing personal details, especially with nosey people, but I had to give her something.
