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“Before you say anything,” Taylor said in Avery’s ear, “thiswas not one of my gifts—I had Lucy save me two seats at the bar tonight. She owes me a favor.”

Avery laughed and tried not to let Taylor’s proximity give her butterflies. She had a job to do tonight, remember? Even though she didn’t quite know what it was yet.

“Of course she does,” Avery said. “I feel like every bartender in both Napa and Sonoma Counties owes you a favor.”

Taylor winked at her.

“Not just the bartenders.” She turned to Lucy and caught her eyes immediately. “Two gin and tonics please.”

Lucy nodded at her and grabbed a bottle of gin—very good gin, Avery noticed—down from the bar. Avery started to watch Lucy make their drinks, but suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Taylor. Why are we here?” she asked.

Taylor turned to her, a grin on her face.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She cleared her throat and folded her hands together. “I realized something the other day: We’re about midway through our flirting lesson curriculum, so to speak, which means it’s just about time for a flirting midterm. You’ve been so desperate to be graded this whole time, here’s your chance.”

Avery just stared at her. Was Taylor serious?

“So, I have to wander around this bar and find random people to flirt with, while knowing the whole time that you’re watching me and judging me?” She’d worn her special red bra—and exposed it to the world—for this?

Taylor’s face fell as Avery talked, and she put her hand on Avery’s upper arm.

“Oh my God, of course not, I would never!”

Avery let out a deep sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry. I just…got stressed for a second. I should have known you wouldn’t do that to me.”

Taylor’s hand was still on her arm.

“No, that was my fault. I was trying to be too dramatic and failed. But I promise, this is much better than having to find random people to flirt with at a bar. Instead, you have to flirt with me.”

Avery sat up straighter, unsure whether she’d heard Taylor correctly over the din of the bar.

“I have to flirt with…you?”

Taylor nodded.

“Yes.” When Avery didn’t say anything, she dropped her hand and pulled back. “Well, nothaveto. If you don’t think this will be fun, we don’t have to do any of this. You know that, right? Like any of our other lessons, you can abort at any time, including right now, before we’ve even started. Just say the word.”

Obviously, Avery wanted to flirt with Taylor. But she was intimidated by the idea, too. This was sexy-as-hell Taylor Cameron! The idea of flirting with her on purpose, like, committing to it in a way that Taylorknewshe was doing it, and then having to figure out how to respond when Taylor flirted withher…And what if the way she responded made Taylor realize Avery had a crush on her? How humiliating!

But this also seemed like an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. And didn’t really want to.

She turned to face Taylor, made eye contact with her, and smiled.

“Oh, I absolutely think this will be fun. I’m glad you do, too.”

Taylor smirked, just for a second, and then picked up her drink.

“I’m happy you agree with me,” she said. “So, what was your work event tonight?” she asked, her eyes locked on Avery’s. “Something about ophthalmologists, you said?”

Avery nodded. She tried to make herself relax into this, but she still felt wound up by what Taylor had said, by her proximity, by the way Taylor was looking at her.

“Yeah,” she said. “It was, um—they’re having a conference in St. Helena, and I guess between talking about eye surgeries or whatever they do, they also like to drink a lot of wine.” She shifted in her seat so that her knee was just barely touching Taylor’s. “So, I organized three wineries to come so they could do wine tastings from a range of Napa Valley wines. Noble was one of them, actually.”

Was she doing this right? Just talking about normal stuff, but making her voice and eyes and body do the flirting work for her? Or, at least,attemptingto do that? She thought so, but now she was questioning everything.