Drunk on Love(2)

Margot stared at her brother.

“You hired someone? Without me here?”

He had the grace to at least look ashamed.

“I know, I’m sorry. But he came by on Friday and I interviewed him on the spot. I liked him a lot, and I think you will, too.”

Margot knew she shouldn’t have left her brother in charge at the winery for a whole week.

“You keep saying we’re short-staffed,” Elliot said, “and I know you wanted to get someone in before summer. And I need plenty of time to train staff on our wines, so when I found a good person, I thought we should hire him right away.”

Margot took a deep breath. Just as she’d told herself she’d been unfair to Elliot, this happened.

“I wish you’d waited,” she said. “I’m the one who works closely with the tasting room staff, not you. We aren’t in that much of a rush.”

They were short-staffed and they did need to get someone hired and trained up quickly. But the wrong person would make her life more difficult, not his.

Elliot let out a huff.

“I have his résumé somewhere,” Elliot said. “I can call him, tell him it’s not final, that he has to interview with you tomorrow.”

Margot sighed. That would just make them look unprofessional.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll deal with it.”

Elliot nodded on his way out the door. He’d probably known she would say that.

“Okay. See you tomorrow.”

Margot looked around at her office after her brother walked out. She had mail to open and file, messages to listen to, and all sorts of notes from the past few days that she needed to put into a spreadsheet. She’d planned to do all of that tonight. But her irritation was high, like it often was after dealing with her brother. She needed to get out of here, vent, see a friendly face. She’d deal with all of this in the morning.

She drove home, to her little house in Napa, and fumed the whole way. She’d known—of course she’d known—that her brother wouldn’t be excited about having a party (for the public!) at the winery. But somehow, she’d still hoped that he’d tell her it was a good idea, that it would be good for the winery; compliment her on her initiative; say something about how proud he was that they’d brought this winery back from the brink together. Of course he hadn’t.

Noble Family Vineyards had been tiny for the first fifteen or so years; a winery that barely anyone had ever heard of, except for a few connoisseurs. Uncle Stan had bought more land and increased production about ten years before, soon after he’d hired Elliot as his assistant. She’d spent the past three years trying to make his—and Elliot’s—hard work succeed. And now they were almost there. That’s why she’d wanted to have a party in the first place.

All she could do now was to make this party as great as possible. She parked in her driveway and, without even going inside her house, walked the few blocks to the Barrel.

“Hey,” she said when she sat down at the bar.

“Hey yourself,” her friend Sydney said from behind the bar. “Welcome back. I thought you’d be working late tonight.” Sydney owned the restaurant and was often either at the bar or at the front door on a busy night.

“I should still be working, but I had to leave the winery so I didn’t yell at my brother, and I thought I’d come yell here instead.”

Sydney grinned. She knew all about Margot’s brother.

“What did he do this time?” Sydney picked up a glass, poured some wine into it, and set it down in front of Margot.

Margot hadn’t purposely rented a house within walking distance of the Barrel, but it was definitely an advantage. Especially since Sydney rarely let her pay for her drinks.

“He hired someone for the tasting room while I was gone. And you know my brother has a one-track mind when it comes to hiring—all he cares about is whether they can talk intelligently about wine in the way he wants them to. Yes, of course, people have to be passionate about wine and be able to represent our winery correctly. I care about that, too! But the tasting room jobs are customer service at their core; it’s also important for tasting room staff to be engaging, not to bore people about wine, not to be condescending. But Elliot doesn’t care about any of that. He didn’t want me to expand our tasting room in the first place, even though it’s been successful! And do you know who’s going to have to deal with the fallout if this William or whoever Elliot hired sucks?”

Sydney pushed a jar of breadsticks in front of her.

“You?” she asked.

“Me!” Margot said. She took a sip of wine and picked up a breadstick. “I need people who can sell wine, not just talk about it! Make people want to stay longer, join our wine club, all of that! What good will it do us if we have to get rid of whoever this is in the midst of the busy season, or if they quit and leave us in the lurch, or . . .”

Margot stopped herself, and looked at Sydney. Then they both burst out laughing.

“I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” Margot said.

Sydney nodded.

“You’re absolutely doing it again. I wasn’t going to say it, though.”

Not two weeks before, Margot had been sitting right here at the bar, and had told Sydney she was going to work on not letting the little things get to her, especially the little things about working with her brother. And now here she was, doing it again.