10. Why Be Ordinary
WHY BE ORDINARY
“ W hy am I not surprised you’ve got a massive house on a sizeable piece of land?” Phoebe asked hours later when Elias opened his front door.
She’d rung the doorbell, but the door opened before her finger left the button.
“I enjoy having space,” he said. “Something I got little of as a kid.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about that,” she said. “I know West is your brother, but I don’t know anything else. I’m not someone to follow tabloids. Who the hell has time?”
“You might be a first,” he said. “When it comes to finding out who I am.”
“Why be ordinary?” she asked. “I like being different.”
Something she tried for a lot in life.
Could be from her grandfather always putting her in a slot. Sure, he told her she was smart and would make a decent attorney.
She wanted to be better than decent.
She wanted to be outstanding.
“That’s me,” he said. “I’m different from most of my siblings. Or maybe we all are to a point. Come in.”
She looked around his foyer. The floors were a dark wood, the walls a light tan. The trim was white.
Not white and gray like so many people did in their homes now.
This had more of a warm feel than cold and sterile.
And since she knew people thought she was on the cold and sterile side, she did try to be warm outside of work.
“It’s nice in here,” she said. “More modern than I was expecting.”
“I had the place redone. I moved more than I cared to growing up. I always said when I found a place of my own I was going to make sure that I could have it exactly the way I wanted.”
“Until your tastes change,” she said, smiling.
“Then I’ll change it. But you need to have the bones for it or the space. I’ve got both. If I don’t like this house, then at some point, I’ll build somewhere else on the land and start from scratch. But since my brewery isn’t going anywhere, I’m not leaving the land.”
“Good thinking,” she said. “I suppose it worked out I didn’t own a home before moving here.”
“And you might only be here a year,” he said.
“We’ll see how it goes,” she said, noncommittal. “I’m not locking myself into anything. That is how you get stressed or put pressure where it doesn’t need to be.”
“Good point,” he said.
They moved to the back of the house and into a nice gigantic kitchen. Browns and tans, white mixed in with some green.
They’d passed a formal dining room and another living area that she was betting never got used.
“This is pretty,” she said.
There was a massive island that looked like it would seat six on one side alone. High-end appliances with the cream-colored granite and dark cabinets. It looked out into a big family room with a floor to ceiling stone fireplace.
“Thanks,” he said. “My mother helped me pick a few things so the house didn’t appear as if a single guy lived in it.”
Phoebe laughed. “Sorry, she failed.”
His face looked horrified. “Don’t say that to her.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” she said. The smile still filled her face. “I like your home, but it doesn’t look like a woman has put much of a touch on it. And it shouldn’t. It’s your place, it should feel like you .”
“Thanks,” he said.
“And this is a chef’s kitchen so I’m expecting some damn fine food.”
“Well, don’t get your hopes up. This is one of those looks that are deceiving things. I’m popping hamburger patties into the oven the way my mother used to cook them because she didn’t want all the burners going at once to cook enough to be done for everyone to sit at the table together.”
“That’s right,” she said. “You’re the fifth of eight.”
“I am,” he said. “Can I get you a drink? I have beer.”
She rolled her eyes. “I expected you did. It’d be rude if I didn’t try it. I like fruity things.”
“I’ve got something for you,” he said, going to his fridge.
“I have to know. Do you have a home brewery here? Ben turned part of his garage into one. He plays with recipes at home and at the brewery.”
“I do,” he said. “Want to see it?”
“Sure,” she said. “I won’t understand a lot about it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”
He opened her can of beer and poured it into a glass. It almost looked like an orange smoothie. When she lifted the glass close to her face to sniff, it smelled like one too.
“You’re smiling. Why is that?”
“This smells like something I’d get at a smoothie bar,” she said, taking a sip. “And it’s nice and sweet. Oh boy, I like this a lot.”
“Score one for me tonight,” he said. “My sister Talia had a hand in that. She’s the baby. She likes sweet things and kept asking me to make something that tasted more like a dessert.”
“And you wanted to make her happy?” she asked, taking another sip.
“I guess. I wanted to see if I could do it. It was new this summer and a big hit.”
“Sounds like most of the things you make are a big hit,” she said.
“I like to think so,” he said.
She followed him to a door off the kitchen and then through the garage. Another door at the back opened to reveal a mini-brewery the size of a small house.
“Did you add this to the house?” she asked.
You couldn’t see it when you pulled in, but it didn’t look to be the same as the rest of the house.
“I did,” he said. “Have to consider it like another home office. I spend more time in here than the office at the front of the house.”
“I always thought it was odd that Ben experimented with things at home, but he said smaller batches were easier at home and better to control. That Mason does it too.”
“That’s it exactly,” he said. “I’ve got over sixty beers for sale at once.”
“Wow,” she said. “I know Fierce doesn’t have that many.”
“No,” he said. “I rotate what I make but have over two hundred active ones. It’s my goal to create a specific number of new ones a year, but we always have our base that is available.”
“Which would explain why your place is so massive. I’m impressed. I don’t know a lot about it.”
“But you know more than the average person because of your brother,” he said. “And that is why I’m testing things at home. I bring it in and let my staff rate it. We go from there.”
“Like science experiments,” she said.
“You could say that,” he said, nodding.
They turned to leave and went back to his house. He pulled patties out of the fridge that were made.
“Anything I can do to help?” she asked.
“Nope,” he said. “I’ve got it. I hope. Don’t hold it against me if I burn them. I figured burgers were a safe bet since you had a steak last night.”
“I eat just about anything,” she said.
“I pictured you as someone who was more into fancy food. So yeah, probably failing here.”
She laughed. “I won’t lie. My brothers are picking on me about moving here. I do love my sushi.”
“Yeah, no,” he said, feigning a gag. “Not my thing. Too much work and it doesn’t fill me up.”
“I understand. I’m talking real sushi though. Not that stuff you get at a grocery store.”
She shivered over the thought of that processed prepackaged stuff.
“Ewww,” he said. “Raw fish doesn’t do it for me. You can get parasites or something from them, can’t you?”
“I haven’t yet,” she said, laughing, “but if I eat fake sushi from a grocery store, I’m sure there are worse things I could contract.”
“Which is why I stick to the basics. I stepped it up from making fries or opening a bag of chips though.”
“Really?” she asked. “What did you make?”
“One of those boxed pasta salads. It’s a kit, but I boiled the pasta. That should count.”
She laughed. “You weren’t lying about looks being deceiving, but I’ll admit I’m not much of a fancy cook either.
I can do basic things. I can follow a recipe too but do little more than make chicken to have on a salad or maybe a steak.
I rarely make burgers and never fish. Can’t stand the smell of it in the apartment and get annoyed when someone else close to me cooks it. ”
“At least we know those things about each other,” he said. When the oven beeped, he popped the burgers in.
“Tell me about your siblings,” she said. “Not personal things, but things you’d say about your family if we were getting to know each other. You talked about your mother, but not your father. You said you moved around a lot. Can I ask what that was about?”
“You know nothing about us?” he asked, frowning. “Most people know West’s background.”
“I’m not interested in West’s background. If I wanted to know that I would have researched him.” She smiled and tilted her head. “I want to know about you.”