Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
“Are you sterilizing your labels, Brent?” Mark interrupts.
“Excuse me?” I turn and see Mark is either shivering from the cold or trembling from some other issue entirely.
“Your labels,” he repeats. “Are you sterilizing them?”
“You know I am.”
“I know you’re sterilizing them when they come in, but are you sterilizing them again after they’re placed on the bottles?”
“You want me to sterilize an already sterile product that hasn’t been exposed to the actual food product we’re shipping out?” I ask Mark.
“It’s a direction many farms are moving in,” he replies. “Smiling Green Dairy for example.”
And then it clicks. Jeff Fairley’s reason for being here today.
Smiling Green Dairy.
They’ve always been a competitor of mine. A friendly competitor, but a competitor nonetheless, and have been struggling to keep up with me, despite what I’d call unethical farming practices and cutting every corner they can to keep costs down and profits up with no concern for their consumer.
Jeff must have purchased a stake in them and wants to do whatever he can to sabotage me so he can bolster his profits and keep Smiling Green Dairy from going completely out of business.
“That is true,” Cliff says slowly. “I believe that’s going to be a necessity for all farms using glass bottles moving forward into the next year.”
“Wait a second here,” I reply. “You’re telling me that if I want to continue using glass bottles for my product, I have to buy new expensive equipment to sterilize them a second time after labeling them? Or I have to completely switch over to plastic, which is terrible for people and the environment?”
The inspectors shuffle around uncomfortably, each one of them fidgeting like they’ve got a different itch somewhere they have to scratch. Each of them except Mark.
“I know it sounds daunting, Brent. But it really is the safest route to go for your customers.”
I glare at him and take several steps closer. Like a little boy, he takes several steps back and looks at me like I’m going to hit him. Of course I don’t, but I would love to. Nothing grinds my gears more than corruption. Right then, Jeff steps in and pats me on the shoulder, letting out one of those fake, forced laughs that no one actually believes.
“Oh, I’m sure it will be no problem for Brenty here! He’s just raking in the dough with his farm!” He turns his eyes on mine, practically gloating his master plan right at me as he grins like the world’s biggest asshole. “Ain’t that right, Brenty?”
Yeah. I’d love to hit both of them now.
6
LUNA
I still can’t get him off my mind. And it must be obvious, because my roommate, Emily, is grinning at me from her desk like she knows exactly what I’m thinking about.
“Luna’s got a crush! Luna’s got a crush!”
“Oh my God, would you shut up!?” I groan, rolling over and hiding myself under my weighted blanket. Two seconds later, the springs over my terrible UVM dorm bed creak like they’re going to give out as she leaps onto me and starts shaking me.
“Spill! Spill! Spill! Spill–”
“Gah, okay, already!” I laugh, rolling over as she tugs the blanket down and looks at me. I can see the eagerness and jealousy in her eyes. Emily just broke up with Aaron, her boyfriend of nearly two years, and isn’t ready to date yet. But she is ready to live vicariously through me.
I take a deep breath, thinking back to being on my knees in front of Brent in his back office.
I can still smell him…I can still feel his fingers threaded through my hair…I can still feel the thickness and strength of his manhood pressing against the inside of my mouth…
And best of all, I can still taste him.
“So who is he?” Emily asks, shaking me by the shoulders.
“You’re going to judge me,” I reply, feeling myself starting to blush. Emily’s face lights up.
“Oh, this is going to be juicy!”
“Juicy?” I laugh, shaking my head. “It’s not…juicy. It’s just not typical, I guess.”
“You joined a fetish club!”
“What? No!”
“You’re a swinger, and you went to one of those nude saunas last night and had a huge orgy where you finally lost your virginity to a German model named Hanz Von Hugeschlong!”
I crack up and shove Emily to the side, giving myself some room to sit up. “You are ridiculous, Emily. No!”
“Well, spill it then, bitch! You’re driving me crazy here!”
I suck in a deep breath and try not to think too hard about yesterday’s adventure with Brent. I know if I do, I’m going to get way too turned on, and I just won’t be able to function. Plus it will be awkward with Emily sitting right here beside me.
“Fine. So you know how I work for my dad sometimes? Well, he has me doing…purchase orders for him. And I go to Luscious Acres Farm and order cream for him–”