Her Billionaire Toy Boy

Mira was privately sure that she would never see that movie ten times, but she decided to keep this to herself. She thought that Sam looked cute when he was very sure about things which Mira knew were likely never to occur.

After the movie the four of them made and wolfed down some simple sandwiches before getting dressed up to go tour Sam’s winery and grounds.

“It’ll be wet outside, so let’s grab some umbrellas and boots,” Sam reminded them. This seemed a little unnecessary as the roof was still being pounded by the omnipresent rain. Mira went up to her room and dressed, quickly, in skinny jeans and an oversized sweater, pulling a beanie onto her head and grabbing her boots to go over Sam’s fuzzy socks. She met them all down in the living room some fifteen minutes later. Sam placed a quick call, and in a surprisingly short time, there was a shuttle bus waiting for them on the main road.

“One of the things my winery offers is free shuttle service anywhere within a half-hour radius,” Sam said brightly. “No drunk driving on my watch. And I must say, it is highly convenient.”

Mira had to agree with this. It seemed that Sam had thought of everything.

They all got onto the bus and chattered merrily as they zoomed toward Sam’s winery. There were some customers in the place when they arrived. Damien took the party towards the back, clearly very comfortable with his surroundings. Lisa, too, acted as if she knew precisely what she was doing. Mira decided to pretend as if she did as well, knowing that confidence radiates inward from external actions. She followed them to a back room which turned out to be a private tasting area.

Mira looked behind her. Sam had not followed. Doubling back for a moment to look for him, she found that he had decided to greet a few of the customers with pragmatic, practical friendliness. She remembered how they met—was forcibly reminded, in fact, as, this was precisely how they had met. She remembered the ennui and the terrible week she had been experiencing before the vibrant young man she was now, somehow, dating had confidently walked up to her and offered to buy her a glass of wine…

Watching him do the same, now, to other customers of his, some of whom were young and beautiful and female, was both reassuring and somewhat disillusioning. Was she just another customer of his? Was their relationship simply longer than those he sustained with most customers? Yet—at the same time—his honesty, friendliness, and commitment to building relationships with those who supported the product he was so obviously, passionately committed to was a highly attractive trait.

She felt confused.

She decided to follow Damien and get herself a glass of wine.

“Oh, that, he always does that,” Damien said, noticing her still watching Sam. “It’s part of his brand—being super approachable, super generous. He’s probably giving away a few bottles of wine as we speak. Of course, this usually just prompts people to buy more…he’s quite a savvy businessman, our Sam….”

Mira continued not to know how to feel about this, and she gladly accepted the glass of wine which Damien was proffering.

Lisa got up to go to the bathroom. Mira found herself alone with Damien—a first. She opened her mouth and then closed it, not quite knowing what to say.

Damien did not seem to be having any such similar problems. He drank deeply from his glass of wine, poured himself another, and then looked at her critically. “So, Sam’s told me a lot about you,” he said.

Mira was not sure—she was drinking herself—but she thought that he might have said this already.

“Ah,” she said, noncommittally.

“Good things,” he said. He looked at her again, sharply. “He got lucky with you, I think.”

Mira bristled at this.

At this point, Sam walked into the room. He noticed that Mira and Damien were sitting alone and became visibly uncomfortable.

“Aha, the two of you,” Sam said, and then offered up a brittle laugh. “Been plotting something, have you?”

“Nah, we’ve just been discussing you,” Damien said, laughing meanly. He drank more wine.

As Sam looked more and more uncomfortable at Damien’s vaunting, Mira decided to be kind. “Only good things,” she said. When this didn’t seem to help, she leaned in, close to Sam’s ear, and said, quietly, “We’ve only been alone for half a minute—Lisa just left.”

This seemed to make Sam easier. Mira was immediately calm—Sam’s attitude certainly seemed to have a contagious effect upon her—but she was only calm for a minute before her paranoid brain began working again. Why was Sam so nervous about her and Damien speaking? Damien didn’t seem to be a bad sort, and, anyway, Damien was at least nominally Sam’s best friend. She wondered if it had been a jealousy thing—if Damien had stolen a girl from Sam before, or something like that, and just the sight of Damien speaking with a girl Sam was going out with was triggering for him.

She made up her mind to ask Sam about this later. If it was something along those lines, she could at least put his mind at ease. If it was something else—well—Mira was curious, now…

Lisa came back to join the table. Damien proposed a toast to Sam, which they all drank. As the bottles of wine emptied themselves and the night became more comfortable and more hilarious, the four friends spoke of many things and greeted many fellow patrons of the place, jovially critiquing and recommending the many fine vintages which Sam kept in his stock.

Hours later, it was eventually time for the four to head back to the cabin. Sam had anticipated this and scheduled the shuttle to come pick them up.

Mira laid her head against the window as they drove back, her head bumping lazily against the glass. She felt warm and bubbly inside—the wine had been very good, and she had enjoyed it quite a bit—and she could not decide whether said wine had made her feel more or less secure in her position with Sam. She knew he liked her. Otherwise, as good at communication and thinking ahead as he was, he would have simply found a way out of the problem Damien had created for them in inviting her along. Sam also would never have told her the stories he’d told her, been so open in that frank, endearing way if he didn’t like her…the potential veracity of the jealousy angle vis-a-vis his uncomfortableness with Damien, the guarded look which had come over his face when he’d seen Damien and Mira together earlier…that had to be it.