Page 4 of On the Rocks

His nostrils flared as he thumped the bottle down on the table. Beside me, Jennifer jumped. Aiden shoved the Elixir back in my direction. “This is a gift.”

I pushed the bottle away again. “And this is me refusing your gift.”

“You can’t refuse it. This bottle was selected specifically with you in mind.”

I snorted. Yeah, because he knew me—sorry, knew theMasked Mixerso well. “Let me say this in a way you’ll understand: I don’t accept gifts from brands I have no intention of working with. Me and Elixir are a no-go.” He wasn’t the first to try to butter me up with gifts to convince me to tie my name to their brand, but I had a firm policy of saying no. A lot of companies were selling products I honestly wouldn’t endorse, and I wasn’t willing to stake my reputation on just anything.

That wasn’t the case with Elixir—I could admit that. It was a good product. But it washisproduct, and I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

That tightly held mask Aiden wore fractured a little more. He wasn’t taking the rejection well.Aww, poor baby…I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from laughing.

“And why would you not want to work with Elixir?” he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. “How much time do you have?”

His hand clenched into a fist where it rested on the table. “Just take the goddamn bottle!”

“No. And last time I checked, that was a complete sentence.”

Aiden crossed his arms, looming over me. “Well, I’m not taking it back. And I’d hate for it to go to waste. So you might as well just accept it.”

God! What was it going to take for this asshole to get a clue? I didn’t want to work with him or his stupid company, and like hell was I going to stand up in front of the massive crowd who’d gathered for this contest holding a bottle of Elixir. My gaze drifted to a guy walking toward our table. He wore a button on his shirt that saidBirthday Boy.How fucking perfect. A smug smile stretched across my face. I grabbed the Elixir bottle and shoved it into the guy’s arms as he passed. He blinked at me for a beat. So did Aiden. “Happy Birthday!” I said, giving him an overly cheery smile.

“Yo!” the guy yelled to his friends, grinning like a tipsy fool as he lifted the bottle over his head. “Masked Mixer just gifted us a bottle!” There was a subsequent cheer from a table across the bar. He stumbled off with Aiden’s limited edition, tenth anniversary bottle.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Aiden snapped. I could practically see the angry wheels spinning behind his eyes.

“It’s called a birthday present,” I said. “And it sounds like you really made their night, Mr. Cocktail King.”

“That wasn’t meant for them,” he all but snarled.

I shrugged. “You’re the one who said you didn’t want it to go to waste.”

He huffed like a growl had gotten caught behind his teeth. He was definitely pissed off now. Good. Maybe now he’d take his stupid-hot self somewhere else and leave me the hell alone.

“Round two participants!” the host announced into the mic. “Last call! Please make your way to the bar.”

“That’s you!” Jennifer said excitedly, reaching across the table to nudge my arm.

Last call? I jumped off my stool. I’d almost missed the round because I was too busy being annoyed by Aiden. I wasnotgoing to let him mess with my head like he did back in the day. Not again. And especially not now, when I had a contest to win.

“Wait,” he said as I hurried past him, heading for the bar. He gestured after the birthday boy. “The bottle!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I said in my most condescending tone, looking from the birthday boy’s table to Aiden. “They’re so drunk already I’m sure they won’t notice Elixir’s awful aftertaste.”

Aiden’s face twisted into a snarl. I turned away, grimly satisfied, and made my way over to my round two workstation.

Another point to me.

2

AIDEN

If I never heard the nameMasked Mixeragain, I would die a happy man.

“And the Masked Mixer is running for a last-minute ingredient,” the host announced. “Will she make it in time?”

I leaned against the bar, trying to see what she would grab.Better be a damn bottle of Elixir, I thought. She returned to her workstation with a lime. A lime!

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