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“No, because you brought me somewhere I know you’d never set foot in for anyone other than me. That’s super fucking hot.”
I was just about to tell him so was he when someone cleared their throat from behind the front counter. We turned to see a woman in black pants and a shirt smiling at us.
“Welcome to Seven Barrel Brewery. Travis and Caleb, is that right?”
“That’s right,” I said, moving over to her. Caleb followed, looking around at the massive pipes that lined the beams of the old warehouse turned brewery/restaurant.
“I understand it’s your birthday?”
“This guy right here.” I gestured to Caleb, who flashed his easygoing smile.
“This place is incredible.”
“Thanks. It’s been in my family a long time now, and we take a lot of pride when it comes to our brews. Are you into craft beers?”
It took everything I had not to gag at the suggestion, but luckily, Caleb replied.
“Love them. I’m always game to try something new.”
“Very good. That’s what today is all about. I thought we’d start by giving you a tour and explaining how we make our beer, and then we can get to some tasting and food. Does that sound good?”
The food part sounded amazing, the rest apparently soundedgreatto Caleb, and that was all that really mattered. I wasn’t here for me. This wasn’tforme.
Gesture-wise, though, it was kind of for me, because I’d swung and hit the ball right out of the park. Judging by the way Caleb kept sneaking glances my way, I was going to benefit from this all night long.
“Okay, well, if you follow me, I’ll take you out to where all the magic happens.”
Caleb followed our host through a set of double doors, and when he looked over his shoulder to grin my way, I plastered a smile on my face so as not to dampen his experience.
For the next half-hour I learned more about beer than I ever needed or wanted. From the malting and mashing to the fact that beer didn’t only smell bad when you drank it from the bottle, it smelled even worse from the byproducts the fermentation produces.
Seriously, wasn’t a tour like this supposed to make me want todrinkthe beer? This just made me dig my heels in on my opinion that beer was one of the nastiest alcoholic beverages to ever be consumed.Piss water. That was my belief and I was sticking to it.
“Right, well, would you two like to try some of our house brews?”
Pass. Hard pass.
“We’d love to.” Caleb’s devilish grin told me he could see right through my strained smile. But when our jovial host headed toward the bar and we made our way back out to the restaurant area, he leaned in close and said, “This is killing you, isn’t it?”
“The tour was…interesting.”
“Mhmm.” Caleb slid into one side of a booth as I took the other.
“It was. I learned that I was right—beer really is gross.” I reached into the inside pocket of my blazer and pulled out a flask. When I took a long swig, Caleb scoffed.
“You brought a chaser?”
“Hey, I didn’t pull it out during the tour.”
“Which is shocking. But I’m impressed.”
“Yeah?” I slid my leg in between his. “How impressed?”
He winked, and it was such a casual, sexy move that I still couldn’t believe it was directed at me. “Guess you’ll find out later.”
God, why couldn’t it alreadybelater?
As our host came back with a tray of house samples, I tucked my flask back into my jacket and prepared myself for the next round.
