Tessa shifts beside me, lifting her glass to hide a smile. She looks amused. I don’t.
Hale is still talking, pacing slowly in front of the crowd. She’s saying something about teamwork and shared goals—words that sound good on paper but mean nothing when half the room would throw each other under a bus for a promotion.
When she pauses for effect, the crowd claps again.
Tessa leans closer. “You’d make a terrible motivational speaker.”
“I’m not trying to motivate anyone,” I say.
“You’re succeeding.”
Her grin is small, and I can tell she’s enjoying watching me suffer through this.
Hale clears her throat. “We’ll start the first group activity in twenty minutes. Meet at the front path with your partner. Dress comfortably.”
The moment she finishes, the terrace breaks apart. Conversations restart. Laughter gets louder again.
Tessa lowers her glass. “That sounds like a threat.”
“It is,” I say. “Everything Hale says is a threat with punctuation.”
“Maybe it’ll be easy. Icebreakers, trust falls, something harmless.”
“If anyone tells me to fall backward into their arms, I’m quitting law.”
She laughs quietly. “You’d have to actually trust someone for that to work.”
I glance at her. “Exactly.”
We move toward the steps that lead back to the suites. The crowd thins, and I can finally breathe again.
“I’m changing into something I can ruin,” I say.
Tessa raises an eyebrow. “Planning to roll down the hill?”
“Planning to survive the day,” I say.
She falls into step with me, her voice lighter now. “You really hate this, don’t you?”
“I hate wasting time pretending to bond with people who’d sell me out before lunch.”
She smiles. “Good thing I’m not one of them.”
“You’re worse,” I say.
Her laugh follows me down the path. “That’s why you keep me around.”
She’s not wrong, and that’s the problem.
* * *
Fuck me.
That’s the only thing I can think of when Chad, our overly happy activities guide, claps his hands and smiles. “Welcome, beautiful people. This morning, we are going to take a leisurely stroll through the trail of trust with our partners.” He takes a breath. “Except, we are going to do it blindfolded!”
And I’m done.
Fuck being a lawyer. I don’t have the patience for this shit.
