Like wine

01. Awkward first meeting

Namnuea was feeling observed for a while now. He was at a wine tasting event and it should be ok to interact with strangers at the meantime, but something was off there. Unfortunately he couldn't leave the place since he was there to study the mood and employees because he was about to start working there on the next Monday.

When he approached from a table next to the big window on the left side of the room, a man was there too.

The guy was tall, had a pretty nice bone structure, dark hair and was using a dark blue suit. He looked like a magazine cover model while himself looked like a waiter in his oversized black suit. Namnuea let out a sigh.

"Rough night?", the guy asked.

"Something like this… I-I don't feel comfortable here.", he confessed.

"Is that so?", the guy was staring directly at him now.

"I… I don't know. Maybe I should relax a little.", Namnuea said looking through the window and being greeted with the vineyard view. At that time of the evening it should be a little scary with the shadows and moving leaves, but he felt at peace looking at them.

"Wait right here, I can help you!", the tall man said before leaving.

Namnuea didn't have time to protest and the man was back as soon as he left.

"Here, take this", the man said presenting him with a glass of wine.

"What is this?"

"This one has hints of mild sweet vanilla from fermentation in the oak barrels and the flavor that linger in the mouth after tasting is nicely balanced. It will help you to relax.", the man said.

At that moment Namnuea remembered all the times his mother told him to not accept drinks from strangers, but somehow he wanted to trust in that one. To his surprise, he shouldn't. Not because the man was trying to harm him in any way, but he couldn't help but to correct him:

"God, you're so wrong! The bouquet is earthy and smoky. This will do many things to me, like giving me a hangover with a bad headache tomorrow morning, but surely won't help me to relax!", Namnuea complained wrinkling his nose after tasting the wine.

But before the man say anything, his dear friend Phasinee came to him:

"Oh, that's good! You already know our boss!", she said with a neat smile.

"What?", Namnuea asked surprised.

"I think we haven't been formally introduced: I'm the owner of this vineyard, Phamueang. Nice to meet you, Mr. Namnuea." the tall man said with a smug smile.

It was at that moment that Namnuea knew he fucked up even before starting in his new job.