“Oh yeah, absolutely.” I squeezed her to my side. “We’ve got this, okay?” I muttered.
After breakfast we hung around the restaurant and Perla talked about conditioning, carbonation, and packaging. Shethen excused herself to prepare everything for the final session in the brewery, while I addressed common mistakes and troubleshooting.
“Okay, I’ll need to sleep for 24 hours straight,” Perla muttered through her smile as we waved the last participants out of the brewery. “What about you?”
I just want to spend a day in bed with Noah.
“I’m meeting Noah, and we’ll have a cider to celebrate the end of the course. I missed him,” I muttered.
You last saw him 32 hours ago. Get a grip.
Not that I’d been counting ….
We had timed the end of the first beer brewing course with our Christmas market on purpose. We wanted them to stick around, take some more pictures for their social media accounts, and enjoy the atmosphere at LFD for a bit longer.
Maddie and the others had outdone themselves. The courtyard had been blocked off, and they had strung fairy lights all over the place. Together with at least two hundred lanterns, they shed their cosy light over the stalls. Gentle snowflakes sailed down from the dark skies, covering everything in a dusting of white.
It looked like a scene out of a fairytale.
Then my own fairytale prince sidled through the first visitors and staff. A wide smile spread over his face when he met my eyes.
Chapter 33
Noah
Ichecked my bank balance before wrapping up my day and heading down to the Christmas market.
Wow.
It was … good. My anxiety dissipated. Well, to a point, at least. I’d phased out the lewd content on my social media feed overthe last couple of weeks, and replaced it with day-to-day life in Scotland. It had cost me some followers but, unexpectedly, my income had gone up. Not only did I have a paycheck from Lone Fox that covered my basic expenses and then some, I also got a steady stream of donations through my Moola and new subscribers on my OnlyFangs. They weren’t getting any new content, but I had enough on there to keep them entertained for a while. Maybe one day soon I could take the account offline.
And to think that I’d beenthisclose to setting up a GoFundYourself. But in the end, it had felt icky to take money to fund my life choices, and I’d decided to leave the mutual aid for the people who actually needed it.
Life was good, but I still hadn’t talked to Lewis about going back to Bali, or rather how I very much didn’t want to do that. Perhaps I was too stubborn for my own good, but come on! I’d expected Lew, well, not to beg me to stay, but to bring it upsomehow.
Is he too noble to ask me to stay or just not interested?I asked myself for the umpteenth time as I bundled up in my APEX coat, a scarf and beanie, and a pair of smartphone gloves I’d treated myself to with my first LFD money.
I’d document the market night for our ArgoS.
Time to go.
I spotted Lewis just outside the brewery. The expression on his face reminded me of a child laying eyes on the decked out tree on Christmas morning.
I greeted people as I made my way through the thickening crowd of visitors. Then his eyes met mine, and he beamed.
“Puppy.” Lew invited me to his side so we both gazed at the scene before us.
“Hey! Are you done with the course?”
“Yes, we just wrapped it up and sent our participants to get some mulled cider. Most are staying around until tomorrow.”He waved a hand at a small group of people. I recognised Asher Foxwood and a woman with long red hair as two of them.
“Did it go well?”
“I think so,” Lew said modestly. “They said they liked it.”
“I am so proud of you, Pretty Kitty. You are amazing.” I gave him a brief hug, then quickly checked our surroundings.
Should have done that first.
