Page 30 of Why Cheese?
“Are you coming?” Roq calls from down at street level.
“That damn man,” Cam curses to himself. He lets go of me and puts on a hard smile before yelling out the door. “Of course. You delight in the agony of my blue balls.” Cam casts one more pitiful look my way, then he works toward the ladder.
“And you, Violette?”
I gulp and peer down at Roq. “Me?” He looks tiny down on the street.
“We are partners are we not? Would you like to join us?”
Cam snorts and shakes his head before he resumes climbing down. Gulping, I nod, then shout down, “Yes. Yes, I would.”
“Meet you in the basement,” Roq says, already walking away. “Don’t forget to lock up.”
I don’t bother to fight the gremlin, just do the five turns of the lock and stuff the huge keychain into my pocket. As I turn, I catch a pair of curious brown eyes descending the ladder.
CHAPTER NINE
A Feta Fête
“THIS CALLS FOR wine!” Cheddy shouts as he dashes down the ladder.
I laugh as he less climbs and more slides before a loud crash is followed by a weak, “I’m okay.”
To my delight and surprise, they let me help a little with their cheese-making. I was given the task of stuffing the curd into the molds. And every time Roq’s back was turned, Cam would slip in behind me to assist. My arms screamed at me from all the pressing, and my legs and feet from standing on brick for hours, but I couldn’t stop smiling. I was helping, finally.
We adjourned upstairs with a box of crackers and a sampler of the cheeses fresh off the shelf. Well, almost all of us. Roq stayed behind to clean up, and I rather doubt he’ll be joining us when he’s done.
“Tell me, my darling.” Cam reaches across me to dip a cracker into the gooey cheese melting off the side of the sizzling hot slate. “What do you think of this?” He places the tip of the cracker against my lips. I take a bite, lost in the creamy butteriness of the cheese.
“It’s good,” I shout and crumbs spray from my lips.
Smirking, Cam dips another cracker into the melting cheese. Just as he’s about to take a bite, he remarks, “You should try it straight from the bull.”
“What’d I miss?” Cheddy shouts as he leaps across the floor, a massive wine bottle in hand.
“Just the camembert,” Brie chimes in. While Cam is resting on his side partially behind me and I’m leaning back on my elbows, Brie is sitting rod straight.
“Really? I wanted to try that batch. Well, bottom’s up!” Cheddy yanks out the cork with his teeth and spits it across the room.
I start to sit up. “I think there’s a glass…”
He tips the wine back and takes a long chug.
“Or, never mind.”
“Ah.” He wipes off his lips. Staring at the bottle, his face crumples and he passes it to Cam.
“A sterling recommendation,” Cam says before taking a careful sip. He coughs and shakes his head. “I see. All that time in the dark has sharpened the bite. For you, my lady?” He cups the bottle like he’s a sommelier.
Two men have already drank from it. If I do, it’ll be like making out with both of them. Um… Ha! I peer up at Cheddy from the side, the man’s golden hair beaming, then back to Cam with his hair blacker than night. Feeling giddy at the taboo idea of kissing two men at once, I accept the bottle and take the tiniest sip. Notes of wine with hints of burning overwhelm my palette. I cough and the flames find their way up my nose.
“Wow, that’s…that’s something,” I say and pass the bottle on to Brie. The lithe man puts down his plate then proceeds to chug the whole thing without a care.
“Yeah!” Cheddy collapses to his ass. He scoops half of the remaining cheese onto a single cracker and swallows it whole. “There’s my vikingr! Now it’s a party!”
Cam shakes back his hair and plucks up a grape. “Wine, cheese, a beautiful woman. What more could a man want?”
“A sturdy lance would be nice.”
