If I hadn’t been so distracted by my feelings for her, maybe the whole mess with Pierce would have gone differently.But I’d never know now.
If I weren’t so selfish, I would put a stop to this.But it was hard to let go.I felt trapped between backing away from us and stepping closer, the pull to let myself have this insistent and undeniable.Reaching for her as she passed me, noticing her in any room, wanting to preempt her needs and be the one to provide them.
Tiffany poured the cocktail out into three glasses.“You know, this was the first drink I ever learned to mix.”
“Really?That’s not what I expected.”Jordan reached for his glass, sniffing and examining the liquid with a keen eye.
“I know.It didn’t make sense to anyone in college either.But my uncle is a huge whiskey nut, and I thought it made me cooler to serve cocktails no one had heard of.”She chuckled.
“Did it?”He took a sip, not hiding his enjoyment, which I could tell was genuine.It filled me with pride.
Tiffany leaned against the bar, confident, enjoying her creation.“Hell no.I liked it, but everyone else just wanted Jägerbombs.”
“This is good.Well worth the praise,” he said, and Tiff nodded her thanks as he had a second taste.“Well, I would have thought you were cool.In my day, the closest I got to mixing a drink was having rum and coke.”
Tiffany smiled.“It’s a classic for a reason.”
“True, but by the end of the night, we’d be drinking rum and whatever was left.And trust me, we were all lucky that we couldn’t taste anything at the end of the night because they were not my best inventions.”
I laughed, recalling my own horror stories of house parties and disgusting concoctions, only occasionally being surprised that two elements I’d never have otherwise paired went well together.
Huh … That wasn’t a horrible idea.
“Uh oh.”Jordan turned to me.“Sam’s got his thinking face on.”
I turned it over in my mind.Actually, if done right, it could work.“That experience is rather universal, don’t you think?Drinks made up of odd combinations of leftovers.I was wondering if there was something in that.”
His eyes narrowed, not yet convinced, but I could see he was intrigued.“Keep talking.”
“There’s an accessibility there, not to mention the nostalgia, and if kept to the standard ‘booze plus mixer’ combination, anyone you hired could make it.”I felt my mind running a few steps ahead of me, lost in planning.
“Step back.What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m not exactly sure yet, but either some sort of dual selection gimmick,”
Jordan was nodding, “Pick your booze, now spin for a random mixer …”
“Something like that.”I looked over to Tiffany to find her watching our conversation with amusement.
“Not that I want to disagree,” she started, snorting a laugh when I added, “That would be a first.”Picking up a fresh 18-28 shaker, she began a fresh cocktail.“But, I think I have a way to take that and make it better.There are too many variables for random selection to work, but what if you took the foundation of that—the different combinations—but anchored it in a style?Like a sour.Then, you could still use different infused bases and mix and match them with a range of juices.”
Before us, apple brandy, egg white, lemon juice, and a colored lavender simple syrup come together with ease, and it was hard to tell if she’d made it a hundred times or if this is the first.“Dry shake, single strain, with or without ice …” The actions followed her words.
Finally, a single sprig of lavender garnished the coupe.“It would take seconds to pump out and give you a pretty solid lineup to keep year-round, plus room for changing things up if you wanted to.”She slid the glass towards me, and I appraised both it and its beautiful creator.Tiffany’s cheeks brightened with a small blush.“And sours are pretty classic, right—spirit, sugar, citrus—but not revolutionary either.This would be just different enough not to be boring, but also accessible enough to not be designer.”
The drink tasted incredible, but that wasn’t surprising.What floored me was the way Tiffany so effortlessly transformed the seed of an idea into something brilliant and marketable.Like a perfect combination of both of us.
On my left, Jordan looked pleased.Too pleased.He had that glint in his eyes that only meant trouble.“You two make a good team.”
“We sure do,” Tiffany added, the soft glimmer in her eyes causing my entire body to melt.
And that’s when I knew.
No matter how much time passed, I would always have a weak spot for Tiffany.And that terrified me.
