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It felt a bit like banishment. Or a punishment.
Not that it was meant that way. I didn’t think. Malcolm had called me and offered me the position and he had explained their logic behind me being by the distillery and it made sense. One of the first things he wanted me to work on implementing was having Four Brothers officially added to the Bourbon Trail and start offering tours for buzz and brand expansion.
But I was aware that meant I wouldn’t be working with MacKay every day.
I very much had mixed feelings about that.
On break at Sugar Lips, I sat down at a corner table with a coffee and a celebratory cupcake and called my best friend from college, Shawna, on video chat.
“Guess what?” I said, when her face appeared on the screen. Shawna had taken the summer off and was relaxing at her parents’ house in Florida before starting graduate school in January, so she was in a bikini lounging by their pool. She was clearly going to stretch summer as far into fall as she possibly could.
“You met a hot and single country music star and he wants you to go on tour with him.”
That made me laugh. “I can’t sing.”
“Not as his backup vocals, oh my God, get real. I mean as his beck and call girl, ensconced in his bus bed. You have to doanythinghe says, and you love every single second of it.”
“Have you considered writing romance novels instead of becoming a therapist? Because that was very vivid.” I was a little jealous of her fantasy life.
“I’m happy just to read them. They’re therapy for the soon-to-be therapist.”
“Can I tell you my news now?”
“Oh, right. I got distracted by being a sex slave.” Shawna grinned. “What is your news?”
“I got a job,” I announced. “Using my degree. I will be a junior marketing manager for Four Brothers Bourbon.”
“That’s fantastic! But you don’t even like bourbon.”
“I don’t. But no one needs to know that.” I glanced around to make sure I was still alone. There were no customers at the moment and my co-worker was a sixteen-year-old who seemed stoned most of the time. She was currently leaning on the countertop behind the bakery case slowly eating sprinkles one by one by pressing her thumb onto the sprinkle on the counter, then lifting it to her lips. “My brother got me the interview, so I didn’t totally do this on my own, but I think I nailed it when I went in there to talk to MacKay and his brothers.”
“Wait a minute. MacKay Lennox?” Shawna gaped at me. “Didn’t you hook up with him at Cash’s wedding?”
I nodded. “He and his brothers own the distillery.”
“Are they all hot?”
I thought about it. “Yes, they’re all what I would consider good looking. Two are identical twins.”
“Twins?” Shawna gasped. “Oh my God, Faith. This is totally going to be a why choose novel situation. You can hook up with all of them individually and they’ll all fall in love with you and you can just have them all on like a rotation basis.”
“I think you’re mistaking me for you in your dreams. I can’t even handle my feelings surrounding MacKay. I definitely can’t juggle four men at once, especially brothers.” I wasn’t even attracted to his brothers. Yes, they were hot. But they weren’t MacKay. Only he made me want to tear my clothes off. Or preferably, have him tear my clothes off.
“What feelings are those?” Shawna had put her therapist’s hat on.
“Messy feelings. Sexual feelings. Annoying feelings.”
“Is he going to be your boss?”
“Yes.”
“So you’ve had sex with your boss. Girl. The friend me is just gleeful for you and all the possibilities. The therapist me thinks you should rethink accepting this position.”
I wrinkled my nose, and said, “Lower your voice. I’m at Sugar Lips.”
“Then why are we talking about this right now? Because I have things to say that may require my voice to rise in concern and indignation.”
Shawna had always been dramatic but she might have too much time on her hands this summer and had gotten bored. She was being over-the-top.
