AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I answered confidently. "Yes, under Gallagher."
He consulted his oversized reservation book. "Oh, yes, I see. Here it is. Right this way—follow me."
We wound our way through the busy dining room, hearing diners chatting amiably while they dug into bowls of steaming pasta. Andrea Bocelli's recording of "Con Te Partiro" added to the atmosphere.
Our table was perfect. It sat in a cozy corner, feeling intimate despite the large crowd filling the dining room. The single red rose in a vase at the center of the table added an ideal romantic touch.
When the server asked about drinks, Tyler originally chose a local beer, but when I ordered wine, he changed his mind. "I'll give it a go because you know what you're doing."
"Do you like red wine?"
"I haven't had much," Tyler admitted. "When I was little, my parents led me taste some, and it reminded me of cough syrup, but Theo coaxed me into trying an expensive kind, and it wasn't so bad."
I grinned. "Well, I hope this is an excellent one for you."
As the server poured a small amount into my glass, Tyler leaned forward, his eyes shining. "So, when you do this fancy wine tasting thing, what exactly is it that you're looking for?"
I swirled the red liquid in my glass. "First, I look at the color." Holding the glass up to the light, I demonstrated. "Then I smell to make sure the aroma is pleasing to me."
As I inhaled deeply, the complex bouquet filled my head, and I closed my eyes, humming slightly from the pleasurable sensation.
Tyler sounded genuinely intrigued when he asked, "What did you smell?"
"There's a lot going on with this particular wine. It has notes of ripe cherries, leather, and…and…" I drummed my fingers on the table. "Cinnamon, that's what it is."
Tyler raised an eyebrow. "You got all of that just from sniffing? I'm impressed."
After a quick nod, I sipped and let the wine roll over my tongue. "There's even more in the taste of it. The fruit comes through, but I also catch an earthiness and a hint of tobacco before the smooth finish."
"Wow." Tyler leaned back. "And there's me with Theo saying, 'Yeah, it's red wine and it's pretty good.'"
I laughed and poured a little bit into a glass, passing it to him. "Why don't you give it a go?"
Tyler picked up the glass and did his best to follow my earlier lead. He swirled the wine so vigorously that he nearly sloshed it out over the rim. When he sniffed deeply, he reached up and rubbed his nose. "It tickles."
"That's the reason to take it slow."
Tyler grinned and adopted a teasing, fake voice, doing his best to sound like a sophisticated lover of wine. "I'm definitely getting notes of… grape, and there… it's… umm, more grape, and it closes with a very winey taste."
I burst out laughing. His humorous comments were so unaffected that I couldn't help myself.
When Tyler took his next sip of the wine, a few drops clung to his lower lip. It took tremendous self-restraint to not crawl across the table and steal the drops with a kiss.
While we enjoyed the wine, Tyler leaned toward me, his elbows on the table. "Tell me about your day. What did you hear from your company? All good, I hope."
I swirled the wine round and round a few times while I put my thoughts together. "It was…interesting. I would have thought that my absence would make things tough on my team, but everything seems to be ticking along like a well-oiled machine. It's almost going too well, if that makes any sense."
Tyler pulled back slightly. "I don't think I understand."
I stroked my beard lightly, trying to figure out how to put my mix of pride in my team and discomfort that my input wasn't missed into words. "Well, we've got these AI-based algorithms that help us build our models when we work on supply chain management projects. Smart machines, if you will."
"Yeah, that all sounds really impressive to me, and almost hard to believe."
"That's true, I agree. Seeing our algorithms in action is a little mind-boggling sometimes. So, I expected to log in to my account and find a backlog of issues that needed my response. I thought I'd have to sort through data and make key decisions."
"But you didn't?" Tyler took another sip of his wine.
"I found out that the AI system had resolved almost everything on its own. Our latest major project, overhauling logistics for a Fortune 500 company, is now running ahead of schedule."
