Drunk on Love(17)

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.”

Sydney grinned. “Okay, but you say that every week about your job.”

Margot took a bite of garlic bread that was at least seventy percent just roasted garlic.

“I know, but when I said it those other times, I meant they need to do a better job prepping people to work in small businesses and on shoestring budgets and to figure out how to deal with natural disasters. Now I mean it on a more . . . global scale.”

Sydney was silent for a while. She ate cheese while Margot demolished the garlic bread. What if she asked her favorite business school professor, whom she’d reached out to a number of times with questions, about this?


Hi, Professor Karlan,


Hope you’re well! Just a quick question today. What would you advise if—unbeknownst to me—I slept with my newest employee the night before he started work at the winery?


Thanks so much for any assistance! Can’t wait to host you in the tasting room soon!


Margot Noble



She tried to picture the look on her professor’s face upon receipt of that email, and failed completely.

Margot let out a sigh and turned to Sydney.

“How did I get myself into this? No, wait, that’s the wrong question, I always get myself into things like this. Better question: What am I going to do?”

“What you always do,” Sydney immediately replied. “Put your game face on, get up and go to work tomorrow, and make the world bend to your will.”

Margot laughed.

“I love that you see me that way.” She only wished Sydney’s vision of her was the true one. “And thanks. I hope I can do that.” Oh hell, if she couldn’t say this to Sydney, who could she say it to?

“The thing is. The problem with that plan is that. You see. The sex was very good.”

Sydney sat back.

“Ah. That is a problem.” She laughed when Margot glared at her. “No, I swear, I’m not being sarcastic. Normally I would be, if you said something like that! Normally that would not be a problem at all! But now . . .”