Of course, it wouldn’t have happened exactly like that, since the only reason Margot knew Luke was twenty-eight was because she’d seen his birth date on his employment forms today.
She sighed.
“Okay. So. Yes, I went home with that guy last night. Luke. He kissed me outside of the Barrel.” Sydney grinned, and Margot couldn’t stop herself from grinning back. “And then I told him that we couldn’t do that there, that too many people know me around here.” Thank God she’d said that so quickly, at least. “And his place was closer, so we went there.”
Sydney shook her head, her smile huge.
“I didn’t think you had it in you.”
She wished she hadn’t.
“Yeah, well, just wait. The sex was . . . great. Unfortunately.” Or would it have been more awkward if the sex had been bad and he’d shown up at work today? Yes and no—at least then she wouldn’t have felt like her body was on fire whenever he looked at her. “He drove me home this morning—a very gentlemanly move, since he lives only six blocks away, which he knew.”
She took another sip of wine. And then another. She needed fortification for this next part of the story.
“And?” Sydney prompted her.
She took a deep breath.
“And. Two hours after he dropped me off here, he walked into Noble Family Vineyards to start his new job as a tasting room associate. The job my brother hired him for on Friday, when I wasn’t there.”
Sydney’s mouth dropped open.
“Yes, that was also my response when he walked into my office with Elliot this morning,” Margot said. “Elliot told me he hired a ‘William something,’ not Luke Williams! Granted, I didn’t know his last name until this morning, but still!”
Sydney got up and walked back into the kitchen and picked up the cheese and charcuterie.
“I’m glad I got all of this cheese, we’re going to need it after this story.” She sat back down and reached for a cracker. “How did he react when he saw you?”
Margot considered that.
“He seemed as shocked as I was.” She took another sip of wine. “This afternoon, he walked into my office and offered to quit.”
Sydney spread some gooey cheese on a cracker and handed it to her.
“What did you say?”
Margot sighed.
“I said no. What else could I say? I can’t tell someone who works for me to quit his job because we had sex—that seems like an employment-law nightmare. And plus, as much as I want him to go away and never come back, Elliot actually liked him, and despite how annoyed I was about Elliot hiring someone without me—which, as we see now, I was correct to think was a disaster waiting to happen—the whole reason we’re hiring more staff is because I pushed to expand our tasting room. Though Luke told me last night that he was only in town for a few months; I never would have hired him if I’d known that. But I’m sure if he quit, Elliot would figure out a way to blame this on me.” She made a face. “To be fair, he would be right to do so.”
Sydney looked at her hard.
“Do you really want Luke to go away and never come back? I saw that way you smiled when you talked about last night.”
Margot let out a long breath.
“Of course I do! Do you think it’s going to be fun for me to have him around? At the winery? With my brother there? Because I can tell you right now, today was the opposite of fun.” She stared down at her plate of pasta. “He gave me his number this morning. Right before I got out of the car. Told me to text him, said he wanted to see me again.”
Sydney set her glass down.
“Were you going to text him?”
Of course she was going to ask that question.
“I had decided not to,” she said. “I think.”
But . . . if Luke hadn’t walked into her office today, and she’d gotten into bed alone tonight, and thought about the night before, what would she have done? Would she have pulled that number out of her wallet? She didn’t know.
“He asked me that, too. After he offered to quit.” She saw the question in Sydney’s eyes. “I told him it was best if I didn’t answer.”
Sydney laughed.
“I can just hear the way you would have said that, too. With your firm, CEO, taking-no-shit voice.” The smile dropped from her face and she pushed the garlic bread toward Margot. “I’m sorry. This sucks. And it was my fault.”
Margot shook her head.
“It wasn’t your fault. How could you know the guy you dared me to talk to was my new employee? Plus, I’m the one who demanded to go home with him.” She dropped her head into her hands. “But wow, I can’t even describe how I felt when Luke and Elliot walked into my office this morning.” She sat back up. “Calling it a nightmare doesn’t even do it justice. It felt like one of the worst kinds of anxiety dreams. You know the ones, where you’re back in high school and you have one more class to take before you can graduate and you’re trying to figure out how you messed up your life so much that you’re back in that terrible place? Except this was me, in my office this morning, in a great mood after last night and a good work call this morning and with this little secret smile on my face and hum in my body, and then the reason for the smile and the hum walks into my office with my brother and he’s my new employee.” She grabbed the garlic bread and tore it in half. “Business school did not prepare me for this.”