Page 45 of On the Rocks

CORA

“It sucks that you had to come all the way here just to unlock an office door,” I said as we exited the manufacturing facility in Newburgh and made our way back to the car. The parking lot was massive, but Aiden had a reserved spot near the front door. CEO was painted on the ground in bright yellow paint. “But I’m glad I got a tour out of it.”

“Learned all our trade secrets?” he teased.

“Pretty much.”

“I’m just glad the inspectors didn’t decide to make an example out of Elixir over this whole comedy of errors. It’s not like we didn’t have the documentation they were looking for. It just…wasn’t exactly as accessible as we would have liked it to be.”

“They seemed fairly relaxed about it in the end,” I noted. “George must have taken them for avery nicebrunch.”

He laughed. “Worth every penny.”

“I suppose today would have been less of a hassle if you’d been able to jump on your helicopter,” I said. “I’m sorry about that.”

Aiden twirled his key fob around his finger. “Don’t apologize. I genuinely enjoyed the drive. It was a nice little escape.”

I enjoyed spending time with you, I thought. We’d finally had a long overdue conversation, catching up on everything we’d missed in each other’s lives these past fifteen or so years. I was still stuck on the fact he’d sent flowers after my dad passed, and I’d never known. He kept surprising me in little ways. Aiden, the billionaire—this man I’d despised on sheer principle—wasn’t exactly the ogre I’d imagined him to be. The more time I spent with him, the more I glimpsed the Aiden I’d known—grown into a man who was every bit as impressive as he’d always had the potential to be.

“Did you get enough content filmed?” he asked. “Enough to satisfy your Masked Mixer fans at least?”

I chuckled. “Yeah! The fans will be stoked to get these little behind-the-scenes glimpses. I think they’ll be as surprised as I was at how big the fermentation tanks are.”

“We can pull almost one hundred barrels off some of those tanks,” Aiden said.

“That’s incredible.”

“If there’s more content you want to make, I’d be happy to arrange for you to come back another day. There’s a lot that goes into getting Elixir on a shelf.”

“Actually, I’d enjoy meeting more of the production team. Maybe getting some little snippets of interviews with them to add to the videos. They can talk about what they do, their role in the process. Oh, I could get them to tell me their favorite cocktail to add Elixir to. It could be like a whole series.”

“That sounds amazing. We’ll get you linked up with marketing.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, giving a little chuckle. “I can’t believe I haven’t thought about doing any of that until now.”

“What?”

“Featuring the employees in promotional materials. My production team is the best. I really couldn’t do any of this without them.” He turned and smiled at me. “And that includes you now.”

It includes mefornow, I wanted to correct him. At least until the contract ended. Was I ridiculous for feeling a little sad that we were probably already halfway through this project? I’d miss that lab when this was all over. Filming there had been a great change of pace for my channel. I’d also miss the hell out of the team—Dot’s excitement for random cat videos, Javeed’s insightfulness, Chris’s constant complaints about the music we played. And I’d miss…other things too.

Aiden unlocked the car as we neared, climbing inside. I got into the passenger seat, buckling myself in as he started the car and peeled out of the lot, heading back to Manhattan.

I stared out the window until the facility disappeared from sight, then stole a donut from the box between us.

Aiden smirked.

“Don’t say anything,” I said.

“About my superior snacks? Never.”

“Wise choice. Now that you’ve spent your whole day pacifying the federal government,” I said, trying not to get powdered sugar on my shirt. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“I promised my dad I’d swing by the Red Lion to help him and Maggie hang the light fixtures that finally came in. Remember me telling you he was trying to sort them out?”

I covered my mouth, swallowing a bite of donut. “Idoremember. That was the time you told me not to go over and say hello because I’d only be bothering him.”

Aiden’s head snapped in my direction, his eyes wide like he’d just remembered the argument we’d had. He opened his mouth as if to apologize, but when he saw the teasing look on my face, his expression softened. He turned back to the road, drumming his hand against the steering wheel. “IfIremember correctly, that was right after you’d assaulted me with a tripod.”

I clicked my tongue. “I did not assault you.”

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