Page 76 of Break My Heart
‘It’s crazy out there,’ Andy says. ‘Main Street’s so crowded you can hardly walk down it.’
It’s not just the downtown that’s bustling with tourists. The whole town is filled with them. It took me forever to get here from the orchard because the roads were so backed up.
‘Yeah, I’ve never seen it this busy,’ I say, ‘but it’s good. This is our chance to show off the brewery and make people want to come back. Greet people as soon as they walk in and let’s try not to make them wait for service.’ I go and unlock the door. Two couples are standing outside it, waiting to get in. ‘Welcome to Kanfield Brewery.’ I smile and step aside to let them in.
‘Oh, what a charming little place,’ one of the ladies says.
‘I love the woodwork,’ the other lady says.
‘You make the beer on site?’ one of the men asks.
‘We do. I’m the owner.’ I shake his hand. ‘Sawyer Kanfield.’
‘You connected with the orchard?’
‘I am. My family runs it. My father started it about 40 years ago.’
He smiles. ‘We love that place. We go there every year. And now we’ll have to add this place to our visit.’
‘Glad to hear it. Sit wherever you like. Milo will be over to take your order.’
More people trickle in as they realize we’re open an hour early. By four, the place is full and people are waiting for tables to open up. It’s good I hired the extra help. I’ll need it when I’m not here this weekend. I plan to spend the next three days at the orchard, helping out but also just enjoying it. It’ll be a weekend of good food, good music, and hanging out with my family. And Gina will be there, which will make it even better. She fits in really well with my family. My brothers like her and my parents do too. My mom keeps smiling at me when I’m with Gina, like she thinks we’ll end up together someday. It’s too soon to think about that, but if I were to imagine myself with someone in the future, I could see it being Gina.
My phone rings and I go to the back to answer it. It’s Gina calling. ‘Hey, how’s it going?’
‘Slow. There’s like 10 people here.’
‘Did something happen to the signs?’ I ask, referring to the signs she put up along the road, directing people to her brewery. ‘Maybe the wind blew them over.’
‘The signs are still there, or they were when I checked this morning.’
‘People might be taking the other road into town.’
‘They’re not. The road outside G’s has been busy all day. People just aren’t stopping. I’m thinking of running a special to get people in the door.’
A few weeks ago, we wouldn’t be talking about this. We made a rule that we wouldn’t talk about business. But as we spent more time together, it kept coming up. It’s what we do all day, what we’re passionate about, so it’s hard not to talk about.
‘Do what you have to,’ I tell her. ‘You need to get people to stop.’
‘I could go out there in a bikini and flag people down.’
‘Gina, don’t—’
‘I’m kidding. I’ll run a special and maybe have one of my girls go out there and hold up a sign promoting it. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what to do. I’m running out of ideas. How are things over there?’
‘Busy,’ I say, feeling a little guilty that I’ve got people waiting for a table and her place is almost empty. But I can’t tell my customers to leave and go to G’s. That would imply they’re not welcome here, which is not the message I want to send. And they’d have at least a 20-minute drive to get there, probably twice that with all the festival traffic.
‘Sawyer, I’m going to stay here tonight. I need to figure this out. And I need to make new signs promoting the special.’
‘You want me to come to your place?’
‘Not tonight. I’m not even sure I’ll go back to my apartment. I might just stay here tonight and work.’
‘Gina, you need to sleep.’
‘Sleep can wait. I need to save my business.’
‘Does that mean you’re not going to the festival tomorrow?’
