Chapter 3
Chapter Three
A nna poured herself a cup of coffee from the cafetière and tensed at the sound of footsteps coming into the kitchen. All weekend she’d successfully avoided being on her own with Leo, but now it was Monday and Steve had left half an hour before to make the long drive back across Europe.
‘Morning,’ said Leo, full of cheer.
‘Morning,’ she replied, her vocal cords constricting her voice. She deliberately kept her back to him.
‘Don’t suppose there’s one of those for me?’ he asked, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
‘Sure,’ she said, through gritted teeth, as she reached up to grab a fresh mug. She could feel her pulse racing in her neck but she doggedly poured the coffee and added milk before turning to face him. Maybe she should take a leaf out of his book and play along as if they were two strangers.
That was before she turned around.
Every drop of moisture in her mouth evaporated. OMG.
Whoa! Where the hell had these Greek god proportions come from? Leo had filled out considerably since she’d last seen him … but then again, they had been a lot younger.
He stood there with a pale blue towel wrapped around his hips, emphasising the golden tones of his skin and the white-blond hairs on his muscular legs. He had pecs, biceps and – she almost gulped – a darker track of hair leading down below his belly button.
She knew she was staring but Leo, being Leo, seemed totally oblivious. That blithe, insouciant confidence for some reason irritated her even more. How could he pretend that everything was normal? And how did he manage it, when her flipping stomach churned with the heaviness of a concrete mixer?
‘That for me?’ asked Leo nodding to the coffee that she was still holding.
‘Er, yes.’ She held it out, focusing on the white mug and the dark liquid, taking great care not to look at his face or to touch his fingers.
‘Where’s lover boy?’ he asked, looking around as if Steve might be hiding in a cupboard somewhere, amusement curving his lips as if he were laughing at a private joke.
Anna drew in a breath, feeing prudish and wrong-footed by Leo’s golden glory. It was so bloody unfair.
‘He’s gone. He had to get back for work tomorrow, so he left early.’
‘Just you and me, then.’ Leo grinned with a touch of malicious triumph. ‘How long has he been on the scene?’
Anna’s nerves, stretched to breaking point, finally snapped. ‘Two years, not that it’s anything to do with you. And will you put some clothes on,’ she snapped. ‘There’s no one here to impress.’
He grinned at her and finally took the coffee from her outstretched hand. ‘Missed me?’
She glowered at him. She might have known he wouldn’t take this seriously.
Leo’s lips curled into a cheerful grin. ‘I take it from your rapturous greeting yesterday he doesn’t know about us?’
With a swallow, Anna shook his head. ‘No. He doesn’t need to. It was a long time ago. We were still children. And this is very unfortunate.’
‘Mmm, nice coffee’ said Leo, although he appeared amused by the situation. ‘Fate’s a funny old thing,’ he observed, leaning back against one of the cabinets, stretching one arm. Anna tried hard not to register the way his skin rippled over the smooth muscles.
‘I don’t believe in fate. It’s bad luck,’ she snapped. ‘But don’t worry, I’m going to ask for alternative accommodation at the meeting today.’
‘That’s up to you,’ said Leo with a nonchalant shrug, which drew her eyes to his chest again. How could anyone be that bloody gorgeous? But then she knew what he was like, which ought to have been enough to dampen her hormones, but they didn’t believe in common sense and had suddenly leapt into life. Frisky, curious and completely out of control. She hoped Leo had no idea of the effect he was having on her. Shame helped douse the feelings. She had a boyfriend, for God’s sake.
‘Don’t feel you have to move out on my account. I’m sure we can be civilised.’
Anna stared at him, at the deep blue eyes, guileless and sincere. ‘So you won’t do the gentlemanly thing and move out yourself?’
A slight frown creased his forehead. ‘Me?’ he asked with a touch of incredulity.
‘Yes, you.’
‘But why? I’m not the one with the problem.’
‘Leo, be serious.’
‘I am. I like this apartment. I like Jan and Michaela. I can tell they’re going to be friends. It’s a nice neighbourhood. I don’t want to move. I just got here. We’re grown-ups, we can live amicably together. I’m sure we can stay out of each other’s way.’
‘And since when have you been interested in making beer?’ Unable to hold it in any longer, the curiosity-loaded question shot out.
He gave her a long considering look and held up his hands in a surrender gesture. ‘I met a girl once who really liked beer. She got me interested. Then I lost interest and did various things for a few years … and then, eighteen months ago, I was at a loose end and got chatting to a guy who runs a micro-brewery in Richmond. He needed some help…’ Leo shrugged. ‘I started doing deliveries for him to start with and gradually got more involved. But it’s too small an outfit to take me on full time and I don’t have the experience yet. In the summer I met a couple of Italian guys who were also running a micro-brewery and helped them out as well. I just decided that I’d like to set up my own, if I could. And here I am.’
Anna refrained from voicing her thoughts. ‘Just decided’. That said it all. Brewing was in her blood – that’s why she was here.
Leo lifted his coffee mug in a quick toast, shot her another cheerful smile and ambled out of the kitchen.
Gritting her teeth to stop herself growling at him, Anna glared at his back, acknowledging that it was a fine back, and a very fine backside, his pert buttocks outlined by the fabric of the towel.
Why did he have to be so bloody reasonable? Surely he could see they couldn’t share this place. Not with their history.
* * *
Half an hour later, she gathered up her bag, ready to leave. She checked her reflection one last time in the mirror and deemed herself ready for the day. The journey timings, which she’d checked and rechecked, would get her to the venue in plenty of time – it would be awful to be late the first day she met her sponsor and the scheme organisers. It was important that she impress her sponsor from day one, because she’d need all their support to help her win the brewery equipment, which was the main reason she was here.
Despite her best efforts, she’d been unable to persuade her uncle to allow her to be involved in the brewing side of things, let alone brew her own beer. If she could win this equipment and use her own savings, she hoped to persuade him to let her have a small part of the building to set up her own line. She was, after all, a shareholder and on the board, even if technically she owned only a tiny percentage of the company.
With a sigh, she stepped into the hallway, noting that Leo, who’d always been a last-minute, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants merchant, must have already left. His bedroom door was wide open and he’d obviously already left the apartment, early. That was a shock. Spontaneity ran through him like the proverbial stick of rock. Routines were anathema. In the past he’d always left everything to the last minute.
Ensuring she had everything, she left the apartment and took the stairs slowly, a mix of fear, nerves and excitement rattling through her. ‘You’re doing this for you,’ she told herself. ‘It’s something you wanted to do.’ She’d stuck to her guns, despite everyone at home thinking that she was quite mad to move to another country to gain work experience, when she had a perfectly good job working in the office of the family brewery. Wondering with some satisfaction what their reaction would be if she won the equipment and put her plan into action, she turned the corner … and ran smack into Leo.
The hand he put out to steady her was gentle, as was the expression in his eyes. Both immediately exhumed fluttery feelings she’d thought long buried. Her heart softened in quick recognition as she remembered those bright, joy-filled days when she’d first got to know him.
‘What are you––?’ she blurted, taken aback to see him. She’d assumed he’d be aboard a tram already trundling along to the centre of Prague.
‘Hello, again.’ In his hand he held a bamboo reusable coffee cup. ‘Really good coffee here. You have to try it. I stopped for breakfast.’
‘Breakfast?’ she asked, still nonplussed at seeing him and shaken by the flutters.
‘Yes, kobliha – at least I think that’s what the girl called it. Bloody lovely. Like a doughnut but with a tangy marmalade. I might have to stop here for breakfast every day. You taking the tram to Dělnická? ’ He repeated the tram stop name, which she recognised from poring over Google Maps when planning her route last night. ‘I love saying these words out loud. Do you think we’re pronouncing them right? Did you know that “hello” is ahoj but you pronounce it “ahoy”, like “ahoy, sailor”? I love that. And “thank you” is děkuji . And “please” is prosím .’ He grinned delightedly at her, like a small boy who’d gained full marks in a spelling test.
As always his wide smile was infectious. ‘Very good,’ she said, trying her best not to be sucked into his good humour. ‘You’ll be fluent in no time.’
Clearly what had been said earlier had not affected him but then he’d never been one to bear a grudge.
‘I’m not sure about that, the doohickeys and thingamabobs over the letters are quite tricky.’
‘Diacritics,’ said Anna, unable to help laughing at his worried frown. ‘That’s what they’re called.’
‘You see, you learn something new every day. Are you excited about meeting everyone today?’
Excited wasn’t the word she’d have chosen – curious rather than anything else – but with his positive outlook on life Leo tended to view anyone new as a potential friend. Anna, far more reserved, preferred to sit back and let others talk, so that she could weigh them up. Although one of his many superpowers had been to give her the confidence to push herself forward a little more and occasionally take charge of a conversation. He’d been like her very own social-power bank.
As soon as they arrived at the tram stop, Leo immediately got into conversation with an older woman who’d once lived in London. Before the tram had arrived he’d elicited vast chunks of her life story – okay, that was an exaggeration, but he did know exactly how many grandchildren she had.
When the tram arrived, it was so busy they were separated in the crowd of people hanging on to the poles. Like the world over, everyone was absorbed in their phones.
They arrived at the designated meeting spot, Vnitroblock , an old brick-built warehouse-type building which had been turned into a super-cool venue with a coffee bar, offices, a dance studio and a cinema as well as meeting areas and clothes shops. Exposed brick walls, shiny, industrial pipework and heavy, black-painted iron ladder-beams were lit by stylish black-framed windows high up in the walls and contemporary lighting. The spacious area was filled with funky furniture interspersed with lots of indoor greenery and arranged in different zones. People had already set up camp at some tables with their laptops, phones and cups of coffee.
‘Over there,’ said Leo, pointing to a sign on one of the tables in one of the alcoves. Sdílená Kultura was printed in large red letters on a folded piece of card. Anna already knew that this meant ‘Shared Culture’, which was the rather appropriate name of the trade delegation scheme that had organised everything.
A young man with pipe-cleaner legs encased in jeans and a pale blue T-shirt stood at a table filled with an enticing selection of cakes and pastries.
‘Hi, I’m Leo Knight,’ said Leo, immediately extending a hand. Buoyed by his effortless approach, she followed suit. ‘And I’m Anna Love.’
‘Hi, guys. I’m Ji?í, the Sdílená Kultura co-ordinator. We’ve corresponded by email. ’
‘Nice to meet you in real life,’ said Anna.
‘Great to meet you, too. I’m so excited, this is our first cultural exchange and I’m really hoping it’s going to be a big success. Someone from the British Embassy is joining us this morning, plus my boss and a couple of other people from our department, and of course the sponsor brewers and the brewery machinery manufacturers who are sponsoring the main prize.’
‘How many people are on the scheme?’ asked Leo looking round the room.
Ji?í’s beam faltered a little. ‘Ah, well, erm … just the two of you, this time. Obviously this is a new scheme and things are growing all the time. And this is the pilot. It is all new. But,’ he said, brightening, ‘we have three very prestigious sponsors.’
Anna had assumed there’d be more people on the programme. That it was just her and Leo felt like a lot of pressure. Like they were guinea pigs. It would have been nice if there had been other people on the programme she could have got to know and share the experience with. She didn’t like it that the only other person on the scheme was Leo, or that they were in direct competition with one another.
‘Can I get you a coffee?’ Ji?í asked them both.
When he turned to walk over to the counter, Anna, grasping the opportunity for a private chat, followed him, saying to Leo, ‘I’ll go and see if he needs a hand.’
Leo was too busy looking around, drinking in everything, to take much notice and he was already pulling out his phone and taking photos when she approached Ji?í at the coffee counter.
‘Er, I wonder if I could ask you something,’ she said to him.
‘Sure.’ His bright smile encouraged her to continue.
‘This is a bit awkward but would it be possible to change my accommodation?’
‘Your accommodation? There is a problem? I apologise. We were assured it was a very good apartment and it’s in a very good area.’
‘No, no, the … the apartment is fine. It’s lovely. It’s just that … well, if there was an alternative, I’d be very grateful.’
Ji?í’s forehead concertinaed in a dozen lines as he looked towards Leo. ‘You both want to move?’
‘No, just me.’ Anna winced, hoping she didn’t sound like a spoilt diva.
‘Is it because the apartment is unfurnished? I am sure we can help with that.’
‘No, nothing like that.’ Anna hated to sound so ungrateful or even difficult.
The other man’s mouth firmed, unhappiness shadowing his pale face. ‘I will speak to the office manager but it might be difficult.’
‘I’d be really grateful if you would ask.’
Worry lines deepened on Ji?í’s forehead. ‘You know, this apartment in Ko?í?e is very convenient for the tram to the brewery where you will be working. And it is a very green neighbourhood.’
‘It is but it’s for … personal reasons,’ she said with quiet emphasis.
Ji?í stared at her with incomprehension for a moment and then shrugged rather fatalistically. ‘I will see what I can do but it might…’ He spread his hands out without finishing the sentence.
While they’d been at the counter a few other people had arrived, gathering in small groups around the table and making inroads into the pastries. Leo, Anna noticed, was of course chatting away to a very pretty blonde woman.
Ji?í rushed over to an imposing-looking man. From his sudden deferential demeanour, Anna guessed this must be his boss. Then, like a persistent sheepdog, the young man began rounding everyone up.
‘Welcome to Prague and to the Sdílená Kultura cultural exchange. I am Jaroslav, the Head of the Cultural Office for Europe here in Prague. It is our wish to extend the hand of friendship through one of our biggest exports to our fellow Europeans. We are very happy that you have come here to learn how to make what we all know is the best beer in the world.’
Everyone laughed at that, although Anna wondered at the pomp, given there appeared to be only two of them on the scheme.
‘As you are aware we are delighted to be able to invite our British friends to spend some time in two of our very fine breweries so that they can share the wonder of Czech beer among their compatriots. I’d like to thank the ?ilhov and Crystal breweries for their generous sponsorship of the scheme and for offering each of them a placement. Thank you also to the trade attaché at the British Embassy, the Czech Beer and Malt association and The Brewers of Europe, who will be judging the final presentations of our two young brewers, Anna Love and Leo Knight, to decide which of them will win our grand prize, kindly sponsored by Heinmann Brew Tech, who will be supplying the brewing equipment for the winner. In addition, the winning beer will be presented at a new Czech Christmas Beer festival, which will take place in the Malé náměstí.’
There was a polite round of applause. Anna looked over at Leo and he glanced back at her, raising his eyebrows. They hadn’t talked about the fact that they both wanted to win. Although the odds were much lower than Anna had first assumed, thinking ’d be far more people on the placement scheme, why did she have to be up against bloody Leo Knight? She really wanted this and she couldn’t believe that he was as hungry for it as she was. He had a rich and generous family who would back him.
After a further five minutes, Jaroslav wound up his official spiel and left them ‘to talk among themselves and get to know each other a little’ – which was rather ironic, given that there were only two of them and they actually knew each other rather well. Anna knew, for example, that Leo was incredibly messy, leaving an untidy trail of possessions in his wake like a tornado ripping through. Although, to be fair, so far she hadn’t tripped over any shoes or found abandoned underpants or soggy towels on the floor of the bathroom. She sighed. There was still plenty of time.
The pretty blonde laughed loudly and everyone turned her way as she patted Leo on the arm, leaning into him and smiling up into his face. ‘You are so funny.’
Anna felt the familiar curl of resentment. She wasn’t jealous – there was nothing to be jealous about. It was more disappointment that he was still the same.
‘Anna, this is Jakub.’ Ji?í interrupted her thoughts. ‘He runs the ?ilhov brewery here in Prague. He is going to be your host.’
‘Hello, it is a pleasure to meet you. I’m very honoured that you have travelled all this way to come and learn about Czech beer.’ Jakub’s face creased into a well-worn wrinkled smile. ‘What do you think of Prague?’
Anna swallowed and smiled into his homely face with its very whiskery sideburns. ‘I haven’t had much chance to explore yet, but I hope to very soon.’
‘And try lots of our very fine beer.’
‘Of course,’ she said, warming to him.
She sneaked a quick look Leo’s way and noticed that he’d been joined by a young man wearing trendy dark-framed glasses and sporting a very sharp haircut.
‘That’s Karel from the Crystal brewery,’ said Jakub with a stony expression, noticing her quick interest. He shook his head, his mouth turning down at each corner. ‘Too consumed by new ideas. Everything has to be different, novel, innovative. Whereas some of us prefer to build on the base of history and custom. Beer has been brewed for hundreds of years; I think some of us know what we’re doing.’ He pursed his lips. ‘You will learn how real beer is brewed. Why make changes when the product is already perfect?’
‘Your English is very good,’ said Anna.
‘My grandfather was a pilot for the RAF in the war and he married an English woman, my grandmother. After the war he came back to run the brewery. Then the communists came. I was lucky to work there but we were no longer allowed to own it.’ Jakub’s lips twisted. ‘Luckily when it was handed back I had the proof to make a claim that it was my family’s. I have preserved many of the traditions that have been in place for hundreds of years. Of course there have been some changes but I don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think you know this saying?’
‘I do,’ said Anna, smiling, charmed by his obvious passion.
Across the room she saw the blonde girl hand her phone to Leo. She almost laughed out loud. Three days in Prague and he was already collecting phone numbers.
‘Of course, there is so much more to the city than beer. We have much art and culture, and of course the newest installation by the famous Czech artist David ?erny, The Spitfire Butterflies .’ Jakub pulled a comical face. ‘They are giant butterflies made from Spitfire planes. I’m not sure my father the pilot would have approved, but I’m most intrigued.’ He glanced over at the younger brewer. ‘I’m not so set in my ways I can’t enjoy something new.’
‘They sound fascinating.’ Anna smiled at him, genuinely intrigued. ‘They must be huge.’
‘I believe they are.’ He looked down at his watch and gave her a shy but mischievous smile. ‘If you’d like we could make a detour via the Quadrio shopping centre to see them on our way to the brewery. It’s quite a big detour really but we can also see Kafka’s rotating head on another installation by ?erny.’
Charmed by this unexpected playfulness peeking out from his serious persona, she nodded. ‘That sounds like a great idea, I’ve heard about Kafka’s head and seen pictures. I’d love to see that.’
‘Excellent. Shall we go?’ He gestured for her to lead the way.
Some of the stress that was holding her stomach in its tight grip eased. Jakub was a sweetie and she had a feeling they were going to get along just fine. In fact she felt that of the two placements, she’d definitely got the better end of the deal.