When Cosimo smiled, I knew it was genuine. He was so serious most often, it was like winning the lottery every time those deep brown eyes crinkled at the corners. Which was a totally normal reaction to have about one’s boss.
What a stupid plan.No weirdness between us. Let’s just play it cool.All words that sounded good until you strung them together in a stupid-ass sentence.
“On top of that, Icanbe a sourpuss. Just ask my siblings.”
I pulled the wine glass he offered toward me. “I haven’t met Marco yet, but you do seem to stand out from the gene pool a bit.”
This time, he outright laughed. “If you think Min and Neo are different from me, I honestly can’t wait for you to meet Marco.”
I’d heard enough about his brother to understand what Cosimo was saying.
“Okay, first things first,” he continued. “Take a look. What do you see?”
“It’s white wine.”
“Good start. Viscosity?”
“Those are the wine legs, right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“The droplets are flowing pretty slow.”
“Which means?”
“I’m dealing with some information overload this week,” I admitted. “Umm—”
“Let me make it simple for you. They don’t matter. Everyone loves to talk about wine legs or tears of a wine, but in fact the only thing the drops tell you is how much alcohol is in the wine. Information you can get from the bottle’s label.”
“So it was a trick question.”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of, my ass,” I muttered.
“Next?”
“Next I swirl it to bring out the aroma.” Doing that, I said, “Pineapple.”
“Good. This part is easy for you. Always think big to small. Start with primary aromas like fruits and floral notes, and then smell again. The secondary aromas, which come from winemaking processes, include cheese rind or nut husk or—”
“Stale beer,” I said, smelling again.
“Very good.”
He leaned forward over the bar, watching me so intently my breath caught as our eyes locked. I understood what he was trying to tell me upstairs. This was way too intimate. Cozy, like a blanket that just came out of a dryer. But hot too, in a way that made me want to crawl across the bar and tell Cos to forget everything I said about our relationship.
Had I learned anything at all from the disaster with Evan?
Apparently not.
“Last but not least, the tertiary aromas, which come from aging. Think savory, like roasted nuts or baking spices.”
“Maybe cedar,” I said. “Like the cologne you wear.”
Oops. Didn’t mean to say that.
He wasn’t going to let it go either. I could tell by the look in his eyes, even behind those glasses.