Page 51 of Bad Reputation

“Thanks, man. Who is your lady?” He looks at Emma, who blushes furiously.

“This is Emma. Emma, this is Jethro, who owns the bar that we’re standing in.”

“Nice to meet you,” she says, all politeness.

“We were just talking about doing a wine tasting. We could split it up among different bars, maybe do a cheese plate with it too,” Jethro says. “Beth, what were you saying?”

He turns to Beth, who is dressed like a 90s raver. These people are too cool for school, that’s for sure.

“Oh, just that we could do a special night, or we could have like… a special menu that’s available for a week.” She looks very intent.

“Right. What do you guys think? A week, or a special night?” Jethro asks the crowd.

“How about a month?” someone in the back calls out.

“I second that!” a woman says.

I look to Emma, checking up on her. She smiles a little, and I squeeze her hand. She is easy in that way; she knows that this is my world, and she seems perfectly happy to take a back seat and let me drive. At the same time, it’s not like most of the meeting is over her head or totally uninteresting.

She’s just willing to take it all in. I appreciate that more than she knows.

Later, when most of the crowd has dispersed, Emma and I sit pressed close together on one of the bench seats. There’s a table in front of us, and Beth is going on at length about buying the wood barrels that whiskey is aged in.

Jethro comes over with a small tray of rum cocktails, all festively decorated with pineapple slices and tiki umbrellas. He puts them down in front of us. “Try our new drink. It’s like a Mai Tai, but more refreshing. It’s made with a ton of coconut juice.”

I sip my drink, making a satisfied sound. I raise an eyebrow at Emma. “What do you think?”

She puts the straw to her lips, closing her eyes as she samples it. Her eyes snap open, fiercely green.

“You should bottle this and sell it to sorority girls. You’d sell a million cases, no problem,” she declares.

Jethro chuckles. “I’m glad that you like it.”

“Mmm,” she says demurely.

I slide my hand under the table, gripping Emma’s bare knee. She looks at me, still sipping. There is a naughty sparkle in her eyes. I edge my hand upward, closer to her body.

This flirting with someone I’m meant to flirt with thing is new for me. It’s a novel experience to bring to an event someone who I respect and whose clothes I want to rip off later.

Is this what being in an actual relationship is like? If so, it’s not bad.

Not that Emma and I have made anything official… I glance at her. If Emma has had time to see anyone else though, I would be very surprised. We’ve been inseparable for the last two weeks.

“Do you serve mainly rum drinks here, then?” Emma asks Jethro.

Jethro puffs up, launching into what is obviously a carefully practiced speech about why he has a bar that caters to rum lovers. I try not to roll my eyes when he debuts the term proto-tiki. He’s just excited that someone asked him, is all.

When Jethro gets up to have us try another drink, I lean down to Emma’s ear. “I’m going to do dirty things to you soon. You know that, right?”

She looks up at me with an expression of amusement that saysbring it on. I sip my drink and put twenty minutes on my mental timer. In twenty minutes, we’ll make our excuses and leave.

And then the real fun begins.

19

Emma

When we get back to my house, at my door, he’s undressing me even before I get the door unlocked. The second we’re inside, he picks me up and carries me into my bedroom. Jameson sets me down and sits back on my bed.

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