‘You’ll get fat,’ said Anna, giving his spare frame a laughing glance before she produced a paper bag from her rucksack.
He ignored her words and took the scissors from his pen pot and cut neat precise cross on the top side of the bag and lifted out his pastry.
‘I thought they looked nice for a change,’ said Anna.
‘Kohoutí hrebeny,’ said Jakub, nibbling at the icing-sugar-dusted puff pastry, a drip of plum jam oozing onto his chin, which he swiped away. ‘Rooster combs, like the birds have on their heads.’
‘Ah, yes, I see that,’ said Anna, studying the curved pastry.
‘Come, sit, drink your coffee and then we will go down to the mash room. I have brought some bottles for you to look at and then we need to brief the designer. Have you decided on a name?’
Anna blushed a little. ‘ Not yet. There is…’ She hesitated. The more she’d thought about it on the way here, the more she thought it might work. Jakub would probably hate it. ‘There is one idea…’ No, she liked it, she needed to sell it. It would work. She lifted her chin and met Jakub’s gaze with calm confidence.
‘I think it should be called Love Beer.Láska Pivo.’
‘Love Beer.’
Jakub tilted his head this way and that way, as if he were tasting the words, letting them slide across his brain from one side to the other. The seconds ticked by and her palms turned a little clammy. Now she’d spoken the name out loud, she’d given life to it, and now she was absolutely convinced it was the most perfect fit.
Still he didn’t say anything and she shifted her bottom in the wooden chair, aware of her seat bones resting on the hard surface.
Then he looked at her, his face scrunched like a wrinkled walnut.
‘You don’t like it,’ said Anna, although hadn’t she expected as much?
He stroked his chin for a further minute. Anna, perched on the very edge of her seat, wanted him to get on with it. As the seconds ticked by her conviction grew, and ideas for branding, which had been so elusive, all popped into her head. She’d go for minimal branding on the front of the bottle, a big red heart-shaped label with the word ‘love’ in block capitals, white out of the red. It would have great shelf appeal. The whole concept clicked into place, clear in her mind.
Jakub propped his chin on his hands, elbows on the table, as if preparing to make a great pronouncement. Anna clenched her thighs.
‘No, I don’t like it.’ He shook his head. ‘Not at all. It is not Šilhov Brewery.’ With a sigh, he put down his coffee, picked up a pen and twisted it in his fingers.
Her back teeth locked together in disappointment.
‘It is not something old Jakub would sell … but –’ his eyes lit up with a gleeful expression ‘– sometimes it is good to confound people. This is your beer and you are the next generation. There is tradition but there is also room for innovation. You have embraced the tradition but at the same time you have a vision and I think this will wake people up.’
‘Really?’ Anna blinked at him. ‘Really?’ She stared at him. ‘We have a name?’
‘You have a name. Well done. It is not my taste but I think it is absolutely right. Now we’d better get to work, there is not much time. Shall we call the designer and ask him to come here so you can brief him? Do we need a sexy shaped bottle?’
Anna’s eyes widened.
‘See I’m not so stuffy after all.’
She laughed and patted the arm of his wool jacket. ‘No, you’re not. Not at all.’
If she’d bounced into the brewery that morning, when she left she was positively leaping, enthusiasm buzzing through her system like electrical charges.
* * *
‘You have a visitor,’ said Jakub.
‘Me?’ Anna glanced up from the lab desk, her eyes darting to the clock on the wall. It was five fifteen already. Where had the day gone?
‘Your Leo.’
A little skitter ran through her veins at the phrase. Jakub had heard all about her flatmate who worked for the rival brewery but she’d never given any indication that he was anything more than that.
‘He’s here.’ Her eyes widened in surprise.
