Page 22 of Single Malt
So, I’d asked around. It’d taken me three weeks before I’d found the right fit, and technically, it wasn’t even me who’d found her. It had been my mother, actually.
Theresa had been visiting Austin in San Jose when she’d overheard an argument while she was waiting for him in the lobby of CarideoTech, the business that her first husband had built. I’d never heard what the argument was about, only that Adela’s then-boyfriend had grabbed Adela’s arm, and Mom had come to the rescue.
She’d hit the man’s arm with her umbrella and then threatened to, “Use the mental tip to impale his testicles” – Mom’s exact wording – if he didn’t leave. Then Austin had shown up, and the man had been escorted off the premises. By the time Mom came home a week later, she’d convinced Adela to come to San Ramon with her and talk to me about a job.
I’d had one conversation with Adela and hired her with the condition that her hiring bonus – which she’d tried to say she didn’t need – be a twenty-five percent share in the company. She’d said it was too much, but after nearly a decade together, she’d proven herself worth far more than that.
A few years ago, I’d asked if she’d be interested in additional shares for her annual Christmas bonus since she’d tried to tell me that she didn’t need the bonus. She’d refused, saying she preferred to keep her quarter stake in the company along with the ability to go on vacation without feeling like she was slacking off.
Now, I gave her tickets to the destination of her choice and paid for her hotel.
A poke in the arm came a moment before her voice. “You haven’t heard a single word I’ve said, have you?”
I looked down at the pretty blonde standing next to me. She had her arms crossed and one pale eyebrow raised. With her blue eyes and fair skin, she looked like a china doll. Not the creepy kind that gave me nightmares. One of the pretty ones. But behind that face was a brilliant mind and a spine of steel. Outside of my siblings, she was probably my closest friend.
And that’s all she was. In all the years we’d known each other, there’d never been even a hint of attraction between us, not even the times we’d pretended to be together to discourage people who didn’t know how to take no for an answer without there being someone else involved.
She snapped her fingers in front of my face and sighed. “Brody, get your head out of your ass.”
“Sorry.” I smiled in apology. “What were you saying?”
“Before or after I realized you weren’t listening?”
I laughed. “Let’s go with after for now.”
“I said whatever you were doing this weekend must’ve been fun because you were out of it yesterday too.”
Even though she and I talked about our personal lives sometimes, this was definitely not the time or place to say that it hadn’t been a somethingbut a someonethat had been distracting me.
Freedom had been gone when I’d woken up, but I still hadn’t decided if I was relieved or disappointed. Either way, the night we’d spent together had been playing through my mind ever since. The best I’d been able to do was keep myself from getting an erection at an inappropriate time, and I’d barely been able to do that.
“All right.” I scratched the tip of my nose to hide my embarrassment. “What did you saybeforethat?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “I said that Dewey saw a couple rats out by the dumpster, but the exterminator can’t get here until Friday, so Dewey wants to know if he can bring in a stray cat that’s been hanging out around his house.”
“Seriously?”
She shrugged. “The guy’s scared of rats.”
“Is anyone here allergic to cats?”
That wasn’t a question I never thought I’d ask, but it honestly wasn’t the strangest thing I’d had to address either. That had happened six years ago when we’d found articles of clothing in a small pile in the middle of the distillery floor and no one to claim them.
When no one had answered my inquiry about the random shirts and pants, I’d asked the head of security to watch the video feeds. Unfortunately, those hadn’t shown anything because, as it turned out, the culprit hadbeenmy head of security, something I’d discovered when I’d stayed overnight and caught him drunkenly stripping down to his birthday suit.
He’d apparently been a recovering alcoholic who’d made the poor decision to apply for work at a distillery. Our applications asked about issues with drugs or alcohol, of course, but he’d lied. He’d lasted two months sober before he’d started ‘sampling.’ Never enough someone to notice right away, but it would’ve taken longer for me to figure it out if he hadn’t been the sort of drunk who did crazy shit while blacked-out. I’d gotten him into rehab, and once he was out, I’d helped him get work as a day guard at a hotel.
Now, it was cats.
“I’ll tell Dewey to ask around,” Adela said. “If no one’s allergic, can he bring the cat?”
I didn’t take the time to think everything through. “The rats are only outside?”
“Do you think we’d be open if they’d gotten in?”
I deserved every bit of annoyance in her voice. “No, that was a stupid question. I know you would’ve closed us down until the problem was taken care of. Just tell Dewey to make sure the cat doesn’t get in here either. The last thing we need is a health inspector to see cat shit next to a barrel.”
We went down the stairs to the main floor, and I went from talking to Adela to greeting each of the men and women working the early shift. I’d make another pass through when the afternoon shift came in, and then come in early tomorrow to catch the night crew as they left.