Page 10 of Cru's Crush
Cru stepped closer. “Come to dinner with me. We’ll figure the rest out later.”
“Okay.”
He leaned down to look into my eyes. “Did you say okay?”
I smiled. “I did.”
“There’ssomething I need to say,” I began when we were in the car on our way to Brix’s place.
He glanced over at me. “Go ahead.”
“You’re a good friend, Cru. I don’t want to do anything to ruin that.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
I waited, but he didn’t say anything else. He also didn’t look over at me for several minutes.
3
CRU
“You need to stop acting like the best friend, so Daphne can see you as the leading lady—err, man.” While the reference Brix had made to be the leading lady was weird as fuck, the rest of what he said resonated. Stop acting like the best friend. But how? Especially since she’d just said she didn’t want to do anything to ruin our friendship.
Did she mean by working for Los Cab? To me, it was the perfect solution. Or was it staying in Brix’s house? Which I guess wouldn’t be his; it would be mine. I hadn’t addressed either subject other than with a quick mention. Maybe I should.
“So, about the job, I’ll be taking over the first label and am looking for someone to oversee the second. Since sales of the primary varietals are what bring in the most income, I’ve used the secondary to experiment with different blends and fermentation processes. What you tasted earlier was an example of what I consider a success.”
“As you should.”
I couldn’t look over at her. The friend comment still stung.
“You’d have a lot of freedom to experiment.”
“Cru, you don’t have to do this.”
I sighed and gazed out the side window at the curves of the hillside illuminated by the lights from the sparse houses. The drive from Cambria to Paso Robles was one of my favorites—day or night.
“Actually, I do. I can’t make both.”
“I’m sure there are other?—”
“Daphne, you’re looking for a job; I’m looking for a winemaker. If you aren’t interested in working for Los Cab, or if it’s working with me that is giving you pause, just fucking say so.” My tone was harsher than I’d intended, but her hesitation was pissing me off. I saw it as the perfect solution.
“I would appreciate the opportunity very much.”
Her voice was soft, which made me feel worse about the way I’d snapped at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted. You mentioned you wanted me to see the house?”
“You know how crazy it can get, depending on the time of year. Living on the ranch makes it easier, evenif it isn’t full time. Brix’s place is huge. From what I remember, there are five bedrooms. Maybe six. If you stayed there, you wouldn’t even have to see me if you didn’t want to.”
I glanced over at her, but her arms were folded and she wasn’t looking in my direction.
“Or not,” I muttered.
She sighed. “Why even say that? Is there some problem I’m unaware of? You asked me to justfuckingsay it if I didn’t want to work with you. Why are you making these offers if you don’t want to?”
She was right. I sounded like I was hoping she’d turn me down. Meanwhile, it was my fear—my insecurity—giving her an easy out. “Look, can we start over?”
