Previously, Dave and Grazia met in the company parking lot and quickly connected over their matching two-year retirement timelines. Shedding her party heels for gym shoes, Grazia hopped onto the back of Dave’s Harley for an impromptu late-night ride through Tampa. Read Chapter 12.
Chapter: 13 George
Los Angeles, CA – August 2025
George sipped his Brandy Alexander while eyeing the last known photograph of John Lennon and George Harrison hanging from the oak walls of the Troubadour bar in Los Angeles. The bartender clearly had mixed Lennon’s favorite drink before. He got the nuance of the sprinkled nutmeg, George thought, and floated the cream on the brandy right.
It would be the last Brandy Alexander George would have in the U.S. After a year tracing famous Beatles sites around America, he was finally jumping the pond to London. He’d leave in the morning out of LAX.
On his second sip, he remembered his wife, Valeria, and how much she loved this drink. He recalled the night he told Vale that he wanted to learn to make Brandy Alexanders. Instead of him getting behind the home bar, she jumped up and took over. When she tried to shake the brandy and crème de cacao mixture, the shaker flared apart, and the sticky boozy mixture sprayed out all over her red hair. They laughed hard. He had leaned over the bar and licked the flavors off her elbows as it dripped down into their shag carpet.
