Room 452

Todd leans back and gives me a surprised smile, but before he can answer, suddenly Sawyer is right next to us. “How much team building are we going to get done if you bring your boy toy?”

I whip around with eyes wide open. “Walk away.” I say through clenched teeth.

He turns and takes a few steps away talking to one of the other guys, but he’s still within hearing range. I turn back toward Todd and smile. “Sorry about him.”

Todd doesn’t let it phase him. “I don’t mind being your boy toy. Although I’d prefer to finally finish what we started in Mexico first.”

Wow. Todd is laying it on thick. I know he knows Sawyer can hear him. He’s never tried to puff himself out in front of another guy before, and honestly, I kind of like it.

I grin back at him. “You still coming to drinks tonight?’

He leans back in his chair. “Wouldn’t miss it.” He winks at me.

I feel my heart rate pick up a little. Oh thank God another man can still make me want to fuck after the disasterous weekend. I wonder if I’ll compare them? Oh fuck, I’ve already started. I squeeze my hand into a fist to help myself get a grip.

“So can I count on you to fill in for Ben?” I ask sweetly.

“Whatever you need.” He smiles back.

I clap my hands together. “Great! We’re all leaving in about ten minutes.” I say before walking back to my desk to gather my things.

Thirty minutes later, I am pulling up to the winery about twenty minutes outside of downtown. It’s a beautiful place. The team building event is held outside at the vineyard, so the views are amazing at the long table they have set up.

I go talk with the event coordinator while the rest of the team arrives. Todd arrives a couple minutes after I do, and we keep making eye contact while I talk with the winery employee. He keeps giving me these flirty smiles, and I keep finding myself grinning like a dork. Maybe things will go better for me tonight than I thought.

“Everyone’s ready.” Sawyer says, sounding annoyed.

I turn and glare at him, and then I look back at Tom, our event coordinator. I give him a friendly smile to try to smooth over Sawyer’s rudeness. “I guess we can get started.” I say cheerfully.

He doesn’t seem like he noticed Sawyer’s annoyed tone and is just as cheery as he was before. He claps his hands together. “Alright everyone! Let’s get started!” He speaks loudly to get everyone’s attention.

We all take a seat around the table, and he begins. “We have three activities today. The first will be a lesson on some basic wine techniques and processes, then we’ll do a full team activity, and then a smaller group activity.”

Todd sits across from me on the other side of the table. I give him a flirty smile every time our feet touch each other underneath the table. Tom goes over a bunch of wine stuff that I don’t really care about. As long as it tastes good, that’s all that matters to me.

Since I’m not that interested in what he has to say, I stretch my leg out and slowly run my foot up Todd’s ankle. His eyes shoot back over to mine, and I bite my bottom lip into my mouth. He cocks an eyebrow at me, but the smirk on his face tells me he likes it.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shoots through my ankle. “Fuck.” I say a little more loudly than is appropriate. A couple of the guys look my way, but I try to give a smile that says sorry. Then my eyes glare over to Sawyer, who is sitting right next to Todd.

Tom tells everyone to head over to where they have some wine glasses set up at a few bar tables next to us. I casually walk up next to Sawyer. “You fucking kicked me on purpose.” I grit through my teeth.

He glances my way but doesn’t turn his head. “Your foot shouldn’t have been on my side of the table.”

Before I have a chance to respond, Tom splits us up into two groups. “Okay everyone, so this exercise is to help you be able to read non-verbal cues from your partners. You will each move from person to person and take a sip of three different wines, followed by the various snacks. The goal is to guess which wine and which snack is your partner’s favorite based on their non-verbal expressions.”

Sawyer leans down to my ear. “This will be easy. I can read you like a book.”

I turn and narrow my eyes at him. “I’m an open person. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

He leans even closer so his mouth is right next to my ear. “I’ll do better than Todd.”

Then he walks away toward one of the tables, and just ugh! The way he said that like this isn’t just some stupid activity and like it actually means something. Why does he have to put dumb thoughts in my head? Like that Todd won’t know how to make me feel the way he does. Fuck.

Right as I line up across from Todd, Tom throws in that whoever gets the most correct answers will take home a free bottle of wine. Todd goes first, and I think he’s easy enough to read. I’m not a hundred percent confident, but pretty sure I got most of them right.

I go next, and I try extra hard to give facial expressions that are very noticeable without giving away that I am trying to have him get all the answers correct. The last thing I need is for Sawyer to do better than him.

We all shuffle to the side to the next person until I finally reach the last one. Sawyer. I try my absolute best to keep my face neutral the whole time. I know if I overcompensated one way to throw him off, he’d be able to tell I was doing it on purpose, so the best option is no expression at all. The smirk on his face doesn’t ease my nerves though. There’s no way he can tell. Right?