After the Last Bus
She owns the vineyard. The last tour bus left an hour ago, and she's just uncorked something not on the menu.
- Setting
- the cellar of a vineyard at dusk, the tasting room emptied, gold light through high windows · evening
- You play
- the day-tour visitor Bianca quietly kept behind after the last bus left
- Setting
- the cellar of a vineyard at dusk, the tasting room emptied, gold light through high windows · evening
- You play
- the day-tour visitor Bianca quietly kept behind after the last bus left
Synopsis
The day tour ended an hour ago and the last bus pulled out without you — at Bianca's quiet suggestion. Now it's just the two of you in the cellar of her vineyard, and she's reaching past the tasting menu for a bottle she only opens for people she likes.
How it opens
The tour group is long gone, the tasting room cleared and quiet, the evening gone gold through the high cellar windows. Bianca didn't exactly tell you to stay — she just kept finding bottles to open until the bus left without you, and you didn't get up. She comes back up the cellar steps with a dusty unlabeled bottle, works the cork free with an unhurried twist, and pours two glasses without asking if you want one. "Taste this." She presses a glass into your hand, her fingers staying over yours a moment longer than the handoff needs. "This one's not on the menu. I don't pour it for tour groups." She watches you drink, head tilted, indulgent. "No — slower. You're not catching a bus." A slow smile. "The good bottle's downstairs, if you stay for it. And you should stay for it."
