Page 26 of Corkscrew You
“I can find another pencil here somewhere,” I say. “Come back in an hour.”
Not even a hint of a smile for that pretty darn good joke.
“Look,” he says, while not actually looking at me. “You and I have totally different modus operandi—”
“Yikes.”
“Ways of working,” he adds.
“I do know words,” I say. “I’m just allergic to jargon.”
Now, he looks at me. Coolly. One eyebrow raised.
“Is that right?”
I fold my arms in a totally not defensive pose.
“Circling back so we can get on the same page going forward.” Imightbe digging myself into a hole. “That kind of jargon.”
Nathan nods, slowly. Picks up a sheet of paper and scans it.
“Malolactic fermentation,” he reads out. “Tensile and incisive structure.”
He scans further down. “Chewy tannins. Volatile acidity—”
“All right!”
Smarty-pants.
Nathan replaces the sheet of paper. He’s still not smiling.
“As I was saying, you and I have very different ways of working, and I think we should establish a clear delineation of responsibilities.”
I understand those words loud and clear.
“You mean – you’ll do your stuff and I’ll do mine, and we’ll keep out of each other’s way?”
There’s that twitch above the left eyebrow again but all he says is, “Yes.”
So much for ‘we’. So much for kind. Looks like the only person round here that cares for me is Cam.
Who will object to being delineated?
“What about Cam?” I ask.
The twitch moves down to a muscle in the left jaw.
“I’ll liaise with Cam.”
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I say. “Cam’s used to me, and he’ll take a while to get comfortable with you.”
About a decade.
“And we have projects to get on with,” I continue, “ Like the tasting room.”
Which wasyouridea in the first place! I don’t add.
He sighs. It’ssuperannoying. I’m getting angry again.
