First Sight (21 page)

“
It was g
ood to see you too,
Maddy
,” he said with a warm smile.

“Have fun watching the game.”

“
Thanks
;
I hope the
movie
is good
. 
Bye ladies.” 
He turned and walked
back the way he’d
come
.

“
He’s
so sweet,”
Emily
gushed
as she
pulled her wallet out of her purse.
  “I can’t believe he came all the way over here just to see how you and your mom were doing.”

“Yeah, he’s really
great
,” I said, only halfway paying attention
to what she was saying
.  I was too busy watching Travis cross the street
, weaving in and out of the cars
stopped at the light
on
Clarendon
Blvd.  A
s he stepped up onto the sidewalk
in front of the bar
,
he casually glanced back
in our direction
.
  I quickly looked away, not quite sure why I didn’t want him to know I’d been watching him.

I pulled into the parking
lo
t
at oh-dark
-thirty
on Monday morning
, grumpy that I had to be up
so
early.  Whose idea was it anyway to start
this retreat
at the crack of dawn
?  If they wanted to make us drive
all the
way
to Maryland
, th
ey should at least have let us begin
at a decent hour.
 
Nothing was worse than sitting on the Beltway during rush hour. 
I’d dealt with bumper to bumper
traffic
, honking horns, and angry motorists.  The headache I was getting was probably as much from
my terrible commute
as from skipping breakfast this morning. 
I really hoped
that
however we were starting the day involved
both
caffeine and breakfast.

I
drove
toward a row of mostly empty
parking
spaces
, selecting one on the very end.
 
I saw a few of my colleagues in the parking lot, duffle bags
in hand
or overnight suitcases
being pulled along behind them
as they walked
toward
the conference center.
It was a plain two-story building that looked like any other small hotel
,
and
t
here was a large porch
on
the front
with some
wooden
benches for guests
. 
There was a smaller
building off to the side, which I guessed must contain conference rooms or perhaps the dining
area
.

I heard a car door shut and looked over in the space next to me to see a woman
opening her
trunk.
 
“Hi Jennife
r,” I
said, stepping out of my own car
.

“H
i
Maddy
!
  Did you find it okay?”
she asked,
sound
ing awfully cheery for
so early in the
morning
. 
Jennifer had on
jeans
, a white tee shirt, and
a
chunky black cardigan.  I wondered if she’d actually be participating in whatever was planned or if the managers got
to sit everything out
.

“Yeah, no problem
,
”
I replied, watch
ing
as she pulled a navy blue duffle bag from her car.

“Great, well you have plenty of time to check in
and get your room key
before we get started.  Are you excited?”

“
Uh, should I be?
” I
asked
with a wry smile.
  “You haven’t given us many hints about what we’ll be doing yet.”

“I think you’ll have fun,” she said confidently.
  Her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, and it bobbed up and down as she talked.  She took a sip of coffee from her steel thermos.  Yes, that was definitely what was missing from my morning—coffee.

I forced
myself to
smile
as I nodded in agreement. 
“Hopefully so!”
 
Of course she ha
d
to say something like that—she
wa
s our boss and one
of the
organiz
ers of
this whole thing.
I mean, she couldn’t
exactly
start complaining about the traffic or the day’s activities
to her employees
if she wanted us to
participate and
enjoy it.

“Oh, I see someone I need to talk to
over there.
  I’ll see you inside.”

“Okay, see you later
.”
 
G
rabb
ing
my
own
duffle bag,
I
head
ed
in the direction
of the conference center
. 
Pulling open
one of the front doors
, I entered the sparsely decorated lobby. 
No one else was around, but glancing at my watch, I noticed that
despite the traffic,
I was
actually
half an hour early. 
The others that I’d seen walking in must have gone to their rooms already.
 
There was a woman at the front desk, so
I ga
ve my name to
her
and received my room key. 
I glanced down at the small manila envelope,
which had
125 written across it. 
I decided to go drop my stuff off b
efore our bonding
—I
mean teambuilding—
session
began.

The instructions that Jennifer had given us said to wear casual, warm clothes, and
i
f
she wanted us
dressing warmly, it sounded like we would be spending time outside.
 
I’d worn an old pair of jeans, long-sleeved thermal tee, and fleece pullover.  I hoped I’d be warm enough for whatever outdoor activities
they had in store for us.
  I had thrown my winter coat in the trunk before I left, just in case.
 
Marissa
and I had discussed driving here together
, but we’d changed our plans at the last minute.  She wasn’t feeling well and wanted to drive separately in case she needed to leave early.  That was fine with me—I didn’t want to be stuck here, without a car, if she had to go home
before the end of the retreat
.

I went inside
my room
and saw
a double bed
with a thin bedspread
, one small dresser with a TV
on top of it
, a mini-fridge, and
a small loveseat
.  I sig
h
ed and tossed my bag onto the bed. 
It didn’t look
very
homey at all
, and I hadn’t brought any food with me to keep in the fridge.
It sounded like we’d be too busy to spend much time in our rooms anyway though.
I
walked back out into the hallway
to
go
look for
the conference room we’d be meeting in and
happened to
notice
an envelope
sticking out from under the
do
orway across the hall from mine.  I glanced down to see the name written across
it in bold, black writing
:
T
.
Emerson. 
M
aybe this stay wouldn’t be so bad after all.

***

Later that morning
,
we all sat around a large conference room as our instructors told us about the
first
day’s activities.
 
Marissa
,
Elizabeth
, and I
were sitting
at a table with a couple of
other women fr
om
our office.
There was a
small
table
in the back of the room
set up with
bagels,
donuts
, tea,
and coffee, and I nibbled on a powdered donut as I listened
to the overview of the day’s activities
. 
I noticed that Travis wasn’t here yet and wondered if he was okay.
 
He’d said he’d never been to Maryland before, but driving around the Beltway was pretty basic.  Once you were on it, as long as you didn’t miss the exit, you’d be good to go.  I glanced around the room and thought i
t looked like almost everyone else who was coming had already arrived.

Marissa
leaned over
to me, her blond
e
ponytail swinging in the air.  “
Where’s Travis?” she whispered.
 
I noticed she wasn’t wearing very warm clothes for a day that was guaranteed to be spent outside. 
I
t
looked like she was ready for yoga class
—
stretchy black leggings, a l
ight pink
spandex camisole
, and a
tissue-
thin
,
white long-sleeved
shirt
.  I hoped that she
’d
brought something warmer
to layer on top
.

Marissa
was waiting for an answer, and
I shrugged
, not saying anything because th
e instructor was still speaking, and I had no idea where Travis was.

“I hope he didn’t get lost,” she said, leaning back into her chair.

Elizabeth
looked over at us, and I could tell that she also was worried.  “He’s never been
up
here before,” she mouthed to me.

“I know,”
I mouthed back across the table,
nodding
in agreement.

I turned my attention back to the front of the room. 
It sounded like the activity today involved some sort of ropes course.  I silently groaned to myself, remembering how we’d done a similar type of thing in school.  We’d had to devise a way for the whole class to get across various
challenges on the outdoor course
, using teamwork
to accomplish each task
. 
Were they
making us do an activity designed for
school
children?  It
probably wasn’t the exact same thing
.  Nevertheless, it did not sound very appea
l
ing.

I glanced up as Travis walked in a short time later, looking
slightly
harried. 
His chiseled jaw was clenched and his dark eyes darted around the room, looking for an empty seat. 
He had a black duffle bag slung over his shoulder and was wearing
worn-in jeans,
a
white
tee shirt, and navy blue fleece.  Somehow he still looked really strong and athletic in his slightly baggy clothes.  I found myself unsure
if
I wanted him to be in my group or not—although the idea of spending the day together intrigued me, embarrassing myself on some balancing act ropes course did not
have quite the same appeal
.
  He
edged around the side of the room so as not to interrupt
the class and
sat down at a table with a group of guys.  I saw him whispering something to one of them, probably explaining why he was late
or asking what he’d missed.

“So,” the instructor continued, “we’re going to be dividing up in two teams.  I’ll have you count off as we go around the room. 
Just say ‘A’ or ‘B’ when it’s your turn.”