Pride and Porters

by Charlotte Greene

  Lottie raised her eyebrows and nodded. Jen didn’t sleep around.

  Erin sighed. “I just don’t want to be picking up the pieces later, you know? But maybe it’s already too late.”

  Lottie touched her hand. “Jen’s a grown-ass woman. She gets to make mistakes, too. We all do. We don’t know how she’ll take it, and we don’t know if what they have is going anywhere or not.” She held up her hands before Erin could interrupt. “Look, it’s unlikely that it will be anything more than an autumn romance—I’m not a complete idiot—but it could work out. Like I said, stranger things have happened. Why don’t we just let the cards fall where they may and hope for the best?”

  Erin laughed and moved around to give Lottie a quick hug. “That’s what I love about you, Lottie. You’re an actual dyed-in-the-wool optimist. You sound like a motivational poster.” She paused again, thinking about her sister. “And you’re right. I mean, maybe not about it working out for them—I genuinely doubt that—but maybe Jen just needs someone to get her back in the game.” She glanced down at her watch. “Shit. We’re both going to be late now.”

  Usually their schedules allowed them to go in more or less when it suited them, but both had needed to be at work by a specific time today.

  Lottie’s eyes widened. “Oh crap. My boss is going to go ballistic. We have a huge project this week, and no one can start until I’m there.” Lottie worked in a web-design company in town.

  “Let’s get the hizzle, then.”

  They hugged outside by Lottie’s car, and Erin set off toward the brewery at a fast pace. She’d thought of bringing her bike this morning but had decided to walk to the gym, and it was too late to go home for it now. It was only ten minutes from the coffee shop to work, but she should have been there twenty minutes ago.

  Out of breath and a little sweaty, she spotted Charlie’s luxury rental car a block away from the brewery and jogged the last few yards. The front of their tasting room was almost entirely glass, and she was surprised to see Charlie already sitting inside. The mystery was solved a moment later when she saw Jen appear from the back, and when she tried the front door, it was already unlocked. Both of them turned her way, clearly startled.

  “I’m so sorry, Charlie,” Erin said, still a little breathless. “I meant to be here when you showed up.”

  He smiled. “No problem, Erin. Your sister was kind enough to let me in.”

  Erin shared a look with Jen, and Jen widened her eyes a little, silencing her. Jen hadn’t told her she would be here this morning. As far as Erin knew, the plan had been for Erin to do the tour alone today. She was the master brewer, after all, and Charlie wanted to talk about brewing. Jen did the business end of things, and while she knew more than a layman about flavor and palate, she knew very little about the craft. She’d clearly shown up just so she could see Charlie.

  “Oh?” Erin said, stalling. “That’s great—I’m so relieved. I had an image of you sitting here waiting all by yourself.”

  “Nope,” Charlie said, eyes glued on Jen. “Not a problem.”

  Erin couldn’t help but roll her eyes. The two of them were still staring at each other, oblivious, so they didn’t notice.

  “Okay then. Let’s get started.”

  It took an extra moment for the two of them to realize that Erin had said something, and they both seemed to snap out of it, almost physically. When they looked at her, almost dazed, Erin had to stifle a laugh. Maybe Lottie was right. Charlie was starting to seem just as besotted as her sister.

  By the time they finished the tour, it was only a few minutes before the brewery opened to the public. Jen excused herself to go see to the staff that had shown up. She was the staff manager as well as doing all the financial stuff. Jen also worked two or three hours behind the bar most days, and Erin usually a bit less than that. Their jobs were primarily behind the scenes now. To Erin, this was both a good thing and a bad thing.

  During her last apprenticeship at a brewery in Fort Collins, she’d been behind the counter a lot, and she’d often enjoyed explaining beer to new and old drinkers alike. She loved the moment when someone found a beer they loved, especially someone who came in claiming they didn’t really like beer. Now, she spent most of her working life in the brewing room, rarely talking to anyone except her fellow brewers. She kind of missed talking to regular people.

  They employed two full-time counter service specialists, several part-time specialists like their sister Lydia, and three assistant brewers. That was all the staff they could afford until they got bigger—if it ever happened—which usually meant that if someone took a day off or called in sick, either she or Jen had to cover their hours in the taproom. But Erin generally didn’t mind. Sometimes it was nice to go back to where she started.

  While Jen talked to the four staff members behind the bar, Erin poured Charlie and herself a small glass of her favorite beer—the porter. They walked around the side of the bar and out into the taproom, sitting at one of the tall, long tables in the center of the room. Charlie took a long pull on his beer, his eyes closed in pleasure, and Erin couldn’t help but smile. She loved seeing people enjoy her work. When he opened his eyes, he blushed a little, obviously embarrassed to see her watching him.

  “You’ll have to excuse me, Erin. People always tell me I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I’m having a hard time hiding how much I love your beer.”

  “Why would you?”

  He laughed and wiped off some of the foam on his lip. “I guess I want to seem impartial. I’ve tried a lot of beer here in the state and still have a lot to try. I don’t want to pick a favorite just yet.” He indicated his glass. “But I can tell you it’s going to be hard to beat this porter.”

  Erin flushed in pleasure and was about to say something when she noticed he was no longer looking at her. His eyes were rooted on something behind her, and she turned to follow his gaze, not surprised to see that he was watching Jen. She was setting up the register at the bar for the staff, oblivious to them. Erin looked at him and almost laughed out loud. His eyes were so wistful, so full of happy longing, she could tell exactly what he was feeling. He finally wrenched his gaze from Jen, and when he met Erin’s, he flushed scarlet and stared down at his hands. They were quiet for a moment as he regained his composure, and then he finally met her eyes again.

  “Listen, Erin, about your sister. I mean, about the two of us…”

  Erin’s heart started hammering. “Yes?”

  He opened his mouth as if to speak, and then the front door opened a few feet away. They looked over, and Erin was startled to see Darcy standing in the doorway, taking off her sunglasses and glancing around. Their eyes met for a moment, and then Darcy saw Charlie.

  He got to his feet and gave her a hug. “Hey, you! I haven’t seen you in few days. How was Aspen?”

  She shrugged. “It was Aspen.”

  Charlie laughed. “Whatever that means.”

  “Oh, you’ve been there before—you know what I mean. Bunch of rich assholes with nothing better to do than to sit around being rich. They don’t have enough snow there yet, so I couldn’t even go skiing to get away from them.”

  “Was your aunt there?”

  She nodded and rolled her eyes. “Yes. Unfortunately.”

  Charlie barked a laugh. “That bad?”

  She nodded again.

  “Is she still trying to set you up with that hotel woman?”

  Darcy’s eyes grew wide, and she glanced over at Erin, alarmed. She leaned closer to Charlie. “Can we talk about this later?”

  Erin held up her hands and got to her feet. “Hey, don’t mind me. I was just leaving.”

  Charlie looked as if he wanted to stop her, but Erin walked away as quickly as she could to give them privacy. The last thing she wanted to hear was gossip about Darcy’s love life.

  She greeted the two counter employees and then went in the back to find her sister. Jen was in the miniscule office they’d made for her, which was also a storage room
for hops and barley. So many sacks of things were in here, you couldn’t see the walls, but it smelled absolutely heavenly. Along one wall, they’d placed Jen’s desk, computer, and other office equipment, and she’d complained repeatedly again about not having enough space. If they managed to expand, this entire room could be converted into her office once the new storage room was built, and Erin could hardly wait so she wouldn’t have to hear her gripe.

  “Hey, Jen. Darcy just got here. Didn’t you say you guys were going to go to lunch together?”

  “Yes,” Jen said, her brow furrowed. “And I assumed you’d come with. Don’t you want to? Charlie’s paying.”

  Erin sighed. “And if it was just you and Charlie, I would. But once you mentioned Darcy, I thought better of it, and after seeing her out there, I don’t think I can go through with it.”

  “What is it between you two? You’ve barely spoken a word to her. She’s actually quite lovely once you get over her reserve. You should know that, being friends with Lottie.”

  Erin felt a stab of guilt. She hadn’t told Jen about the conversation she’d overheard in the alley, not wanting to cause some kind of rift between her and Charlie, but now she regretted not being more forthright. It was too late to fill her in now.

  Instead, she said, “She’s a bitch, Jen, pure and simple. I don’t want to get to know her better, and I don’t need to. I’d be happy to get to know Charlie, but not while she’s around. What’s she doing here with him, anyway? Is she one of his lawyers, too?”

  Except for the first night, they hadn’t seen the lawyer Charlie had come in with. He was apparently flying back and forth from Boston to take care of things while Charlie was here.

  Jen shook her head. “No—she’s just his friend. They’ve known each other a long time, I guess. College friends.”

  “It’s hard to imagine two less-similar people. I seriously don’t understand how they could be friends. Does she work with him or something? Is that why she’s here?”

  “No. She’s some kind of reporter, I think. At least that’s the impression I got from some of the things I’ve heard them saying. I haven’t thought to ask. She might just be independently wealthy or something. I do know she’s rich as hell, just like he is.”

  “Well, anyway—you go on ahead and have lunch with them. I have a lot to do here today. I’ll get one of the others to go get me a sandwich or something.”

  Jen raised her eyebrows but didn’t argue, clearly seeing it would be fruitless. Erin would go a long way to please her sister, but she would rarely fake being nice to a complete stranger. She could barely make nice with her father, let alone Darcy. If she and Darcy were put together for any great length of time, she’d end up telling the woman off, and no one needed that. Best just to avoid her.

  After finishing a backbreaking task with two of the other brewers, Erin went into the little office to sit down for a bit before heading home. Jen had returned from lunch and left already, and it was dark outside. The walk home would be chilly, and she was worn out.

  Realizing the office computer was still on, Erin reached over to shut it down and then thought of something Jen had said earlier today. She clicked on the web browser and typed Darcy’s full name into the search bar. The first response listed her as a writer for Food and Beverage magazine.

  Erin’s stomach seized with dread. She clicked on the link to Darcy’s articles, and the first one that popped up was a review of a local brewery. Feeling sick now, Erin opened the article and read a scathing, horrific diatribe against the brewery and its beers. While most people might not read this article before visiting the brewery, it could significantly hurt their business. Erin opened another tab and ran a search on the brewery reviewed in Darcy’s article, and sure enough, after the brewery’s website, the review was the second link in the search.

  Erin once again read the article through to the end, and this time, when she hit the bottom of the page, she scrolled down and saw something that made her go cold with horror. Under Darcy’s byline was a little paragraph:

  Darcy Fitzwilliam will be reporting from Colorado breweries for the next few weeks. Her articles will appear on Mondays and Fridays throughout the autumn, bringing you the latest reports on brewers in the Rocky Mountain state.

  Erin could hardly breathe. She was so angry and so upset, it took her a long moment before she realized that Darcy had been in their brewery twice now and had tried all of their beers at this point more than once. She was clearly going to do an article on BSB, too.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Chapter Five

  Erin waited a week to tell Jen about Darcy’s review. At first she thought she might be able to hide it from her—Jen didn’t react well to stress. But as the days passed, and Charlie and Jen saw more and more of each other, Erin started to feel like she was being disingenuous. Her sister had a right to know what was coming, whatever the review might say. It would be worse to spring it on her after it had already been written.

  Although she usually took Tuesdays off entirely, Erin had decided to go to the gym to see if she could catch Lottie, but she hadn’t seen her there. She’d wanted to ask Lottie’s opinion about the news all week, but now it was too late. It was unusual for Lottie to miss a weekday at the gym, and Erin wondered if she should call her later to check in. She did a quick run and some weights before heading home. When she walked into the house, Jen had clearly just woken up. She was in the kitchen reading the newspaper, eating her oatmeal standing up. She looked startled when the door opened.

  “Where were you?” Jen asked. “I thought you were still sleeping.”

  “I woke up early.” Erin put her keys on the island and sat on one of the stools.

  “I wanted to talk to you about something, Jen. Can we sit for a minute?”

  Jen raised an eyebrow, but she moved over to the other stool and sat down next to her. “Sounds serious.”

  Erin sighed. “It could be.” She grabbed her phone and opened the article Darcy had written on her browser before handing it to Jen. “Read that.”

  Jen frowned, took the phone from her, and spent the next couple of minutes reading. Her face became grave the longer she read, and when she finished, she was a little pale.

  “Shit,” Jen said.

  “That’s exactly what I said.”

  “Do you think that means—”

  “That she’s writing a review of us? Of course she is.”

  “Shit.”

  They were both quiet. Finally, Jen shrugged. “Oh, well!” She got up and started cleaning her breakfast things.

  “What do you mean ‘oh well’? It doesn’t bother you?”

  Jen shrugged again. “Not really. I mean, what can we do? She’s probably already written the review, right?”

  “But doesn’t it bother you? Shouldn’t they have said something to us?”

  Jen stared at her. “Of course not. That’s not how reviews work, Erin. They’re supposed to be anonymous.”

  “But at least Charlie should have warned you. Don’t you think?”

  Jen rolled her eyes. “Why? And again I ask you—what could we have done? Refused to let them review us? That’s stupid.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jen set down her soapy bowl and sighed. “Think about it, Erin. If Darcy gives us a good rating, we’ll benefit from it, won’t we? I mean, I don’t know if many people who read Food and Beverage will go out of their way to visit some random brewery in a small town in Colorado, but we could publish the article on our website, and that could only help us with people around here.”

  “But what if it’s bad?”

  Jen laughed. “Then we don’t put it on our website! Anyway, didn’t you say she likes our beer? Don’t you have faith in it yourself? I think we’re making some of the best in the state right now, Erin. I really do.”

  Erin had no response and sat in stunned silence as Jen bustled around the kitchen. Jen always amazed her. She was completely and totally right. Of course the beer w
ould speak for itself, and of course the review had a high chance of being positive. All week, Erin had been dreading the idea of a write-up in a national magazine, when really, it might end up being one of the best things to happen to them right now.

  When Jen finished cleaning the kitchen, Erin got up and gave her a hug.

  Jen laughed. “What was that for?”

  “For being you. You’re so much smarter than me in some ways.”

  Jen looked puzzled. “Thanks? But really, you need to go shower and get dressed. They’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

  Erin groaned. “Do I have to go?”

  “Yes—you do. No buts.”

  After Charlie’s tour at BSB, when they were having lunch, Jen had agreed to go with Charlie and Darcy up to Estes Park to show them the breweries there. She’d volunteered Erin to come along without asking her about it—something about having an expert with them. Erin had been trying to get out of it all week but couldn’t. They both had the day off, and Erin had talked to Jen recently about wanting to go to Estes before the snow fell in earnest.

  After she showered and dressed, Erin came into the living room to find Charlie and Jen sitting on the little love seat together, chatting happily. Darcy was perched on the edge of their recliner, clearly out of place and ill at ease. Erin couldn’t tell if she was uncomfortable because she’d been put in the position of the third wheel again or if it was from being here in their house. But Erin couldn’t help feel a little smug—anything that brought the ice queen down a peg or two was a good thing.

  The car ride was exceptionally awkward in part because it was longer than usual. Big Thompson Canyon between Loveland and Estes Park had recently closed to repair a road damaged during a flood three years ago. A temporary fix had been put in place soon after the flood, but the county and the state had decided they needed a permanent, better-constructed repair. The road would be closed all winter, the low season, and possibly again next year. All of this meant the four of them had to take the long way to Estes through Lyons.