Page 64 of Why Cheese?
He shoves over that list, then pulls out another. “We’ll need signs to label the cheeses. Also fresh toothpicks for samples. Banners to announce sales.” Roq looks over his shoulder at my uncle’s sign the same moment I do.
“How long?” I ask, fighting off the stew of emotions bubbling inside.
Roq cracks an eyebrow better than a Vulcan.
“Until we can open. How long?”
“If you put your back into it, and everything goes smoothly, I believe we shall have it open in a week.”
One week, then the three-month countdown starts.
Which means I’ll be five million dollars richer. Well, some will go to the agent, and taxes, and my mother will get her share, of course. But I’ll be left with a good amount. Probably.
Yay.
“Good. So what should I do first?”
“Change out of those clothes before you catch your death, then go to bed.” Roq flips the switch, killing all of the lights except for the ones from the street straining in through the glass.
Man, he’s bossy. I bet he can’t turn it off, not even in bed. Telling her where to sit, when to suck, how to hold it.
Rewarding her with a “good girl.”
Uh…
“Why?” I challenge him as he returns to the ladder and his domain.
Roq stares at me and his voice drops to a near growl, “Because you’re going to need a full night’s rest after being tag-teamed by Cheddy and Cam.” He glides down the ladder without saying another word.
My face heats to a million degrees. I try to slide out of the empty dark store without anyone seeing me. My body aches to do everything Roq ordered me to, but I make sure to lock up five times. I don’t want anything bad to happen to my cheese men.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Fondness for Fontina
GASPING, I TRY to shake feeling into my hands as the last customer slips out of the door. It looks like a maelstrom hit the shop, damn near upending shelves and leaving behind a trail of used napkins and toothpicks everywhere.
The first day was a disaster.
We damn near didn’t make it—paint still drying on the tacky wall, shelves empty because their cheeses were forgotten downstairs, wires hanging off the ceiling in order to get Wi-Fi for the register. I spent my whole three hours in bed tossing and turning—not in the fun way—certain no one would show and we’d starve to death. But, as I unlocked the door and turned around the open sign, a flood rushed in.
Many talked about my uncle, others were excited to try all those fancy cheeses on the wooden board. It was Cam’s idea to do a cheese flight. So many people plunked down twenty-five dollars to try it, I ran out of cubes of havarti before noon. With daylight streaming through the cleaned and Brie-decorated windows, it was up to me to run from hosting the flight parties back to the cash register. I expected to be a little out of breath after the day, but my bones want to collapse into the corner and rot for a few thousand years.
I try to ground myself by resting my forehead against the window. “One day down. Eighty-nine more to go.”
A hand bangs on the glass against my face. I jerk up, my heart pounding. An older woman with pug jowls points to my closed sign. “Are you open?” she asks.
“No!” I call out and gesture to the other sign that lists the hours. I’ve already gone one and a half hours over. She doesn’t take my rebuff well and crosses her arms. I wander away to pull the broom from the closet. After all the crumbs and muddy feet, this place is going to need a down-on-your-knees scrubbing.
I can do this. I can keep going.
The woman bangs the glass again. I sneer up at her, and she points behind me. “What about them?”
Roq, Cam, Brie, and Cheddy all stand behind the decimated counter. They give me an assuring smile, and I nearly leap across the floor into their arms. Then the woman knocks a third time.
“They work here,” I tell her. She huffs, but walks away, which is when Roq approaches me.
“How did it go?”
