Page 68 of Single Malt

When men cheated, they had absolutely no respect for either of the women involved. With a lack of respect, it was easy for them to think so little of the women’s intelligence that the lies they created didn’t necessarily have to be good ones. They assumed that they themselves were such prizes that women would overlook everything that didn’t make any sense.

I’d been there before, and I’d be damned if I believed another asshole’s bullshit.

In fact, I wasn’t even going to give Brody the satisfaction of responding. I wasn’t going to call him on the lie or give him a chance to make up some new excuse. I was through wasting my time on him. No matter how explosive the sex had been every time we’d been together, it wasn’t worth all of this. No relationship was, not even one that should’ve just been sex.

Honestly, everything that’d happened recently made me think that perhaps I needed to consider completely swearing off men, at least through the rest of this semester. It wasn’t like they were the only way for me to orgasm. I’d taken care of myself plenty of times in the past, and if the tension that came with finding a guy to hook up with outweighed the benefits of the release I received, I needed to rethink my way of looking at things.

The first step would be to call my doctor as soon as the office opened and schedule an appointment to get bloodwork done to make sure Brody hadn’t given me anything other than another reason to stay away from men. Once that was done, I’d put all of this behind me and get through this semester without any other distractions.

No matter how hot they were.

Forty-Four

Brody

The little deckslash platform area where I stood had been a part of this building before I’d purchased it, and for a while, I’d planned to tear it down and make the wall solid. Then I’d considered making the entire wall glass.

After a couple months, I was glad I hadn’t gone through with any of it. The ability to walk straight out from my office and go down to the floor was nice, but I also appreciated being able to stand here and see the entire floor all at once. Not because I wanted them to feel like I was above them, watching for mistakes. In fact, it was the opposite. I told each and every one of them that if they saw me up here, then they could come talk to me about anything without needing to make an appointment because it meant my calendar was clear at that moment.

The last few weeks had been so good for business that I hadn’t really had any time to be up here. In fact, I’d barely been able to make time for my usual walk-throughs to talk to each shift. If things kept going this well, I’d have no choice but to delegate some tasks so I could continue doing the ones that I thought were the most important. Like having a personal connection with my employees.

Adding Club Privé, Black Masque, and Stanford University to my client list had more than doubled my production numbers, and I had two more possible additions to follow up with after the weekend. Already, I’d had to add a dozen new employees, and bringing them on had confirmed one thing: I needed more room.

This building wasn’t small, but it could barely hold what I required for my current orders. If Shannon’s did well at Black Masque and Club Privé, both clubs would increase what they wanted since, unlike Stanford, they’d be selling it every night the clubs were open rather than the special occasion purchases the university did. The Mannings had also told me that they would most likely want to add their other clubs, even the one in France.

Which meant I had decisions to make. I could expand this building, but because of where it was and the zoning laws, I didn’t think that would be the most practical solution. Purchasing another building made more sense, but with that choice came more decisions to make.

Would it be better to buy one much larger building and move everything from here, adding more equipment as needed, or should I find an additional building to fill from scratch with both employees and equipment? If I did the latter, I needed to consider the cost of shipping versus a new distillery or two in other parts of the country, maybe even Texas or New York.

These weren’t problems – far from it – but that didn’t mean they were easy choices to make. So many factors came into play, not the least of which would be the possible relocation or the addition of a new plant farther East. I liked being near my parents, but it wasn’t as if they needed me to take care of them, and I did have family members all over the country. I could find places near one of them. Or I could open distilleries near them and just spend a lot more time traveling and take advantage of the new locations.

It was something I needed to figure out soon, but not right this second, not when I had new employees who were still settling in, and one of the things I prided myself on was Shannon’s being family. Four of my new employees were on this shift, and I intended to see how they were doing. I still did my own interviewing and hiring for every position, though that was one of the tasks I knew I’d need to delegate at some point. Again, not something I needed to take care of right now.

I made my way down the stairs and over to the tall blonde who was working with Heath today. Polly Fogg was a twenty-six-year-old with a master’s degree in chemistry. I’d told her that she was overqualified, but she’d insisted this was what she wanted. On her first day, I’d seen the look on her face, and it’d been pure joy.

“Mr. McCrae.” She looked surprised to see me.

“How’s it going?” I shook her hand and nodded at Heath, who gave me a nod back.

“It’s amazing here.” Her expression showed nothing but happiness. “I love the work, and the people are great, and I feel more at home here than I have anywhere else in a long time.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m glad to hear all of it. I’ve heard nothing but good about how you’re doing. Heath says you’ll be able to do his job soon enough.”

“Because he’s a great teacher.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “And thank you.”

I chatted with her a bit longer, not about work, but just a little about her in general, and then I went on to Ralph Waters, the barely twenty-one-year-old who’d joined my machine maintenance team. I didn’t need to spend a lot of time with each person, just long enough for me to get a better sense of who they were. I’d needed to hire new people to work here, and I’d need more no matter how I decided to expand our operations. I’d need employees who knew what they were doing.

If I decided to create an entirely new, second distillery, I’d need to have workers I could depend on to run things and to train others. I could bring in people with experience, and I’d be open to new ideas, but unless there was a better way of doing something, I wanted people who knew my way of conducting business.

Adela was on the platform by the time I went back up the steps, her tablet in hand. “Mr. Shadows called. He had a family emergency and had to cancel your lunch.”

I frowned, but it wasn’t about my schedule. “Did he say what kind of emergency?”

“No. He sounded distracted but not upset, if that helps.”

“If you can find out what’s going on, I’d appreciate it.” We went back into my office. “Find out if he needs any help or if there’s anything we can do for him. If it’s an emergency that needs condolences, let me know. I’ll reach out to him, and we’ll send whatever needs to be sent.”

Adela made a note on her tablet. “I’ll make some calls.”