Page 47 of Why Cheese?
I stumble in beside him, regretting that I didn’t take the time to lace up my sneakers when I discover what they’ve been doing in the store. For two days, it’s been nothing but chunks of wood, sawdust, and bent nails across the floors and counters—from the door to the back wall.
It’s all gone. Gleaming shelves in a dark mahogany stain line both walls, ready to hold cheese. Cheddy’s sweeping away the dust, revealing a beautiful floor that’ll just need a good mopping and waxing to be finished. It’s like they scrubbed twenty years off of this place. I feel like I’m five years old—frog barrettes in my hair—about to skip around the place nicking samples before my uncle catches me.
Cheddy pauses in his manic sweeping, sending a cloud of dust into Roq’s face. He drops the dustpan and starts to cough while rising to his full height.
“Who?” Cheddy asks.
Cam stretches over to grab Brie. I didn’t even see him in here. He’d been hiding behind the counter that’d been scraped clean of every old cheese sticker. With a beam of pride, Cam says, “Our little Brie has cut the ribbon, so to speak.”
“Really?” Cheddy shouts, abandoning his broom. Roq reaches out to catch it but he’s too late. With a deep groan, Roq shakes his head and bends over to finish the job while Cheddy approaches Cam and Brie.
“I caught them entwined together in a little love nest. It was quite adorable.”
“You did it in the trees?” Cheddy asks Brie who’s once again gone bright pink. “How do you keep from getting a stick up your bum?”
“I dare say there are some who enjoy that,” Cam adds.
I don’t know if the happy-go-lucky cheddar understood that, but he slaps Brie on the shoulder then shoots a thumbs up at me. “Congrats.”
“Are you finished?” Roq grumbles while wielding the broom like a sword.
“The night is young,” Cam declares and Roq scoffs.
“There is curd to be squeezed downstairs.”
“I wouldn’t mind if my curd got a little squeezing,” Cheddy says with a big grin, then he bounces his eyebrows in my direction. My bones melt and tongue catches on fire. I turn away to stop my brain from once again puzzling over the logistics of getting three pegs in three holes.
Roq hurls the broom at our feet with such force it nearly cracks. “Bah!” He stomps for the basement. “If any of you want to get serious and stop wasting your time on such…frivolities, I’ll be doing real work.” He climbs down a few rungs, then drops right to the bottom. In the quiet, Roq’s enraged steps echo up from the basement.
I get it, he hates me. Maybe because of my uncle, maybe because of me. I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
Why do I feel bad that he hates me?
“What curdled his milk?” Cam takes both of my hands and pulls me toward the center of the room. “Now, my lovely, what do you think? Is the store ready to release our cheese upon the world for a bit of coin?”
When the place was covered in mold and dirt I was certain reopening would be impossible. No one in their right mind would come in here willingly. But they worked a miracle in just a few nights, making it look as good as new. I frown at the stains on the walls and the cracking plaster in the alcoves. Almost as good as new. “It could use a new coat of paint. And…I still have to figure out what I need to do to run a business.”
“Oh, we can help with that. Brie happens to be an expert in all manners of commerce.”
Brie nods at the mention, then Cam adds, “Assuming he can use his pen for something other than filling your ledger.”
We both sputter at Cam’s crass remark, but Brie peers up from below his brows and gives me a little smile.
“Now.” Cam slaps his hands together and worries them. “If you’re not too weary, Chedward and I will draw up yet another list of requirements for the morrow. With any luck, we should get enough coin back in your pocket for a proper feast to celebrate.”
I’m really doing this. I’m going to run a shop with four men who turn into cheese by day.
This is insane. I can’t do this. I don’t know how to do any of this.
Cam, Cheddy, and Brie roll up their sleeves. Together, they bend over to pick up one of the old pallets. I bite my lip at all the hot, flexing forearms on display.Maybe I can handle this, for a little bit.
At least until I figure out this whole three-peg challenge.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Angry Asiago
