Alaina, the barista and their mutual friend approached them after a few minutes and shook herhead at Steve's antics, “Hey, asshole,” she remarked, looking at Steve. It was their usual banter. Steve hitting on her and Alaina turning him down every time they visited. Brooke was always amused at how persistent Steve was. He always flirted with her despite her humiliating him all the time. Brooke couldn’t fault her friend though. Alaina was beautiful and smart and any guy would be lucky to have her. “Going with the usual, boys?”
“Yes, sugar. Except, Brooke here would like some cherry pie for herself to cheer her up,” Steve replied, turning into a lovesick fool, gazing lovingly at Alaina.
“Is that right? Everything okay, Brooke?” Alaina asked gently, turning towards her. She was one of the few people who had become Brooke’s friend after hitting on her the first time they met. Brooke felt bad telling her that he didn’t swing her way when she looked so sad. But over time, they had overcome the awkwardness and had become very good friends.
“Yeah, just...the usual stuff.” Brooke gave a small smile, trying to assure her. From the look on her face, she knew she wasn’t convinced and she knew Alaina was going to barge into her house soon, demanding answers.
“Alright, one black coffee, two lattes, two tacos, one burrito coming right up. And of course, one cherry pie, which is on the house,” Alaina repeated their order, then left.
“What did you say to them, the gossiping women I mean?” Beth asked, back to the subject once Alaina was gone.
“I told her the truth.” Brooke shrugged.
Beth’s booming laugh echoed around the cafe while Steve doubled over laughing so hard he sprayed the table with his mouthful of water.
“You’re a bitch, Brooke. God, it must have been so awesome to watch their faces,” Beth said, trying to control her laughter.
“Well, they started it.” Brooke was just going to update her friends about her plans to restart her business
when a sleek, black sedan parked right in front of the cafe.Brooke didn’t pay much mind to it as right at that moment Alaina came to serve them, and the three of them promptly dug in. It wasn’t until they heard a commotion at the gate that Brooke looked up to see what was happening.
“What’s that about?” Steve asked, sitting straight up, stretching a bit to see what was going on.
From the corner of her eye, Brooke looked at Alaina, who was still standing beside their table, cursing under her breath as another barista whispered something in her ear and rushed towards the gate where quite a few people had gathered.
“Is everything alright, Al?” Brooke asked his friend, worried at the shocked look on her face.
Alaina didn’t say anything until suddenly the people that had gathered around the gate started rushing to get inside. It seemed like they were making way for someone by standing on one side of the entrance to the cafe, gushing and murmuring. Brooke was very curious to see who this mystery person was. Unless she missed the memo, going by people’s behavior, she was almost sure the President was on a surprise visit or something.
“What’s happening?” Beth whispered.
“I got zero clues…” Brooke was about to reply when she heard Alaina.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Alaina whispered.
Brooke caught her looking transfixed at the door to the cafe, and followed her line of vision only to suck a sudden breath in sharply.
A guy walked in their direction, dressed in black jeans and a white shirt, which was folded up to his elbows to display the strong veins and muscles in his forearms. He was wearing a cowboy hat over, beautiful, auburn hair that curled down his neck. He was slender and tall...as tall as...Brooke didn’t know what but simply put, the guy was handsome. Brooke observed the guy almost as if, in her head, the man was walking in slow motion.
Brooke heard Beth whistle slowly, “Is that the business tycoon, the man of everyone’s dreams, Nathan Bradford?”
“Man…I never thought I’d see him in person. He’s the one that runs the Short Stack Brewing Company, right? Their beers are awesome, dude.” Steve spoke.
“I know. He’s like the wet dream of men and women alike. Sadly, he refuses to do relationships,” Alaina mentioned, and Brooke’s ears perked up. She’d only heard about Nathan Bradford when people gathered at a bar and talked about celebrity gossip. She was not one to read the Page 3 stuff in the newspaper so she never knew what was going on in "Celeb Town." But she knew the man by name, and she also knew that Short Stack Brewing Company, or SSB as everyone called it, was into brewing craft beers. They were a bit expensive but definitely worth it. Brooke herself was a fan of one of their Amber Ales. But she’d never heard that Nathan Bradford was single.
Once the guy was closer, Brooke could see he was even more handsome than she had first thought. The man had cat-like, slanted eyes which she wanted to get lost in, a pointy nose which she wanted to boop, rose pink lips which he wanted to kiss, and moles that made him look even prettier. Brooke was starstruck. She was so busy staring shamelessly at Nathan Bradford that she forgot staring at someone was not good manners. Brooke blushed a bit when the man’s eyes caught hers, and she cleared her throat. The man approached their table and greeted them.
“Hi,” Nathan smiled, his dimples coming out in full force. The man had dimples that made Brooke go weak in the knees, and his voice was sweet like sugar to her ears. One quick moment of their eyes meeting had Brooke taking a sudden interest in the man and that’s when Brooke knew she was in big trouble.
Nathan Reginald Bradford was known as a ruthless businessman. This was partly because when it came to business deals, he was indeed ruthless, but also because he had worked hard to achieve the kind of success that he’d reached. Nathan had inherited the brewery business from his father, but it wasn’t as prominently known at the time. Nathan was a straight A, Harvard Business Graduate, with a goal to make his mark in the business world. He had strived and taken enormous efforts to make Short Stack Brewing Co. Ltd. a household name. Today he had breweries located around the world and had invested in many small breweries, trying to support them. Plus, his looks came in handy at times when a deal was being finalized.Nathan grew up in a loving household in Sacramento, California. The Pada
Nathan hailed from a family of cowboy ranchers. They were natives of Dallas where his family owned acres of land and looked after the ranch and bred horses. The breed they nurtured at the ranch was best known for equestrian sports in Texas back then. When the world war came, the economy took a massive hit and everything shut down and the Bradfords were forced to leave Dallas. They’d never sold the ranch though, always planning on going back to their roots at right time once everything was settled. However, the right time never came and when Nathan’s father needed the money he took a decision to sell off their ancestral ranch. Whatever money was made out of the deal was invested in starting Short Stack Brewing Co. Pvt. Ltd. Nathan always heard a lot about Texan culture from his grandfather and he always was fascinated with the stories of cowboys and their morales. It was his wish to at least once see the land he belonged to. Before his deat
No less than five minutes later, Alaina was sitting in the back seat of the lavish black sedan with Mr. Bradford, giving directions to the driver.“So, how are things going around here?” Nathan asked her curiously.“It’s great.”Nathan fidgeted a bit, “Good. So, it's a small town and I’d like to know what type of …”“Let's cut to the chase, you wanna know about Brooke, don’t you?” Alaina said, eyeing the man, loving the way he turned a bright shade of pink.Nathan flushed. “Well, is that her name? Brooke?” He tested out the name on his tongue and decided h
After listening to Alaina, Nathan thought about making a plan. What was the best possible scenario he could come up with to get closer to Brooke? Because Nathan couldn’t stop thinking about the green-eyed beauty even for a single second. Thoughts of Brooke had worked their way into Nathan’s heart and soul. It was weird, Nathan knew, but he couldn’t help it. One look at Brooke and he’d felt as if he’d known her for all of his life and that there was a deep bond; although as yet undefined, between them.But one thing was clear to him. Nathan needed Brooke like he needed air to breathe. It was love at first sight!A few days passed while Nathan set himself up at the best motel the town offered. It was important that he stay there while his construction crew started to work on converting the winery int
The next day after another round of meetings, they had finalized the details of opening up the brewery plant.“Nathan, the location of this town is perfect. It’s cheaper to transport from here and the major cities of Texas are more or less at an equal distance from here. We should have set up our Headquarters here instead,” Gavin remarked as they sat in the lounge chairs on the balcony of Nathan’s room, drinking beer.Nathan sighed, looking at the huge expanse of the valley that could be seen from the balcony, “I know. I’m thinking about it.” He remarked very seriously.Gavin almost spilled his beer. “Nathan, I was just joking.” He coughed a bit and put his beer bottle down on the table between the chair
As was decided, Gavin burned the midnight oil and compiled a proposition overnight to buy the mansion. The next day, early in the morning,he met Nathan in the kitchen for breakfast. The breakfast spread was impressive. Pancakes with maple syrup, bacon, coffee, fresh fruits and cream. Gavin’s stomach grumbled the moment he saw the food piled on his plate. They both dug into the food and Gavin moaned as the first taste of well cooked bacon hit his taste buds. “Wow, this is awesome, man.” Gavin said with mouth full of food. “Don’t talk while you’re eating, Gavin.” Nathan remarked and watched as his friend nodded and concentrated on the food, while he went over the papers that Gavin had compiled as a proposal for purchasing the mansion. “You think the owner will take
A few days after that conversation, Brooke was sitting in her office, thinking morosely about all the ways she’d mess up his first meeting with Nathan. Because Brooke was sure she’d never be able to control her nerves around Bradford. Just when she thought about that Donald came running into his office.“Madam, there’s a Mr. Bradford here to see you.”Brooke’s eyes went comically wide. “What?! Are you sure?”“Unless I hallucinated, I’m pretty sure that the tall man with long hair standing outside in jeans and a plaid shirt is definitely Mr. Bradford,” Donald said in a excited voice.Brooke did not appreciate him thinking about her man. Wait, wha
Brooke decided to focus on other things. So what if she would never get to date the man, she could still try to get to know him as a person by working with him. “Before we do that, don’t you want to know how much I would charge you? The contract that is to be signed and the labor…”Brooke couldn’t complete her sentence because Nathan interrupted, waving his hands, dismissing the argument already, “No need for all that. I trust you know what you’re doing and you’ll be professional about it. My office will call you and take care of the nitty-gritty. Now please, would you be so kind as to accompany me?” Nathan looked imploringly at her, eyes all sad and pleading.Brooke never knew that humans had the ability to imitate the sad puppy look; which Nathan had almost perfected and Brooke found h