“Just hold onto me, and keep walking.”
“Okay,” I said shakily, taking a step toward him.
Travis kept his arm firmly extended toward me, and I held his hand as I moved along the rope. It felt like I was holding onto an immobile object—he didn’t waver at all. When I was standing right next to him, I let go of his hand and reached out to the tree myself.
“You made it,” he said, grinning down at me.
“I didn’t think I would,” I said with a little laugh. I stepped around him and jumped to the ground since I was safely across. Marissa was in the middle of the rope now, where I’d been when I started having trouble. Travis stepped back out onto the rope to assist in pulling her across. From my vantage point on the ground, I watched as, one-by-one, the rest of my teammates came across the narrow rope.
“This is ridiculous,” Marissa muttered beside me. She sneezed into the sleeve of her thin top, and I could tell that she was not feeling well at all.
“Did you bring anything warmer to wear?” I asked, eyeing her outfit doubtfully. We’d been outside all afternoon, and she looked like she was really cold.
“No, I thought it was supposed to warm up today. I’ll be fine.”
She turned and wandered off to the cooler full of water bottles that one of the instructors had brought. She started talking to another one of our coworkers, and I turned my attention back to the rope challenge.
Jeff was the last one to come across and asked what our time was once he safely jumped to the ground.
Our instructor looked down at his watch. “Eleven minutes.”
“Is that good?” I asked, skeptical.
“Only if it’s better than Team B’s score,” Jeff replied with a laugh. I wanted to roll my eyes, but the only people standing near me were Jeff and Travis, and they seemed excited about the idea of beating the other team. Maybe some people had a goal of coming out ahead, but my personal goal was just to make it through the day in one piece. We did one more activity on the ropes course and then walked back to the conference center around 3:30 that afternoon. Marissa was trudging unhappily beside me, sniffling and sneezing along the way.
“I can’t wait to go back and take a shower,” she moaned. “I feel awful.”
“Are you planning to stay until tomorrow?”
“I don’t think I really have a choice.”
Team B had finished their activities as well, and they were already inside the building when we walked in. Elizabeth looked up at Marissa and me and called out to us, asking if we wanted to meet for dinner at 5:00.
“Sounds good. We’ll see you then!” I said, waving as I headed down the hallway. Marissa followed me, on the way to her own room.
“Are you coming to dinner?” I asked. She looked unusually pale and certainly hadn’t been her usual bubbly self today.
“Yeah, I think so. Come by my room on your way.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Get some rest.” I slid my keycard into the door and walked inside my room, heading straight for the bathroom to take a long, hot shower. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror above the sink as I walked in. My cheeks were red from the cold and little strands of hair had come out of my ponytail. I blew a wisp up that had fallen in my face, and I watched as it fell right back down onto my forehead. As I waited for the water to heat up, I peeled off my clothes. At least I had made it through in one piece—no falling off the ropes, no broken bones, and no embarrassing myself in front of everyone. I stuck my hand in the water to see if it was warm enough then stepped into the shower stall, closing my eyes as the warm water poured over me. It felt so relaxing to just stand there, not moving. I realized that my muscles ached from being so tense all day, and I started to loosen up as the water beat down and steam surrounded me.
I opened my tiny bottle of travel-sized shampoo and smiled as I breathed in the floral scent. I worked the suds through my hair and thought about the afternoon. I was shocked earlier when Travis had pulled me back up with just one arm. I hadn’t ever seen him in short-sleeves, but from the way the rest of his clothes draped on him, he certainly looked muscular. I found myself wishing that we’d all been on this retreat in warmer weather.
After I finished showering and dried off, I pulled some clothes out of my duffle bag and got dressed. Quickly drying my hair and spending practically no time styling it, I sank down into the loveseat in my room. I still had half an hour before I was meeting anyone for dinner, but I was too tired to go out and socialize. Waking up so early this morning was finally catching up with me. I flipped through the channels and found a rerun of Oprah that was just starting. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, there was a knock on my door. It was slightly darker in my room now, and I realized that the sun had already started to set. I got up, turned on the lamp on the nightstand, and stumbled to the door, still half-asleep.
Travis and Marissa stood there in the hallway. “Hi,” I said to them, yawning despite my best efforts not to. So much for appearing alert and put together.
“Hey sleepyhead,” Marissa joked.
“What gave it away?” I asked with a smile. I ran my hands through my hair, hoping that I didn’t looked too disheveled. I wondered if she was feeling better since she was joking around again. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better after a nap. Is that a new sweater?” Marissa asked. “I like the color.”
I glanced down at my eggplant hooded sweater, which I’d worn with dark bootcut jeans. “Yeah, I ordered it online a couple of weeks ago.”
“J. Crew?”
Marissa was definitely feeling better if she was already discussing clothes. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Oh, I saw it in the catalog. It looks good on you.” I noticed then that Travis wasn’t saying anything, but I caught him looking at me when I glanced up at him. His eyes met mine for a moment before he asked if I was ready to go eat.
“Yeah, let me just grab my purse,” I said, walking back into my room. Marissa followed, but I noticed that Travis stood politely outside.
“I wonder how bad the food is,” Travis said when we were all out in the hall again.
“You think it’s bad?” I asked.
“Jeff said that he’s been here before. Some other company that he worked for did a teambuilding activity out here, too. I guess it’s a popular place. Anyway, he didn’t exactly have anything good to say about it….” Travis’s voice trailed off, and I wondered what Jeff had told him and precisely what we’d be eating at dinner.
We exited the main building and hurried through the cold to the dining area. The conference center only served food cafeteria style, where you walked through one long buffet line and selected what you wanted. After one round through the line, Marissa and I had picked out absolutely nothing. “This looks really gross,” Marissa whispered to me.
“I know,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Stuffed cabbage? Why can’t they have any normal food here?” Now I was really wishing I’d known about the mini-fridge in my room so I could have brought some of my own things for dinner. Even plain old PBJ was sounding pretty good right now.
I eventually headed over to the salad bar and made myself a large garden salad for dinner. Looking around, I saw that Marissa was walking toward a circular table by the windows, which looked out into the forest behind us. I grabbed a bottle of water then followed her over. Elizabeth and Jeff were already there, talking about the day’s activities and eating. Elizabeth and Marissa both had gotten pasta with tomato sauce, and Jeff was having a grilled sausage with some strange looking side dish. Seriously, why did this place have such weird food? I think a simple cheese pizza would have sufficed.
I sat down next to Marissa and began eating my salad. Elizabeth was telling Jeff about how her team did today, but I felt too exhausted to join in much of the conversation. I was half-listening as Elizabeth described how one of her teammates had fallen off one of the ropes on the course and didn’t want to participate much after that, which had
caused some disagreement amongst her group members. Some people wanted her to just sit out the rest of activities if she wasn’t going to really try, and others thought they should encourage her to continue. I took another bite of my salad just as Travis walked up and pulled out the empty chair next to me. He set his tray full of food on the table and sat down.
“Hey Travis,” Jeff said, nodding at him.
“Jeff,” Travis said in his deep voice. Elizabeth continued talking, and I watched as Travis picked up his grilled sausage and began eating. Although the rest of us were picking at our food, Jeff and Travis were acting as if they hadn’t eaten a meal in days. Evidently guys really could eat anything. I opened my bottle of water, taking a sip, and my mind began to wander as I thought about what we’d be doing tomorrow. Today hadn’t been as bad as I thought. All we’d basically done was walk across ropes that were a few feet off of the ground. Nobody in our group had fallen off or gotten hurt. But we’d probably started out with the easier activities on day one—tomorrow was bound to involve something more complicated.
As I tuned back in to the conversation around me, Jeff was telling everyone about some girl that he had taken out to dinner last weekend. Jeff was about Travis’s age, which I assumed to be around 30. Apparently the girl Jeff had taken out was only 21 and been a little too immature for him. After they’d eaten dinner and had a few drinks, she asked him if he wanted to come to a frat party on campus with her.
Travis laughed out loud, his deep voice echoing around the room.
Jeff looked amused. “Well how was I supposed to know she was that young?”
“You know, my buddies say that you always have to ask a girl if she saw ‘Back to the Future’ in the theater. If she has, then you know she’s old enough to date.”
“Which ‘Back to the Future’?” Marissa asked absently, and Travis laughed even louder. Jeff slowly shook his head, but he had a smile on his face. Marissa didn’t appear to notice either of their reactions.
“Well, I saw ‘Back to the Future’ when it came out,” Elizabeth said, smiling. “I guess I shouldn’t admit that, though. Now you all know how old I am.”
“I saw it,” Jeff said. “Does that make you feel better?”
“How about you, Maddy?” Travis asked, his dark eyes resting on me.
I looked up at him and smiled. “Nope, I didn’t see it then.” Travis didn’t look surprised. He certainly must have realized that he was older than me, but as I watched his face for any reaction, I wondered if he still believed in his friends’ theories.
***
My alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning, and I sleepily looked around the sparse room, slowly remembering where I was. I hadn’t slept very well, but then again, I never do the first night in a new place. The mattress on the bed was hard and the blankets too thin. In fact, I remembered waking up in the middle of the night and pulling my fleece jacket on top of the bedspread to keep warm.
I yawned as I stood up, thinking about last night. After dinner, we’d hung out in the lounge area downstairs for a little while. Elizabeth and I had gone down together to grab a beer. As she had tried to open her bottle, the cap had flown across the room. Travis had walked in just then and chuckled as he picked it up off the floor. Elizabeth handed the bottle opener to me, and as I tried to open my bottle, I managed to simultaneously knock the bottle over and drop the bottle opener onto the ground.
“Geez,” Travis teased. “I can’t take you guys anywhere.” He picked up the bottle opener and opened my beer for me, handing me back the bottle.
“Thanks,” I said, laughing.
“You know,” Elizabeth said, taking a swig from her beer, “we never did all go out to happy hour. We should go soon—real happy hour, not this.”
“Well, that’d be safer for me,” Travis joked. “No flying beer caps or bottle openers.”
“Ha ha,” I said, playfully punching him in the arm as he opened his own beer. I noticed he smiled as I touched him.
“Really,” Elizabeth continued, “we should plan a happy hour.”
“Yeah, that’d be fun,” I agreed. “Maybe later this week when we’re back in the office?”
“That sounds good,” she said. “Travis?”
“Definitely,” he had agreed.
We wandered back to join the others, and after my colleagues and I had stood around drinking beers and chatting for an hour or so, people eventually broke off into smaller groups. Travis and Jeff had been teaching Elizabeth to play poker, while Marissa and I had wandered over to the pool table with another woman from our office. I’d been exhausted by 10:30 though, and Marissa had gone to her own room shortly before that.
I pulled some clean clothes out of my duffle bag and walked into the bathroom and stepped onto the cold tile floor. I quickly showered and blow dried my hair, pulling on my old jeans and a long-sleeved grey tee shirt. We had to check out of our rooms even though we’d be here all day, so I stuffed the rest of my clothes and toiletries into my duffle bag. I planned to swing by my car to drop my things off and then head over to the cafeteria for breakfast. We had to be back in the conference room at 8:00.
I heard a door click shut in the hallway, and I figured that one of my coworkers was already on their way to breakfast. I slung my bag over my shoulder and stepped into the hallway to find Travis walking ahead of me, wearing jeans and a dark fleece. He was just pushing the door open to leave when he heard my footsteps and glanced behind him.
“Hi,” I called out as I approached.
“Hi Maddy,” he replied with a smile. He stood in the doorway waiting for me.
“Thanks,” I said as he held the door open.
“Are you going to eat?” Travis asked. He followed me outside into the cool morning air. It was chillier than I expected, but the cool blast did wake me up a bit more.
“Yeah, I just want to drop this off at my car first.”
“I’ll come with you. Here, let me take that,” he said, lifting my duffle bag off my shoulder before I could respond.
He slung it over his shoulder, and I noticed how much shorter it was on him than me. I’d adjusted the strap, but it still bounced off my hips when I walked. The bag barely reached his waist.
“You should have played poker with us last night,” Travis said as we walked into the parking lot.
“Poker?” I said with a small laugh. “I don’t know how to play.”
“We would’ve shown you,” he said easily. “Jeff and I were teaching Elizabeth how to play.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked absently, opening the trunk of my car. “How’d she do?”
Travis dropped my duffle bag inside and closed the trunk for me. “Pretty well for a beginner. Practicing with friends is the best way to learn.”
“Some other time, I guess,” I said, looking up at him.
“Yeah, some other time,” he repeated.
“So, did you win big?” I teased as we headed back toward the building.
“As a matter a fact, I would have, had we actually been playing for money.”
“Ah, I see,” I said with a smile. “So I really would have learned something.”
“You doubted me?” Travis asked, pretending to be offended.
“Never,” I replied. “So you haven’t eaten yet?”
“Nope, I’m starving. I was actually headed over to the cafeteria when I bumped into you. Hey, I meant to ask, how’s your mom doing?”
“Good. I talked to her a little on Sunday, and she sounded okay. I mean she’s still totally exhausted, but she’ll be fine. It was such a relief to see her at home this weekend—you know, out of a hospital bed, relaxing in her own kitchen. I’ll probably try to head out there one night this week.”
“That’s great, Maddy. I’m glad she’s doing so well.”
“Me too,” I said softly, my thoughts wandering back to the night of the accident.
We walked a little bit in companionable silence before he continued. “So your brother seemed nice.”
&nbs
p; “Brian? Yeah, he’s great.”
“He’s your older brother?” Travis asked.
“Yep,” I said, nodding.
“I could tell,” he said with a laugh. I looked up at him and noticed his eyes crinkled a little around the edges as he smiled.
“How so?” I asked, curious.
“Oh, he just seemed a little protective of you. He looked at me kind of funny when you gave me a hug goodbye.”
I blushed as I remembered how I’d impulsively hugged Travis as we said goodbye that night at the hospital. I’d almost forgotten about it with everything else that had been going on and had kind of hoped Travis had as well. Now he was bringing it up as a topic of discussion?
“Are you blushing?” Travis asked, looking somewhat amused. “Don’t worry,” he teased, “I didn’t mind.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask if he didn’t mind my hugging him or Brian watching it all, because Jennifer was walking toward us. She was carrying her bag to drop off and seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. “Hi Maddy, Travis,” she said as she approached. “Did you hear Marissa went home sick?”
“She did?” I asked, surprised. I knew Marissa hadn’t been feeling well, but I thought she would have said something if she left. She knew I had my cell phone with me.
“Yeah, she left early this morning.”
“Wow, that’s too bad,” Travis said.
“I hope she’s okay,” I replied before Jennifer changed the topic and asked what we thought about yesterday’s activities. We gave her a brief rundown, and although I asked about what we’d be doing today, she wouldn’t give us any hints.
After a quick breakfast we all headed to the conference room and once again divided up into teams. Somehow Travis had ended up in my group once again. He was talking to Jeff, and I wandered along by myself as we left the building, lost in thought. We headed toward the nearby woods, and I wondered what we’d be doing today. My colleague Kristen, one of the IT gurus, was just ahead of me, pulling her brown hair up into a ponytail. As I caught up and fell into step beside her, she leaned over and whispered confidentially, “I heard today’s activity involves height.”
First Sight Page 11
