Risking The Hate

Chapter 4: Why am I in your bed, Sarawat?

"By asking the right questions." Sarawat smiled, got up from his seat and approached the girl on the other table. "Hi, sorry for disturbing your dinner.. My boyfriend here wanted to know why you didn't drink the National Beer? He heard the new ginger flavour is pretty good... but he isn't sure about trying it out."

"Sarawat, I swear to god... "

Tine's POV

The girl turned towards me to look at me and in that moment, I really wished the ground would swallow me whole.

"Oh wow. You are really cute." She smiled at me, which wasn't what I expected at all.

"Umm.. thanks?" I shrugged my shoulders, trying my best to play along with Sarawat's stupid act.

"Okay.. you dont have to stare at him so much." Sarawat interrupted. "Like I mentioned, he is my boyfriend. We are just here celebrating our one month anniversary and I really wanted to treat my cute boyfriend to a nice beer."

"Is that so? Wow, congratulations to you two. I think you guys look great together."

"Really? Did you hear what she said babe?" Sarawat was smiling at me and I just wanted to get out of this place already.

"Yes, I did hear what she said, babe." I shook my head and turned to the girl instead. "I just wanted to know your views about National's Ginger beer? Do you just not like it?"

"Its a nice beer on its okay on its own. I would drink it if I wasn't eating anything. But honestly, it tastes a little bitter with spicy food for some reason. I wouldn't recommend it if you are ordering some of the spicy dishes on the menu. And lets be real — all the good dishes on the menu here are super spicy and delicious."

"Really? Thats.. interesting. I didn't know that." Sarawat spoke up. "You know, you should try the National's Bowser Beer. Perfect amber ale with a dry flavour. Not too hoppy, not too boozy — Just the best with spicy food. My boyfriend loves it too, right Tine?"

I gave my best fake smile. "Oh yes, I absolutely love it. You should definitely give it a try. It tastes great with all kinds of food. In fact, you should tell all of your friends how good the National Beers are because—"

"Okay—" Sarawat interrupted me. "I think we should stop disrupting her dinner and not sound like we are employees of National Breweries trying to market the beer, right Tine?" Sarawat laughed nervously. "I'll leave you to. Thank you for letting me know about the beer. Really appreciate it. Have a good dinner."

Sarawat finally walked back to our table and sat down. "Tine what the hell? Why were you being so obvious?"

"I wasn't. I was just trying to market our beer."

"We are not here for marketing, Tine. We came here for research." That's when the waitress came with our food and beer.

"Hey, can you get me two National Ginger beers, two National Bowser beers, and the spiciest thing on your menu?" I squinted my eyes at Sarawat. "Lets see if she was right about the Ginger beer... and if you were right about Bowser beer. I have never really tried it with spicy food."

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"Okay wow. She was definitely right. That Ginger beer cuts really bad with the spicy food." I took two sips of the beer with the spicy noodles that the waitress brought on and it was clear that the beer made everything taste terrible.

"I know, right? I can't believe the R&D department missed it, Tine."

"The R&D department has focus groups, but I don't think they ask these taste testers in focus groups to try out the beer with different types of food. That is something we should work on. I am definitely going to bring it up in the next meeting."