“Bully,” I’d growled as I grinned and kissed the top of her head, then nestled back into the couch.
I groaned. Two weeks. I’d thought that a few days would go by, and then she’d decide that she wanted more. No dice. My showers had gotten longer. Visions of Maggie in my bed, dancing around the kitchen, hanging out on the couch with her long legs propped up on the back would play through my mind as my fist would pump. But there was no relief.
“Sullivan!”
My thoughts came back to the present to see Jake making his way to the bar. I quickly gave my head a bit of a shake, attempting to get rid of any thoughts of Maggie. It was a losing battle.
“What’s up? You look like shit, Sully.”
Jesus. Jake had never been one to hold back on the truth. “Thanks, man. Appreciate the compliment.”
“Just saying, you’d think you’d look a lot more relaxed for a guy who is living with his baby mama.”
“Really? Baby mama? Who the hell are you?” I shook my head, wondering if Jake might be hanging around the college kids who were back for the summer and working at the brewery. People our age didn’t use this term, did they? Or maybe we were just all getting old. Either way, it felt more like normal between us and I’d take it. We’d been working our way back to this for the past few weeks.
Jake laughed as he leaned against the bar where I’d been standing. “Screwing with you, man. Though I believe the term has been around longer than you think. At any rate, guessing you aren’t getting any with your roomie?”
I felt a feeling of irritation rise up. “Jake, we are not talking about any sex that is or isn’t happening between Maggie and me. Not happening. Told you a few weeks ago you and Harp are becoming a pair of gossips.”
Jake slapped me on the back before moving behind the bar and grabbing a glass. “No need to say anything else. Your reply says it all anyway, man. I’ll make sure to tell Max that we need to get our latest intel released onto the town’s social media page by lunch.”
He was full of shit. We all hated social media and attributed it to the downfall of the world. Upon reflection, that was a bit of aget those kids off my lawntype of reaction. I chuckled. Maybe my age was showing after all.
Jake scanned the taps. “What do you want?”
I looked them over. We had our beer on tap along with a few other beers from the area breweries. It had been a busy few weeks for us. We’d released two new beers this month. A Trip to Grandma’s was doing well. Summer and fruity beers were a match for many folks. But today that sounded too sweet for my taste. “Evolution,” I said. It was a triple IPA we’d just brewed, named after the album of one of my favorite bands. The citrus flavor with the hops sounded perfect for today.
Jake filled our beers and then nodded his head toward a table in the corner where my laptop sat open. “That you?” he asked.
I nodded, grabbed my beer, and we headed over. Waking up the laptop, I looked over the spreadsheet I had open. It listed the costs for graphic design for the labels for the beer, cans, lids, four-pack or six-pack holders, equipment costs, et cetera. At the low end it would be around $150,000, and prices could go as high as a million, not that we’d need anything near that type of equipment. We weren’t looking at nationwide distribution, just locally to begin. Even so, the numbers were overwhelming, to say the least. I was still nervous; my default was to be conservative with our funds. But Jake had been wearing me down over the past few weeks.
Jake sat across the table. “This conversation is long overdue.”
“I know. It took me a while to go through all the information from the different brewers, suppliers, et cetera.”
“Have you thought any more about that canning company that we met with yesterday?” Jake asked.
I paused, looking down at my notebook where I’d sketched out some ideas. There was a new company that was starting a canning business for small breweries in the Midwest. They had the equipment, and you paid them to do your canning for you. It was far less than doing it yourself, but if you planned on this long term, investing in the equipment was a better deal. Glancing at Jake, I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about those numbers versus the ones we already had. What did you think?” I pushed my laptop to the middle of the table so we both could see it.
Jake looked over the spreadsheet and the notes. “I think it’s the same premise as renting an apartment versus buying a house. Upfront costs are scary, but in the long run, it’s worth it.”
My stomach twisted. It meant another loan, which we could swing. I kicked myself once again for rejecting the loan last month. It was ridiculous, but now that we were operating in the black with all the start-up costs paid off, I hated to go back.
“Talk to me, Sullivan. This was your idea, your baby, and part of our ten-year plan. What’s changed?”
I looked around the brewery and took in what we’d accomplished. I’d gone to school with no real direction, just the knowledge that I didn’t want to sit in an office for my job. The brewery had been more than I dreamed. Yeah, the work, especially in the beginning, had been incredible. But now we had a manager. Our beer had won awards at several craft beer festivals in the Midwest. The restaurant business was fickle, but we had a loyal base. Our waitstaff worked well together. There was no desire for another location, or even to expand this one. The only part of our dream of expansion we had left was canning, and then just continuing to polish and improve over the years. Looking at Jake, I knew I owed him an explanation of where my mind was at. One of the reasons our partnership worked was our no bullshit policy.
“Maggie.”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? Maggie?”
“No man. Maggie and the baby. I mean, I’ve mentioned it, but it’s just that with the baby coming, I can’t decide if now is the time to invest more in this place when we’re finally moving forward.” I took a long sip of Evolution. “Damn, we make a kick-ass beer.”
Jake leaned forward, tapping my pint glass with his own. “That we do. Actually, we make several.” He took a swig of his beer, then focused on me. “Man, I get it. And while I’ve given you a ton of shit, I’m impressed at how easily you’ve adapted to the news that you’re going to be a dad. But here’s the thing. I think you’re looking at this ass backward. This is an investment for your kid, an investment in the future. By putting up this money now, you are ensuring that our business will continue to expand. That’s only going to help us stay afloat in the long run, not hurt us.”
I rolled the glass from one hand to the other, mulling over Jake’s words. In my gut I knew it was the right move for the business. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around taking out a loan now. I felt like I needed to sock everything into savings yesterday. Maybe get an IRA or whatever parents did. “It’s the loan, man. Last year we paid off the start-up loan from the bank, paid back our parents, and we were ahead of schedule. Just feels like getting another one seems like we’re moving backward.”
Jake looked out over the brewery for a moment, nodding his head, then looked back to me. “What about if we don’t do a loan. What about asking for investors?”
