The guy next to him looked shocked. “Cosimo,” he said. “What the hell?”
My defenses went up immediately. Though only a small part of me actually wanted this job, which definitely didn’t require my bachelor’s and dual master’s degrees, another part of me was getting used to the idea of staying in the Finger Lakes for the summer. Or at least part of the summer. As Tina said, I could job hunt here just as easily as in the concrete jungle that was New York City.
“It’s okay,” I said.Kill him with kindness.
“No, it’s not.” The non-jerkface stuck out his hand. “Antonio Grado.”
His handshake was firm.
“Brooke Ellis,” I said, trying not to look at Clark Kent.
“Come on in.” He started walking to an area of the tasting room I hadn’t noticed on Saturday in the far corner by the fireplace.
The Wine Cellar looked so different empty. With vaulted ceilings and everything either composed of wood or painted hunter green, it was a beautiful space, somehow still homey despite its size. On one end, there was a massive floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace with plush oversized chairs all around it. I imagined it was a perfect spot to sip wine in the winter.
Just as Antonio sat on the chair across from me, I made the connection. Antonio Grado. Grado Valley Vineyards. He was too young to be the owner. I knew he must be a family member. I’d meant to look it up this morning, to at least read a bit about the background of the vineyard. But with most of the girls leaving, goodbyes took longer than expected and I ran out of time to do any research on the place or the region. Luckily, I had a car here, and as I didn’t know the area, I left really early—and thank goodness I had. Turned out navigational systems didn’t work all that well in some parts of the Finger Lakes, and I made it here just in time.
“Tell us about yourself, Brooke. Have you worked as a tasting room associate before?”
Clark Kent, aka jerkface, sat on my left. And was looking decidedly smug at this point. To be fair, he knew what my interviewer did not. I knew precisely nothing about wine. Except that I drank some of it. White wine, at least. But typically, I was a vodka kind of girl. Too bad this wasn’t a distillery.
“Actually,” I started beforehejumped in.
“Actually,” he said to Antonio. “She doesn’t. I had thepleasure”—he said the word as if it was anything but—“of serving Brooke and her friends on Saturday.”
That definitely surprised Antonio. “Ahh, I see.”
“She knows jack shit about wine.”
Antonio looked at Clark as if he was going to kill him.
And honestly, at this point, he was really beginning to annoy me as well. What an asshole. Why the hell was he even here anyway?
“I will admit,” I said, turning my head to give Antonio my full attention, as if Clark didn’t exist, “I am not exactly a wine connoisseur.”
Clark made a sound that I promptly ignored.
“We can provide a crash course,” Antonio said. “You do drink wine yourself? Have a passion for it?”
A passion for drinking with my friends, yes.
“I have a passion for all the things I endeavor to do,” I said, evading the question. “And though I will admit to having a...deficit in my wine knowledge”—I can unequivocially feel Clark’s disapproval—“I have an MBA from New York University. Just left a job as head of product development at Avec Coeur. So I know a thing or two about scents, and sales, both of which would be beneficial, I think, in this position.”
Judging from the look on Antonio’s face, my elevator pitch worked pretty well. He was surprised, to say the least. And despite myself, I stole a quick glance at Clark too.
And there was nothing.
Apparently less than impressed, he sat there with his legs stretched out, arms crossed, that white tee too big to show every muscle but small enough to hint at what was underneath. Damn, the man really was sexy as hell. Maybe it was the glasses. Without them, he would probably look a lot like...
No.
I turned back to my interviewer. And then again to Clark.
“You’re hired,” Antonio said, surprising the hell out of me.
“No.” Clark finally uncrossed his arms. “She’s not.”
“Yes, you are,” he said to me. Then shot back to Cosimo, “Two more to go and we’re at full capacity. You’re welcome.”