Page 67 of Eternal Hoptimist

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Holding a glass of water in shaky hands, I guzzled it before returning to the weekly team meeting with the guys.

“You all right?” Austin asked as he walked into the kitchen and snagged a can of beer from the fridge.

So much for sneaking away for a minute to gather myself.

“Yup, just thirsty.”

“Eating cheap, overly salted pizza will do that to you. Can’t believe he teased us with the promise of hummus.”

I snorted. “I should’ve realized that when I suggested Mediterranean food as the theme for our dinner tonight, Ty would pick shitty pizza. Not even fresh pizza, but frozen Totino’s square pizzas? College all over again.”

“At least he didn’t stretch it to insist Kraft mac and cheese fit the theme. That’s what I’d expected him to bring, to be honest. At least this one has vegetables.”

“Ish.”

Austin laughed.

As I stared at my best friend, I debated for the dozenth time whether I should warn him about the bomb I was dropping for an upcoming agenda item. Once again, I settled on the same conclusion. Dom would freak out about Hayden, but if I talked to anyone one-on-one about it in advance, he would feel cornered. Like a feral cat, Dom didn’t respond well to being trapped. It also wouldn’t be fair for me to try and manipulate Dom’s emotions. My family had done that to me plenty growing up—withholding information if they thought I would be upset or trying to make decisions for me. I hated it.

I returned to our meeting and caught the tail end of Dom and Ty bickering over how much to spend on a summer ad campaign while Seth watched from the dining chair he’d brought in. Since he was living in the house and working more hours at the brewery, we figured it couldn’t hurt to have him join our meetings to stay updated. Though the rest of us hadn’t formally talked about it, I knew we were all hoping Seth would become a more permanent part of our team.

My palms grew clammy as we worked through three more agenda items. The next item on the list taunted me.

“Update on the outdoor construction of the outdoor area. E, what have you got for us?” Dom leaned back in his black leather armchair and sipped his beer. Clueless that his good mood would tank in minutes.

I hated to be the one to destroy his calm, but Hayden’s bid was too good to ignore. I passed around the handouts I’d made. “I’ve contacted several local contractors to get bids, and the table on the spreadsheet is a comparison of what I received. The columns show the total cost for what was on our must-have list, proposed timeline, some notes about their concerns or questions, and costs for items on our wish list.” I took a long swig of my beer while the guys read the paper.

“Why haven’t you listed the companies?” Dom asked.

“It seemed fairer to evaluate them without it.” I was impressed by how casual I sounded. Practicing presenting the bids with Parker the other night had helped, but by the time I ran through it for the fifth time, Parker cut me off by putting my dick in his mouth. That was the best way to tell me I had it down.Good thing I haven’t popped a boner out of muscle memory.

Ty whistled. “The fourth bid. That one’s got our wishlist items, and the total cost is barely more than our must-haves for two of the other contractors.”

“That’s a huge difference. What’s the catch? They gonna use Styrofoam to build it?”

I couldn’t fault Dom for being suspicious. That trait had gotten us an even better deal on our lease agreement for the brewery space, our equipment, hell, even his house.

“It’s someone with a lot of experience, but they’re branching out to build their own business. They’ve got plenty of references for past jobs but are giving us a deal since we would be among the first clients for their new solo venture.”

Dom nodded. “Hoping for a testimonial.”

“Exactly.” I bit back my smile. The four of us were suckers for an underdog.

“I’m into the idea of helping someone else who’s new. We got some great breaks when we started. It would be nice to pay it forward,” Austin said.

Seth nodded. He stayed mostly quiet in the meetings. As he grew more comfortable with us, he more readily joined in the teasing, but beyond answering questions or agreeing with us, he didn’t speak much. I hoped he would speak more because I valued his perspective.

I held my breath as the guys talked through the pros and cons of each bid. No question about the front-runner. After a few minutes, Ty called for a vote, and we unanimously selected Hayden’s bid.

“Who are we working with?” Austin asked while Ty did a drum roll on his thigh.

I swallowed and kept my attention on Austin. “Narwhal Construction.”

Dom’s head snapped up. “Did you say narwhal?”

“What the fuck is a narwhal?” Ty looked between us.

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