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Yes, ma’am.
Good.
The sign-off had been the final straw. CC had tossed aside her phone and shoved her other hand into her underwear. She’d filled herself with three fingers and stroked her clit with the other hand for all of five seconds before the coil of heat inside her exploded, her back bowing off the bed as she’d come with a matching “Fuck me” groan.
“Carrington got lucky.”
CC practically exploded again—from embarrassment. Her cheeks heated to boiling as her gaze shot up into the knowing sets of dark eyes across the tasting room. Black and brown gazes that belonged to her clients—also her friends. After Colby, Jen and Etienne knew her better than anyone in New Orleans, which was why she accepted there was nothing she could do about the blush. She acknowledged it instead with a smirk and raised brow.
“You’re gonna get lucky,” Jen amended, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
CC quirked the other brow.
“Both!” Etienne said with a clap. The deep laugh lines around his eyes crinkled as he hooted with laughter. “Damn, girl.”
She closed the text thread, pocketed her phone, then slid off the stool and crossed the room to her friends. Etienne’s arms circled her shoulders, Jen’s her waist, a good foot of height between the dynamic husband and wife duo.
CC hugged them tight. “It’s so good to see you both.” She leaned back and took closer stock of her friends. Jen’s normally fawn skin was tawny and golden, and the warm undertones of Etienne’s brown skin were even more striking than usual. There was only one explanation. “So, which beach did y’all just get back from?”
“Cancun,” Jen answered.
“A whole week off,” Etienne said. “Glorious.”
“While you,” Jen said to her, “are pale as a ghost under that blush.”
“Half Moon Bay isn’t nearly as sunny as Cancun.”
“Have you been there for months, Ms. Clarke?” Etienne said as he turned toward the tasting bar. “Because we ain’t seen you around these parts since summer.”
Cringing, CC grabbed her glass off the table and downed the last sip of whiskey. Same as with Dram, she had been absent from Tchin Tchin for too long. She’d let work overrun her life again, and Jen and Etienne were among the neglected. She followed them to the bar and claimed the stool next to Jen. “I owe you an apology,” she said as she handed her glass to Etienne behind the bar. “I let work get in the way of my life again.”
“Well, now we get to be your work too,” Jen said. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other over the next month.”
“If this all goes to plan.” Etienne pulled a carton of Jen’s favorite iced chicory coffee from the fridge and poured glasses for each of them. “Thank you for jumping on this so quickly,” he said as he pushed a glass in front of CC.
She took a sip of the iced coffee, the sweet and bitter blending together perfectly. “Like I would let anyone else handle this deal.” She spun so her back was to the bar, allowing her gaze to rove over the space from this angle. “No matter how many times I do this, there’s always something special about seeing a client make their dream a reality.” She rotated back to her friends. “And seeing that excellence recognized.”
“Tchin-tchin,” Jen said, lifting her glass for a toast.
Even the distillery’s name—Tchin Tchin, both Chinese and French for “Cheers!”—was special for Jen and Etienne, her a third generation Chinese American and him from a Creole family that traced its New Orleans roots to the early 1800s.
“You two were my first real friends in New Orleans and my first clients here,” CC said. “You and this place mean something to me. I want to do right by you.” She finished her iced coffee and set the glass aside. “Which means we need to talk strategy before the buyer gets here.”
For the next half hour, they went over the basic terms Jen and Etienne had already negotiated with Bo Dotson. The CEO of Dotson Brands had tasted Tchin Tchin’s award-winning dark rye at a whiskey festival over the summer and had been angling to add Tchin Tchin to the Dotson collection of brands ever since. Purchase price, closing date, and transfer of all but the naming rights had been agreed to in concept. From there, CC probed her clients for where they might land on additional terms that would be negotiated in the deal document. They had just started to discuss the breakup fee in case the deal went sideways when the tasting room’s doors opened.
CC recognized Bo Dotson from the hasty bit of research she’d done after getting the call from Jen about the deal. He was, by all accounts, a fair and affable self-made millionaire who wisely invested in real estate for data centers early on. Those assets produced enough income to fund his other venture, Top Hat Wine & Spirits, an impressive collection of fine wines and spirits distributed under his Top Hat label. White, average height, a little soft in the middle but otherwise seemingly fit for a man in his sixties. Just off the golf course too, judging by his shorts, polo, and sunburn. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite whiskey team!”
He spoke like he meant it, his grin genuine, the handshakes he gave each of them warm and enthusiastic. The man beside him—Robert Dotson III—was less fervent in his greeting, his gaze only briefly meeting each of theirs before it darted around the space, assessing.
CC would have assessed him further too, but the third member of their party entered, lowering her phone from her ear as she crossed the threshold. Dressed in a three-piece maroon suit, a scarf loosely impersonating a tie and disappearing below her vest and in between the fabulous pair of tits CC couldn’t get out of her head, Al looked a world away from the sweater-and-maxi-skirt free spirit of Sunday. But her confidence was unmistakable, as was her bob of wild gray curls, her dark brown eyes that latched onto CC, and the sexy smirk that curled one corner of her painted lips.
“You two know each other?” Etienne asked, catching on.
“Al and I were seatmates on the plane from San Francisco last weekend,” CC answered.
“And now I know why getting that drink right was so important to you,” Al said before extending her hand to Jen, then Etienne. “Al, short for Annaliese Rosin, counsel for Dotson Brands.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jen said, then Etienne added, “CC’s been with us from the beginning.”
