Chapter 4
Chapter Four
‘N ight, Leo.’ Veronika waved at him from behind her desk as he left after his third day at the Crystal brewery. She was the assistant here, although he’d say she took her duties rather lightly; her mobile phone and her social life seemed to take up most of her attention. He didn’t mind as she’d been very generous offering to take him out.
‘Bye,’ he replied.
‘And thank you again for last night,’ she said, lowering her voice, peering up at him from beneath her eyelashes. He grinned at her. They’d had fun. She’d flirted, he’d flirted, but nothing more.
‘Thanks for showing me round,’ he said. ‘That was a nice bar. And I loved the beer.’
‘We should do it again. I know lots of great places to drink in Prague.’ She flashed him a bright, hopeful smile. ‘How about tomorrow after work?’
‘Can’t do tomorrow but maybe next week.’ Natálie, the girl he’d met at the induction day, had sent him a text offering to take him to Lo? Pivovar, a floating brewery on the Vltava, the following evening, and he’d already accepted.
‘Leo!’ Karel shouted from the mezzanine floor above. ‘Wait up, I’ll walk out with you.’
Leo watched as Karel ran lightly down the metal steps. His desk on the mezzanine was surrounded by the stainless-steel pipes and tanks of the brewery. His new boss ran a mile a minute, incapable of sitting still or being quiet. Karel had a habit of propelling himself across the floor between his desk and the large touch screen that managed the computerised production process. He was very proud of the fact that he could operate elements of the production from his mobile phone.
As they walked down the cobbled streets, Karel apologised for not spending much time with Leo so far. ‘Sorry it’s a bit crazy at the moment. I’m sales manager and marketing director, as well as head brewer. I hope the guys have been looking after you.’
‘Yes,’ said Leo. ‘I’m enjoying getting my hands dirty.’ That morning, he’d been loading the mash ton with malted barley grains, inhaling the familiar scent before the mashing began.
‘That’s good, although I do want you to do more. We need to discuss some ideas for the beer you’re going to make. When you win it’s going to give us a lot of publicity. This is the first year of the placement scheme, so lots of people are interested.’
‘Don’t you mean if we win?’ Leo laughed at Karel’s overconfidence. ‘It’s a competition, remember.’
Karel made a rude hand gesture and grinned back at him. ‘It’s Jakub ?ilhov. There’s nothing to worry about with that old man. He wouldn’t know how to come up with a new recipe for beer if someone threatened to take his dumplings away. He only knows one way to make beer. Here we can do anything we want. Push boundaries. Experiment. Life does not stand still and neither should beer.
We can buy in some different hop varieties. Jakub insists on using the original Saaz hops and a triple decoction. I mean, what a performance. I’m more inclined to infusion but you can play around..’
‘Thanks,’ said Leo. He had no strong views either way, but decoction, where a portion of the mash was separated and heated, was time-consuming and affected the length of production. An infusion was much simpler.
‘And a lot of it is down to marketing. It’s all very well saying you’ve been making the same beer for two hundred years but … tastes change. People get bored of the same old, same old.’
Leo nodded. ‘I can’t wait to get started.’
‘Nor me, man.’ Karel grinned at him. ‘Brewing is in my blood, even if it was taken away from me.’
‘Taken away?’
‘Yeah.’ Karel’s mouth twisted. ‘My family’s brewery was taken into state ownership during communism. When the communists were ousted, my father couldn’t prove ownership, but his brother could and kept the whole lot.’
‘That’s tough.’
‘Yeah, tell me about it,’ said Karel, his eyes narrowing. ‘My father had lots of innovative ideas. It’s taken me ten years to get Crystal up and running, and now we’ve got distribution through the Czech Republic and I’ve recently done deals with Germany, Poland and Lithuania. One day I’ll reclaim my heritage, and then we’ll see who makes the best beer.’
From the vehemence in his voice, Leo had no doubt he would.
They parted at the tram stop as Karel was catching the metro home.
When Leo walked into the flat he was greeted by the sound of music coming from upstairs and the smell of something delicious. His stomach growled. Lunch had been a disaster. Whatever he’d picked had not been what he thought it was and tasted predominantly of pickled cabbage, which he hated. He had yet to find the local supermarket and had been existing on very nice bread from the bakery and a hunk of cheese he’d bought in the convenience store on the way home.
He walked into the kitchen to find Anna dancing to Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night . Grinning to himself he leaned against the door frame and watched for a moment as she shimmied while stirring something in the pan on the stove.
‘Leo!’ She jumped when she turned. ‘When did you get back?’
‘Long enough to see you strutting your stuff. Nice moves, by the way.’
It took a second for her to turn starchy and shoot him a disapproving look.
‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
‘I live here.’
‘How could I forget? But you haven’t been around until later most evenings. I’ll be out of your way in fifteen minutes.’
He frowned. ‘You don’t have to get out of my way.’
She shrugged and busied herself filling the kettle.
‘Something smells good.’ He sniffed and walked over to poke the wooden spoon she was using into a saucepan of what looked and smelled like bolognese sauce.
She ignored him as she got out a large saucepan and reached for a packet of dried spaghetti from the cupboard.
‘You always did make the best spag bol,’ he said, dipping the spoon in and holding up a dollop to his mouth and blowing on it before taking a mouthful. ‘Mmm, that’s good.’
‘Leo!’ She dropped the spaghetti and scowled at him, her eyes squinty and cross.
He winked at her, laughing at her outrage. She wasn’t really cross, just surprised. He’d always liked keeping her on her toes. She was far too serious most of the time. ‘You still got it.’
She folded her arms. ‘Help yourself, why don’t you?’ Her sarcasm bounced off him as he smiled at her.
‘I already did. But I’ll try it again, to double-check.’ He dipped the spoon back into the sauce knowing it would irritate the hell out of her.
‘Leo! That’s … that’s disgusting! I can’t believe you put that spoon back in.’
‘It’s no worse than kissing,’ he said with a dismissive lift of his shoulders. He saw her swallow and some small, petty part of him was pleased to see that it had provoked a reaction. ‘I haven’t got any communicable diseases. Not that I know of.’
Anna’s mouth pursed mutinously and then a devilish light glimmered in her eyes. ‘Yeah, but what about mine?’
He laughed and pointed the spoon at her. ‘Nice one, Anna. Very cute.’
She sighed and rolled her eyes at him. ‘Seriously.’ The kettle reached boiling point and clicked off beside her and she picked it up and poured it into the pan.
‘Looks like there’s plenty there,’ he said, looking at her, wide-eyed and hopeful.
She ignored him and salted the water, turning her back on him. ‘I’m immune to the puppy-dog eyes, Leo.’ Her dry voice made him smirk.
He glanced at her back, stiff and straight, a little sad that she seemed to have lost her sense of fun.
‘Food tastes better when it’s shared,’ he volunteered.
Still she didn’t turn but he noticed that when she picked up the pasta packet she shook out an additional portion. A sly smile touched his lips.
‘Would you like me to lay the table outside? It’s a nice evening.’
He saw her shoulders rise and fall and heard her exhale an exasperated breath.
‘You never give up, do you?’ she said, easing the pasta into the boiling water.
‘Not if something’s worth sticking around for, like your very excellent spaghetti bolognese. Can I get you a beer?’
She croaked out a laugh. ‘Go on then. And yes, you can lay the table. And you can grate some parmesan. You might as well make yourself useful.’
‘I’m always useful,’ he said shooting her a quick grin. ‘Adorable, too.’
‘I wouldn’t get carried away, now.’ She pursed her mouth. ‘Be grateful I’ve agreed to share dinner with you. I won’t be making a habit of it.’
‘Understood.’ He nodded solemnly but couldn’t help spoiling it by saluting her.
‘Parmesan, Leo,’ she said, pointing to the fridge. ‘Grater in there.’ She pulled open a drawer and then moved out of the way to let him remove a bowl from the cupboard by her knees. As soon as he was out of the way she ducked down to grab two plates from the same cupboard and swung around to pop them in the oven. Their syncopated moves could have been choreographed – or maybe, he wondered, it was muscle memory.
Ten minutes later they were sitting outside in the last of the sunshine. The sun was starting to dip below the horizon.
‘Cheers,’ said Leo.
‘Cheers,’ said Anna.
‘And thank you. I knew you wanted to eat dinner together, really.’
‘No, Leo, I really didn’t. Don’t waste your time trying to charm me. I’m immune. Save it for your new Czech lady friends. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.’
‘I’m making friends, meeting new people. I went out with someone from work for a drink,’ he protested. ‘She was showing me around.’
‘You can’t help yourself, can you?’ she said bitterly.
He held up both hands. ‘I’m a free agent. I’ve got nothing to apologise for.’ He was done with justifying himself to her all the time. She’d never listened then, when she had every reason to, so she certainly wouldn’t start now.
She raised one sceptical eyebrow.
‘Bloody hell, Anna,’ he exclaimed. ‘Why do you always have to think the worst?’
‘Perhaps it’s something to do with being proved right most of the time.’
‘No, you were always wrong.’ Leo threw down his fork, his appetite evaporating. ‘Thanks a lot for dinner but I’m not hungry anymore.’ He knew it was childish to storm off but he didn’t deserve this. He liked women, they liked him, but he’d never lied to anyone, and despite what she thought, he never cheated and never led anyone on.